The Day We Lost Ella Mae

This episode really exemplifies the later appearances of big names in this series, which was at first early work for giants such as a very young Jack Nicholson, but eventually became another staple in the acting community. I also thought I'd heard somewhere that later celebrity guest stars (who were probably church members) worked for scale, or even for free, as a favor to the producers, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.

A broader comment about this series, I don't believe in 40 years there was a single clunker. Of course, it is what it is - a mostly dramatic Christian series portraying ordinary people confronted with life's problems and moral dilemmas, wherein by the end some small transformation has occurred that demonstrates that there are always solutions, though sometimes only hard ones. On top of that, most of the series is now 50+ years old, and often hysterically dated.

Those old enough to remember this program, replayed on Sunday mornings in my neck of the woods in the 1960's-1970's, will find some very interesting tidbits among the episodes being played in syndication. This episode, for example, features Veronica Cartwright in a role performed so perfectly that you might not even know who she is. Playing a "hillbilly" living alone with her baby in a big-city apartment while her husband is away looking for work, the story mostly involves her interactions with her gruff, grouchy landlady, played by none other than Kathleen Freeman, the very recognizable comedic character actress for decades in both film and on television - a testimony to the recognition that this quiet, unassuming little show attained through the years. All captured on film, this series belongs in the Library of Congress.