All Episodes Talk: Goodnight Everyone

[DoughGirl]

I just watched "The Reunion" again. Livvie really bugs me in that. Self righteous, and ungrateful and that outfit she sent Jim Bob to school in was obviously half a dress. She didn't know he'd be made fun of? And since she's such an expert seamstress she couldn't make it more like a shirt?

[GrtGzu]

And why did she have to make his shirts out of girl's clothes when he had 3 older brothers she coulda picked from?

[Maherjunkie]

Then there would be no stern plot point about being grateful.

[DoughGirl]

And St. John Boy declares, "Boys wear whatever they can get these days". Like he'd have been caught dead wearing that half a dress monstrosity. He had to have brand new flannel britches just to take Marcia Woolery to a dance.

[Maherjunkie]

Does anybody find it odd that Erin needed to be 18 to marry in Depression-era VIRGINIA of all places?  I think you can be 16 NOW.

[Maherjunkie]

In my area you didn't need that two generations ago, so I assumed Va was the same.

[camom]

In 1948 my parents got married in California; he was 20 and she was 19.  At that time women could get married at 18 without parental consent, but men needed to be 21.  So my parents had to take my paternal grandmother with them to get the marriage license.

[Cara]

I thought I had seen every episode of The Waltons at least once over the years. But the other night I ran across one I can't recall seeing. It was the one where Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to be pregnant with Jim Bob's baby. I thought it was a surprisingly unWalton-y plot line.

[Cara]

I saw Curt Has a Broken Wiener tonight. Also very un waltony.

Yeah, that one is very unWalton-y for sure. It also gets my vote for the weirdest episode. What was the point? A ridiculous plot and why a different actor? So strange!

Edited August 14, 2015 by Cara

[Maherjunkie]

Especially since he has a girlfriend in the episode.  He needed an excuse rather than daring to reject a Walton girl.

Especially since he has a girlfriend in the episode.  He needed an excuse rather than daring to reject a Walton girl.

[Ubiquitous]

I was about to mention the Curtis ran away b/c he had a broken wiener ep was on last night, which was extra strange b/c they aired the ep with the melodramatic Mexican who delivered Curtis' posthumous medals and witnessed him die, only to fall in love with her.

[Blergh]

Can we all agree that NOT Curt Episode was a BAD DREAM [in every sense of the word] of Mary Ellen's? UGH!

[Maherjunkie]

You mean because they had no known talents?

[VCRTracking]

Caught "The Love Story" last night and just couldn't see what John-Boy saw in Jenny Pendleton. I IMDB'd  the actress up and saw that one year before the episode she starred with Richard Thomas in a TV movie with Patty Duke called "You'll Like My Mother" and they played brother and sister! Wikipedia synopsis:
 

In this psychological thriller, a very pregnant Francesca (Patty Duke) travels from Los Angeles to Minnesota to meet her late husband's mother, Mrs. Kinsolving, whom she has never met before. Mrs. Kinsolving (Rosemary Murphy) is cold to Francesca, questions whether she is actually pregnant with her son's baby, and tells Francesca she wants nothing to do with her or her baby in the future. It soon becomes clear that Francesca cannot leave that night as a blizzard has made the roads impassable. Francesca is forced to stay in the Kinsolving mansion for a few days. She soon begins to suspect that something is amiss due to inconsistencies in information between what her late husband (Matthew) told her and Mrs. Kinsolving's statements to her.

While Matthew never mentioned he had a sister, Mrs. Kinsolving claims that the mentally challenged and non-verbal Kathleen (Sian Barbara Allen) is Matthew's sister. After Mrs. Kinsolving retires for the night, Francesca sneaks around and discovers in the family Bible that Matthew's mother (Maria) died eleven days after Matthew was killed in the Vietnam War, that Mrs. Kinsolving is actually Maria's sister in law, Katherine, who is Kathleen's mother and the mother of Kenny (Richard Thomas), a serial rapist and murderer who is hiding somewhere in the Kinsolving mansion. Francesca goes into labor, but Mrs. Kinsolving refuses to call for an ambulance. She sedates Francesca heavily. When the baby is born, Mrs. Kinsolving announces it is dead and hands the baby over to Kathleen to bury.

[CraftyHazel]

And "You'll Like My Mother" was my favorite movie when I was younger. Richard Thomas did creepy so well!!

I'm an unabashed John Boy lover, though, so don't mind me...

[Maherjunkie]

Is that the whole movie, VCR?  I won't track it down if there is no surprise ending.

[VCRTracking]

No, there's more. I didn't copy the whole synopsis because I didn't want to spoil anything. The rest of the story sounds really exciting though. It would be really interesting to see young Richard Thomas be so menacing.

 

 

Sian Barbara Allen and Richard Thomas were an item for a while.....

 

Whoa.

Edited August 27, 2015 by VCRTracking

[JasminePhyllisia]

Hope this is the right board for commenting on "The Homecoming."

 

One long, meandering movie with about two weeks worth of events taking place on one day.  I've been watching it on DVR while wrapping gifts but I don't think I will make it to the end.

 

Maybe it's because I'm used to Michael Learned but that actress who played Olivia was hard to watch, she seemed to belong in another movie. I looked her up on imdb and she was once quite beautiful.  Meanwhile I didn't mind the Grandpa so much, but I like Will Geer better.

 

It was fun seeing all the kids so young.  

[ByaNose]

Patricia Neal had a stroke prior to filming The Homecoming. That was the cause for her halting voice. Apparently, the kids were told when they had been cast to be careful around her. If you notice in the movie the kids rush Grandpa and their Father at the end but they were very delicate around Mama. That said, she used to scare me every year when I watched it with my family. I couldn't figure out why but the dark hair, white skin and her voice just kind of freaked me out. LOL!!! A great movie. I dvr'd it this week. I'm 51 now and I've probably seen it every year since 1971 when it first originally aired. The good ole days, indeed!

[Blergh]

Patricia Neal had a stroke prior to filming The Homecoming. That was the cause for her halting voice. Apparently, the kids were told when they had been cast to be careful around her. If you notice in the movie the kids rush Grandpa and their Father at the end but they were very delicate around Mama. That said, she used to scare me every year when I watched it with my family. I couldn't figure out why but the dark hair, white skin and her voice just kind of freaked me out. LOL!!! A great movie. I dvr'd it this week. I'm 51 now and I've probably seen it every year since 1971 when it first originally aired. The good ole days, indeed!

  

 

 In her bio, Miss Neal said that she really DID want to keep playing Olivia after that TV movie got picked up and turned into a series but no one asked her back.  Since she herself HAD grown up in the mountains during the Depression, this was a role she truly believed in but I suppose they didn't want to chance her wrecking her health with the demands of a weekly series (and perhaps the insurance folks agreed).  Yeah, as much as I enjoyed Miss Learned's performance, it's hard to imagine Miss Neal later evolving into the downright frisky filly Olivia became before she left the show altogether but then again it's hard to imagine she and Mr. Waite would have had the same chemistry as he and Miss Learned did.

   As for the 'other Grandpa'? That was Edgar Bergen [yes, Candice's dad] in one of his few dramatic roles. He usually was the 'straight man' for  the marionette Charlie McCarthy on radio and the movies(and Jim Henson would dedicate the first "Muppet Movie" to him in addition to giving him a warm cameo) but here he played a completely different character. What's also interesting is that he HAD previously performed with Ellen Corby in the classic movie "I Remember Mama" in which he played, of all roles, the prosperous but shy object of Miss Corby's affections. Perhaps this was their way of imagining how things would have turned had these then-middle aged suitors had lived long enough to raise two generations. Mr. Bergen definitely played Grandpa with far less vitality than Mr. Geer would though ironically would wind up surviving his 'successor'.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Blergh

[Maherjunkie]

Here is a website that includes floor plans and actor bios if it hasn't already been posted.

 

http://www.rockfish-river.com/en/jason-walton.html

[movingtargetgal]

On 8/16/2015 at 1:23 PM, Blergh said:

Can we all agree that NOT Curt Episode was a BAD DREAM [in every sense of the word] of Mary Ellen's? UGH!

It is agreed.  

[Maherjunkie]

Wasn't it considered odd even for its' era?

[Blergh]

On 12/5/2016 at 9:26 PM, Maherjunkie said:

Wasn't it considered odd even for its' era?

Yep! Not to mention the Curt Revived ep   seemed more in place in the Warped Little House Universe than on Walton's Mountain!

[Maherjunkie]

I don't know, I don't think there were any grand cures for impotence in either era but in a way you are right.

[oceanblue]

But a husband and father faking his own death because he can't have sex is always bizarre.  Think John Curtis would really care either way?  

[MistyMeg]

Hmmm not sure which episodes BUT.... Ben and Cindy had virginia and  Charley.....later on they had no children and wanted to adopt..OK..they said Virginia had  died...what of?  What happened to Charley?  mary Ellen had  John Curtis.... later episodes her oldest was ... a girl...Katy I think! 

[bigskygirl]

On ‎8‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 0:19 PM, MistyMeg said:

Hmmm not sure which episodes BUT.... Ben and Cindy had virginia and  Charley.....later on they had no children and wanted to adopt..OK..they said Virginia had  died...what of?  What happened to Charley?  mary Ellen had  John Curtis.... later episodes her oldest was ... a girl...Katy I think! 

Those were scenes from made for television movie at a later time. It is a mystery why they went with Virginia dying, but no mention of Charlie. Mary Ellen was able to have more children after her one accident, but no John Curtis. Actually I did not care for John Curtis and every time someone said his name on the show I wanted to scream, but come one people try to stay with what happened on the show. I also laugh at Mary Ellen was able to figure out John Boy's wife was going to have twins, but the evil big city doctors were not able to figure it out with all their fancy learning, but she could not understand Curtis telling her he could not salute the flag so to speak.

[Blergh]

On 8/19/2017 at 5:48 PM, bigskygirl said:

Those were scenes from made for television movie at a later time. It is a mystery why they went with Virginia dying, but no mention of Charlie. Mary Ellen was able to have more children after her one accident, but no John Curtis. Actually I did not care for John Curtis and every time someone said his name on the show I wanted to scream, but come one people try to stay with what happened on the show. I also laugh at Mary Ellen was able to figure out John Boy's wife was going to have twins, but the evil big city doctors were not able to figure it out with all their fancy learning, but she could not understand Curtis telling her he could not salute the flag so to speak.

 And let's not forget that Erin had married Paul Northridge in one movie and the closing narration more or less said they'd lived happily ever after but in a later TV movie, they were divorced over his adultery and family snobbery .

 Oh, and who was working as the Northridge family nanny (the one fetching Erin's kids to their unseen father) Cousin Rose who'd last been seen having married Stanley Perkins (William Shallert) on the show in its last gasps but no mention what might have happened to him OR her grandkids despite all three performers at that point still living and active in the industry.  Oh, and not that they were the best characters (and obviously brought in to try to save the show from the impending cliff via 'cute kids') but I always hated that after a year of Cousin Rose lamenting that she'd had to take them from their alcoholic father (her own son) for their safety, the next season they were gone with the only explanation that their alcoholic father had remarried so that's why they weren't there (as if a new wife would be more successful in keeping a violent drunk from going back on the sauce  and protecting children than his own mother had been).  I mean, even if this had happened with Cousin Rose being powerless to stop it but trying to make the best of it, one would think a protective grandmother would have at least moved back to the same city to at least be within easy reach just in case this union went kablooey and the kids needed her help. But  she stayed on Walton's Mountain right up to her marriage to Stanley and never once mentioned them again.

[bigskygirl]

I think it was more the Walton clan who had a hand the divorce of Erin and Paul since she clings to her family like fleas on a hound dog on a hot summer day. The family cannot stand to spend one minute apart from one another. I also remember Paul's dad really like Erin. After the show ended, all the kids and spouses were living together except for John Boy. I mean come on now not one of them could stand on their own two feet and survive without a family member holding their freaking hand for them.

[oceanblue]

and the very last episode was John Boy failing in the big city and moving home.  The movies were awkward, but what they were contending with is they'd moved the story forward many years in each movie but the actors had only aged a few years.   John Curtis was born before WWII, maybe Virginia too?  By the last movie they would have been close in age to those playing their parents.

[Maherjunkie]

Why was a home on the mountain important to John?  Didn't they already have a home with a great view?

[Blergh]

16 hours ago, Maherjunkie said:

Why was a home on the mountain important to John?  Didn't they already have a home with a great view?

Good question! I always thought he wanted someplace where he and Olivia could have some REAL privacy. I mean those walls in Casa Walton were so paper thin that even the youngest kids never had to so much as raise their voices when everyone was doing the 'goodnight' bit!

 However; I think with seven kids, aging parents, the Depression, WWII, etc. , life always got in the way of that dream home.

[Steff]

On 7/20/2018 at 9:58 AM, Blergh said:

Good question! I always thought he wanted someplace where he and Olivia could have some REAL privacy. I mean those walls in Casa Walton were so paper thin that even the youngest kids never had to so much as raise their voices when everyone was doing the 'goodnight' bit!

 However; I think with seven kids, aging parents, the Depression, WWII, etc. , life always got in the way of that dream home.

When John & Olivia got married they moved in with Gramma & Grampa.  John always promised Olivia that he would build them their own house on the mountain someday.  Because of more kids, no money, the depression, etc. thru their whole marriage it was always "someday". 

[VCRTracking]

I've just learned the term "glo up" Urban Dictionary defines as "when someone becomes really attractive after they hit puberty" and I think Erin Walton is second to Jan Brady in terms of "Best Glo Up" of the 70s.

Edited August 5, 2018 by VCRTracking

[Katdam]

On 1/24/2015 at 5:18 PM, PrairieSmoke said:

Couldn't help it and took a peek at the last Waltons episode. 

So, the kids are all running the house now? They can run that place by themselves? I'm sure they all have jobs and are combining income.

 

I would have liked to see more of their dreams come true, like Jim Bob, he's always the one you kind of discount as being, not the sharpest knife in the draw. He loved flying so much, he should have strutted in the Baldwin's parlor wearing dress whites and gold wings. "Announcing, LTJG James Robert Walton, United States Navy, carrier qualified fighter pilot!

 

Jason, would have liked to see him here just visiting because he is a big band leader, playing Carnegie Hall and touring the country,  and giving Glenn Miller a run for his money.

Ben, Elizabeth, Erin, whoo-hoo, quite the lookers! Ben was always a good looking kid though.

 

Disappointing it ended without John and Olivia. I would have made Ralph and Michael an offer they couldn't refuse and had them on the porch swing at the end, looking over their now empty nest.

 

It did end good, the Baldwin sisters speech at the end! Some of the best dialogue in the show, wow!

 

I don't know if I'll watch Seasons 7, 8 and 9. Couldn't watch it without Will Geer, he lit that show up. Missed Ellen Corby too.

I think Cindy and Ben were actually running the mill and house. They must have downsized on everything considerably during the war years, as no one was complaining about all the chores that needed to be done. 

I had assumed that Jason was about to move out, as he made it clear to Elizabeth that while he felt bad for her he was not going to be her father figure. He had Toni waited for him at the Baldwins, I think she was waiting for him to get his own place so she could move in with him. 

And Mary Ellen and Erin were just hanging out to get their fair share of free room and board and no parents to have to take care of before moving on with their lives. 

Jim Bob was looking for work/trying to start his business and would have also been moving out soon. That just left Elizabeth, who Olivia and John really should have just taken along with them to finish up high school in Arizona instead of being left to raise herself. 

[Maherjunkie]

When John lets Jeffrey keep a kitten in the barn to be a mouser, and Mary Ellen says the black snake does that, wouldn't it have eaten the kitten?

[Ubiquitous]

I saw the National Geographic Channel was going to play an investigation into the Hindenburg diaster and all I could think of was John Boy witnessing it on greenscreen, complete with firey bits of newspapers being thrown at him at the scene.