DoughGirl

Sometimes they just came up with money for unnecessary things, like taking the whole family to see Jason in the amateur hour. All the while paying Doc Vance to make daily house calls because of Livvie's polio. Then there are the episodes where they don't even mention money because it would hamper the storyline or maybe because they hadn't planned to go in a certain direction. The one that bothers me the most is where they came up with the money to send Mary Ellen to nursing school. It was all about her passing the entry exam and the going away party. From the beginning, finding money for John Boy's schoolin' was a constant worry but they never mentioned Mary Ellen's. I think Mary Ellen's nursing was a later idea and they just didn't bother addressing it as an easy way out. They never even had an extra fifty cents to give her dancing lessons but she decides to become a nurse and they have the money. She couldn't have gotten a scholarship if she couldn't even pass the entrance exam. Another cop out was when Livvie takes painting classes at night school. She says they don't have the money and of course "night courses are free". Why would they be free? How would they pay the teachers and buy supplies? Then she's got to learn to drive, and I'm pretty sure even in the 1930s there'd be a license fee. In that instance, I think they'd have done better to say nothing, rather than night classes are free.

Yeah, I like Verdie, but sometimes she's a bit much. I always wondered if it was stretching things when in one episode she's learning to read from Elisabeth's schoolbooks and two episodes later she's well read enough to recognize a line from The Count of Monte Christo. Maybe she made up for lost time? John did say that if they adopted Josh that they couldn't take him to church. Or that he couldn't go to school.

Just watched "The Thanksgiving Story". In all the times I've watched it I never noticed that both Doc Vance and Doc MacIvers both appear. Doc MacIvers is introduced as the hospital chief of staff. So Livvie got an appointment with the chief of staff for her mid life crisis baby obsession? And wasn't there something in that episode where John says he has three or four dollars in his pocket? And the chief of staff makes a trip to the mountain to tell her about the foster baby? Well, maybe in the 1930s, but I doubt it. Although Jim Bob's surgery did only cost 28.00. Times sure have changed.

There are differences of opinion. Doesn't mean one side is right or one is wrong. When I say I don't like the changes I'm expressing my opinion, not "pouting". And if "something is going on" maybe it's because our opinions are valid.

That would be okay, since you're coming up with it yourselves, but as someone who doesn't like the changes at all, I find being labelled by others as a "poutlander" irritating.

Lots of interesting comments here. I particularly agree with this: And this: I think the books did a much better job of showing that Claire felt more "at home" in the eighteenth century, whether it's believable or not. Right at the start, the show went wrong by changing her enjoying and embracing working in Davie Beaton's surgery to her being held prisoner and compelled to do so. Then all the Frankification and overkill of BJR shifted the focus of the story in a major way. Because it IS essentially a romance.

I'm a books one, two, and three fan though, and I could even make it through this whole season. I agree with two seasons tops

IMO, the show has only exaggerated the character, making it 100 times worse. I can't decide if the changes made to the story in the show are A: to convince watchers that it's not a romance, B: that old "no one will watch a show that has a female main charcter" drivel, or C: just bad writing. It's like, "Yeah, Outlander is about this guy Frank, who has a fascinating, sadistic, evil look alike ancestor in the eighteenth century. Well, Frank's wife goes back in time and meets the ancestor and adventure ensues. She meets up with a fascinating, horn dog highlander, who forces her into marriage with a young highlander character (who just happened to have been flogged by the deliciously evil sadist) but wants to jump her bones himself. Romance? No way!"

Can't really write my opinion about this without spoilers but the BJR stuff in the show is OTT.

I didn't even find the Claire character/story compelling in the show. More like the catalyst for the rest of the action.

Probably cause he's a bloody bore. Excellent program on Richard III on PBS. Secrets of the Dead. I believe it's still available on their website.

Mary even got the better apartment. And the theme song: "Who Can Turn the World on With her Smile...." Just no.

My UO: I hate the Mary Tyler Moore show. Mostly, it's the Mary Richards character I hate. Mary is so pretty, Mary is so slim, all the men want Mary, blah blah, blah. Even married Murray had to confess his "being in love" with Mary. Cause she's oh so perfect and wonderful compared to his wife or any other inferior female. Gag!

IMO, the show is spending way too much time on BJR and Dougal and Jamie has been lost in the shuffle. As you say, he's been reduced to eye candy with no real personality, just a body to play off of. A cardboard cut out. Exactly. RM has decided to make it the BJR/Frank show, co-starring Dougal, with a guest star appearance of Jamie Fraser. It's confusing because it's throwing the backbone of the story off.

I don't have a problem with the violence per se, I just feel it's being amped up unnecessarily. And IMO, the changes to the story are bogging it down and not improving it at all. I just can't watch another minute of it.

I have to agree. I quit watching (and from what I've read, I'm glad I bailed when I did) halfway through the flogging scene and BJR's boring soliloquy. I check in here from time to time to see if I'm the only one who thinks the adaptation of this show is just terrible and it seems, on this forum anyway, you and I are in the minority.

Frasier, Friends, American Idol, America's Got Talent, Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Real Housewives, The Bachelor/Bachelorette, The View, and Dangerous Housewives. Oh, and how could I forget. Sex and the City.

Yep, and I always preferred the Wally-centric episodes. Beaver was cute the first couple of years but after that Wally really was the star.

Going way back, but I just hate the Leave it to Beaver episode where he falls into the billboard bowl of soup. It might have been better if it had been done when the character was younger but Beaver is too old by this episode to make it believable that he'd actually think it was really a bowl of soup. It's just stupid and not funny.

Ha! That explains it. And remember when "The Genius" was visiting and tried to help the boys fix the crystal set and they just walked out on him? I always thought that was so rude and why didn't Jim Bob have it working to begin with?And what about the time Jim Bob created a substitute for gasoline with Yancy's still? Funny, but they still kept buying gas at Ike's.

Hey, I never noticed that. I knew it was a different sheriff but didn't make the connection to Evil Mine Guy. Was he broadcasting from Boatwright? Anyone see the episode where they're all singing around the piano celebrating the end of the war and Elisabeth comes down all big teary eyes, gasping about how she doesn't know why she's crying but she hates war? There was something really obnoxious about it.

I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING! "Judy Norton-Taylor" ..... At least they didn't put John Boyd Walton's name up there.

Can't tell you, because I could never make it through that one either. Those very few last episodes were REALLY REALLY bad.

I get the feeling homeless dude quit his job to avoid paying alimony/child support in anticipation of him and wife divorcing. I couldn't understand why she was in court with him. Maybe she hasn't caught onto his plan yet?

I'm surprised "May We Bake Them Brown" wasn't included.