The Waltons - General Discussion

[HyeChaps]

I liked the war years

[Blergh]

Oh, not only did I loathe how they had Mary Ellen's husband Curt Willard who had supposedly died nobly helping tend to the wounded in Pearl Harbor turned out to have survived BUT been so ashamed of being physically debilitated from being able to have a 'real marriage' with Mary Ellen so he let her (and their toddler son John Curtis) believe he had DIED instead of fessing up. UGH!! Oh, and it wasn't even the original performer playing the part but they brought some new performer to do this totally thankless one-shot role.

Of course, they started Season Nine on another infuriating note. OK, with even Elizabeth becoming a teen, they'd brought in two preteen cousins at the start of Season Eight (Serena and Jeffrey) to bring back the 'cute kid' draw. The problem was that they never seemed to quite mesh with the other  regular characters so I wasn't unhappy that they decided not to bring them back for Season Nine. However, HOW they had them exited was rather infuriating. The entire reason  that they were on Walton's Mountain was that their paternal grandmother (Olivia's Cousin Rose) had fled with them to protect them from being physically abused by their drunken male parent (her own son) and she believed that if Casa Walton wouldn't give them shelter, she'd have no choice but for all of them to return to this abuser and be sitting ducks.  Yes, evidently their mother had died quite young and their male parent took out his angst in the bottle and became a mean, abusive drunk as a result. OK, so how was Serena and Jeffrey's exit done? Why Cousin Rose explained to Verdi that her son had REMARRIED and his new wife somehow was able to keep him off the sauce so, on the basis of THAT, her grandkids were back to living with him and she was SURE that his new wife would  be able to keep them safe and sound from a man who refused to heed the pleas of his own mother to be merciful to his children!  And that was the VERY last time they were   mentioned. ARGGHH!!!

And, no Rose didn't consider at least being in  the same city (Baltimore) as her progeny to at least keep an eye on the youngest and most vulnerable generation- she stayed right on Walton's Mountain almost to the end of the series when she got married to her old beau Stanley Perkins with Jason giving her away but even then  neither her son or grandkids were mentioned- much less attended that wedding. 

If they HAD to get rid of the kids and keep Cousin Rose, surely they could have thought of a better ending that sending them back to their abusive ,boozing parent they'd FLED from. Perhaps they might  had it that they had an on their late mother's side who was married to a Naval commander who'd been stationed in Australia and only recently were able to retrieve the children but she knew they were good, trustworthy sober guardians.

Yeah, things sure skidded downhill once Grandma had her stroke, then Grandpa died  (although these things had happened to the eldest performers beyond their control) then Original John-Boy left, then Olivia left [twice!] before John, Sr. left himself to join her!  

Edited April 3, 2021 by Blergh

[Egg McMuffin]

You’re right about Rose and the kids. Of course, I couldn’t stand those annoying little munchkins and was happy to see them gone no matter what the reason. But you’d think they could have found a better way to write them out.

Olivia leaving was the worst. I missed Johnboy, Original Recipe, as well as the grandparents. But what happened to those characters felt organic to the story. Children grow up and leave home, and grandparents get sick and pass away. It’s just part of life.

They were never able to properly explain Olivia’s absence. Oh, she has tuberculosis and has to go away to rest! She eventually gets better and contractually returns for a handful of episodes. Then she’s off to volunteer at the Red Cross in Washington to be near injured Johnboy II. OK now Johnboy II is better but Olivia is still away volunteering for some odd reason. While Elizabeth and Jim Bob are still minors and Grandma isn’t around to run the house? Ridiculous. And then the war’s over and Olivia’s TB is conveniently back, so she’s off to Arizona! Very contrived.

[Katy M]

5 hours ago, Blergh said:

Oh, not only did I loathe how they had Mary Ellen's husband Curt Willard who had supposedly died nobly helping tend to the wounded in Pearl Harbor turned out to have survived BUT been so ashamed of being physically debilitated from being able to have a 'real marriage' with Mary Ellen so he let her (and their toddler son John Curtis) believe he had DIED instead of fessing up. UGH!! Oh, and it wasn't even the original performer playing the part but they brought some new performer to do this totally thankless one-shot role.

Literally my least favorite episode.  It was so stupid.  And pointless.  I guess it was supposed to give Mary Ellen closure so that she could move on with Jonesy, but there were tons of war widows who had the same problem.  Why not treat it more naturally.

5 hours ago, Blergh said:

Of course, they started Season Seven on another infuriating note. OK, with even Elizabeth becoming a teen, they'd brought in two preteen cousins at the start of Season Eight (Serena and Jeffrey) to bring back the 'cute kid' draw. The problem was that they never seemed to quite mesh with the other  regular characters so I wasn't unhappy that they decided not to bring them back for Season Nine. However, HOW they had them exited was rather infuriating. The entire reason  that they were on Walton's Mountain was that their paternal grandmother (Olivia's Cousin Rose) had fled with them to protect them from being physically abused by their drunken male parent (her own son) and she believed that if Casa Walton wouldn't give them shelter, she'd have no choice but for all of them to return to this abuser and be sitting ducks.  Yes, evidently their mother had died quite young and their male parent took out his angst in the bottle and became a mean, abusive drunk as a result. OK, so how was Serena and Jeffrey's exit done? Why Cousin Rose explained to Verdi that her son had REMARRIED and his new wife somehow was able to keep him off the sauce so, on the basis of THAT, her grandkids were back to living with him and she was SURE that his new wife would  be able to keep them safe and sound from a man who refused to heed the pleas of his own mother to be merciful to his children!  And that was the VERY last time they were even mentioned. ARGGHH!!!

I thought that was stupid, too.  Another easy fix would be to have a maternal uncle who was in the war and slightly injured (enough to have to come home early, not enough to be a major problem) and who also just got married and have the kids live with them because Rose thinks a nuclear family like that would be best.  And explain why it wasn't available a year ago.

[Egg McMuffin]

On 12/27/2020 at 7:40 PM, Wonkabar5 said:

Yeah, he bullied “Rose” the maid from Upstairs Downstairs, who co created the show with Eileen Aitkins.  I wonder if that was shot when she was on a  U.S. PBS promotional tour for her series

He practically harasses that poor woman into a nervous breakdown. Johnboy can be awfully annoying at times. But that episode is worth catching because of the presence of the great Jean Marsh, from Upstairs Downstairs.

I try to pretend that Curt coming back from the dead never happened. Apparently Tom Bower left the show earlier because he wanted a raise and they wouldn’t give it to him. So Curt “died” at Pearl Harbor. And when they wanted to bring him back, they still wouldn’t pay Bower what he wanted, not even for a single episode. So they recast. Ugh. As if Curt would pretend to be dead and abandon his young son. Terrible.

[Blergh]

18 hours ago, Kyle said:

You’re right about Rose and the kids. Of course, I couldn’t stand those annoying little munchkins and was happy to see them gone no matter what the reason. But you’d think they could have found a better way to write them out.

Olivia leaving was the worst. I missed Johnboy, Original Recipe, as well as the grandparents. But what happened to those characters felt organic to the story. Children grow up and leave home, and grandparents get sick and pass away. It’s just part of life.

They were never able to properly explain Olivia’s absence. Oh, she has tuberculosis and has to go away to rest! She eventually gets better and contractually returns for a handful of episodes. Then she’s off to volunteer at the Red Cross in Washington to be near injured Johnboy II. OK now Johnboy II is better but Olivia is still away volunteering for some odd reason. While Elizabeth and Jim Bob are still minors and Grandma isn’t around to run the house? Ridiculous. And then the war’s over and Olivia’s TB is conveniently back, so she’s off to Arizona! Very contrived.

And for her to MISS Jim-Bob's high school graduation without even sending word despite DC only being a few hours down the highway/trainline? Yeah, Cousin Rose was there to do the household chores, pour the coffee, make some wisecracks AND have been too .  . much for John to have been tempted to consider to do anything off with but it's bogus that Jim-Bob wouldn't have wanted his own mother to have witnessed his graduation ceremony AND that Olivia would't have used everything she had to move Heaven and Earth to be there for him during that once-in-a-lifetime landmark.even if she'd had to spent the whole day travelling back and forth to have done so and/or been wheeled in on a sickbed. 

Edited April 4, 2021 by Blergh

[Inquisitionist]

Richard Gilliand, who played Jonesy in the last season, passed away recently at the age of 71.  Articles mention "a brief illness" but do not specify cause of death.  😢

 

[Egg McMuffin]

I was sorry to hear about Richard Gilliland. He’s one of the best things about the later episodes of the Waltons - Jonesy worked really well as a character and we should have seen more of him. He had a lightheartedness and joviality about him that we hadn’t seen since Grandpa passed away.

[CraftyHazel]

“The Cloudburst”

John Boy sells off John Boy’s Meadow, a piece of land that has been in the family for generations, to people who plan to run a hydraulic mine there...all to save the precious printing press that he’ll be abandoning soon anyway.

I’ve always been a John Boy apologist, but nope.  There is zero justification for him in this episode.  From his lack of curiosity or foresight, to his complete and utter disregard for his grandfather’s feelings, I just want to smack him one.

Edited April 9, 2021 by CraftyHazel

[merylinkid]

That's John Boy for you.   Mr. RIGHT NOW.   Remember when he hadn't heard from the publisher so he travels all the way to NYC to demand she read his manuscript.   Because of course she has nothing else to do and she was just being mean by making him wait for a response.

[CraftyHazel]

1 hour ago, merylinkid said:

That's John Boy for you.   Mr. RIGHT NOW.   Remember when he hadn't heard from the publisher so he travels all the way to NYC to demand she read his manuscript.   Because of course she has nothing else to do and she was just being mean by making him wait for a response.

True.  I think I had such a young-teen crush on him in the first episode of the series that I never completely got over.  But he was an ass a lot of the time.  In this episode, the one you mentioned, the one where he...the ONLY person in an 11-person household with a room to himself, mind you...just has to have the shed, too, for his own private space, and in many others where he pushes his nose in where it has no business being.

**small voice**I still love him a little bit, though.

[Blergh]

18 minutes ago, CraftyHazel said:

True.  I think I had such a young-teen crush on him in the first episode of the series that I never completely got over.  But he was an ass a lot of the time.  In this episode, the one you mentioned, the one where he...the ONLY person in an 11-person household with a room to himself, mind you...just has to have the shed, too, for his own private space, and in many others where he pushes his nose in where it has no business being.

**small voice**I still love him a little bit, though.

Yeah, and he expects (and gets) every other family member to worship him for writing about them- as though he's doing them a tremendous favor for doing so and this also gets extended to virtually all the townsfolks including Ike and the Baldwin Sisters. Virtually the only ones who don't automatically kowtow to Mr. Family Writer are Corabeth, Curtis and Marsha Woollery.

Back to the original episode, yes, I agree that it's infuriating that he failed to understand just how utterly heartless he was to Grandpa (and to an extent, Grandma, John, Olivia and the rest of his siblings) for selling off that land that Grandpa had entrusted him to use to keep that part of Mountain in its natural state for the rest of John Boy's life!  Yes, sometimes Grandpa flew off the handle for no good reason and had his feathers ruffled too easily, but that time I TOTALLY got why he felt so heartbroken and betrayed  about what had happened  and  why he wasted no time in trying to preserve those rare mountain plants! Did John Boy truly think that anyone he'd sell of that land for easy money would have just used it for a nature retreat (although with no one else selling their land after John Boy spread the word re what the industrialist was up to, it more or less wound up being that for that person)?

Oh, but the irony is that Judy Norton (Mary Ellen) recently paid tribute Earl Hamner, Jr. and said that, in spite of being the show's producer who constantly visited the set and wanted to convey an idealized version  of his own boyhood, she never ONCE heard Mr. Hamner raise his voice or lose his temper- something that viewers could count on the Original  John Boy doing virtually every single episode he was in. Yes, more than once I would watch the show and hear the soothing, soft-spoken Narrator's voice and wonder how did he go from being such a diva teen hothead to being virtually Zen like as an adult? One thing the late Mr. Hamner and Mr. Thomas DO have in common is that fact that they each appeared decades younger than their chronological ages until the former's mortal decline. 

[Egg McMuffin]

John Boy can be awfully self-centered and sanctimonious at times. He’s always telling his siblings to be honest. But when they had the house fire and he thought his pipe might have caused it, he hid the evidence and kept his big, hypocritical trap shut. You know damned well that if Ben had come to him and confessed that he thought he started the house fire, John Boy would have been all like “You better go tell your mama and daddy about that!”

The Cloudburst is actually one of my favorite episodes, because it doesn’t have a pat, happy ending. JB is arrogant at the end, telling the hydromining guy that he should sell the meadow back. And the hydromining guy declines. Adult John Boy narrates that that land was never to be owned by their family again.

[JayDub1987]

I grew up with parents who loved this show and I hated it. During quarantine, I found myself watching it and am completely captured by it's innocence, wholesomeness and truth. So glad to see that there are others still discussing it. I'll definitely be visiting this forum more often going forward!

[JayDub1987]

On 4/9/2021 at 8:00 PM, Kyle said:

John Boy can be awfully self-centered and sanctimonious at times. He’s always telling his siblings to be honest. But when they had the house fire and he thought his pipe might have caused it, he hid the evidence and kept his big, hypocritical trap shut. You know damned well that if Ben had come to him and confessed that he thought he started the house fire, John Boy would have been all like “You better go tell your mama and daddy about that!”

The Cloudburst is actually one of my favorite episodes, because it doesn’t have a pat, happy ending. JB is arrogant at the end, telling the hydromining guy that he should sell the meadow back. And the hydromining guy declines. Adult John Boy narrates that that land was never to be owned by their family again.

So glad to see that I'm not the only one who is often annoyed by John Boy. Even in the early years when John and Zeb were tirelessly working to try to keep food on the table, John Boy was holed up in his room writing about how hard they were working. He was plenty old enough to be out there helping, and during that era of American history, that's exactly where he would have been.

I can't remember the exact episode, but I saw one within the last couple days where John told John Boy to stack some wood but he wanted to go somewhere. When Zeb told him that he would do it, John Boy happily yelled, "Daddy! Grandpa said he'd do the work!" Like...who the hell does that?!?! "Sure glad I dodged that work, I'll let my elderly grandpa do it for me." I thought more times than not that John needed to go upside John Boy's head. 

[Tim McD]

On 1/24/2019 at 5:05 PM, millennium said:

More disquieting though is the sharp decline in story quality and production values that followed in Season 6.   The show has a much different feel and not merely because Richard Thomas is absent.   The stories seem painfully contrived as the Walton home is no longer the scene of family drama as much as a venue for other people's drama -- and often at the expense of credibility.  Yesterday I watched one of the most preposterous stories thus far: an elderly Indian and his grandson arrive to lay claim to an old Indian burial ground beneath the Walton's barn.  

The show definitely went into decline after the triple whammy of Richard Thomas leaving, Ellen Corby's stroke (which pretty much took her off the show) and Will Geer's death. The focus of most of the storylines were switched over to the siblings, which was unfortunate because those actors weren't very good or charismatic. Several episodes were absolute disasters, such as the one mentioned above or "The Changeling," otherwise known as the infamous Waltons poltergeist episode. Having said all that, the first 5 seasons, especially seasons 1 and 2, was some of the best drama on 1970s TV.

[Katy M]

5 minutes ago, Tim McD said:

Several episodes were absolute disasters, such as the one mentioned above or "The Changeling," otherwise known as the infamous Waltons poltergeist episode.

That episode was ridiculous.  I probably didn't when I saw it as a kid, but I saw it a couple of years ago and couldn't help laughing at that "scary" rag doll.  That was jsut so (I don't even know the word I want) melodramatic, maybe?  I mean I realize that this was not a show that generally had to do a lot in the arena of special effects, but even so that was just pathetic.  And I thought the whole idea of a poltergeist on this show was stupid.  I also didn't like the ouija board episode for the same reason.

[Egg McMuffin]

Season 7 is the moment for me when it declined to the point where I didn’t want to watch it anymore. Season 6 is a step down from the prime years, but the entire original cast is still there in some capacity (Richard Thomas appears in three episodes and Ellen Corby in one). And there are still some simple yet high-quality stories that could have played out in the show’s earlier years (The Celebration, The Stray, The Anniversary). Way too many melodramatic multiparters that year, though (Mary Ellen’s baby is born, the English children come for Christmas, another family member - Elizabeth this time - is paralyzed, the town mine collapses).

Season 7 has no Johnboy or Grandpa. Olivia is there on a part time basis, and her absences always felt terribly contrived. And this is when the melodrama really got amped up (Mary Ellen has a drug problem which she overcomes in one episode, Corabeth has a drinking problem which she overcomes in one episode) or the stories were just plain weird (Erin and that emotionally disturbed artist, Elizabeth and her poltergeist).

Edited June 25, 2021 by Kyle

[Blergh]

On 6/24/2021 at 7:51 PM, Kyle said:

Season 7 is the moment for me when it declined to the point where I didn’t want to watch it anymore. 

Season 7  the stories were just plain weird (Erin and that emotionally disturbed artist, Elizabeth and her poltergeist).

The creepy thing about the emotionally disturbed artist episode is that the actual painter of the portrait wound up getting a bit unstrung over it and what became of the picture is a bit unclear.  Truly, that seemed as though it would have worked better as an entirely separate Playhouse 90 or General Electric Theater production from the 1950's  by which time    folks were admitting just how troubled some of the more 'shellshocked' WWII vets actually were. 

Also, I agree that the poltergeist one is best simply forgotten. 

Truly, with all the original adult Waltons scattered to the wind by the end of Season Seven ( with even John and Cousin Rose  gone by the end), if it weren't for Ike& Corabeth along with the Baldwin Sisters, there'd be little if anything worth watching. Moreover, by the time it ended, it seemed as though Walton's Mountain might as well have been in a Midwestern suburb and ,it seemed that with Grandpa dead, the younger Waltons had nothing to stop them from looking down their noses at those who still seemed to be '  unreconstructed mountaineers'.  While I can understand that with the galloping influence of the radio then with WWII   overwhelming everyone's life, that they weren't as isolated as they were when the show started with just Ike's General Store with its irregular mail service and its telephone (that John Boy needed Ike to demonstrate how to use) being the ONLY links to the outside world, it still was somewhat sad to see. I mean, the original Opening Theme featured an autoharp in the first part but this seemed as though it was something the younger post WWII Waltons would have sneered at by the time the show ended. 

[Egg McMuffin]

The younger Waltons also - gasp - stopped going to church by the end of the series. They actually acknowledge it on screen — there’s an episode where a new minister shows up and is shocked by how the church has fallen into disrepair. And adult Johnboy narrates that without Livvie and Grandma around (to force people to go, though he doesn’t say that), they fell out of the habit.

[Blergh]

1 hour ago, Kyle said:

The younger Waltons also - gasp - stopped going to church by the end of the series. They actually acknowledge it on screen — there’s an episode where a new minister shows up and is shocked by how the church has fallen into disrepair. And adult Johnboy narrates that without Livvie and Grandma around (to force people to go, though he doesn’t say that), they fell out of the habit.

I'd say that the two senior  Mrs. Waltons  weren't around to guilt the others to go. Of course, while it's clear that Olivia is supposed to be in Arizona getting the TB dry air and rest treatment, it's somewhat unclear where Esther is supposed to be. I know she was supposed to be 'visiting' her unseen (and previously unmentioned) sister Angie in Buckingham County but it didn't seem as though she was supposed to have permanently moved there (and would Angie been fit enough to take care of her stroke-challenged sister and did Angie have her own family that might have helped out).  

Still, it's hard to believe that Olivia in particular wouldn't have done all she could to have nagged encouraged her offspring (especially her youngest two who were not yet adults) to have gone via letters and phone calls (and no doubt there'd have been enough hometown gossips to have blabbed back to her in Arizona re her family no longer being churchgoers).  I also wouldn't have put it past Olivia to have pressured Cousin Rose to do more than make coffee and wisecracks but to actually strongarm on Olivia's behalf them going to church. 

And, while Esther had impaired speech, she could still give those 'don't [blank] with me, kids' looks! 

[Egg McMuffin]

LOL @ guilt - well put.

I believe they actually said at one point that Grandma was off helping to take care of her sick sister, rather than vice versa. Not sure how much help she would have been able to give given her physical disability, but they had to come up with a reason for her absence since Ellen Corby was no longer regularly appearing.

I do think that if Grandma were around, she would have gotten most or all of the kids to church and they would have done it purely out of respect for her, if nothing else. Rose didn’t have that kind of sway over them.

[bobalina]

In the new minister they mention that the church was vandalized and people were going to Rockfish.

[Blergh]

On 7/8/2021 at 8:52 PM, bobalina said:

In the new minister they mention that the church was vandalized and people were going to Rockfish.

One has to wonder WHO vandalized the Walton's Mountain Baptist church- and why! Of course, it's  sad that it was just mentioned as something that had happened without any of the characters addressing what one would have thought would have been considered a sacrilegious outrage by the community instead or treating it as though it as mundane as Yancy getting a flat tire from a nail. 

[Egg McMuffin]

Probably the second Aimee Godsey, rebelling against her overly controlling mother.

[bobalina]

Bosses from Camp Rockfish or defence workers on a wild Saturday night.

[bobalina]

Don't know where to put this but The Homecoming has been remade, will show Nov. 28 and Richard Thomas is the narrator.

Edited November 17, 2021 by bobalina

[JayDub1987]

12 hours ago, bobalina said:

Don't know where to put this but The Homecoming has been remade, will show Nov. 28 and Ricgard Thomas is the narrator.

I was coming here to share the same thing. From what I've read, this movie is going to serve as a test run, and if things go well, the CW may be interested in running more remade Waltons content. I'm looking forward to it!

[Egg McMuffin]

Ben has been eliminated from the new movie. CW Boss: “There are too many kids running around! Eliminate one of them!”

[merylinkid]

1 hour ago, Kyle said:

Ben has been eliminated from the new movie. CW Boss: “There are too many kids running around! Eliminate one of them!”

Bwahahaha.   Ben was ALREADY a composite of two of the real life brothers.   Now he's gone altogether.   

[Egg McMuffin]

Warner Bros did a screening for it last weekend and some of the original cast attended. Eric Scott (Ben) said a producer assured him that Ben will be part of any future Waltons projects. I wonder how they’ll explain his sudden reappearance. 😀

[Inquisitionist]

A black minister on Walton's Mountain in 1933?  Now that's wishful thinking. 

14 hours ago, Kyle said:

Ben has been eliminated from the new movie. CW Boss: “There are too many kids running around! Eliminate one of them!”

Or did they just rename his character?  Who the heck is Toby Walton?  

ETA: the family photos do show just 6 kids.  Maybe Toby is a cousin...

Edited November 18, 2021 by Inquisitionist
More info

[bobalina]

2 hours ago, Inquisitionist said:

A black minister on Walton's Mountain in 1933?  Now that's wishful thinking. 

Or did they just rename his character?  Who the heck is Toby Walton?  

ETA: the family photos do show just 6 kids.  Maybe Toby is a cousin...

Rev Dooly was in the original movie. There were always black people on the mountain. In the beginning Ike had an assistant who was black and if course Verdie.

[Blergh]

7 hours ago, Kyle said:

Warner Bros did a screening for it last weekend and some of the original cast attended. Eric Scott (Ben) said a producer assured him that Ben will be part of any future Waltons projects. I wonder how they’ll explain his sudden reappearance. 😀

In the original Waltons, Ben was supposed to have been named after John's brother who'd fallen in WWI. Maybe Mr. Scott will portray Uncle Ben who somehow will have survived the Great War!

Edited November 18, 2021 by Blergh

[Inquisitionist]

3 hours ago, bobalina said:

Rev Dooly was in the original movie. There were always black people on the mountain. In the beginning Ike had an assistant who was black and if course Verdie.

I stand corrected.  Thank you.  

[Egg McMuffin]

3 hours ago, bobalina said:

Rev Dooly was in the original movie. There were always black people on the mountain. In the beginning Ike had an assistant who was black and if course Verdie.

I liked Hawthorne Dooley, both when Cleavon Little played him in the movie and Teddy Wilson for an episode or two in the first season. The churches were segregated - Rev Dooley was the minister of a Black church. Cleavon Little did an episode of the series as a different character, but again with a religious bent: a boxer who wanted to build a church and preach.

I think the original show tried to be progressive within reason when it came to race. There’s an episode where a young orphan played by Todd Bridges takes a liking to John, and Livvie wants to take him in permanently. John reminds her of the reasons why they can’t and Livvie says, “I know, and I hate it.” Verdie winds up adopting him.

Edited November 18, 2021 by Kyle

[Blergh]

On 11/18/2021 at 1:56 PM, Kyle said:

I liked Hawthorne Dooley, both when Cleavon Little played him in the movie and Teddy Wilson for an episode or two in the first season. The churches were segregated - Rev Dooley was the minister of a Black church. Cleavon Little did an episode of the series as a different character, but again with a religious bent: a boxer who wanted to build a church and preach.

I think the original show tried to be progressive within reason when it came to race. There’s an episode where a young orphan played by Todd Bridges takes a liking to John, and Livvie wants to take him in permanently. John reminds her of the reasons why they can’t and Livvie says, “I know, and I hate it.” Verdie winds up adopting him.

Young Mr. Bridges played   another orphan on LHOTP that the Ingallses took in for a time and what must have been crushingly ironic for Mr. Bridges was to contemplate how things had NOT gotten more fair for African-American  children or those who sympathized with them in the roughly 60 year time frame separating those two shows!

[bobalina]

My first thought at the new movie is OMG these kids can act. And that Judy Norton is old enough to play Grandma.

[Egg McMuffin]

Everything and everyone looked too pretty and shiny and picture perfect. John Boy is an underwear model now? Way too much CGI. It’s as if The Waltons was remade for the Hallmark Channel.

[bobalina]

I really think we can skip this as a result boot.

[bobalina]

47 minutes ago, bobalina said:

I really think we can skip this as reboot.

 

[KHenry14]

My biggest issue with this show tonight was the air of prosperity in the show. The original show had a weathered, dingy look. A look that felt like the depression was all around them. That didn't come through tonight. 

Also, no Ben? And why are Zeb and Ester not living at the family house? And the girl portraying Elizabeth seems too old.

 

With all that said, I hope the series goes forward. I like the actors, especially the new Mary Ellen. And there is enough there to build upon.

 

[Egg McMuffin]

One of the crew members posted to TV Line and said that they had a very limited budget, so that’s likely the reason for no Ben.

I also liked Mary Ellen. In the credits, the actors playing John Boy and Mary Ellen were billed first and second, separately from the rest of the cast. My guess is that if they move forward with a series, those two will be the focal point. I imagine that Grandma and Grandpa would only be recurring guest stars in a potential series (this is the CW after all; the focus is on youth), and the movie sets it up with them living elsewhere.

[JayDub1987]

As a longtime fan of The Walton's, I enjoyed the reboot for what it was: a reboot. When you have those, some things change. I'm hoping that the ratings and reviews were strong enough that they will bring it back as a rebooted show that may be a bit closer to the original show. The Homecoming in 1971 and the TV show weren't exactly the same either, so having some changes shouldn't be too hard to explain away.

[bobalina]

I don't understand what the point of a reboot is if you pretty much change it. The new Wonder Years is basically the same told from a different perspective. The show was okay but why not call it something else and go from there,

[methodwriter85]

On 11/29/2021 at 12:39 AM, Kyle said:

Everything and everyone looked too pretty and shiny and picture perfect. John Boy is an underwear model now? Way too much CGI. It’s as if The Waltons was remade for the Hallmark Channel.

I enjoyed it, but I do agree with you. I do think it's kind of inevitable that John Boy would be prettied up-  you just do not see average looking kids leading t.v. shows anymore. The same thing kind of extended to the parents.

The CGI is because they tried filming a Christmas movie in Georgia in July. 

I personally think it should go to Hallmark or GMAC (or whatever they're calling it now) because this doesn't feel like something that the CW does, but maybe that's a good thing. There's a good chance this might be get picked up because the CW greenlights a lot.

I do think the acting was good. I don't know why everyone seems to be freaking out so much about Ben being missing. LOL.

Edited December 3, 2021 by methodwriter85

[Katy M]

For some reason I find it funny that if they decided the needed to get rid of a kid that they picked Ben.  Ben was originally already a combination of 2 people.  Also, when I found that out as a kid, I thought he should have been the one named Jim Bob, in other words 2 names.

[HyeChaps]

JimBob was already a surviving twin. 

[Egg McMuffin]

5 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I do think the acting was good. I don't know why everyone seems to be freaking out so much about Ben being missing. LOL.

Agreed, especially since it’s likely that John Boy and Mary Ellen would be the focus of any follow-on series. The actors playing those roles were billed first and second and their names appeared individually on screen. Most of the other actors who were billed after them “shared” their onscreen credit with other actors. Also, the other kids had very little to do, so I don’t think it matters if there are four or five other children.

[Blergh]

4 hours ago, Kyle said:

Agreed, especially since it’s likely that John Boy and Mary Ellen would be the focus of any follow-on series. The actors playing those roles were billed first and second and their names appeared individually on screen. Most of the other actors who were billed after them “shared” their onscreen credit with other actors. Also, the other kids had very little to do, so I don’t think it matters if there are four or five other children.

Well, Doris Hamner herself said that she managed to feed and clothe eight children from the Depression onward but CBS could only budget for seven.  Now the other network only has the pockets for six!  Maybe eventually, John-Boy will wind up being depicted as John and Olivia's only child!