The Gathering

The Gathering used to be an annual holiday tradition on TV, but I haven't seen it in 20 years. It's a poignant story of forgiveness and shows that for many families, Christmas is not a Norman Rockwell painting. Ed Asner's "Adam" is dying of cancer and wants to make amends with his ex-wife and estranged adult children. Of course, there's the tearful happy ending, but the characters go through a lot of emotional strife to get there.

The Gathering is doubly special for me, since it was shot in Chagrin Falls and Solon, Ohio, my old stomping grounds. When I first moved to Texas and had to spend holidays away from home, seeing this movie with its familiar scenery made me feel less alone.

With all the crappy, sappy Christmas movies out there, it's a shame this holiday gem isn't shown regularly anymore and isn't available on DVD. Judging from all the other comments, I'm not alone.

It must have been around 1982 when I saw this film on British TV. My recollections are therefore dim of the detail but it moved me very much. A Christmas setting with sad but also happy moments, it shapes a family's trials at a time of year that is sadly not always the happiest for many people.

But do not be put off watching; this is a very good film and makes you think about what happens in families, and what can be made to happen.

Every year I look through the TV listings hoping it will be re-shown. For two years I have been e-mailing the BBC begging them to screen it again. Every month I check the video listings to see if I can buy it. I hope it will come round again.

Shortly after I wrote this several years ago, I managed to get a copy via Marta. Thank you Marta. She now says it's available on DVD via Warner Archive.

Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton, are at the top of their form in this small, made-for-TV movie from 1977. The supporting cast are all familiar faces and flesh out the story perfectly.

This film won an Emmy for best special in drama or comedy at the '78 Emmy Awards. The movie has almost a documentary feel to it. The film never sinks under a weight of sentimentality but the emotions are there, just under the surface. You get the feeling that here is a man who loved his family but always thought there would be time to enjoy them, but learns he has weeks to live and this will be his last Christmas.

Desperate to try to rekindle some feelings of love with his four adult children, he turns to his estranged wife and together they try to organize a Christmas reunion but without letting them know their father has a fatal illness.

The children all busy with their own lives in other cities and in one case, another country, struggle with their own emotions about coming back home. This is one of my all time favorite Holiday offerings and my VHS copy is from a broadcast from the 1980's, but the quality is holding up pretty well for all this time. If you can find a copy or see it listed for broadcast, be sure to not miss it.

It was interesting to read the production credits of The Gathering, an extremely well-acted drama, and see the following title - Executive Producer: Joseph Barbera. When Barbera died in 2006, it was a shame that the obits never mentioned his Emmy win for this critically acclaimed TV movie. Barbera, with business partner William Hanna, produced numerous TV cartoon shows and the Tom & Jerry shorts. The Gathering was Hanna-Barbera's few non-animated projects and this Emmy-award winning drama hit the ball right out of the park with its unsentimental view of one family celebrating Christmas for a final time with their long-lost father.

Strong performances by a great ensemble cast including Edward Asner and Maureen Stapleton as the parents, an observant script by James Poe (who co-adapted Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and won an Oscar co-adapting Around the World in Eighty Days) and well-directed by Randal Kleiser (who would direct the movie Grease a year later) made The Gathering one of the better TV-movies from the 1970s.

Update: May 13, 2011

Warner Brothers Archive Collection released The Gathering on DVD in 2009.

The Gathering is one of my favorite Christmas movies, and each year I watch the same rough VHS that I taped from the television broadcast when it first appeared back in the 70's. My VHS copy comes complete with all the commercials from the broadcast...a real treat to see what was advertised back then. I would very much like to obtain a clean version of this movie, and am wondering if anyone knows a source for a DVD or VHS copy? I too consider this to be a real Christmas classic, and wish that it were re-released and re-broadcast. I look each year to see if it will be broadcast, but it has not been in years.

I have also searched my library and bookstores for a printed version of the Rudyard Kipling poem that Ed Asner's character recites in the movie. I can quote it by heart, but would love to find it in print. The title is "Christmas in the Workhouse". If anyone can direct me to a publication containing this poem, I would be most appreciative.

Thanks