MovieChat Forums > I'll Fly Away (1991) Discussion > To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

posted 17 years ago by Kindy93
5 replies | jump to latest

Anybody notice that "I'll Fly Away" and "To Kill A Mockingbird" have a lot of similarites?

The pilot definitely has a lot of similarities, but they quickly diverge as the series progresses. The main difference in the pilot, as well as the whole series, I think, is the importance of Lily's role. Calpurnia was just a minor character in TKAM, but Lily is really the focal point of the show, her ability to live in two worlds and her influence on the Bedford household, and on Forrest.

[–] lorcaman1 16 years ago

Actually the producers John Falsey and Joshua Brand based a lot of their writing on the fact that they both really love "To Kill A Mockingbird", so the similarities (Lily as housekeeper, Forrest as single father) were put there on purpose. They both talk about it in the interviews that are with the finale movie.

[–] lsn833 12 years ago

No.
So the father is a lawyer. That doesn't make it similar. At first he is not a single father, he has a wife. Later he does need a housekeeper, but so would any single father of small children. It is set in the south, but a later time period.
Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird, and have you watched all the episodes of this? You will see they aren't. Only on the surface, which is as far as some people look. A lawyer. A black housekeeper. Racial issues. Oh, they must be the same story...

[–] CooperCamden 11 years ago

Friend, it's already common knowledge that the producers were inspired by TKAM, one of their favorite films. Nobody said that "Fly" was exactly the "same story".

[–] Ithilfaen 9 years ago

No.
So the father is a lawyer. That doesn't make it similar. At first he is not a single father, he has a wife. Later he does need a housekeeper, but so would any single father of small children. It is set in the south, but a later time period.
Have you read To Kill a Mockingbird, and have you watched all the episodes of this? You will see they aren't. Only on the surface, which is as far as some people look. A lawyer. A black housekeeper. Racial issues. Oh, they must be the same story...

Right. And the fact one of the main character, and the narrator as it were, is named Lily Harper has nothing to do with Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, right? 

For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco