Boone

1 9 8 3 – 1 9 8 4 (USA)
13 x 60 minute episodes

Put a little spin on the Elvis Presley story by having him sing some down-home country music – maybe You Ain’t Nothin’ But a Groundhog – and turn back the clock to 1953.

Now you have the ingredients for Boone – an NBC drama series about Boone Sawyer (Tom Byrd) of rural Trinity, Tennessee (not far from Nashville).

17-year-old Boone is about to graduate from high school and his family worry about him a lot.

His mother (Elizabeth Huddle) wants him to be a preacher. His dad (Barry Corbin) wants Boone to work with him down at the family filling station – the career intended for his older brother, Dwight, who had been killed in World War II.

But Boone – who wears tight jeans and plays the guitar – has other ideas. He wants to sing for his supper, make records and go on the Grand Ole Opry. Upbeat country music (the kind that would soon evolve into rockabilly) is his first love and he hopes it will be his ticket to stardom.

Although Boone gets no encouragement at home, he finds it elsewhere, especially from his best buddy, leather-jacketed motorcycle-riding Rome Hawley (Greg Webb) who backs him on stage and shares wild times with him.

Older sister Susannah (Katherine Moffat) and younger sister ‘Squirt’ (Amanda Peterson) are sympathetic to his ambitions too, as are Aunt Dolly (Ronnie Claire Edwards) and Uncle Link (William Phipps), who runs Link’s Lounge, a local saloon where Boone and Rome hang out and sometimes perform.

Boone also receives helpful advice from Mr Johnson (Davis Roberts), an old, blind black former blues guitarist.

Boone was conceived and written by Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons and Falcon Crest.

Boone Sawyer
Thomas Byrd
Rome Hawley
Greg Webb
Merit Sawyer
Barry Corbin
Faye Sawyer
Elizabeth Huddle
Susannah Sawyer
Katherine Moffat
Lori ‘Squirt’ Sawyer
Amanda Peterson
Aunt Dolly
Ronnie Claire Edwards
Uncle Link
William Phipps
Mr Johnson
Davis Roberts