Would Earl Hamner Jr. have been as successful today?

[Deleted]

I am going to say no. I am not sure why exactly because people today like his work so the audience is there. 

Besides his books there were:

1 made for the big screen movie (Spencer's Mountain)
1 tv movie (Homecoming)
2 9- season shows (Walton's and Falcon Crest) 
6 tv specials. 

[noplacelikehome]

I did not know he created Falcon Crest. I'll have to see if they are showing re-runs. Looks like it began the same year the Waltons ended (1981).

[Johnny]

Earl was very adaptable as he wrote for film & television.  I believe, he would have made the transition and written for series now shown on video streaming services as well as publishing books. I don't know if he would have been as successful but I believe his talent would be recognized and he could support his family. 

[Kyle]

Falcon Crest is interesting in that it was developed as more of a family drama. It was about a pilot and his family who left the rat race in NY to return to wine country, where the father grew up, and run the family vineyard. But CBS placed it in a 10:00 pm time slot, after Dallas, rather than 8:00 pm. So CBS wanted it to become less of a family drama and more a gothic mystery. By the second season, it was full serialized. Hamner had much less to do with it than he did The Waltons, though he was credited as executive producer for the first five seasons (and he had part ownership).

Years later, Hamner pitched another, similar-sounding series called “Foundations,” about a dad who left the corporate rat race to move back to his hometown and run the family apple orchard (this “return to the family roots” premise was also used for Hamner’s short-lived “Apple’s Way”). I think he was hoping that “Foundations” would be the family drama that Falcon Crest never was, and but it didn’t sell.