http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Awakening-Land-DVDs-Announced/13228

I never did see this, so I may look for it.

Anytime that any of Elizabeth's work comes out on DVD it's good news. I don't really remember this miniseries but it certainly looks intriguing just from the box art. And with a cast that includes Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook it's gotta be good!

I have seen this movie before and it's awesome. It's like Little House on the Prairie with an edge. Jane Seymour (as Liz's sister) and a very young William H. Macy are also in the cast. :cool: Liz and Hal Holbrook were nominated for Emmys for their work in TAL, but lost to Meryl Streep and Michael Moriarty of Holocaust.

I have seen this movie before and it's awesome. It's like Little House on the Prairie with an edge. Jane Seymour (as Liz's sister) and a very young William H. Macy are also in the cast. :cool: Liz and Hal Holbrook were nominated for Emmys for their work in TAL, but lost to Meryl Streep and Michael Moriarty of Holocaust.
Thanks for the info. Monika. I'll definitely have to check this one out!

Hopefully this is just the start of seeing Liz's TV movies on DVD. Here's a write-up on the movie:

http://bewitchvic.tripod.com/awake.html

DON'T expect "The Awakening Land. the three-part, made-for-TV movie adaptation of Conrad Richter's Pulitzer Prize-winning prairie tale that begins Sunday (8 p.m. on NBC-Ch 5). to be the usual romantic pioneer saga.

Authenticity is the key to this movie, filmed late last year in the reconstructed post-Colonial village of New Salem, III. And the story follows the late Richter's book about a family settling the Ohio River Valley after the American Revolution so closely that star Elizabeth Montgomery thinks there may be some surprises in store.

"You read about the pioneers in school, and well, okay, so there were Indians, says Montgomery, who experienced her bwn awakening while playing Sayward Luckett. the strong-willed heroine whose life story is told as she matures and changes from age 20 through 60.

"But it was the day-to-day survival that was so hard. Everything was a threat--disease, weather, a broken ax, no food, no water, even walking 20 feet away from the cabin. Women didn't have babies because they loved the little darlings so much, but because they needed help in the fields. No one ever really slept. There wasn't time. They had to survive.

As in Richter's work, "The Awakening Land" is divided into three segments: "The Trees." airing -Sunday; "The Fields. Monday at 8 p.m., and "The Town, Tuesday, 7 p.m.

The story begins in 1790 with an unmarried Sayward, alone in the wilderness and burdened with the care of her three sisters after her mother's death. In time, she meets and marries Portius Wheeler, played by Hal Holbrook, a recluse lawyer from the East. They raise four children -- a Ah child dies while playing near a fire outside the cabin --and Sayward watches her husband, with her help, become an iinportant figure in the state.

"l'm not sure that Sayward really loved Portius. It was more that she needed him," Montgomery explains. "He was well educated and could read and write. As Sayward says, 'He has the whole world in his head.' She recognized in him someone who could do for her children what her parents couldn't do for her, and you had to be married to have children. This type of bond was probably pretty typical in those days.

Starting last September, Montgomery spent a grueling 2'/2 months filming in New Salem. Producers were convinced the movie should be made there once the State of Illinois film office persuaded them to look at the village, and once the Springfield city fathers agreed to fill up a nearby lake so it would resemble the Ohio River.

A vacant Springfield gymnasium was used to house an indoor log cabin for inside shots, as well as extensive prop and wardrobe depanments. Other pans of the state got into the act with American Indians from Chicago's Uptown transported to the site to play their forefathers, and hounds, cougars, wolves, and one skunk from the Plainsman Zoo in Elgin shipped to the location to help set the scene.

Even the weather in New Salem complied with warm, summer breezes and
lush flora and fauna for filming "The Trees," brisk autumn air and changing colors for "The Fields," and dark, dismal winter cold, even with a day of snow,.for "The Town.

"The country was absolutely beautiful there, but whatever the territory offered, we got," says Montgomery, who suffered through a bad case of poison ivy "Viruses. poison oak, bees, mosquitoes, varmints. nettles. It gave us a vague idea of what it must have been like.

The 5-foot-5 inch, 110-pound Montgomery found her role physically exhausting, especially on days in the fields behind oxen and plow. The most difficult part of playing Sayward, she says, was the aging process, learning how to slow down physically and psychologically.

She says she has great respect for the character she plays. "Sayward wasn't stupid, just uneducated. Her instincts were extraordinary. She didn't say much, but when she did she made a lot of sense. She had a tremendous amount of fortitude. If it wasn't for people like her, you and wouldn't be here today.

Despite that tribute, Montgomery admits that the early 1880s in the Ohio River Valley hold no attraction for her. She has no desire to be a pioneer.
"No, I definitely would not have liked to have lived then," she says. "No one in their right mind would make that choice."

By Karen Rugen Blecha (Written before the first NBC Broadcast)

Elizabeth Montgomery received an Emmy nomination for her role as Sayward.

How appropriate that a movie starring Elozabeth Montgomery was filmed in a village called New Salem! Reading about this miniseries sure has given me a new respect for the pioneers and what they went through, and how they lived, and their determination to make things better for suceeding generations. Like Liz said we really do owe them a debt of gratitude.

I've also read Conrad Richter's Awakening Land trilogy. While it is definitely good, the movie's a lot better because it brings his somewhat straight-forward (I hate to say it, at times plodding) writing style some real life.

I saw this review on The WB The Awakening Land DVD set release:

Comments about Awakening Land, The (1978/TV) (3 DVD Set):

"As the biggest Elizabeth Montgomery fan, I was so excited when I learned that this miniseries would be available on DVD.

I was very disappointed to find, however, that there is 5 minutes edited out of Part One, particularly because it is an important scene. It is at approx. 37:00, just before Sayward bites off Jake Tench's ear. It establishes who he is and why he's there. It is also the first time Genny meets Will Beagle."

Now my Views on it:

How could WB screw up so badly, who knows how much they left out now in the other two parts.
I now have to check & find out from someone who got it how long it is in exact minutes
to compare to mine to see how much it is missing.

Shabby & shameful is all i can say of WB, that something released on DVD is uncut is what one can at the very least expect of them or any company putting it out, it
really is a disgrace, now i must say why would i want to buy it if my own print is more complete then theirs and they didn't even remaster or restore it.

These guys make Sony look good & responsible & willing to go the extra mile for their customers, and that takes some doing to make them look good.

They must have just grabbed the first print on the shelf that they saw & it was a syndicated one that had been sent out to stations once upon a time way back and such was seriously edited.

Larry Tate :)

^ If that's true, that really bites (no pun intended)! :mad:

^ If that's true, that really bites (no pun intended)! :mad:

I heard it from someone who bought it, i mean Sheeesh we have waited for a proper release for so long and this is what they give us, i am really unhappy that they handled it this way, i mean if you do it then do it right or don't do it at all till your ready to do it.

That reminds me of the
Sins of the Mother Release on an official Factory DVD that was missing about 8 minutes
of it till a later same release by another company had it uncut.

By the way you have permission to scratch as well as bite assuming you have not been declawed ;)

Larry Tate :)

^ :rofl: at your last comment.

I just checked mine as to how long the movie is from the second it first starts till the second after it ends on each disk & mine came out to 331 min 4 seconds, i would be curious as to the like total of length of the WB one in the same context.

Larry Tate :)

Now I hear It is indeed in wide screen, with the black strips on the top and bottom of the screen.

Now we know it was not made to be seen that way or filmed as such, so all they did was in effect hit the 16/9 button on ones remote to make wide screen as we can do at home, there is no additional footage seen as is the case when it is filmed in & for wide screen with a major part of the scene's left & right handed footage cut off in full screen, it is the same either way with TAL except the picture has been scrunched up for no conceivable or perceptable gain.

Larry Tate :)

It'll be interesting to read the DVD reviews and find out what the real deal is. :crazy:

It'll be interesting to read the DVD reviews and find out what the real deal is. :crazy:

Yeah it will be interesting, i based my comments on two reviews i have from people i know well who bought it.

I just wish they had done it right as i don't see them putting out a second proper version of it, just like Sony will not fix the screw-ups they had on the Bewitched DVD's for a complete set, one chance is usually all we have for them to get it right, sigh !!.

Larry Tate :)

They'll never learn. ohno:

Is this available now? I'll rent it from Netflix.

Is this available now? I'll rent it from Netflix.

Don't think you can rent it from Netflix or at all anywhere, you have to purchase it from WB.

Larry Tate :)