You decide! The following is an excellent article that was posted to The Kellie Martin Mailing List by Rusty Miller in August 1996.

Author: Sheryl Stolberg (of the Los Angeles Times) | Publication: The Morning Call |p. 2 of Entertainment | Word count: 0001225

Can Wholesomeness like 'Christy' Make a Comeback?

HOLLYWOOD - High on a bluff in Pacific Palisades, in a cottage overlooking the jagged coast that outlines Los Angeles' western edge, lives a television producer named Kenneth Wales. He is not famous or fabulously wealthy, but he has more fan mail than he can answer.

Thousands of letters are crammed into box after box in Whales' garage. There are typewritten missives and passionate queries on pretty pink parchment paper. There are crayon notes from children , the words endearingly misspelled , and laments from old people, their penmanship shaky.

The postmarks are pure heartland - Three Forks, Mont. Brentwood, Tenn. New Harmony, Ind.

The letters share one sentiment: "The finest and most wholesome TV program that I know of," says one. "This will help bring back the morals and important family values that our country needs," declares another. "At last," reads a third, "a program that I can let my children watch that has value."

The praise was for the CBS series "Christy," which Wales created. The story of an idealistic young teacher who traipses off to Appalachia to educate poor mountain folk, "Christy" was widely regarded as revolutionary, breaking a Hollywood taboo by treating religion as an ordinary part of life. The show generated more fan mail than any other in recent CBS history. For Wales, a minister's son, it was the culmination of an 18-year dream.

Despite the outpouring, "Christy" didn't make it. A change in management at CBS, new rules concerning: network syndication. rules, ratings that were stunning at the outset but drifted downward, and a Hollywood culture that rewards raciness and cherishes instant hits conspired last year to push it off the air. "That we managed to have what we did," Wales says now, "is a miracle."

At a time when. The nation is immersed in a discussion of values, the story of "Christy" speaks volumes about the mercurial nature of network television and why family shows have such a difficult time surviving despite an intense outcry from some politicians and parents who say they want more of them. Of all the fingers being pointed in the values debate, the longest may be the one directed at the media and its perpetuation of what New Yorker writer David Denby calls "the avalanche of crud."

The backlash against Hollywood is sweeping, and it is driving real change.

The V-chip, which will allow parents to block certain TV programing on their sets, is soon to become a reality. A TV rating system is on the way. And the executives of the nation's four major networks, under intense pressure from the president, agreed last month to air three hours a week of educational programming for children.

Families who abandoned the networks in favor of such cable TV outlets as the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are slowly returning, drawn back by shows like ABC's "Second Noah," about a couple that adopted eight children, and CBS's "Touched by an Angel," in which angels are sent by God to grapple with real-life problems, such as a mother dying of AIDS.

The success of these shows has been a surprise, and at least one network, CBS, is making changes as a result. CBS will recast itself in the fall as "the family network," devoting the 8 o'clock hour each night to what Leslie Moonves, president of its entertainment division, calls "feel-good shows." It makes business sense, but it is also a smooth political move. "You'd have to be an idiot, Moonves said, "not to hear what is going on in this country."

In the slicked-back world of Hollywood, Wales, 58, sticks out like an oasis in the desert. He is gracious to a fault, a true believer in turning the other cheek -- a trait that can be a liability in his business.

"I don't know that I'd put Ken Wales in Hollywood," said Barney Rosenzweig, the executive producer of "Cagney & Lacey" who co-produced "Christy" with Wales. "Ken is a minister's son. He is the kind of guy who, when you scratch the surface because you think this is too good to believe, the more you scratch, the deeper you go, you find out it's just him."

Wales has done a lot of thinking about the power of the electronic media, and he believes that movies and TV can and should be used to impart values. Common values, Wales says, like honesty, integrity, responsibility and faith.

"That is how I approached 'Christy.' "

Based on the 1967 best seller by Catherine Marshall, "Christy" tells the.saga of 19-year old Christy Huddleston, who in 1912 left her wealthy parents in Asheville, N.C., to teach in the impoverished town of Cutter Gap, Tenn., deep in the Great Smoky Mountains. The heroine perseveres despite hardship, relying on her faith.

Wales' "Christy" odyssey began in 1976, when he heard Marshall speak and set out to make a film of her book. In Marshall, Wales found a kindred spint. They developed a deep friendship that lasted until her death in 1983.

It took 18 years and $300,000 of Wales' own money to bring "Christy" to the screen. The man ultimately responsible was Jeff Sagansky, who in the early 1990s was president of CBS Entertainment.

Sagansky's wife, Christy, had loved the book; and Sagansky was convinced there was a TV need that was going unmet. "I felt very strongly about it," he said. "We do a lot of studies, and whenever you see what's important to people's lives, they'll tell you family No. 1, and No. 2, relationship with church and God. And yet it was missing from television."

In the lexicon of television, there is a derogatory term for family shows: "soft." Shows that are hip, shows that are racy, shows that are bound to become instant hits and sell ads, those shows have "edge."

Soft shows require patience and nurturing in an industry that offers little of either. It is an axiom. of Hollywood that soft shows take a long time to build an audience. But once the audience is developed, these "slow-builds" can last for years, becoming extremely profitable -- witness "The Waltons" and "Little House on the Prairie."

Thus it was a risk for Sagansky to give "Christy" the 8 p.m. slot on Thursdays against tough competition: "Mad About You" and "Wings" On NBC and "The Simpsons" on FOX.

The show did reasonably well, often ranking second in its time slot and once ranking first. But when the ratings were examined closely, a striking trend became clear. "Christy's" fans were in small cities and towns.

For CBS, this was a considerable problem. TV shows live and die on. whether they can sell ads. Shows that survive are those that draw the most "eyeballs," in TV parlance. But not all eyeballs are equal. City eyeballs are better than rural eyeballs; there are more of them and they spend more.

All this might not have had an impact on"Christy" had Sagansky not left CBS. But in the spring of 1994, he went to Sony Corp. CBS was lagging in the ratings, and Sagansky's replacement, Peter Tortorici, was given a mission from the top brass: Turn the network around, and do it fast.

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