Television is coming to Homefront in its second season, as this chronological memory tour charts the years 1946-47.
“That’s when they brought out TV, with radio stations converting over all across the country,” says Tammy Lauren, whose starstruck radio-station receptionist Ginger may yet realize her dreams, much as her boyfriend Jeff (Kyle Chandler), a rookie for the Cleveland Indians, earned his uniform last season.
“There’s a lot of new things happening with my career and his, and those two just might mesh,” she says.
A more sweeping change involves the post-war housing shortage and the resulting boom in prefab construction, the beginnings of suburban development. Executive producer Lynn Marie Latham says this social movement will affect nearly all the characters, including those in the business and those in need of a roof.
The latter includes likable WWII vet Charlie (Harry O’Reilly), who moves in for awhile with the Metcalf family as he sorts out his feelings for the two women in his life: his devious British wife (Sammi Davis-Voss) and the virtuous Italian widow/single mother (Giuliana Santini) now sharing his small digs.
Executive producer Bernard Lechowick says it was the year “Tupperware began, and Reddi-whip came out, frozen orange juice and Dr. Spock, that radical paperback.”
And with a baby on the way for Metcalf matriarch Anne (Wendy Phillips) and new husband Al (John Slattery), look for newfangled parenting debates that echo even today.