Family Reunion is a four-hour American television movie directed by Fielder Cook. The teleplay by Allan Sloane was based on the Good Housekeeping article How America Lives by Joe Sparton. It was produced by Columbia Pictures Television for NBC, which aired it in two parts on October 11 and 12, 1981.
At its core is feisty matriarch Elizabeth Winfield, a New England teacher recently retired after a fifty-year career. She uses an unlimited bus ticket received as a gift to visit the distant members of her long-estranged family. During her absence, her small hometown, which bears her family's name, falls prey to dishonest relatives colluding with corrupt shopping mall developers. She returns in an effort to halt construction on the project and, armed with the moral integrity she has instilled in her students for the past five decades, she manages to resolve the situation in time for the annual Founder's Day festivities.
Principal cast
- Bette Davis ..... Elizabeth Winfield
- J. Ashley Hyman ..... Richard Cooper
- David Huddleston ..... Chester Winfield
- John Shea ..... James Cookman
- Roy Dotrice ..... Lester Frye
- Roberts Blossom ..... Phil King
- Jeff McCracken ..... Max Winfield
- Beth Ehlers ..... Janice Lyman
- Paul Rudd ..... Lane Lyman
Principal production credits
- Producers ..... Lucy Jarvis, Helen Baker
- Original Music ..... Wladimir Selinsky
- Cinematography ..... Jack Priestley
- Art Direction ..... Robert Gundlach
- Costume Design ..... John Boxer, William Loger, Marilyn Putnam, Guy Tanno
