Appalachian Autumn

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox television episode

| series = CBS Playhouse

| image =

| image_alt =

| caption =

| season = 3

| episode = 1

| director = William A. Graham

| writer = Earl Hamner, Jr.

| airdate = {{Start date|1969|10|7}}

| guests =

| prev = Shadow Game

| next = Sadbird

}}

"Appalachian Autumn" is the first television play episode of the third season of the American television series CBS Playhouse. It is a drama about the poverty of the fictional coal mining town of Harper's Gap in West Virginia, and the attempts of a VISTA worker to assist the people of the town.TV.com: [http://www.tv.com/shows/cbs-playhouse/appalacian-autumn-237727/ CBS Playhouse: Appalachian Autumn].

"Appalachian Autumn" was broadcast October 7, 1969, and received technical Emmy awards for lighting.TV.com: [http://www.tv.com/shows/cbs-playhouse/appalacian-autumn-237727/ CBS Playhouse: Appalachian Autumn]. Reviews of the episode were mixed, with Rick Du Brow in the Lexington, NC Dispatch calling it "still worth tuning in" in spite of CBS Playhouse "being on its soapbox."The Dispatch, October 7, 1969. The New York Times critic Jack Gould noted the episode was "not the pillar of dramatic success; nor is it immune to dramatic excess," but praised the broadcast on how it "comes to grips with an issue such as the reality of poor whites in Appalachia."Earl Hamner: From Walton's Mountain To Tomorrow. James E. Person, Cumberland House Publishing, 2005, {{ISBN|9781581824551}}, p154.

Writer Earl Hamner, Jr. would later use this episode as the framework for his award-winning television series The Waltons.TV.com: [http://www.tv.com/shows/cbs-playhouse/appalacian-autumn-237727/ CBS Playhouse: Appalachian Autumn].

Actor Phillip Alford, a child during the filming, recounted his experience filming "Appalachian Autumn" in the book Growing Up on the Set, noting that one scene resulted in his getting a concussion.Growing Up on the Set: Interviews With 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television. Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup, McFarland, 2002, {{ISBN|9780786412549}}, p17.