''The Long Hot Summer'' is an American

drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-ge ...

from

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Co ...

that was broadcast on ABC-TV for one season from 1965–1966. It was aired in the UK on ITV.

Synopsis

The series was set in the

Deep South The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion in the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states most dependent on plantations and slavery prior to the American Civil War. Following the wa ...

community of Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi. The community was dominated and owned by the town's wealthy, powerful (and deceitful) bank owner "Boss" Will Varner ( Edmond O'Brien). A widower with two grown children who also owned other businesses besides the town's bank, the unscrupulous Varner ran the town and its citizens with an iron fist and nobody dared to question him. He and his family lived in the largest mansion in Frenchman's Bend. However, problems arose in Varner's orderly world when Ben Quick ( Roy Thinnes), a young man whose father Varner destroyed some years prior, returns to town after thirteen years away to reclaim his family's farm and to challenge Varner's absolute authority over the town and its people. Ben's aim was to settle the score against the wicked Varner in the fight his father ran from. Supporting characters include Clara and Jody Varner. Jody was Will's weak-willed and immature but more honest son, and Clara was Will's sensitive and sensible but deeply troubled older daughter who was considered to be the lady of the house (in lieu of her late mother). To her father's dismay, she liked Ben. Other characters include the town's hotel owner Minnie Littlejohn who is a good friend to many in town and was also the mistress of Will Varner, and Eula Johnson, a 17-year-old girl who becomes a central point in wealthy Jody Varner's life after he picks her up during a rain storm and defends her from her brother and fiance. In the movie Eula was married to Jody Varner, but in the TV series she was merely a friend of Jody's. Also seen occasionally was: Andrew, the Varner family's butler/chauffeur; Sheriff Harve Anders, the local sheriff for the county in which Frenchman's Bend is located; Judge Armistid, the community's judge; and Dr. Aaron Clark, the Varner family's physician.

Cast

Main

* Edmond O'Brien (1965 – January 1966) and

Dan O'Herlihy Daniel Peter O'Herlihy (May 1, 1919 – February 17, 2005) was an Irish actor of film, television, and radio. With a distinguished appearance and rich, resonant speaking voice, O'Herlihy's best known-roles included his Oscar-nominated portraya ...

(January 1966 – April 1966) as "Boss" Will Varner * Roy Thinnes as Ben Quick *

Nancy Malone __NOTOC__ Nancy Malone (born Anne Josefa Maloney March 19, 1935 – May 8, 2014) was an American television actress from the 1950s to 1970s, who later moved into producing and directing in the 1980s and 1990s. Television Malone appeared in a nu ...

as Clara Varner * Paul Geary as Jody Varner * Ruth Roman as Minnie Littlejohn * Lana Wood as Eula Johnson

Guest cast

* Paul Bryar as Sheriff Harve Anders *

Harold Gould Harold Vernon Goldstein (December 10, 1923 – September 11, 2010), better known as Harold Gould, was an American character actor. He appeared as Martin Morgenstern on the sitcom ''Rhoda'' (1974–78) and Miles Webber on the sitcom ''The Golden ...

as Bowman Chamberlain * Warren J. Kemmerling as Lucas Taney * Charles Lampkin as Andrew * William Mims as Sam Ruddabaw * Tisha Sterling as Susan Beauchamp * Jason Wingreen as Dr. Aaron Clark

Production

Development

Created by Dean Riesner, ''The Long Hot Summer'' was based on the novel ''

The Hamlet ''The Hamlet'' is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1940, about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi. Originally a standalone novel, it was later followed by '' The Town'' (1957), and '' The Mansion'' (1959), ...

'' by

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

, the short story "Barn Burning", and the 1958 film of the same name. The show retained the movie's theme song, "The Long, Hot Summer," written by Sammy Cahn and Alex North, and Jimmie Rodgers sang it for the series just as he did for the film.

Broadcast

''The Long Hot Summer'' was scheduled on Thursdays at 10 p.m. EST opposite CBS' '' Thursday Night Movie'' and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's long-running variety series ''

The Dean Martin Show ''The Dean Martin Show'', not to be confused with the ''Dean Martin Variety Show'' (1959–1960), is a TV variety-comedy series that ran from 1965 to 1974 for 264 episodes. It was broadcast by NBC and hosted by Dean Martin. The theme song to the ...

''. The series was canceled after twenty-six episodes with the last original episode airing on April 13, 1966.

Casting

In January 1966, series star Edmond O'Brien left the series after a disagreement with the producers (the disagreement was about making Ben Quick the main focus of the show instead of the Varners) and was replaced by

. O'Herlihy played the role of Will Varner for the rest of the series' run.

Episodes

References

External links

* * Long Hot Summer on TV I

* Long Hot Summer complete episodes on YouTub

{{DEFAULTSORT:Long Hot Summer 1965 American television series debuts 1966 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming Black-and-white American television shows Serial drama television series Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Live action television shows based on films Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Mississippi English-language television shows