Breaking Home Ties

20 years ago and a great movie! But I'm biased ... here are some tid-bits about actually being there. I was the guy sitting behind Doug McKeon in the class room scene as the teacher questioned him. It was October,1987. I viewed this movie with family members during Thanksgiving "87". It was presented by Hallmark as an alternative to football and aired Thanksgiving night. I love this movie. Its a great family show about how the 50's really were. // Here is some behind the scenes stuff. I was in 7 different scenes. A real masterpiece of acting ...Doug McKeon that is, not me. I got $40 bucks and a tuna-fish sandwich as an extra. It was a good day. (Actually 4 days) And, then my film career ended...I was 28 and washed up.(Actually,I had a blast...) Doug McKeon, Jason Robards and Aaron Gray,(my cousin worked with her in Battlestar Gallactica) as well as the director and his wife were very nice to us "extras". Doug McKeon talked to us between the "basketball game scenes" and really encouraged us. The set was hard-working but very laid back. The classroom scene was filmed at the SMU law school, in Dallas at 2am. They put huge spot-lights on the windows from the outside in order to make it look like daytime. Wardrobe dressed one guy in a 1950's black leather jacket, which was "not" the look for this low-key 50's movie - he was ejected from the classroom scene by the director! (They gave him an extra tuna-fish sandwich, and he felt better.) My girlfriend worked wardrobe ... thats how I got on the set. I didn't have an agent ... I told another extra this and he got bent! I said, "I'm just here for the tuna." I worked the movie at SMU and at the old Astro Drive-in in SW Dallas. They can-celled a proposed scene where the extras were to be sitting in various cars kissing (at the drive-in). Most of the men extras were gay and the ladies were freaking-out (murmuring) about AIDS. At that time, I think everyone thought AIDS could get transmitted by brain waves. There was a lot of paranoia and misinformation. The ladies knew which guys were gay. They started to get possessive toward the straight guys. This really gorgeous brunette came up and whispered in my ear that if the scene happened, she was kissing me. I thought ... if being an extra paid more, I could do this for a living...then I looked at that brunette again and thought ...ya know, I just might enjoy being poor. I took photos of the extras and still have em. The cute blond who played the bad girl (she was 18 in real life)in the drive-in scene was a model in from Europe, but she was originally from Dallas.(Sorry, I didn't memorize the names from the actor's list) In between scenes at Bubba's (on Hillcrest St. across from SMU) we would chat ... she was unusually nice to me ... I think she thought I was a real actor. She asked me if I was out from LA ... so in a kidding voice, I said, "yah, I gotta head back .. my agent says there may be some opportunities." I don't know if she knew I was kidding. A couple of years later, I ran into her at the Container Store. She was even prettier!// The scenes at the Law School went until 4am. The extras sat around all night and scarfed down all the food. After a long repeat scene was repeated for the last time, I went outside to get a Coke. I was looking down into one of the ice chests and saw nothing but melted ice - a voice above me said, "anything left to snack on?" I said, "no, its looks like nothing..." as I stood up the voice right in front of me was Aaron Gray. When my brain identified who I was talking to it quickly malfunctioned .. Aaron was standing 2 feet away talking to me ... I was star-shocked, so I made up my own language called, "mashed-potato-mouth" .. she was so beautiful, she laughed, she thought I was funny ... I will never forget her eyes. Aaron had flown in from LA and was heading back (I think) in the middle of the night. The director and his wife presented her with some beautiful flowers as she was leaving to go to the airport. The director was a class guy .. he had a limo pick up Aaron. //I later worked on another movie (my wardrobe friend got me on several sets) with the guy who played Lonny's (Doug's) friend in the college scenes. In real life he was later beaten up by some crazy dude at a party. He didn't look the same. I think he did some Dr. Pepper commercials. Hes probably a director today. // The guy who played the brother of Lonny's love interest in the movie (Aaron Gray was Lonny's or Doug's love interest)later became a big soap star. And, of course Jason Robards, Jerry Haines (Our local beloved Mr. Peppermint and local broadcaster during the Kennedy assassination in 1963)and all the actors of that generation were favorites of my dad's for years. Anyone who wants a movie the whole family can enjoy should see this one. Its a Holiday Classic at our house but is good to watch any time of year! Marc S. Robinson, Dallas

This is a wonderful coming of age story. I am sure many identified with some part of the story, either leaving home for the first time, the loss of a parent, or first love. You really cared about the people in the story, and I found myself wondering what the future would bring for them.

Clean-cut 1950s teenager Doug McKeon (as Lonnie Welles) goes off to college. There, he flips burgers, learns about girls, joins the basketball team, and makes text-to-text connections between Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield. Back home, mother Eva Marie Saint (as Emma) is having a difficult time hiding her advancing Leukemia from husband Jason Robards (as Lloyd). The family watches "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" on television - but, learn real life is not quite like a Norman Rockwell magazine cover...

They are good enough to almost pull it off; but, the cast seems a little too advanced for the parts they are playing. Writer/director John Wilder bases his TV-movie one of Rockwell's nostalgic "Saturday Evening Post" cover paintings. The point is, of course, that beautiful pictures can oftentimes mask painful situations. This was from an era when people were ho-humming about how real life was not like Rockwell or "Ozzie and Harriet". Veteran Claire Trevor (as Grace Porter) is impressive, as usual, in her last acting appearance.

***** Breaking Home Ties (11/26/87) Doug McKeon, Eva Marie Saint, Jason Robards, Claire Trevor

Derived from a well-known Norman Rockwell illustration that occupied the 25 September 1954 front cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The painting represents a father and son seated upon an old pickup truck's running board, obviously waiting for the appearance of a train, the lad clearly excited about his forthcoming journey, his father solemn, and the action opens with the illustration's figures becoming animated as we see Lloyd Welles (Jason Robards, Jr.) and his son Lonnie (Doug McKeon) preparing to separate, valise-toting Lonnie off to a university, having high hopes for his future, as have had many such young men from U.S. farms through the years, and this tautly plotted and executed production depicts the sorrow to his parents Lloyd and Emma (Eva Marie Saint with a typically strong performance) that is caused by Lonnie's departure. Emma is dying from leukemia, a condition that she keeps from her husband and son; therefore, when Lonnie is at school (on an athletic scholarship), the scenario presents emotional trials and other experiences for him separate from her grim state of health, these having additional significance by their occurring in an unfamiliar locale, while tension between Lonnie and Lloyd establishes a foundation for conflict and resolution from within the narrative. Lonnie's character forms as he finds that his life as an adult will not be a simplistic one, and maturity will come about only if he reacts to crises in a forceful manner. The truths that he learns will plainly be shared with his parents as well as with his high school teacher, Grace Porter (Claire Trevor in her final film appearance), during the same period, while Lonnie's first serious romantic relationships are underscored. A rural house used for the Welles homestead, located near Rockett, Texas, will be recognized by some viewers as it was also employed for the primary setting for Robert Benton's PLACES IN THE HEART. This work is filmed in north Texas with most footage shot in and near Dallas and Waxahachie, with Lonnie attending Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.). The picture was completed after about one month's shooting in November of 1987, its kaleidoscopic episodes being developed at, among other sites, Waxahachie's rail depot (featuring the Texas Southern Railroad), the no longer extant Astro Drive-In Movie Theater, and Bubba's, a well-known restaurant near S.M.U., a favoured hangout for university students. Lonnie's growth as a man is trenchantly portrayed, through a well-constructed script, as having parallel elements with his father's as a youth, and it is this brand of clarity within the storyline that bolsters a viewer perception that dramatic events upon the screen are akin to commonly perceived reality. There is nothing less than proficiency in the performances offered by the players, with McKeon's creative ad libbing skills having particular value. As shall be expected, Robards and McKeon are standouts, while other top-notch turns come from J. Eddie Peck as Lonnie's closest friend and Erin Gray as his sweetheart. For this film that accurately provides a period setting (1950s Texas), collective plaudits must go to those members of the crew who are most responsible for such as costuming (Joan Thomas), hair (Nena Smarz), editing (Gary Griffin), as well as all other facets of design. A nicely organized thematic score comes from Jerrold Immel, effectively serving this well-directed, written and cast motion picture. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas. 12/21/2021

A work produced for television wherein all connected with it might be proud, this highly nostalgic and sentimental piece utilizes original characters and situations drawn from the imagination of its writer and director John Wilder, directly derived from a well-known Norman Rockwell illustration that occupied the 25 September 1954 front cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The painting represents a father and son seated upon an old pickup truck's running board, obviously waiting for the appearance of a train, the lad clearly excited about his forthcoming journey, his father solemn, and the action opens with the illustration's figures becoming animated as we see Lloyd Welles (Jason Robards, Jr.) and his son Lonnie (Doug McKeon) preparing to separate, valise-toting Lonnie off to a university, having high hopes for his future, as have had many such young men from U.S. farms through the years, and this tautly plotted and executed production depicts the sorrow to his parents Lloyd and Emma (Eva Marie Saint with a typically strong performance) that is caused by Lonnie's departure. Emma is dying from leukemia, a condition that she keeps from her husband and son; therefore, when Lonnie is at school (on an athletic scholarship), the scenario presents emotional trials and other experiences for him separate from her grim state of health, these having additional significance by their occurring in an unfamiliar locale, while tension between Lonnie and Lloyd establishes a foundation for conflict and resolution from within the narrative. Lonnie's character forms as he finds that his life as an adult will not be a simplistic one, and maturity will come about only if he reacts to crises in a forceful manner. The truths that he learns will plainly be shared with his parents as well as with his high school teacher, Grace Porter (Claire Trevor in her final film appearance), during the same period, while Lonnie's first serious romantic relationships are underscored. A rural house used for the Welles homestead, located near Rockett, Texas, will be recognized by some viewers as it was also employed for the primary setting for Robert Benton's PLACES IN THE HEART. This work is filmed in north Texas with most footage shot in and near Dallas and Waxahachie, with Lonnie attending Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.). The picture was completed after about one month's shooting in November of 1987, its kaleidoscopic episodes being developed at, among other sites, Waxahachie's rail depot (featuring the Texas Southern Railroad), the no longer extant Astro Drive-In Movie Theater, and Bubba's, a well-known restaurant near S.M.U., a favoured hangout for university students. Lonnie's growth as a man is trenchantly portrayed, through a well-constructed script, as having parallel elements with his father's as a youth, and it is this brand of clarity within the storyline that bolsters a viewer perception that dramatic events upon the screen are akin to commonly perceived reality. There is nothing less than proficiency in the performances offered by the players, with McKeon's creative ad libbing skills having particular value. As shall be expected, Robards and McKeon are standouts, while other top-notch turns come from J. Eddie Peck as Lonnie's closest friend and Erin Gray as his sweetheart. For this film that accurately provides a period setting (1950s Texas), collective plaudits must go to those members of the crew who are most responsible for such as costuming (Joan Thomas), hair (Nena Smarz), editing (Gary Griffin), as well as all other facets of design. A nicely organized thematic score comes from Jerrold Immel, effectively serving this well-directed, written and cast motion picture.