America’s greatest feud—an Emmy-nominated and history-making miniseries and critically-acclaimed companion documentary—is set to make its triumphant return to the airways with tempers flaring and guns blazing this week on the HISTORY channel.
Record numbers of area citizens are again expected to be glued to their TVs for a powerful and brutal story of mountain justice involving two proud families, the Hatfields and McCoys. The account all takes place in Logan and Mingo Counties, West Virginia, and Pike County, Kentucky, respectively.
According to the current HISTORY channel schedule, the cable network will re-air both the record-breaking miniseries, “Hatfields and McCoys,” which was recently nominated for 16 Emmys, as well as the companion-documentary, “America’s Greatest Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys,” that was filmed in the Mountain State by Huntington-based Trifecta Productions.
The miniseries and companion documentary were creations of ThinkFactory Media, and were produced and helmed in part by Huntington-area native and Marshall University grad Darrell Fetty along with Kevin Costner, who portrays Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield in the three-night movie. The executive producer was Leslie Grief.
“With the ratings and acceptance and recognition of our peers, this is a dream come true,” Greif said the morning Emmy Award nominations were announced. “I knew it was a great story about the senselessness of violence and what we do for honor. It’s timeless and universal.” He also described how the miniseries added dimension to a clan struggle that lasted decades and cost so many their lives.
The first time around, the miniseries became the No. 1 most watched (non-sports) cable program of all time when it debuted over Memorial Day weekend. It will now re-air at 8 p.m. nightly, beginning this Thursday, Aug. 16 through Saturday, Aug. 18.
In addition to Costner as the Hatfield patriarch, Bill Paxton portrays Ol’ Ran’l McCoy. Both actors were nominated for an Emmy for their roles. “Hatfields and McCoys” was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or TV Movie. Mare Winningham, who takes on the role of Sally McCoy, and Tom Berenger, who aptly portrays Jim “Crazy Jim” Vance, were also nominated for their performances. The series was nominated for its writing, directing, costumes, art direction, casting, editing, hairstyling, makeup, sound editing, music composition, and sound mixing, as well.
The two-hour documentary, which is narrated by Kevin Costner, will air at 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Aug. 18 on HISTORY. It’s directed by Mark Cowen, an Emmy-nominated director and producer known for the documentary “Band of Brothers: We Stand Alone Together,” “Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3-D,” with Tom Hanks; and other films.
Reenactment scenes were filmed at Heritage Farm Museum and Village in the Huntington area, and the documentary utilizes Kentucky and West Virginia historians, such as Fred Armstrong, Raamie Barker, Keith Davis and Bill Richardson from West Virginia, and Nancy Cade and Reed Potter from Kentucky, to tell the story of America’s most famous family clash. Authors and historians Dean H. King and Altina Waller also join the list of historians and discuss the vendetta.
With the first miniseries and documentary broadcast, the airing of the Hatfields & McCoys productions resulted in a national interest in the feud—all eyes were on the area. And that fascination has not yet subsided, so says representatives of the Logan County Chamber of Commerce. The series has generated a steady stream of tourists from across the nation coming to Logan and Mingo Counties, and Pike County, KY, over the summer months.
And the best may be yet to come, as far as the local tourism-trade is concerned. This September, around the same time when the Emmy Awards will be announced, the Hatfields & McCoys miniseries crosses the great waters and make its television debut in Great Britain. It’s entirely possible, according to the chamber and movie critics, that feud-mania will become a global-phenomena by autumn, and even more individuals will be traveling to the Tug River Valley and surrounding areas—to see the land of America’s most violent clan conflict.

















