HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: APRIL MORNING (TV)
Summary
One in this series of dramas presented by Hallmark. This production presents the events of the Battle of Lexington on April 19, 1775, through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Adam Cooper. Adam, a thoughtful, sensitive youth, is at odds with his father, a principled farmer named Moses. Moses's stern, critical nature leads the boy to believe his father hates him -- though it is actually Moses's intense love that makes him so tough on his only child. As tensions mount at home between Adam and his father, a series of events leads the village committee to call the local militia into action, much to the protests of pacifist Moses Cooper. Soon Paul Revere announces that the British army is approaching Concord in a nighttime surprise attack. The village militia is summoned and Adam, excited by the adventure and his desire to be acknowledged as a man, asks to sign up. His father, in a painful gesture of respect for his son's wishes, allows Adam to join, despite the protests of his wife and his own reservations. The enlisted men and boys go to Lexington Green to await the Redcoats in their plain farmer's clothing. When the British order the colonists to disperse, a local rabble-rouser named Solomon Chandler fires a shot, and the British begin in a bloody attack on the villagers. The day becomes a brutal rite of passage for Adam, as he witnesses the death of his own father and runs for his life, sobbing and wretching in horror. With the aid of his girlfriend's father, Joseph, he fights his terror and exhaustion to assist in an ambush against the British, and later must save himself by shooting a young British soldier his own age. He returns home to his mother, grandmother, and girlfriend a very different person. Includes commercials and promos. This program is closed-captioned.
This program contains minor technical problems. This represents the best copy of this program currently available to the Museum.
("Hallmark Hall of Fame" aired on NBC from 1952 to 1978; network affiliation varies after 1978.)
(Beginning with the live telecast of the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" on December 24, 1951, Hallmark has sponsored a series of dramatic specials which since 1952 have been titled "Hallmark Hall of Fame." From 1952 to 1955, Hallmark also presented "Hallmark Hall of Fame," a weekly half-hour dramatic anthology series hosted by Sarah Churchill. The first program, "Dr. Serocold," was televised in January 1952 under the title "Hallmark Television Theatre." This series also ran under the title "Hallmark Summer Theatre" in July and August 1952.)
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: April 24, 1988 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:54:37
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:32720
- GENRE: Docudrama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Docudrama
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 1988
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - Hallmark Mother's Day cards and gifts
- TV - Commercials - Hallmark cards
- TV - Promos - "Cagney & Lacey"
- TV - Promos - "Eisenhower & Lutz"
- TV - Promos - "Newhart"
CREDITS
- Robert Halmi … Executive Producer
- Samuel Goldwyn … Executive Producer
- David J. Patterson … Supervising Producer
- Robert Halmi … Producer
- Delbert Mann … Producer, Director
- James Lee Barrett … Writer
- Howard Fast … Based on the novel by
- Allyn Ferguson … Music by
- Jones, Tommy Lee (See also: Jones, Tom Lee) … Cast, Moses Cooper
- Robert Urich … Cast, Joseph Simmons
- Chad Lowe … Cast, Adam Cooper
- Susan Blakely … Cast, Sarah Cooper
- Meredith Salenger … Cast, Ruth Simmons
- Rip Torn … Cast, Solomon Chandler
- Joan Heney … Cast, Granny Cooper
- Nicholas Kilbertus … Cast, John Parker
- Griffith Brewer … Cast, Samuel Hadley
- Thor Bishopric … Cast, Jonathan Harrington
- Joel Miller … Cast, the Reverend
- Brian Furlong … Cast, Joash Smith
- Tony Ulc … Cast, Simon Casper
- Philip Spensley … Cast, John Buckman
- Peter Colvey … Cast, Maj. John Pitcairn
- Alan Mozes … Cast, the Young British Soldier
- Jeannie Walker … Cast, Mrs. Simmons
- Gary Plaxton … Cast, Lt. Col. Francis Smith
- John Baggaley … Cast, Metcalf
- Vlasta Vrana … Cast, Paul Revere
- Burke Lawrence … Cast, the Rider on Concord Road
- Paul Rutledge … Cast, Lt. Sutherland
- Ken Siegel … Cast, Ensign de Berniere
- David Gow … Cast, a Man at Atkins Farm
- Teddy Lee Dillon … Cast, a Man at Atkins Farm
- James Coull … Cast, Capt. Parson
- Timothy Hine … Cast, a British Soldier
- Vincent Glorioso … Cast, Lt. Baker