The social awareness series (created by Joshua Brand and John Falsey) was concerned with race relations and the Civil Rights movement in the American South during the late 1950s.
In spite of attempts by critics and fans alike to keep this award-winning NBC series on the air, I’ll Fly Away never attracted a sizable enough audience to warrant its continuance for longer than two years.
It starred Sam Waterston as Forrest Bedford, an idealistic liberal-minded prosecuting attorney in Bryland County who later became a US Attorney.
His wife, Gwen, was in a mental institution after suffering a nervous breakdown, leaving him to care for three kids: moody teenage hunk Nathan (Jeremy London); spirited, studious Francie (Ashlee Levitch); and lonely little John Morgan (John Aaron Bennett).
Then Lily Harper (Regina Taylor) arrived to become their new black housekeeper. In her quiet yet intelligent way, she began to open their eyes to the people they didn’t quite understand. While no revolutionary, Lily quietly joined the sit-in on Forrest’s courthouse steps and worked for voter registration.
She was also a surrogate mother of sorts for the Bedford children, especially John Morgan, who asked wide-eyed questions about why black people were different.
Adding a little energy were Christina Le Katzis (Kathryn Harrold), the attractive local defence attorney with eyes for Forrest, and Zollicofer (Brad Sullivan), Nathan’s maniacal wrestling coach.
Paul Slocum (Peter Simmons) was Nathan’s wrong-side-of-the-tracks best friend, and Lewis (Bill Cobbs) was Lily’s father, a former player in the Negro Baseball League.
Following the show’s cancellation in 1993, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) purchased the 38 episodes and showed them as reruns during the 1993-1994 season.
Forrest Bedford Sam Waterston Lily Harper
Regina Taylor
Nathan Bedford
Jeremy London Francie Bedford
Ashlee Levitch
John Morgan Bedford
John Aaron Bennett
Christina Le Katzis
Kathryn Harrold Coach Zollicofer Weed
Brad Sullivan Paul Slocum
Peter Simmons Lewis Coleman
Bill Cobbs
It starred Sam Waterston as Forrest Bedford, an idealistic liberal-minded prosecuting attorney in Bryland County who later became a US Attorney.
Adding a little energy were Christina Le Katzis (Kathryn Harrold), the attractive local defence attorney with eyes for Forrest, and Zollicofer (Brad Sullivan), Nathan’s maniacal wrestling coach.
