All Episodes Talk: Goodnight Everyone

[merylinkid]

Heck even if John supported something she wanted to do, Grandma was right there to pour cold water on it.   When Livvie wanted to get her driver's license so she could attend that art class, Grandma acted like she was taking up pole dancing.   "Dont' see why you need to go anywhere John can't drive you."   Umm, John has a job and can't be driving her everywhere.   And what if John is hurt and needs driving?   

[DoughGirl]

Heck even if John supported something she wanted to do, Grandma was right there to pour cold water on it. When Livvie wanted to get her driver's license so she could attend that art class, Grandma acted like she was taking up pole dancing. "Dont' see why you need to go anywhere John can't drive you." Umm, John has a job and can't be driving her everywhere. And what if John is hurt and needs driving?

Those are the few times Grandma irks me. Every time Livvie taught school Grandma rode her ass about neglecting her own children and put the guilt trip on her for going to the museum in the art classes episode. I'm surprised she didn't run off with the art teacher.

The family went out of their way for John Boy to go to college, and he does not graduate. What about the other students who worked hard and got turn down for a scholarship because Mr. Saintly John Boy had to go to college. At least Jason and Mary Ellen finished their post high school education.

He also started that annoying newspaper instead of concentrating on his studies. Edited October 25, 2014 by DoughGirl

[merylinkid]

John was pretty cool about letting Livvie do things.    "Whatever makes you happy Honey."    Thankfully Grandma had her stroke* so she was gone for a long time and then they could ignore whatever she was trying to say.   

 

Grandma:   mumble, mumble, mumble.

Livvie:   Oh I should go get a job in Rockfish to help the family pay the bills.   Great Thanks for the support Grandma.

Grandma:   (dark look) mumble mumble mumble.

Livvie:   Whatever old woman.   We have the vote now too, you know.  I have the driver's license you never wanted me to have.   Bye-bye.   You deal with all these kids and their whining, I am OUTTA here.

 

 

 

*It was a sad tragedy that Ellen Corby had a stroke.   This is humor for the sake of the characters not making fun of real people.

[PrairieSmoke]

I started watching The Waltons, couldn't get into it when it was original, and here's what I'm noticing.

 

The role of faith: Just doesn't seem to play a big role in their lives. I know Livvie and Grandma are Baptists, and John and Grandpa believe more in a benevolent "Higher Power" and they are suspicious of organized religion. Livvie plays up the Baptist morality role, but when it comes to a personal faith, where is God? When she is striken with polio she says "I'm going to walk," and doesn't even ask God to help her walk. I imagine faith played a bigger role in the 30s.

 

The kids: John-Boy is the leading man and has more of a role than the others, but all of the kid's personalities just don't stand out. They're just kind of a flash mob that swarms over a scene. Yes, a stray Walton here and there has a personal crisis, but overall, there's so many of them, the personalities get lost.

And John-Boy's temper? John should have knocked him six ways from Sunday when he starts shouting at everybody.

 

The other townspeople: Again, no personality. Dull. I like the kindly dry goods store owner, but does Mr. Godsey have a missus? Has he ever been in love? Does he go through hard times, does he have hopes and dreams? The Baldwins and their recipe just don't stand out either.  Even Reckless the dog is just there. Seems like the family just annoyed each other to pieces all the time. Rev Fordwick in The Sinner is the most personality I've seen in a supporting character.

 

The sets: They look like they had very limited sets to work with. Tight shots of the yard, the strip of road they walk or drive on, Mr Godsey's store. Limited pans over "Walton's Mountains."

 

The time period: The beginning years are set in the worst of the Great Depression, yet The Waltons always seem to have money. If they want something, they hop in the truck and go. No thought of we have to save the gas for John's lumber deliveries. They may be in a small bind where they need $8 or so, but they always get it. Times were TOUGH in the Depression. No one had money! The first season's opening had John bringing home a radio. No one bought extravagances, just necessities. Livvy goes to the store for sugar and comes home with a bicycle. Totally impulsive purchase that no one would even think of back then. 

I don't expect them to walk around in sackcloths and scrounge around the yard for scraps, but they lived like royalty considering the times they lived in.

 

It's a good show, not great. Good ol' timey values. 

Edited November 4, 2014 by PrairieSmoke

[Maherjunkie]

Mr. Godsey will marry Corabeth, who brings life to the store.

[Tim McD]

The sets: They look like they had very limited sets to work with. Tight shots of the yard, the strip of road they walk or drive on, Mr Godsey's store. Limited pans over "Walton's Mountains."

 

 

It was a period show set in the rural south so unlike, say, "Columbo," they couldn't just shoot a scene on Hollywood Boulevard somewhere. Early on they did venture out frequently to shoot scenes in the actual mountains (which was great IMO) but in later seasons they largely stuck to the Burbank set. In the World War II episodes they even tried to pass off the same Waltons Mountains exteriors as war-torn Europe which was unfortunate.

[oceanblue]

Or a fucking riot, depending on your perspective.  Ben crawling through the Asian jungle at Japanese gunpoint and not noticing he was on the road between his house and the school?  Priceless.

[DoughGirl]

The discussion about the depression reminds me of a funny (to me anyway) conversation I had with my Dad. He grew up on a farm in those days. They didn't even have indoor plumbing. One day I said to him, "Don't tell me you didn't have a radio. Even The Waltons had a radio". To which he replied, "But remember, we didn't have electricity".

Edited November 4, 2014 by DoughGirl

[PrairieSmoke]

Electricity, that reminds me of The Easter Story. They're heating big kettles of water on the wood stove and pouring it into the washing machine, and I can see the electrical cord. I was almost yelling at the tv, BE CAREFUL!!!

[oceanblue]

It's actually surprising how seldom we see them do things like laundry or cleaning.  Not that I wanted that to be the forefront of the show, but we see John, Zeb and the boys talking while working at the mill all the time.  We seldom see the womenfolk do anything but cook and do the dishes.  Laundry for that many people with no automatic washer must have been a huge deal and taken up lots of room.

[GrtGzu]

I've seen Granmda out at the clothesline plenty of times taking down laundry....Also saw her and Livvie cleaning up that crazy guy's house who thought his wife was coming back but she'd been dead for a 3 years...The recipie the Baldwin ladies made helped Livvie win the award at the County Fair for her cake, and just wait til you see when the "revenooer" comes to bust the still down....

 

And Ike Godsey almost went outta business when he bought all those stupid refrigerators on a bank loan and they didn't work - John and Livvie had JUST gotten outta debt, but went and cosigned a loan for Ike and Corabet to stay in business....

Edited November 5, 2014 by GrtGzu

[ByaNose]

Very random question. What is the address of the Walton home? I know they live on Waltons mountain but do they have an actual address?

[DoughGirl]

I really enjoy the cast member favourites marathons on INSP, but why does every damn one of them chose "The Burnout"? I'm getting really tired of it.

Very random question. What is the address of the Walton home? I know they live on Waltons mountain but do they have an actual address?

I think it's Waltons Mountain, Waltons Mountain, Virginia

[PrairieSmoke]

I just saw Victor French in The Fulfilment. I kept looking and thinking where did I see that person before?

I missed the beard and...

Old Dan Tucker was a fine old man, 

Washed his face in a frying pan.

Combed his hair with a wagon wheel,

Died with a toothache in his heel.

[Maherjunkie]

And adopted people and an orangutan without difficulty.

[Tim McD]

Victor French as Curtis was the only time I preferred the second actor in a role (Ned Beatty originally played Curtis in The Bicycle.) George Dzundza taking over the A.J. Covington role from David Huddleston in The Abdication was jarring and made no sense; Covington transformed from an easy going, laconic midwesterner to a fast-talking, much shorter Brooklynite.

 

Fun fact about that episode: it featured James Karen as the movie director and Stephen Collins as his assistant. The two later appeared in All the President's Men, with Collins playing Hugh Sloan and Karen as his attorney.

[Maherjunkie]

I hope Elizabeth was safe!

[kassa]

She ended up marrying a man who left her because of a broken weiner, and she ended up with Jonesy, who takes off to the Vietnam War. The girl got karma big time.

 

 

Each man under 30, each older than her, each going to wars that took place 20-25 years apart!  

 

Just watched The Homecoming.  Patricia Neal always scared me as a child.  Still does, a little.  Olivia was really religious then.  And, surprisingly, so was Grandpa (Edgar Bergen) -- at least he was in charge of ringing the church bell at midnight, and wouldn't hear of skipping it because of the weather, for fear of being outdone by the Methodists and Episcopalians.  (Guess Walton's Mountain had a thriving interfaith community)  

 

It is nice to see all the children so young.  However, I can't with Olivia's obsession over just what JohnBoy is doing up in his bedroom with the door locked.  I keep expecting Grandpa to have a look on his face about it, but no, just bewilderment.  JohnBoy seemed to have his own room, still, even though the other kids were 3 to a bed, girls and boys together.  I suppose he needed it, though, what with all the journal writing he was doing, wink wink.

 

Sucked to be a girl child at Christmas.   Ben's approximately Erin's age and gets a train set!  Jason's older and gets a harmonica!  JohnBoy gets much coveted writing tablets!  Mary Ellen and Erin get dresses (and are wowed by them). Nice for Erin, I guess, in the sense that she probably usually just got Mary Ellen's handmedowns, but still.  

 

Nobody bothers to let Grandma and Grandpa know that John is home.  Then again, we don't even know if Grandpa made it home from church - Grandma didn't give a damn about either one and went to bed.

 

Nobody was wearing Jordache jeans, at least.

[Maherjunkie]

The idea of them living on love was barfworthy.  I too, was afraid of Patricia Neal.

[merylinkid]

I loved Patricia Neal as an actress.   Greatly admired her for coming back from a stroke to act again.   But she was all wrong as Mamma Walton.   Can you imagine her as Olivia in some of the episodes where she and John were clearly hot for each other.   Like the Chivaree where Bob stayed up all night in a chair.   Olivia says something to him like "no son of yours would."   She definitely would never have warmed up to the Baldwin Sisters.

[DoughGirl]

I don't like The Homecoming. Maybe if I'd seen it prior to The Waltons I'd like it more. Don't like Spencer's Mountain either.

[Tim McD]

Patricia Neal was pretty bad but even more bizarre was Andrew Duggan as John Walton, complete with hideous red fright-wig.
 

The Homecoming was meant as a stand alone.  It was so popular that the series was conceived.

 
This is interesting from Wikipedia's entry on the networks' "rural purge" of the early 70s:
 

Several members of Congress expressed displeasure at some of the replacement shows, many of which (especially the more socially conscious shows such as All in the Family) were not particularly family-friendly. The backlash from the purge prompted CBS to commission, perhaps somewhat facetiously, a rural family drama for its fall 1972 schedule, but the network scheduled it in what it thought would be a death slot against popular series The Flip Wilson Show and The Mod Squad, allegedly hoping the show would underperform and head to a quick cancellation. Instead, The Waltons went on to run for nine seasons, reaching as high as second in the Nielsens and finishing in the top thirty shows for seven of its nine years on air.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rural_purge

[DoughGirl]

Was happy to hear that INSP scheduled Waltons Sunday marathons all this month (don't watch football or Christmas movies) but they keep showing the same few episodes over and over and they're the same episodes they've aired earlier in the week. The Typewriter, The Wedding, The Grandchild, and The Best Christmas. Wonder how they decide what episodes to run. There are way too many episodes of The Waltons to repeat just a handful ad nauseum.

[Ubiquitous]

He was broadcasting from Boatwright while Jim Bob was building a TV....

... and the first cable TV connection from the house to the university.

 

Why was John Boyd Waldon tasked with making the first broadcast from Boatwright?

[Maherjunkie]

Because he's John Boy!  I thought it was a shame Jason toyed with Erin Moran's heart yesterday.  "I'm a senior!  We do that!".I expect better from you, JW.  So you randomly kiss 14 yr old girls you know your brother is interested in?

[DoughGirl]

It cracks me up the way they make the Walton boys such heartbreakers when IMO none of them are exactly lookers (especially Jason and Jim Bob) and all seem pretty self absorbed. If it's not them and their writing/music/mechanical hobby it's the family with self righteous Olivia and later bitchy Mary Ellen judging the boy's girlfriends.

[Maherjunkie]

Don't forget Ben and his problem with JEWS.

[bigskygirl]

Imo, none of the children were a great catch.

 

The one episode where the fighter comes to the house and wants to win one more fight to start a church with John Boy being his manager/trainer. What the heck does John Boy know about boxing? Of course was the bitch faces Grandma and Olivia had until the guy announces he wants to be a minister.

[Maherjunkie]

Bitch faces because they can't curse.

[DoughGirl]

Imo, none of the children were a great catch.

 

The one episode where the fighter comes to the house and wants to win one more fight to start a church with John Boy being his manager/trainer. What the heck does John Boy know about boxing? Of course was the bitch faces Grandma and Olivia had until the guy announces he wants to be a minister.

And at the end the Rev/fighter has to use one of John Boy's bible stories for his sermon. Like he couldn't have preached a sermon on his own and since when did John Boy write bible stories? I'm no expert, but isn't that story straight from the bible? So John Boy wrote the bible too? And Olivia sitting there all smug, "He's usin' one of YOUR bible stories". I could smack her.

[Maherjunkie]

I think Jim Bob was cute but dull and an asshole.  I want to say to Cleavon Little "Don't Worry, Blazing Saddles is around the corner!"

[merylinkid]

 

I want to say to Cleavon Little "Don't Worry, Blazing Saddles is around the corner!"

 

Bwahahahahahahahaha.    Thank you for making my day.    And you know Olivia would not have approved of Blazing Saddles.   Grandma would have died right on the spot.

[Maherjunkie]

Especially if Zeb ate the beans.

[Tim McD]

At the end of The Fightin' Reverend we see him limping after the beating he took during the match. Do boxers often hurt their legs during bouts?

[DoughGirl]

They do when John Boy manages them.

[PrairieSmoke]

Well, I'm watching season 6 now. Amazon Prime instant video doesn't have seasons 4 or 5. I'm enjoying The Waltons much more without John-Boy. I just can't stand John-Boy. I'm not saying Richard Thomas is a bad actor. It's the character someone designed for John-Boy. If the purpose is for John-Boy to be arrogant, hot-tempered, tyrannical, then Richard Thomas aced the role.

 

It is fun watching the other kids go from a flash mob into their unique roles in life. Jason is very talented musically. Jim Bob has a mechanical talent. May Ellen is now a nurse, a very high calling given the time of pre-WWII.

 

I just saw the episode where Mary Ellen has her baby. OMG, talk about a creepy episode!!! If I went through all that trauma from the crazy lady Cassie, (severe PTSD for sure), I would tell Curt, "Ok, no more kids for me!" 

At least the child was born on Walton's Mountain. :)

[Tim McD]

I'm probably in the minority but I can't bring myself to care about the siblings that much; it doesn't help that the actors playing them were not very good and had zero charisma. The exit of Richard Thomas + Ellen Corby's stroke + death of Will Geer effectively killed the show.

[Maherjunkie]

I'd put Ralph and Michael in there too.

[merylinkid]

I know its not popular but I love the Children's Christmas Carol.   Sure Elizabeth was a brat (quelle surprise) and the English kids were brats too.   But c'mon there was home was being bombed nightly and there was rationing beyond belief and then their parents shipped them across the ocean to live with who knew who.   Turned out to the batty Baldwin sisters.   Then they get turfed out of there and sent to the crowded, noisy Waltons.   I would retreat a bit too after all that.   But it has a semi-happy ending when the kids get to talk to their mom on Christmas (sadly dad died in the Blitz).  

[Maherjunkie]

Through Jim Bob's ham radio no less!  Probably the last gig Kami Cotler's  RL brother had.

[DoughGirl]

I'm probably in the minority but I can't bring myself to care about the siblings that much; it doesn't help that the actors playing them were not very good and had zero charisma. The exit of Richard Thomas + Ellen Corby's stroke + death of Will Geer effectively killed the show.

I totally agree even though JB can bug.

I know its not popular but I love the Children's Christmas Carol.   Sure Elizabeth was a brat (quelle surprise) and the English kids were brats too.   But c'mon there was home was being bombed nightly and there was rationing beyond belief and then their parents shipped them across the ocean to live with who knew who.   Turned out to the batty Baldwin sisters.   Then they get turfed out of there and sent to the crowded, noisy Waltons.   I would retreat a bit too after all that.   But it has a semi-happy ending when the kids get to talk to their mom on Christmas (sadly dad died in the Blitz).

I like it too except for snotty Elisabeth and spoiled brat Mary Ellen's story line. I DVR it now and fast forward through those scenes.

[Maherjunkie]

I know one of you also hated hearing John Curtis's name repeated in one scene as well; if you're still out there I want to add SJP from Sex and the City beseeching Aidan to forgive her as equally annoying.

[bigskygirl]

I do not care to hear John Curtis's name being repeated over and over again. And yes, Mary Ellen and Elizabrat were both spoiled brats in the one Christmas episode.

[Kev]

Imo, none of the children were a great catch.

 

I thought Ben was pretty cute. Especially when he got older. 

[DoughGirl]

Now that Christmas is over I hope they don't show The Best Christmas or The Spirit again for a long long time. They really overdid it with those two this year.

[bigskygirl]

Yes, it does get tiresome when they play the same episodes over and over again.

[Tim McD]

The Children's Carol is way too contrived for me. Reminds me of the episode The Seashore; Earl Hamner just stone cold throwing random British war orphans around to get WWII story lines into the show. And while it's totally likely the Walton kids could assemble a crystal radio kit from spare parts, please don't try to sell me Jim-Bob building a fully functional ham radio in the same fashion AND locating the kids' mother in London during the Blitz. NO.

[PrairieSmoke]

I watched The Homecoming again on Christmas day. Dang, that was a really good movie. Patricia Neal was so strong!  So strong to hold everything and everybody in the house together all the while thinking, "my husband could be dead." If Patricia continued in the role for tv, she would have to soften up, little less of the hard, but keep the strength. (And Patricia Neal could handle John-Boy.)

By comparison, Michael Learned looks weak. "My life is unfufilling, I should have done this in life instead." 

Edited December 30, 2014 by PrairieSmoke

[Maherjunkie]

Big sky, do you mean "The BEst Xmas" ep or the "Children's Carol"?

[bigskygirl]

I mean both.