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This was a made for TV movie from the 70s... But this was back when made for TV movies were fabulous. This Christmas movie with Ed Asner will not disappoint! A must watch for the Christmas Season. It's out on DVD now and I watch it every year at Christmas. I had an old DVD which was copied from a VHS tape for years. Thank goodness they came out with a new version. This and The Waltons movie A Homecoming are 2 wonderful made for TV movies which are must see if you are a Christmas movie buff like me!

Sentimental but not sugary-sweet, "The Gathering" is a wonderful holiday treat. Ed Asner is perfect as the businessman who lost his way and his family four years earlier to his career. When he finds out he's dying, he tries to reconcile himself to his four grown children and his estranged wife. She helps him plan the gathering of the family, and in the process they tentatively get to know each other again.

Maureen Stapleton so completely lives her role that you wonder if she's been through something like this before in her own life. She is a revelation, and is the rock-hard center the film anchors itself with. Without her it would be half a film. Lawrence Pressman, Gail Strickland, Rebecca Balding and Gregory Harrison are the children who bring their spouses to the ancestral home to celebrate Christmas. They are all capable actors and actresses, and enhance the production immeasurably. The sets are perfect, the music superb, and the snowfall even arrives on time. It doesn't miss a trick, but you don't realize that while you're watching it. Honest emotions and genuine sentiment, along with a great script, make this a holiday film you won't want to miss.

It's available on DVD through Warner Archive as of 2011, which is great news; however, an audio commentary would have been even better news but the Archive doesn't do extras. "The Gathering" is a classic and is now readily available for everyone to enjoy at Christmas.

I've always been a big fan of Christmas and Christmas movies, but this television offering has to be my all time favorite. I still try to watch it every year on either my (fading) VHS copy or, most recently, on the Hallmark channel. Ed Asner is absolutely perfect as the estranged husband and father hoping for a last minute Christmas reunion with his grown children before he succumbs to an un-named disease. Maureen Stapleton matches him scene for scene as his wife. The children are all excellent as well, particularly Lawrence Pressman as the stubborn eldest son and Gail Strickland (one of Hollywood's most underrated character actresses) as his eldest daughter. Bruce Davison is also very good as Asner's put-upon son-in-law. The sequel is inferior (with two unfortunate cast replacements for the children) and Asner's presence in the second film is sorely missed but worthy of a look if you are a fan of this one. Don't miss the Gathering. It'll make you long for an old-fashioned Christmas reunion--your own gathering, whether you're dying or not.

Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton, are at the top of their form in this small, made-for-TV movie from 1977. The supporting cast are all familiar faces and flesh out the story perfectly.

This film won an Emmy for best special in drama or comedy at the '78 Emmy Awards. The movie has almost a documentary feel to it. The film never sinks under a weight of sentimentality but the emotions are there, just under the surface. You get the feeling that here is a man who loved his family but always thought there would be time to enjoy them, but learns he has weeks to live and this will be his last Christmas.

Desperate to try to rekindle some feelings of love with his four adult children, he turns to his estranged wife and together they try to organize a Christmas reunion but without letting them know their father has a fatal illness.

The children all busy with their own lives in other cities and in one case, another country, struggle with their own emotions about coming back home. This is one of my all time favorite Holiday offerings and my VHS copy is from a broadcast from the 1980's, but the quality is holding up pretty well for all this time. If you can find a copy or see it listed for broadcast, be sure to not miss it.

When I first saw this movie, I cried. It is such a wonderful movie, and hit home with me and the situation with my family at the time. I knew I had to own a copy of it. But for years, I'd search the TV Guide hoping it would come back on TV,and I could tape it, but no such luck. Until a couple of years ago, TNN aired it, along with The Gathering, Part II, and I got it on tape - but with commercial interruptions!! I would dearly love to have this movie on DVD or VHS tape, as it has now become a tradition to watch it every year.