On a rare trip to Northwest Arkansas, Hollywood filmmaker and television director/ producer Harry Thomason entertained a crowd with his storytelling skills at Brews the evening of Wednesday, Aug. 7. The affair – hosted by proprietors John Rankine and Billy King – was the latest edition of Homegrown Tales, a storytelling show that takes place roughly every other month and is replayed on the Kfresh radio station in Eureka Springs.

The audience was composed of fans, friends and several members of Thomason’s family, including Homegrown Tales co-host Sandra Spotts and DZ Rife of Bentonville.

Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth- Thomason, are best known for the television series, Designing Women, which Thomason said was intended to change public perception of Southerners; Evening Shade, named for a small town in Sharp County, Arkansas; and Hearts Afire, which starred the late John Ritter and fellow Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton.

While in town, Thomason stayed at Shira and Shawn Fouste’s Evening Shade Inn before heading to Little Rock the next day. Thomason’s carefree upbringing in the south Arkansas town of Hampton was the basis of several stories he told at Brews.

“My career wasn’t made in Hollywood. It was made in Arkansas,” Thomason said.

He also harkened back to his time in Northwest Arkansas while directing the 1982 TV miniseries The Blue and the Gray.

Thomason, 83, spoke to the crowd effortlessly – and sometimes aimlessly – for nearly two hours. He read passages from his memoir “Brother Dog: Southern Tales and Hollywood Adventures” and signed copies of the book at the end of the evening.