The Associated Press
Knoxville
It may be too soon to call Christy a hit, but the TV movie introducing the series set in the Great Smoky Mountains was one of the most-watched programs on television last week. “We have received hundreds of phone calls from across the country in support of the program on Sunday, when it premiered, on Monday and (Tuesday),” CBS-TV spokeswoman Brooks Cantini said Wednesday from New York.
The two-hour movie of Christy, which aired as the CBS Sunday Movie, ranked fifth in the weekly prime-time ratings from A.C. Nielsen Co. It was the highest-rated show on CBS, outscoring even 60 minutes. Some 16.7 million homes tuned in to see the adaptation of the best-selling, fact-based book of the same name about a young woman who comes to remote, impoverished Appalachia in 1912 to teach in a missionary school. The production, filmed entirely on a farm in Townsend, about 30 miles west of here, stars Emmy nominee Kellie Martin as Christy with Tyne Daly, Richard Kiley and Tess Harper in supporting roles.
Only Home Improvement, Roseanne, These Friends of Mine and Seinfeld did better in the weekly ratings. “The network certainly feels that this is a fine project,” Cantini said. “We did expect it to be well received. However, it probably exceeded our expectations because Easter Sunday is historically a low-viewing night.” The TV movie was the lead-in to a one-hour series, which aired at 8 p.m. Thursday. Six one-hour installments have been made. Whether the cast and crew return to the Smokies in May to film more episodes depends on the ratings.
“Everybody waits until Thursday. That’s when our first episode is on,” producer Ken Wales said from his California home. “But in the meantime, it is just unbelievable.” Wales who invested 17 years and most of his own money to bring Catherine Marshall’s book to the screen, has traveled the country touting the project.
(christycove.com note: Townsend is 30 miles southeast of Knoxville. Not west as quoted.)