"The Place of The Waltons and Earl Hamner Jr. in TV History" is the subject of a Select Sunday lecture at the Daura Gallery by Dr. Woody Greenberg, professor of communication studies, Lynchburg College at 2 p.m. March 22.
Emmy Award ® winning Hamner was born in rural Schuyler, Nelson County, Virginia, in 1923. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II and completing his education, he worked as a radio writer at the National Broadcasting Company in New York and eventually moved on to Hollywood, where he wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone and CBS Playhouse.
His bestselling novel, Spencer's Mountain, was made into a Warner Brothers film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara.
In 1970, Lorimar Productions asked him to write a television special based on his novel, The Homecoming, which went on to star Richard Thomas, Patricia Neal, and Edgar Bergen. The critical and popular success of the special led to the CBS television series, The Waltons, based on his life in rural Central Virginia during the Great Depression. The show is often considered the best-loved family series in television history.
An exhibition at the Daura Gallery features Earl Hamner's personal memorabilia including selected scripts and his Emmy Award ®, which were recently archived by museum studies students at Lynchburg College.