'Perfect Sundays' TV Series Explores Farmer Suicide, Family, and Healing on a Dairy Farm
Key Takeaways
- •Perfect Sundays is a six-part fictional limited series from creator and producer Sam Goldberg about a family recovering from a farmer's suicide while trying to save their dairy farm through an ice cream business.
- •Goldberg said the production team interviewed 75 people, including mental health advisors, dairy and grain farmers, and ice cream entrepreneurs, to ground the show in real experience.
- •Federal data and academic research have long shown elevated suicide rates among farmers, linked to economic pressure, isolation, and limited rural access to mental health services.
- •Agriculture and health organizations have responded with farm stress hotlines and mental health awareness training for people who work closely with producers.
- •The series' dairy setting reflects significant U.S. dairy sector consolidation and low milk prices that have driven many family dairy farms out of business.
A new six-part limited television series puts farmer suicide and mental health at the center of its story.
Sam Goldberg is the creator and producer of Perfect Sundays, a fictional series he describes as deeply grounded in real experience.
"Perfect Sundays is about a family grappling with the recent suicide of their patriarch, but they're picking up the pieces and they're trying to rescue the farm by turning it into an ice cream business," Goldberg told Brownfield.
The subject matter reflects a long-recognized challenge in rural America. Federal data and academic research have for years pointed to elevated suicide rates among farmers compared with the general population, a trend linked in public health literature to factors such as economic pressure, isolation, and limited access to mental health services in rural areas. Agriculture groups and health organizations have responded with initiatives including farm stress hotlines and mental health awareness training for lenders, extension agents, and others who work closely with producers.
Speaking with Brownfield at the Farm Progress Show near Boone, Iowa on Thursday, Goldberg said that while the show is fictional, it is very authentic.
"We interviewed 75 people from mental health advisors to dairy farmers to grain farmers to ice cream entrepreneurs," he said.
Goldberg explained that the series begins two years after the patriarch of the family dies by suicide.
"And they are trying to pick up the pieces and communicate past it, and the goal that the widow Marla has is to bring back what they called 'perfect Sundays.' Which was an ice cream sundae from the milk on their farm on Sunday after church," he said.
The dairy farming backdrop is itself part of the story's stakes. The U.S. dairy sector has undergone significant consolidation in recent decades, with fewer but larger operations, and many family dairy farms have gone out of business amid prolonged periods of low milk prices — a reality that gives the fictional family's fight to save its farm a familiar resonance for rural viewers.
More information about the series is available at its official website:
