Morningstar/Eveningstar

1 9 8 6 (USA)
7 x 60 minute episodes episodes

“This is a story of some young people who needed a home, some senior citizens who needed love, and how they became a family”.

The Morningstar orphanage is destroyed in a fire (off camera) and Bob Lane (Darrell Larson) needs emergency shelter for the children.

His friend Debbie Flynn (Sherry Hursey) has room in the attic at Eveningstar, a retirement facility she manages in a huge old house, so the generations are combined.

Some adjustment is required as the two social groups that nobody wants – homeless, abandoned waifs and old people – muddle through together and learn important life lessons from each other in a series of “adventures” guaranteed to make you nod off.

This short-lived hour-long CBS drama series was like The Waltons meets The Waltons. On valium. It was even created by the creator of The Waltons, Earl Hammer, and sometimes the children living in the attic even mention The Waltons while saying their “good nights”.

The cast was huge, with people constantly moving in and out of focus, and the whole affair was so warm and wholesome and good – a show where the message is that old people have so much love to give and so do young people – you just knew they were going to cancel it.

Which they did.

Debbie Flynn
Sherry Hursey
Bob Lane
Darrell Larson
Martha Cameron
Kate Reid
Bill McGregor
Jeff Corey
Binnie Baylor
Sylvia Sidney
Kathy Kelly
Elizabeth Wilson
Excell Dennis
Scatman Crothers
Gordon Blair
Mason Adams
Nora Blake
Ketty Lester
Alan Bishop
Fred Savage
Sarah Bishop
Melissa Francis
Kevin Murphy
Christopher Peters
Lisa Thurston
Tammy Lauren
Martin Palmer
David Goldsmith
Doug Roberts
Joaquin Phoenix
Eugenie Waters
Ebonie Smith
Alice Blair
Teresa Wright

Video