Horton Foote was among the television writers who helped make NBC's "Television Playhouse" the most popular live dramatic program on the air during the "Golden Age" of television drama, the period between 1952 and 1957. Foote felt a strong affinity for the land and people of his youth, and modeled the imaginary towns of Harrison and Bountiful after his hometown of Wharton, Texas. "The Trip to Bountiful," one of Foote's most characteristic teleplays, depicts the inner turmoil and deep motivations of common, ordinary people, and emphasizes characterization over plot. Carrie Watts, forced by economic necessity to live with her son and his bad-tempered, self-centered wife in a cramped downtown Houston apartment, decides to take off by herself on a bus to visit Bountiful, her country birthplace. Most of the story deals with the bus ride and the young girl in whom Carrie confides during the trip, and with her daughter-in-law and son's attempts to force Carrie to return to Houston with them. The television writing of Horton Foote--sometimes called a "Texas Chekhov"--can best be described as careful and sensitive exploration of the human mind and spirit. "The Trip to Bountiful," which marked a reversal of the reliance on successful Broadway plays as material for television, deals with that quality in people that spurs them on to an important goal, the attainment of which will satisfy an intense longing. (Notes and 23 references are included.) (NKA)