Third Season Speculation
“Lord
only knows what’ll happen next.” – the last line of dialogue in the series
Homefront creators Bernard Lechowick and Lynn Marie Latham stated
repeatedly that they never thought too far ahead about Homefront’s
storylines. However, some ideas were
leaked – and a few others can be imagined – regarding what we might have seen
had Homefront survived into a third season.
·
“If
ABC renews Homefront, the series will include Cleveland’s 1948 World
Series victory” (John Kiesewetter
“Homefront Role Easy for Chandler to Play” Cincinnati Enquirer Mar. 29, 1993).
·
“If
ABC had granted Homefront a third season, [Tammy] Lauren said, the plot
would have found the wealthy Sloan family buying the town’s television station,
with Jeff and Ginger becoming TV stars in the vein of George Burns and Gracie Allen”
(Rob Owen “Tammy Lauren Plays an Innocent…Again” Times-Dispatch July 31,
1993).
·
Sam
Behrens (Phil Havel) told Soap Opera
Digest that “he was very disappointed about Homefront not being picked
up because he had been signed on as a regular cast member for the third season”
and that he “had a great storyline” (Melinda Salsburey Homefront egroup Aug. 28, 2000).
·
“During a Prodigy chat after the end of the second
season, the creators said that…they were going to have Caroline’s [first]
husband from England come to River Run (apparently she was a bigamist)” (Alen Homefront
egroup Apr. 10, 1999).
·
According to Lynn Marie Latham, “If there had been
a third season, Anne and Al would never have left in the first place. But Hank would not have come back no matter
what” (Homefront egroup Apr.
19, 2003).
·
It
seems likely that postwar suburbia and the Sloans’ housing development would
have continued to figure prominently, as both Jeff/Ginger and Charlie/Gina
would have been looking for homes.
·
Now
that the Davises no longer work for the Sloans, their connection to the other
cast members and the other storylines have been severed. In order to keep them active, would new
Black cast members have been added? Or
might Rupert’s have become the new “hang-out” for the younger characters?
·
Would
Caroline turn out not to have divorced Charlie after all?: “Did we ever see
Caroline’s divorce decree? I don’t
think so. I think we just saw her en
route to Reno. Did anybody else in town
know about the 2-year rule? Maybe
not. Maybe – just maybe – Caroline knew
her first husband was alive and she was bigamously married to Charlie, so she
didn’t have to get divorced. She just
had to pretend she had and if anybody from the I.N.S. showed up at her
doorstep, she was still ‘legally’ married to Charlie” (Bethany Rutledge Homefront
egroup Mar. 31, 2003).
· Abe was excited about Jackie Robinson’s becoming the first Black player in the Major Leagues, which finally took place in 1947, but Jeff wouldn’t have played against him since was no inter-league play at this time. However, late in the 1947 season, Larry Doby became the American League's first black player for the Cleveland Indians. Considering Homefront’s commitment to exploring racial issues, it’s likely Jeff would have born witness to the difficulties Doby faced. Moreover, when Doby played his first full season in 1948, he split time between center field and right field. Imagine the storyline of Jeff losing his job to a black player, and how everyone would have reacted to that. (Suggested by Homefront fan Lynn Gillis)