Starring Kellie Martin, Tyne Daly, Randall Batinkoff, Stewart Finlay-McLennan, Tess Harper
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Synopsis: Based on the bestseller by Catherine Marshall, Christy tells the story of an idealistic nineteen year old who leaves the comforts of her city home to teach school in an impoverished Appalachian community in 1912.
Upon viewing this series again for the first time in more than a decade, I was reminded anew of how much I deeply loved and respected it and how bitterly disappointed I was that it was cancelled after one season. I had forgotten just how much I missed it.
On its surface, 'Christy' looked like a simple attempt by CBS to recreate the alchemy of its hugely successful hit 'Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman,' with frontier family drama, a benevolent-fish-out-of-water heroine, and a dash of romance. But it ended up being a great deal more than that. It took those elements and added two other critical ingredients. One is well-worn in television storytelling, the other treated like the third rail of commercial TV.
The series was extremely conscientious about treating the denizens of the fictional mountain community of Cutter Gap with respect and dignity even as it showed the negative side of their almost feral life. Christy Huddleston was constantly learning not to condescend to them, even though many of their ways were not only backward but patently self-destructive, even deadly. She consistently learned as much from them as they did from her.
Most surprisingly, the series addressed religion in an adult manner, making it an organic part of the story rather than a theme to visit every so often. Christy teaches school to the mountain children as part of her service as a Christian missionary. She and the other missionaries speak of God as a matter of course and discuss their faith in honest, practical terms. They have faults and address them inconsistently but determinedly. The agnostic local doctor frequently confronts them with questions (some honest, some not) about their beliefs and motives and they respond honestly, sometimes learning more about themselves and their faith in the process, and frequently give the doctor something to chew on as well. And unlike most television Christians, they discover the error of preachiness without recanting the truth they were preaching. This balanced, faith-with-boots-on approach was bracingly refreshing and downright exciting in 1994. Recent attempts to 'humanize' religious characters by essentially making them act like agnostics (Aaron Sorkin, take note) get it all wrong. 'Christy' got it as close to right as I've seen yet.
Enough praise cannot be heaped on the then-19-year-old Kellie Martin, who carried the series with the aplomb of someone twice her age. She makes Christy not only adorable but admirable. And Tyne Daly, who won another Emmy for this role, is a constant treat.
My only qualms with this release echo everyone else's. Double-sided discs are a huge no-no. Handling them with care is always problematic. The low resolution necessary to fit them on so few discs is not too evident on a conventional 25" TV but is downright depressing on a larger set or a computer screen. There are no extras. The discs deserve a C+ at best
Still, take this prize of a series any way you can get it. It's a fantastic find. Just be warned it ended on a cliffhanger that was, sadly, never resolved (except in an inferior TV movie with a different cast).
Final score: A
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