“Welcome back, Homefront: A reprise of feeling and fun”
by Matt Roush, USA Today, Mar, 9, 1993
Can you go home again? ABC’s Homefront is about to find out – returning tonight (10 ET/PT) to its original time period after a disastrously long hiatus but with its infectious spirits gloriously intact.
If industry buzz counted for anything, this kicky ’40s-era serial would be (as one of its characters might say) “in like Flynn.” On Saturday, the show is honored as part of the Museum of Television & Radio’s prestigious annual Los Angeles festival. Husband-wife creators Bernard Lechowick and Lynn Marie Latham have just earned a Writers Guild nomination.
But ABC, losing ground to CBS on Tuesdays, wants a hit. And Homefront, victim of erratic scheduling before a hiatus in December, faces its toughest challenge.
Even before being pulled from the schedule, producers were “extremely aware of the tenuousness of our situation,” says Lechowick. Studio research had shown that among even loyal fans, “less than 50% knew where we were,” opposite Cheers at the time.
The producers freely (if gloomily) reel off figures that testify to the obstacles a show like this faces today. “But what distinguishes us from other endangered programs is that, when we are left alone, we grow,” says Lechowick.
Echoes Latham: “This is the sort of show that can build a loyal following over time, if allowed to. The networks need to offer consistency, but instead they give us irregularity.”
As tonight’s and next Tuesday’s episodes merrily attest, Homefront has lost none of its zing. It’s not too heavy, not too lightweight. Somehow neither trashy nor too saintly in its twisty soap-operatics, the show cleverly defies genre limitations by giving satisfying plot payoffs each week.
In short, if you check in now, it will take next to no time to get with the program.
A classic triangle develops further tonight, but with a gentle comic touch, as a sweetly tentative fling between town magnate Mike Sloan (Ken Jenkins) and sultry barmaid Judy Owen (Kelly Rutherford) is repeatedly thwarted while Sloan’s snooty wife Ruth (Mimi Kennedy) is out of town.
In a nifty in-joke, Judy seeks advice from columnist “Dear Pauline” – a nod to huge fan “Dear Abby” (real name Pauline), who has boosted the show in her columns.
Meanwhile, in a touching side story, stalwart mom Anne Kahn (Wendy Phillips) returns home, incapacitated by polio and pridefully unable to accept help from her family.
Next week, TV arrives in town, with the alien camera rolling into the radio studio accompanied by the Richard Strauss fanfare famous from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
As the giddy, ambitious Ginger, Tammy Lauren is adorable when she first sees herself on camera. The awe that greets even a test pattern beamed into living rooms takes us back to a simpler time when no one worried about demographics and audience share.
The research-steeped producers will also deal with the red scare, in which former labor-organizer Al (John Slattery) comes under fire; a murder linked to the post-war housing boom; complications in the Jew-gentile engagement of Gina (Giuliana Santini) and Charlie (Harry O’Reilly); and, naturally, more see-saw heartache for Jeff (Kyle Chandler) and Ginger.
Says co-star Mimi Kennedy, a cut-up who’s nothing like the rigid Ruth Sloan: “I feel this show gives so much pleasure that it’s gotta catch. You wouldn’t kick this show out of bed. And I know that, because I’m in bed with it!”
No argument here. If there isn’t room on TV for a show this fun, what’s the point?
A peek at the missing episodes:
The thousands of fans who’ve written and called on behalf of Homefront will rejoice at the seven consecutive episodes scheduled in the most advantageous time period. But they might not know they’re not getting the whole story.
With nine on the shelf, producers (in consultation with ABC) had to cut. One casualty is a show earlier touted to critics, dealing with concentration-camp survivor Gina’s (Giuliana Santini) memories of Auschwitz.
“It’s a tremendous disappointment, given the amount of emotional investment we had in the script and the wonderful performances by the cast members,” says executive producer Bernard Lechowick.
Partner Lynn Marie Latham says the decision was tough – but not guided by fears of the downbeat content. “We had to choose the shows that would help the series make sense. A flashback episode could be held.”
The other “lost” episode features Jeff (Kyle Chandler) and Ginger’s (Tammy Lauren) working relationship and romantic tension on the radio, ending with her engagement to another ballplayer. The opening of the next episode takes the engagement as a given, so little continuity is sacrificed, says Latham.