The Quest for ‘Christy’ : THE STORY OF AN INDEPENDENT YOUNG TEACHER MADE THE BESTSELLER LISTS 27 YEARS AGO--THIS WEEK IT LANDS ON CBS’ LINEUP

Persistence can pay.

Just ask producer Ken Wales. For the past 17 years he’s struggled to bring Catherine Marshall’s 1967 bestseller “Christy” to the screen.

His exhaustive efforts have something to show for this week: “Christy” premieres as a new CBS series, shot on location in Townsend, Tenn., and starring Kellie Martin (“Life Goes On”) as the plucky heroine of the title and Tyne Daly as the stalwart Quaker missionary, Miss Alice Henderson.

“Christy” was an instant critical and commercial success when first published, spending 39 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Needless to say, Hollywood took notice.

Studios entered into a heated bidding war back in ’67 for the rights to the charming, inspirational tale about a 19-year-old girl who left her home in Asheville, N.C., in 1912 to teach school in the Tennessee wilds of the Smoky Mountains.

MGM bought the rights and, in 1969, the studio was deep in pre-production on the film version. Guy Green of “A Patch of Blue” fame was set to direct. Isobel Lennart ( “Funny Girl”) was writing the screenplay. Every picture in development, though, was suddenly canceled when MGM was sold and a new administration took over. “Christy” was sent to the basement to languish in oblivion until Wales (“Islands in the Stream,” “The Wild Rovers”) rescued her.

“Kenny is the son of a minister,” says “Christy” co-executive producer Barney Rosenzweig (“Cagney & Lacey,” “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill”). “He’s one of the sweetest human beings I have ever met. He cared deeply about this material. He knew Catherine Marshall. The herculean thing he did was to wrest this away from the company who had it. To wrest something away from one of those companies, to get them to agree to sell something that they were so heavily vested in, is virtually impossible. The fact that Kenny got it away from MGM Studios impressed me. I understood that passion.”

Wales’ “Christy” quest began in 1969. He was at MGM producing the musical “She Loves Me,” a vehicle for Julie Andrews to be directed by Blake Edwards, when the studio was sold. The “Christy” production office was just down the hall from his own office on the lot.

Wales, a fan of “Christy,” forgot about the novel until one day in 1976. While on the campus of the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, he saw a poster advertising Catherine Marshall’s upcoming speech at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

“Right on the spot, I thought, ‘Whatever happened to “Christy”?’ I raced to a bookstore, found a copy and didn’t put it down for two days. When I finished, it was the most extraordinary feeling. I knew it was so good. It was such rich, deep, meaningful material that I had to do something about it. I couldn’t wait to get on the phone with MGM.”

The studio, though, put him on hold. “They said ‘Christy’ is in the basement and was not for sale. They owned it in perpetuity.” Wales wouldn’t take no for an answer. He got Marshall’s phone number from her New York book editor. Much to his relief, she was overjoyed hearing of his plans to revive “Christy.”

“With that began a lifelong friendship,” Wales says. “We cared about each other so much. Our theology and our ideas of life were so meshed, it was just like sharing something with a partner. We tried to do all sorts of things to get it from MGM. They knew they had a good property, so it was better to bury it rather than have it go out with egg on their face and have someone else make it successful. I invested a lot of money into the attempts and the legal work. But I believed in it.”

During this time, Wales also became friends with Marshall’s mother, Leonora Wood, who was the model for “Christy.” ’I videotaped her. I had the rich experience of talking to her about what it was like to teach in this one-room school house.”

After Marshall died in 1983, Wales thought it was perhaps time to let go of his dreams of obtaining “Christy.” But fate wouldn’t allow him. While attending church one Sunday in 1985, he saw an MGM executive, Frank Davis, sitting in a nearby pew. After the service, Davis informed Wales that “Christy” might be available.

“Frank said, ‘Listen, carefully. There is a window here. Ted Turner is buying the studio and there is an opening. It will be expensive.’ I went out and mortgaged the house and made the option. It began to take effect in 1986. I began to really set aside everything and stayed focused on ‘Christy.’ ”

However, Wales was thwarted in his numerous attempts to get it made as a feature. He was reluctant to have it made for television, even after receiving a tempting offer from CBS in 1991 to turn it into a miniseries. “I was still hurting from not being able to do it as a feature film. I felt I couldn’t quite let it go as a miniseries for TV.”

Enter good friend Rosenzweig. The two had gone to USC together and produced the 1981 miniseries “East of Eden.” For years, Wales had tried to get Rosenzweig interested in “Christy.”

“He gave me the book a couple of times, but I could never get past that paperback cover with the purple lettering,” Rosenzweig says, laughing. “It wasn’t my cup of tea. I was doing ‘Cagney & Lacey’ and ‘The Trials of Rosie O’Neill.’ ”

A year ago, though, Rosenzweig met with CBS President Jeff Saganksy. One of the topics they discussed was the surprise success of the network’s Saturday evening rural series, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

“I was talking to Jeff about it and commenting on the success of the show,” says Rosenzweig, who produced the ‘60s frontier series “Daniel Boone.”

“I began to pitch ideas and he listened to them very nicely and said, ‘You know what I have always wanted to make? Did you ever hear of a book named ‘Christy?’ I said, ‘Sure. A friend of mine owns it. I will get it for you.’ I called up Ken and said it’s time to make the movie. It’s time to stop fantasizing about what it might be. Let’s make it for television. So we put together a deal.”

And Rosenzweig finally read the book. Much to his surprise, he discovered “Christy” had a lot in common with the urban, contemporary Chris Cagney, Mary Beth Lacey and Rosie O’Neill.

“I put my own spin on it. This is a woman for the ‘90s. The ‘80s were about taking and ambitions and pushing. The ‘90s are about giving something back. That’s what Christy does. Christy is the first member of the Peace Corps. I love her. I think she is just a wonderful and exciting and independent young woman. She fits right into my rogues’ gallery of successful independent women.”

Rosenzweig feels the time is right for “Christy.” “If it doesn’t succeed in this incarnation, I don’t know if it ever could,” he says. “Every sign is there that this is what the audience wants. This could be the answer to the reaction to what has been on TV and what has been on the movie screen.”

Wales is thrilled his dream has become a reality. “A lot of people have read ‘Christy’ and it has changed their lives,” he says. “I have letters from people who entered the ministry or became a doctor or joined the Peace Corps because they read the book. You know, I have given away a lot of books. If sharing that book with just one person helped them to find meaning or a better life, it is worth every struggle I have been through.”

“Christy” premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. on CBS and moves to its regular time slot Thursday at 8 p.m