Reviews

For years I taught ON GOLDEN POND to my seniors. I always followed the play reading with the original film. We would always compare the two. Putting the two works side by side one would immediately notice how much better the film plays out. The author also wrote the film and he opened his play up. He made the relationship between Norman and Billy more prominent. He fleshed out those characters so that one can see how close they had become over the summer. One doesn't see that in the play version. That is one of the weaknesses in the play. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer ONLY had the play version to work with. Other reviewers mentioned that they appeared weak in their roles and were not as good as Fonda and Hepburn from the movie. Fonda and Hepburn had BETTER material to work with. That is really the reason why that version appears to be and is superior to the TV stage version. I had encouraged my students to watch the TV version and they all were disappointed. They, also, preferred the film. Ernest Thompson wrote a better film than a play.

This is probably one of the best TV series ever. Find it on whatever channel your area may carry it. The previous reviewer was totally correct in their review. One interesting thing that I wanted to say was that I bought the 2 books that the series is based on. Although I enjoyed them very much they have NOTHING to do with the show. Not one character is even the same. But they were fun reads. The time periods were the same for both the books and the series. I wish they would do a reunion movie on a regular basis. The Christmas movie was a pleasant surprise. Too bad most of the main cast was not available to be in it for whatever reason.