The story takes place in the fictional town of Trinity, South Carolina, and revolves around Caleb Temple and the town's corrupt sheriff, Lucas Buck. Though appearing affable and charismatic, Sheriff Buck is a murderous rapist whose power base is backed by apparent supernatural powers, which he generally uses to manipulate people to "fulfill their potential" and make life-changing choices. Caleb Temple is a normal child whose paternity masks a horrific secret: Lucas Buck is his biological father, having raped his mother in front of Caleb's older sister Merlyn. The horror of watching her mother being sexually assaulted caused Merlyn to become severely emotionally traumatized and withdrawn from the rest of the world, made even worse when her mother committed suicide after giving birth to Caleb. During the pilot episode of the series, Sheriff Buck murders Merlyn in cold blood and manipulates Caleb's "father" into committing suicide in order to eliminate Caleb's family and claim his biological son for his own. However, the newly arrived Dr. Crower begins to uncover the sheriff's role in the death of Merlyn and Merlyn's father and, with help from Caleb's out-of-town cousin Gail Emory, struggles to prevent Lucas from corrupting young Caleb. They are aided in part by Merlyn's ghost, who personally appears before Caleb throughout the series in order to try to keep him from Buck's corrupt grasp.
Cast of characters
Main cast
Recurring cast
Note: The character of Dr. Billy Peale was a late addition to the series, intended to be a regular character to replace Dr. Matt Crower as a more formidable adversary to Lucas Buck. He was added to the opening credits in the episode "Doctor Death Takes a Holiday", in which Dr. Crower is written out. Producer Shaun Cassidy stated that Dr. Crower would have returned had the show been renewed for a second season.
Episodes
CBS originally aired American Gothic in a differing sequence than the production order and omitted four episodes from its network broadcast. Subsequent, syndicated airings of the series included these four episodes.
Home release
released the complete series of American Gothic on DVD as a Region 1NTSC double-sided 3-disc set in the United States and as a Region 2PAL single-sided 6-disc set in Europe. The Region 1 and Region 2 Discs have the episodes in the same order. The only exception is the German boxset, which features all episodes in the intended order on 7 DVDs. The order is as follows:
