by Jill Cohen
The Townsend Visitor/The Knoxville News-Sentinel
September 11, 1994
The re-created town of Cutter Gap and its real-life home of Townsend are buzzing with activity as the producers of “Christy” create episodes for its second TV season.
The family drama was critically acclaimed last season, and CBS ordered 13 more episodes for ’94-’95. “Christy” is the story of a young teacher (played by Kellie Martin) who changes the lives of poverty-stricken children living in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Visitors in August had this experience on the set. We arrive at 11 a.m. It’s about 90 degrees with high humidity. An occasional breeze brings relief as we begin the journey across 400 acres of farmland.
Kathleen Bobek (Bo), key production assistant and stunt double for Tyne Daly (Miss Alice Henderson), is near the set trailers and parking lot. She holds a two-way radio. “Quiet on the set!” she yells. “Rolling!” People are motionless as 50 seconds of script are shot. Only when Bobek yells “Cut!” do we make our way up a hill to the set.
One of the show’s executive producers, Ken Wales, is our guide. He talks about bringing “Christy” to the screen. “MGM owned the rights to the story for years but didn’t do anything with it,” he said. “I was finally able to purchase the rights in 1986.” Wales mortgaged his home and wiped out his personal savings to see his dream come true.
“We chose Townsend as the site for our production because we wanted viewers to get a better sense of the mountain environment,” and the real Cutter Gap, near El Pano, Tenn., didn’t provide it. Wales, who has years of experience as an actor and producer, works with executive producer Barney Rosenzweig and writer Patricia Green (both of “Cagney & Lacey”).
At the top of the hill lies the rebuilt Cutter Gap. Except for the film equipment, it looks like a tiny town from the past. All elements of the period are there: the heat, horses, bugs, chickens in the coop and rustic buildings. “William Creeber is the outstanding production designer who created our Cutter Gap,” Wales explained. “He did everything to make it look real.”
Cameras are focused on Daly as she rides her horse toward the mission house. She is dressed in the style of the period: a black coat, long-sleeve blouse, a long skirt and boot type shoes. Daly is known best for her six seasons as Mary Beth Lacey on the CBS series “Cagney & Lacey,” for which she won four Emmys as best actress.
When filming resumes, only the sounds of nature are heard across the hills and hollows. Between takes are the staging, discussions, rehearsals, script changes, makeup repairs and the general business endemic to shooting a TV series. Cast and crew strive for perfection.
Up another short hill is the one-room schoolhouse that doubles as the church. During the first season, the building was under construction. Now, it is finished and beginning to age. Slate boards lie on the desks and a Confederate flag hangs next to a U.S. flag. A Bible is on Christy’s desk, and a banner bearing the biblical message, “whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge,” hangs across the front of the room.
Actor Stewart Finlay-McLennan (Dr. Neil MacNeill) joins us. He is dressed in brown corduroy pants, a dark corduroy shirt and high leather boots. He talks with us as we travel a long, grassy path to McNeill’s cabin. McLennan, a native Australian who spent five years in New York studying acting and performing in many off-Broadway plays, considers himself a New York actor.
“Aren’t you hot in those clothes,” we asked. “Actually, I like them,” he said, sounding almost as Scottish as he does in the series. “The boots keep the nature life off my legs. I can’t stand the bugs, and I don’t know what’s lurking in the grass. I don’t like the chiggers and snakes.” McLennan and Wales talk about the need for positive role models in television, and both feel the characters in “Christy” meet that need.
“You wait a long time to get a character role like this one,” he said. He says working on “Christy” is quite an undertaking for everyone involved. “With ‘Christy,’ we’re back here working in the woods, but it’s a huge operation from here to Los Angeles,” he said.
We drive to another location on the set to see the McHone and O’Teale cabins. The O’Teals are the poorest family in Cutter Gap. “The Abbotts, who own all this land we are using lived in that cabin over there during the 1940s,” Wales said, pointing to another structure. “We use it as the Spencer cabin now.” One cabin, when shot from different sides, can be home of two Cutter Gap families, Wales said. This cabin was built by the Abbotts’ ancestors in 1837. “Christy is a true story; it’s authentic,” Wales aid. “So are these cabins. Real people actually lived here at one time.”
After lunch, Wales shows us Christy’s bedroom in the mission house. He is thrilled with the porch outside her bedroom, which shows an expansive view of the mountains. When filming takes place, we are allowed to watch from behind the equipment. Alternate director Michael Lange is busy with instructions for the cast. He wants them to communicate anger and frustration in the scene.
Cinematographer Michael Fash introduces himself and explains the scene. He says the preacher has been injured, Christy has been kidnapped and Dr. MacNeill is determined to take charge of the situation in spite of Miss Alice’s warnings. New cast member LeVar Burton, a black resident of Cutter Gap, sits on a horse awaiting direction.
The scene requires several takes as cameras follow actors from the porch of the mission house to their horses. Between takes we talk with members of the film crew. Christy Buchanan, an electrician and series stand-in, was born and raised in Maryville. Her mom read the book while pregnant with her and named her after Christy Huddleston.
Cynthia Williams, a licensed practical nurse, is the set medic. This is her first experience working on a television series. “It’s a lot of work,” Williams said. “The heat is intense, but I love it.” As filming continues, the horses take off into the woods and the scene is scrapped. Cast and crew move into the mission house to film a night scene. Black fabric screens are hung on the porch to keep out light. Rick Crumrine, second camera assistant, works 12-hour days and says he can’t imagine working less. Crumrine is from Pittsburgh, Pa.
Harky Johnson, 61, a retired schoolteacher from Bristol, Tenn., works with the special effects and stunt team. He says his work has given him a new respect for production. Steve Oglesby, a 42-year-old marketing and communications professional from Knoxville and former reporter for WATE-TV, Channel 6, is cast as an extra.
“My wife and I went to the open casting call at Knoxville College to see if they needed period craft items for the series,” Oglesby explained. He left the call cast as an extra. Tom Draper, 21, came from Santa Rosa, Calif., to work with his father’s partner, J.T. Rockwell. He helps Rockwell handle the horses on the set.
Morning arrives in the Smokies with thick clouds hanging low over the mountains. It is raining as we arrive on a set teeming with activity. Tess Harper (Fairlight Spencer), an Arkansas native, is in the schoolhouse with the children and the crew. Harper says her grandmothers are role models for her portrayal of Fairlight Spencer. “I feel as though I’m paying homage to my ancestors by playing Fairlight,” Harper said. “I think the series allows for a good portrayal of the strengths of mountain women of that time period.”
While filming continues, Rockwell and his special effects crew work on building a fire under a kettle. Rockwell says he believes in “Christy” so much that he sacrificed other jobs to work on the production. When he talked with Wales and director Michael Rhodes, he said, it was more like a prayer meeting than business.
Shane Humphrey, 8, from Seymour plays Lest’un Spencer, the youngest of the Spencer children. “It’s fun being in this show,” he said, “because I work with a lot of famous people and I’m allowed to get my clothes dirty. “It’s pretty real out here, ya know.”
(christycove.com note: The real Cutter Gap is called Chapel Hollow, located in Del Rio, TN. “El Pano” is a fictional name in the series and novel, which refers to the real life town of Del Rio. A confederate flag does not hang in the schoolhouse, but rather the Tennessee state flag. The episode being filmed is entitled The Hostage.)