Awakening Land, The

Unschooled homesteader Sayward Luckett couldn't read her name if you showed it to her, yet she fell in love with and married agnostic, book-learned frontier lawyer Portius Wheeler. Now it's time to make a life with him in wild, wooded 1790s Ohio Territory. There will be children, seven in all; joy and hardships aplenty; inconstancies of heart; and the enduring legacy of settling a new land. Based on Conrad Richter's trilogy of novels (he received a Pulitzer Prize for the third), this miniseries nominated for 6 Emmy Awards celebrates the pioneering spirit as it chronicles Sayward's heroic, unadorned life. Elizabeth Montgomery and Hal Holbrook (earning two of those six Emmy nominations) lead a strong cast that includes Jane Seymour and W.H. Macy (his first screen credit).

• western