MACAHANS, THE (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television movie introduces the Macahan family of Virginia during the 1860s; it was eventually developed into a mini-series and later the weekly series "How the West Was Won." Timothy Macahan and his wife Kate desperately try to keep their family, including two sons of fighting age, from getting involved in the impending Civil War. During a visit from Timothy's brother Zeb, an experienced frontiersman, they decide to ask him to lead the family westward to start a new life far from the war. Along the way, they encounter hostile Indians and the hardships of daily life on the plains. While in Nebraska, they learn that the Civil War is raging and has reached their home state of Virginia. Worried about Grandpa and Grandma Macahan, who preferred to remain behind, Timothy decides to return to Virginia and convince them to accompany him back west. The rest of the family agrees to build a temporary sod house and wait for Timothy to return with the grandparents. While living in Nebraska, the Macahans deal with disease, unfriendly ranchers who want them off their grazing land, and an escaped convict who has a score to settle with Zeb. After four months with no news from Timothy, Seth, the oldest son, decides to return to Virginia to discover his father's whereabouts, and he finds himself in the middle of the war. He soon discovers his grandparents' house burned and looted and Grandpa and Grandma dead. He also learns that his father has been taken prisoner by Yankee soldiers on their way to Tennessee. Determined to find his father, Seth forges on, finding himself at the battle of Shiloh, where he is captured by the Union Army and forced to enlist. During the second day of fighting, Seth finds his father badly wounded and is with him when he dies. In order to get back to his family, Seth flees the Union army, but soon he must leave them again to escape the fate of a deserter. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 19, 1976 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:58:07
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:18314
- GENRE: Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Frontier and pioneer life - Drama; Shiloh, Battle of, 1862 - Drama; U S - History - Civil War, 1861-1865 - Drama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV, 1976
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- John Mantey … Executive Producer
- Jim Byrnes … Producer, Writer
- Bernard McEveety … Director
- Jerrold Immel … Music by
- William Conrad … Narrator
- James Arness … Cast, Zeb Macahan
- Eva Marie Saint … Cast, Kate Macahan
- Bruce Boxleitner … Cast, Seth Macahan
- Kathryn Holcomb … Cast, Laura Macahan
- William Kirby Cullen … Cast, Jeb Macahaan
- Vicki Schreck … Cast, Jessie Macahan
- Richard Kiley … Cast, Timothy Macahan
- Gene Evans … Cast, Dutton
- John Crawford … Cast, Hale Crowley
- Victor Mohica … Cast, Billy Joe
- Frank Ferguson … Cast, Grandpa Macahan
- Anne Doran … Cast, Grandma Macahan
- St. Cyr, W. Vincent … Cast, the Ponca Chief
- Rudy Diaz … Cast, the Sioux Chief
- F. Allen Livers … Cast, the Runner
- Jim Ward … Cast, the Mountain Man
- Ben Wilson … Cast, Henry Jethro
- Skip Lowell … Cast, the Dying Rebel
- Tom Stovall … Cast, Rebel #1
- Jack Wallwork … Cast, Commanding Officer of Fort Randall
- Ben Zeller … Cast, the Cavalry Major
- Wright King … Cast, the Infantry Captain
- William Bryant … Cast, the Major at Shiloh
- Mayf Nutter … Cast, Jenkins
- Henry Olek … Cast, Grayson
- Charles Kuenstle … Cast, Sergeant Hodges
- Claude Johnson … Cast, the Wounded Soldier
- Clark Bar … Cast, the Aide
- Lloyd Nelson … Cast, the Sentry
- Jonathan Bahnks … Cast, Woodward
- Herb Robins … Cast, Polk
- Joe Kurtzo … Cast, Stenner
- Mel Stevens … Cast, Dr. Dodd
- Cliff Emmick … Cast, the Bartender
- Bill Zuckert … Cast, Caldwell
- Hal Baylor … Cast, the Lawman
- L. Stanford Jolley … Cast, the Farmer