Earl Henry Hamner Jr., is an American television writer and producer, best
known for his work in the 1970s and 1980s on the long-running CBS series The
Waltons and Falcon Crest. As a novelist, he is best known for Spencer's Mountain,
which was inspired by his own childhood and formed the basis for both the film
of the same name and the television series The Waltons, for which he
provided voice-over narration. Biography
Earl Hamner, Jr. was born July 10, 1923 in Schuyler, Virginia to Doris Marion
and Earl Henry Hamner, Sr. The oldest of eight children, Hamner's family siblings
consisted of five boys and three girls. After Hamner, the boys, from oldest to
youngest, were James Edmund, Paul Louis, Clifton Anderson, and Willard Harold.
The girls, from oldest to youngest were Audrey Jane, Nancy Alice, and Marion
Lee. The family of Hamner's mother, the
Gianninis, were immigrants who came to the United States from Lucca, Italy in
the 1700s. His father's family came to Virginia from Wales, where his
ancestors, the Spencers and the Hamners, had been for more than a thousand years
before immigrating. Until the 1900s, the Hamners were tobacco farmers near James
River, Virginia when they moved to Schuyler located on the eastern slopes
of the Blue Ridge Mountains. A company town where the economy was
based in soapstone mining by New Alberene Stone, Schuyler was hit hard by
the Great Depression and the company and its mines were forced to close. Hamner's
father worked in the mines from the time his oldest son was born until the
company's closing. After losing his job, Earl, Sr. could only find work as a
machinist at the DuPont factory in Waynesboro, Virginia, about 30 miles
away. Due to the distance between home and work, Earl, Sr. lived at a boarding
house in Waynesboro during the week and travelled back to Schuyler and his
family on the weekend. Taking a bus from Waynesboro to Charlottesville and
another stop along the way, Hamner's father would walk six miles to the
family home at the end of his weekly journey. Taking that walk in on a snowy
Christmas Eve 1933, was the inspiration for "The Homecoming", Hamner's 1970
novel which became a Christmas special and the pilot for The Waltons in 1971.
Career In 1954, Hamner wrote “Hit and Run”, an
episode of the NBC legal drama Justice in which guest star E.G. Marshall played
a man haunted by his crime of striking a newsboy on a bicycle and fleeing the
scene of the accident. He reprised the theme in the 1964 You Drive episode of
The Twilight Zone. Hamner contributed eight episodes in the
early 1960s to the CBS science fiction series The Twilight Zone. His first
script acceptance for the series was his big writing break in Hollywood. He also
wrote or co-wrote eight episodes of the CBS animal series Gentle Ben and four
episodes of the ABC sitcom Nanny and the Professor.
He created two less successful series, Apple's Way and Boone. Hamner used
family names to title his projects: Spencer is the maiden name of his
paternal grandmother Susan Henry Spencer Hamner. The Waltons comes from his
paternal grandfather Walter Clifton Hamner and great-grandfather Walter
Leland Hamner. List of works
Novels Fifty Roads to Town
Spencer's Mountain You Can't Get There From Here
The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer's Mountain
Non-fiction The Avocado Drive Zoo
Good Night, John Boy Generous Women
Screenplays Palm Springs Weekend
Charlottes Web Teleplays
Highway for The Twilight Zone :
"The Hunt" "A Piano in the House"
"Jess-Belle" "Ring-a-Ding Girl"
"You Drive" "Black Leather Jackets"
"Stopover in a Quiet Town" "The Bewitchin' Pool"
Heidi Appalachian Autumn
Aesop's Fables The Homecoming
Where the Lilies Bloom The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story
References External links
Official Earl Hamner website Earl Hamner Jr. at the Internet Movie
Database Earl Hamner - The creator of The Waltons
All About The Waltons Works by or about Earl Hamner, Jr. in
libraries The Hamner Theater The Hamner Theater in
Nelson County, VA. Write TV Public Television Interview
with Earl Hamner Earl Hamner, Jr. A biography of Earl
Hamner, Jr. by Brandy Davis Earl Hamner, Jr. interview video at the
Archive of American Television