TLDR: Earl Hamner Jr. (1923 to 2016) grew up in Schuyler, Virginia, wrote eight Twilight Zone episodes, created The Waltons from his own childhood and later created Falcon Crest. He died on March 24, 2016, at age 92. Checked October 23, 2026.
One writer sits behind three very different corners of classic television. There is a Depression-era family on a Virginia mountain, an anthology series about the strange and the supernatural, and a wine-country soap opera full of schemers.
This guide follows Earl Hamner Jr.’s life and career in order, with links to the stories that deserve their own space. For the actors who brought his family to life, see our guide to the cast of The Waltons.
A Boyhood in Schuyler, Virginia
Earl Henry Hamner Jr. was born on July 10, 1923, in Schuyler, Virginia, the eldest of eight children, according to Wikipedia. Schuyler was a soapstone mining company town in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the mines closed during the Great Depression.
His father found work as a machinist at the DuPont plant in Waynesboro, about 30 miles away, and walked the last six miles home on weekends. That walk on Christmas Eve 1933 inspired Hamner’s 1970 novel The Homecoming.
The Boston Globe reported that Hamner decided to become a writer at age six, after a poem of his appeared in a Richmond newspaper. He finished at the top of his class at Schuyler High School and won a scholarship to the University of Richmond.
The Army, Cincinnati and a Radio Writing Prize
World War II interrupted college. Wikipedia says the Army trained him to defuse landmines before moving him to the Quartermaster Corps because he could type, and he served in France after D-Day.
After the war he studied at Northwestern and earned a degree in broadcast communications from the University of Cincinnati. In an interview on rodserling.com, Hamner said he once held a radio job at WLW in Cincinnati that Rod Serling later took over.
In 1949 both men won prizes in a radio writing contest run by the program Dr. Christian, and they met in New York when they collected them. Hamner said they did not work together again until 1962.
His television career started earlier than that. NBC’s The Kate Smith Hour aired his teleplay “The Hound of Heaven” on January 15, 1953, with James Dean and John Carradine in the cast.
Hollywood and the Twilight Zone
Hamner moved to Hollywood and struggled to find work because he had never written for film, he told the same interviewer. He sent Serling two story ideas, and producer Buck Houghton bought them.
The result was eight Twilight Zone episodes between January 1962 and June 1964, starting with “The Hunt” and ending with “The Bewitchin’ Pool,” which was also the final episode of the entire series. Every one of them is covered in our guide to Earl Hamner’s Twilight Zone episodes.
The rodserling.com interview counts him among the show’s most frequent writers, behind only Serling, Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson. Hamner later said his main contribution was bringing American folklore to the series, a thread you can see in the Appalachian witchcraft of Jess-Belle.
For the man who gave him that chance, read our biography of Rod Serling.
From Spencer’s Mountain to The Waltons
Spencer’s Mountain, his 1961 novel about a Virginia mining family, became a 1963 film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O’Hara. Hamner’s The Homecoming followed as a CBS television movie in December 1971, and the weekly series arrived in September 1972.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications says Lorimar executives Lee Rich and Bob Jacks persuaded CBS to turn the holiday special into a series. Hamner became co-executive producer and story editor.
CBS scheduled the show on Thursday nights at 8, a slot the same source calls suicidal because it faced ABC’s The Mod Squad and NBC’s The Flip Wilson Show. The Waltons won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series in its first season and ran until August 1981.
Hamner narrated the series and based John-Boy on himself. Richard Thomas played the role, and you can read why he left in our piece on Richard Thomas and The Waltons.
Two of the show’s most memorable characters get their own story in our guide to the Baldwin sisters. More about the show’s origins and its goodnight routine is in our list of things you did not know about The Waltons.
Cast members returned to Schuyler in March 2017 for a 45th anniversary reunion, a trip we describe in our story on Kami Cotler.
Falcon Crest, the Flip Side of The Waltons
Falcon Crest premiered on CBS on December 4, 1981, and ran for nine seasons and 227 episodes, according to Wikipedia. It aired on Friday nights at 10, right after Dallas.
On his own website, Hamner says his business manager bought him a vineyard in the Napa Valley while The Waltons was a hit. The vineyard never made money, and he said the experience gave him the idea for the series.
He described the new show as the opposite of The Waltons, with a family threatened by wealth instead of poverty. Hamner offered the lead role of Angela Channing to Jane Wyman, who played her from the premiere to the finale.
The first version of the show looked quite different and never aired. Its story is in our guide to The Vintage Years, and the full show is covered in our Falcon Crest guide.
Other Work, From Gentle Ben to Charlotte’s Web
Wikipedia credits Hamner with writing or co-writing eight episodes of Gentle Ben between 1967 and 1969 and four of Nanny and the Professor. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1973 film version of Charlotte’s Web.
He created the CBS series Apple’s Way, which ran from 1974 to 1975, and the NBC series Boone, which ran from 1983 to 1984. His memoirs include The Avocado Drive Zoo in 1999 and Good Night, John Boy in 2002.
His Last Years and Legacy
Hamner died on March 24, 2016, in Los Angeles at age 92. The Boston Globe reported that he was still writing in his nineties and had recently sold a play.
He married Jane Martin in 1954, and they had two children, Scott and Caroline. The Library of Virginia gave him its Literary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, and a 2013 resolution from the Virginia legislature called him a Virginia treasure.
A bronze statue of Hamner was unveiled in Nelson County on July 8, 2023, two days before his 100th birthday. In Schuyler, the Walton’s Mountain Museum fills the school building he attended, directly across from his childhood home, as ME-TV describes.
Earl Hamner Jr.: Frequently Asked Questions
When did Earl Hamner Jr. die?
Earl Hamner Jr. died on March 24, 2016, in Los Angeles at age 92.
Was John-Boy based on Earl Hamner Jr.?
Yes. Hamner based John-Boy on himself and drew The Waltons from his childhood in Schuyler, Virginia.
How many Twilight Zone episodes did Earl Hamner write?
He wrote eight, from “The Hunt” in January 1962 to “The Bewitchin’ Pool” in June 1964.
What did Earl Hamner create after The Waltons?
He created Falcon Crest, which premiered on CBS in December 1981, and later the NBC series Boone.
Where can fans visit Earl Hamner’s hometown?
The Walton’s Mountain Museum is in Schuyler, Virginia, in the school building Hamner attended.
