The Heartland Series was conceived in 1984 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a special series celebrating the people and land of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The TV series was initially scheduled to run for just three months. According to Landry, the original concept, formed by WBIR creative services director Steve Dean and station general manager Jim Hart, was "to take a
camera and interview the last remnants of the old mountain people and go on location.” As a result of his work on the series, host Bill Landry told an interviewer that he had learned to “
tan hides, make jelly butter, saw logs, eat tree bark, carve
soapstone, build a
log cabin, cut timber, run a
sawmill, make
moonshine,
shoe a horse, call a
hoot owl,
rut like a
deer and know when the
buffalo runs.” demonstrations by craftsmen who make musical instruments, and exploration of musical traditions such as
old harp singing and Scottish and Irish influences on the region's music. Two topics that the series generally avoided were
politics and controversial religious practices such as
snake handling. In addition to the Smokies national park, on-scene production locations in East Tennessee included the
Museum of Appalachia, where several episodes were taped, including the titles "1791," "Just Another Day," "The Music Tale," "The Toggins," "Frontier Music, Frontier Foods," and "Gift for Jacob,"
Roan Mountain State Park, the
Savage Gulf State Natural Area in
Grundy County, and
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. Landry's skill as an
interviewer has been remarked upon by many observers. His folksy, rambling style made him effective at putting people at ease and drawing out the interesting stories of the people that he encountered in the "hills, hollows, small towns and major cities" of Appalachia. In total, about 1,900 short episodes and 150 half-hour programs were produced in the show's 25-year history. Bill Landry was host and narrator for the entire series. Steve Dean was executive producer for 20 years, and Doug Mills was cameraman for all but one of the episodes. The series has been successful with audiences, sometimes achieving
audience ratings of 7.0 or higher. People seeking Landry's
autograph waited in line for an hour. The last episode was scheduled for broadcast as an hour-long special on September 19, 2009, but to avoid conflict with a
Tennessee Volunteers football game the broadcast was postponed and rescheduled to be shown in a
prime time slot at 8:00 p.m. on October 17, 2009.
Revival Public response to the cancellation of the series caused management to reconsider its demise. In 2010 producer Steve Dean was contracted to produce four more episodes, each an hour long. These shows were well received and led to new hour-long installments, to be produced quarterly, through 2011. ==Recognition and influence==