by Mark Dawidziak
Knight-Ridder Newspapers
Kellie Martin defers Yale stay for CBS’ ‘Christy. Having completed four seasons as Becca on ABC’s acclaimed “Life Goes On,” Kellie Martin was ready to get on with her life. She was on her way to Yale. She was determined that her next four-year stint would be at college. But those plans were put on hold when she read the script for “Christy,” a series based on Catherine Marshall’s beloved novel about a young teacher at a mission school in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee.
Instead of becoming a full-time student, Martin would play a teacher. Instead of heading for Yale, she was heading for postgraduate series work in Tennessee. “I will defer, but I will still go” to Yale when there’s a break from the series, Martin told critics in Los Angeles. “I have promised myself I will go.” How soon that will be depends on viewer response to “Christy,” which CBS will premiere with a two-hour movie Sunday night, April 3, at 9 Eastern time. The series will move into its regular 8-9 time slot Thursday night, April 7.
Published in 1967, “Christy” is Catherine Marshall’s fictionalized version of her mother’s experiences as a mission teacher in Appalachia. More than 10 years earlier, the writer had told the story of her father, Peter Marshall, a poor Scottish immigrant who became chaplain of the U.S. Senate. Her book, “A Man Called Peter,” was turned into one of the most successful films of 1955. So when “Christy” became a best seller in the ’60s, MGM quickly acquired the rights. A script was written. A producer was assigned. Research teams were sent to Appalachia. But MGM never made the film.
In 1986, the rights were acquired by Ken Wales, a producer who had worked with fellow producer Barney Rosenzweig on the miniseries “John Steinbeck’s East of Eden” and the CBS series “Cagney & Lacey.” “Frankly, I didn’t see it as my kind of material,” says Rosenzweig, whose last series, “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,” starred his wife, Sharon Gless, who also starred in “Cagney & Lacey.” Yet the success of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” suggested possibilities for “Christy.” The two-hour opener, produced by Rosenzweig and Wales, follows the 19-year-old Christy Huddleston as she moves from city life in 1912 to the poverty-stricken community of Cutter Gap, Tenn. Tyne Daly, Rosenzweig’s other “Cagney & Lacey” star, plays Alice Henderson, Christy’s strong-willed mentor.
“Christy was very frightened when she got there,” Martin says. “But she stuck it out. And I don’t know if I could have done that.” The “Christy” movie and six episodes were filmed in Townsend, a small town about 25 miles south of Knoxville, Tenn. “It was wonderful,” Martin says. “Tennessee was so beautiful. I had a condo right off a river, so every morning I looked at the mountains.” At 18, though, Martin was apprehensive about leaving familiar California surroundings and tackling such a challenging role: “I was very worried about the Southern accent, which I’ve never done before. “And also being on every page of the script, especially for the movie, scared me to death. … I’m only 18, so this is the first time I’ve ever been away from home. It was just a big step for me, all the way around.”
Still, even before taking that big step, she fell close to the character. “I love Christy’s enthusiasm,” Martin said. “She doesn’t think that there’s anything she can’t do. She goes for it. She believes in people. She follows her heart. It sometimes gets her into bad situations, but she believes in herself and she believes in other people. “I’m like that a lot. Christy has even more enthusiasm than I have. And she’s relatively naive. Through the course of the movie, she learns so much and grows a lot. She allows herself to learn. I think I’m similar in that way, too. “I think other teenagers will watch the show and look up to this character.’