{"id":4254,"date":"2013-09-19T10:21:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-19T14:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=4254"},"modified":"2013-09-19T10:21:41","modified_gmt":"2013-09-19T14:21:41","slug":"walden-family-theaters-the-watsons-go-to-birmingam-is-a-ride-worth-taking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/09\/walden-family-theaters-the-watsons-go-to-birmingam-is-a-ride-worth-taking.html","title":{"rendered":"Walden Family Theater&#8217;s &#8220;The Watsons Go to Birmingam&#8221; is a ride worth taking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Hallmark Channel - The Watsons Go To Birmingham - Featurette\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jlhUORTGUgE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><em><strong>The Watsons Go to Birmingham<\/strong><\/em> airs tomorrow night (9\/20) @ 8:00 PM ET on <strong>Hallmark Channel&#8217;s <em>Walden Family Theater<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> Based on the much-read novel by <strong>Christopher Paul Curtis<\/strong>. In the Summer of 1963, Flint, Michigan is home to the Watsons, a close knit family made up of Daniel and Wilona Watson, (<strong>Wood Harris<\/strong> and <strong>Anika Noni Rose<\/strong>) and their three kids, 15-year-old juvenile delinquent Byron (<strong>Harrison Knight<\/strong>), nerdy 11-year-old Kenny (<strong>Bryce Clyde Jenkins<\/strong>) and eight-year-old adorable sister Joetta (<strong>Skai Jackson<\/strong>). When Byron\u2019s antics go over the top, his parents realize enough is enough and they decide the family needs a dose of Grandma Sands\u2019 (<strong>LaTanya Richardson Jackson<\/strong>) no nonsense approach in Birmingham, Alabama. When they arrive, they meet Grandma Sands and her friend, Mr. Robert (<strong>David Alan Grier<\/strong>), who show them around town as the Watsons discover that life is very different there than in Flint \u2013 and not necessarily for the better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mini-Review:<\/strong> The most ambitious edition of the <strong>Walmart\/P&amp;G-<\/strong>sponsored franchise yet, this film absolutely achieves feature film quality as it deals with seismic events in American history through the prism of an ordinary family caught up in an extraordinary time. Great performances all around, insightful direction by Kenny Leon and excellent production values that convincingly capture the time add up to an Emmy-worthy film. <strong>Highly Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Suggestion for Hallmark:<\/strong> Turn <em>The Watsons<\/em> into a TV series, sort of an African-American cross between <strong><em>The Waltons<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>The Wonder Years<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><b>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Watsons Go to Birmingham airs tomorrow night (9\/20) @ 8:00 PM ET on Hallmark Channel&#8217;s Walden Family Theater. Synopsis: Based on the much-read novel by Christopher Paul Curtis. In the Summer of 1963, Flint, Michigan is home to the Watsons, a close knit&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3632,13,15,24,4318,31],"tags":[35,4822,5465,5552,5548,5550,5551,4824,1162,1354,5547,5553,5549],"class_list":["post-4254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-family-matters","category-history","category-movies","category-racism","category-television","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-anika-noni-rose","tag-christopher-paul-curtis","tag-david-alan-grier","tag-hallmark-channels-walden-family-theater","tag-harrison-knight","tag-latanya-richardson-jackson","tag-skai-jackson","tag-the-waltons","tag-the-wonder-years","tag-walden-family-theaters-the-watsons-go-to-birmingam","tag-walmartpg","tag-wood-harris"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Walden Family Theater&#039;s &quot;The Watsons Go to Birmingam&quot; is a ride worth taking<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/09\/walden-family-theaters-the-watsons-go-to-birmingam-is-a-ride-worth-taking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walden Family Theater&#039;s &quot;The Watsons Go to Birmingam&quot; is a ride worth taking\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. The Watsons Go to Birmingham airs tomorrow night (9\/20) @ 8:00 PM ET on Hallmark Channel&#8217;s Walden Family Theater. Synopsis: Based on the much-read novel by Christopher Paul Curtis. In the Summer of 1963, Flint, Michigan is home to the Watsons, a close knit&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/09\/walden-family-theaters-the-watsons-go-to-birmingam-is-a-ride-worth-taking.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-19T14:21:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4255,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions\/4255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}