HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: ELLEN FOSTER (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramatic specials presented by Hallmark. This adaptation of Kaye Gibbons's novel of the same name, set in the 1960s South, concerns ten-year-old Ellen Hammond's search for happiness and a perfect family. Life with Bill, her savage, drunken father, is only bearable because of her best friend -- her gentle, loving mother, Charlotte. When Charlotte dies, Ellen is left with her father until he is jailed for, among other things, abusing his daughter. Ellen is briefly content at the home of the Hobbses, her caring teacher and her husband, until the court decides that she must live with her haughty, venomous grandmother, who hates Bill and consequently, his child. When the grandmother dies, Ellen is shipped off to her unwilling Aunt Nadine, whose daughter treats her so badly that Ellen is forced to run away. Having seen a family in church known as "The Fosters," Ellen decides to fashion a new future for herself. Includes commercials, promos, and public service announcements.
This program contains minor technical problems. This represents the best copy of this program currently available to the Museum.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by Hallmark Cards, 1998.
("Hallmark Hall of Fame" aired on NBC from 1952 to 1978; network affiliation varies after 1978.)
(Beginning with the live telecast of the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" on December 24, 1951, Hallmark has sponsored a series of dramatic specials which since 1952 have been titled "Hallmark Hall of Fame." From 1952 to 1955 Hallmark also presented "Hallmark Hall of Fame," a weekly half-hour dramatic anthology series hosted by Sarah Churchill. The first program, "Dr. Serocold," was televised in January 1952 under the title "Hallmark Television Theatre." This series also ran under the title "Hallmark Summer Theatre" in July and August 1952.)
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: December 14, 1997 Sunday 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:56:27
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:53113
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Hallmark Cards, Inc.
- TV - PSA - Child Welfare League of America
- TV - Promos - "A Christmas Memory"
- TV - Promos - "Everybody Loves Raymond"
- TV - Promos - "Style & Slubstance"
- TV - Promos - CBS Monday Night Prime Time Lineup
CREDITS
- Richard Welsh … Executive Producer
- Ruth Slawson … Co-Executive Producer
- Brent Shields … Co-Executive Producer
- van der Meer, Gerrit … Supervising Producer
- John Erman … Producer, Director
- Maria Nation … Writer
- William Hanley … Writer
- Kaye Gibbons … Based on the novel by
- John Morris … Composer
- Jena Malone … Cast, Ellen Hammond
- Ted Levine … Cast, Bill Hammond
- Glynnis O'Connor … Cast, Charlotte Hammond
- Debra Monk … Cast, Nadine
- Barbara Garrick … Cast, Getsy
- Kate Burton … Cast, Abigail
- Zeliko Ivanek … Cast, Phillips
- Lynne Moody … Cast, Davina
- Bill Nunn … Cast, Arnold
- Julie Harris … Cast, the Grandmother
- Dick O'Neill … Cast, Judge
- Kimberly Brown … Cast, Dora
- Allison Jones … Cast, Starletta Douglas
- Davenia McFadden … Cast, Mavis
- Timothy Olyphant … Cast, Roy Hobbs
- Amanda Peet … Cast, Julia Hobbs
- Charles W. Gray … Cast, Alvin
- Michael Hogan … Cast, Principal
- Sean Allan … Cast
- Cheralynn Bailey … Cast
- Lorena Gale … Cast
- Helen Honeywell … Cast
- Don Mackay … Cast
- Sheila Moore … Cast
- Sheila Paterson … Cast
- Brent Stait … Cast
- Helen Taylor … Cast
- Neil Vipond … Cas