The Homecoming: A Musical

Earl Henry Hamner Jr. was born in Schuyler, Virginia on July 10, 1923. He was attending the University of Richmond when he was drafted into the Army during World War II. Trained to defuse land mines, he was sent to France after the Normandy invasion. Once his superiors found out that he could type, he was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps in Paris, where he started writing fiction. After the war, he received a degree in broadcast communications from the University of Cincinnati in 1948 and began working in radio. His first novel, Fifty Roads to Town, was published in 1953. At this time he was writing radio and television scripts for NBC. His other novels include You Can't Get There from Here, The Avocado Drive Zoo, and Generous Women: An Appreciation. Spencer's Mountain was published in 1961 and was adapted into a film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. He moved to California in 1962 and got his first break when The Twilight Zone accepted two of his story ideas. He wrote eight scripts for the series including The Hunt Stopover in a Quiet Town. He also wrote episodes for Wagon Train, Gentle Ben, and Nanny and the Professor as well as the 1968 television version of Heidi and the 1963 movie Palm Springs Weekend. In 1971, he took an incident from his novel Spencer's Mountain and rewrote it as a television special entitled The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. After it drew strong ratings, CBS picked it up as a series entitled The Waltons with Hamner credited as creator and executive producer. He only wrote a few episodes of the series, but was closely involved in creative decisions and provided the voice-over narration that began and ended each show. The show ran for nine years. While working on The Waltons, he wrote scripts for the animated film Charlotte's Web and for Where the Lilies Bloom. He also developed the series Falcon Crest. He died from bladder cancer on March 24, 2016 at the age of 92.