Masterpiece Theatre American... on PBS

Peter MacNicol stars as the richest---and most generous---man in his 1930s Mississippi town in an adaptation of Eudora Welty's fanciful 1954 comic novel “The Ponder Heart.” MacNicol plays Daniel Ponder, who lives to give things away. Of course, this exasperates family patriarch Sam Ponder (Boyce Holleman), but Daniel's sensible niece Edna Erle (JoBeth Williams) manages to keep him under control. Then Sam and Edna Erle decide that Daniel should settle down with a wife---but not a 17-year-old backwoods beauty named Bonnie Dee Peacock (Angela Bettis).