'Hometown Huntington' launches WLIW towns project

THE SHOW "Hometown Huntington"

WHEN | WHERE Monday night at 8 on WLIW/21

REASON TO WATCH Launch of Channel 21's initiative to explore all of LI's towns.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Narrated by former New York State Parks Commissioner and longtime Lloyd Harbor resident Bernadette Castro, "Hometown" is structured in three parts. The first, "The Way It Was," focuses on some of the founding families, like the Primes and Sammises, then moves into the 1920s, when Finnegan's was a speak-easy, through World War II, when Knutson's shipyard built submarine chasers.

The second part, "Happy Days," slides into the easy bucolic postwar years, when some of Huntington's best-known businesses were established, including - the Hamburger Choo-Choo (long gone) and Len Totora's L&L Camera (he died in February).

The third part is "Home Sweet Home," which includes looks at such contemporary spots as The Book Revue and Reinwald's Bakery.

WHO'S INTERVIEWED Some names include Patti LuPone (who grew up in Northport); Bunny Hoest of "The Lockhorns"; Jack Abrams, longtime educator; Tim Finnegan, grandson of the founder of Finnegan's; Dan Knutson of Knutson Yard Haven marina; Ralph Macchio (who grew up in Dix Hills); Pamela Prime; Winston Simone, music producer; Vic Skolnick, co-founder of Cinema Arts Centre, and the late Totora.

MY SAY Some years ago, Channel 21 produced a love letter called "Long Island Sonata," which was sort of a hyper-idealized portrait of a place - smothered in a Yanni-lite soundtrack - that few Long Islanders probably recognized. "Hometown Huntington" comes from the same school of documentary-filmmaking - except that it's much better.

One reason is the people, who will remind you - viscerally in places - that the love of home is a powerful and wonderful force. But this also is a deeply nostalgic portrait, and far too often you will hear these same people speak in the past tense about how things used to be. Traffic? School budgets? Urban blight? Taxes? Of these, no mention, although of the latter, LuPone - a longtime resident of Litchfield County in Connecticut - says she couldn't afford to live in Northport anymore.

BOTTOM LINE "Hometown" may focus a little too much on the Gold Coast, while communities like Greenlawn or East Northport are barely mentioned, but it is still a gentle, loving reminder of what makes this place so special.

GRADE B+