The Waltons - General Discussion

[Blergh]

6 minutes ago, jason88cubs said:

Anyone notice in the very early episodes Olivia would often sit to John's left at the dinner table, then moved to the right? I wonder why they changed that

Camera angles perhaps? Maybe it was more practical for Miss Learned to pour Mr. Waite coffee from his right side (though she and Miss Corby eventually rebelled against their characters' 'More coffee?' lines).

[Egg McMuffin]

I’m betting they changed it because it made it easier to stage the scene as Blergh says.

Ever notice that John calls his parents “Papa” and “Mama” in the early episodes, before they become “Pa” and “Ma”? A holdover from “The Homecoming,” where Livvie also calls Grandpa “Papa”.

[Tim McD]

I've heard both Richard Thomas and Kami Cotler relate how early on in the show's run, the actors, including the kids, decided to "own" their places at the table, and that is where they would sit no matter what. Occasionally a director would ask that they all switch spots for some reason, but they would flatly refuse, and the director would have to work around that. Kinda ballsy for such young whippersnappers!

BTW this is a very interesting interview with Richard Thomas, and he speaks at length about his time on The Waltons:

https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/richard-thomas#show-clips

Has anyone else noticed that some of the episodes on Amazon Prime contain scenes that aren't on the DVDs? We just watched "The Grandchild" on Prime and there were 4 scenes we never saw before.

Edited July 11, 2022 by Tim McD

[Egg McMuffin]

Interesting. Sounds like the DVDs have some syndicated versions on them. It shouldn’t surprise me - the DVD versions were not remastered, so they probably just grabbed whatever prints were available. I know the two-parter “The Burn Out” on DVD is edited. At least the Amazon versions are from new prints.

[jason88cubs]

2 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Interesting. Sounds like the DVDs have some syndicated versions on them. It shouldn’t surprise me - the DVD versions were not remastered, so they probably just grabbed whatever prints were available. I know the two-parter “The Burn Out” on DVD is edited. At least the Amazon versions are from new prints.

well that's to bad. I don't want syndicated version lol

[Egg McMuffin]

The syndicated version of part 1 of “The Burn Out” ends on a really down note, with Olivia crying in John’s arms, and him promising to rebuild the place. But in the unedited version, the scene goes on longer, with John joking with her that she should have married her old boyfriend Oscar who became a state Senator. And she winds up laughing, exasperatedly, and elbows him. Much more upbeat.

[methodwriter85]

Mary McDonough talks to Judy Norton about her tearing off her hat to show off her gorgeous mane of totally Farrah wings in the engagement episode to Paul Northridge, as well as when they decided that Erin could be funny, hence the Southern belle episode.

Their discussion about the hair and why they were basically allowed to get away with the very non-period hairstyles reminds me a lot of When Calls the Heart on Hallmark. I haven't seen the show, but they flat out admitted that they ignore period hair and makeup because they want to their leading ladies to look on-brand, hence the ridiculous beachy waves on them. Period t.v. dramas in general ignore the parts of fashion that they don't deem as flattering for contemporary audiences.

The current reboot movie series hasn't made any of the girls get bobs that would actually be more accurate to the time period, either.

Although in that particular case, since it's not a given that this is becoming a t.v. series, I can see why none of these kids would actually be willing to submit themselves to an accurate haircut for the time period.

Back to the OG series, Elizabeth did get a more accurate bob by the time the show said its final "Goodnight", and Erin kind of had a shoulder length bob for a few years before she grew it out into her miraculous, time-defying Farrah wings for the last year.

On a darker note, they talked about the episode they tried to do about sexual assault and how CBS forced them to water everything down, which upset Michael Lerned.  Judy Norton says that CBS got more hands-on and tighter with everything as the series went on, which makes sense- the show lost their Golden Boy and therefore the network was desperate to keep the show floating.

Edited July 24, 2022 by methodwriter85

[Egg McMuffin]

Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. When your ratings are on the upswing, the network tends to leave you alone more. When you’re declining, they get more hands on, thinking that their input will help stem the decline.

Honestly, I don’t think The Waltons was the place to cover topics like sexual assault.

[Zella]

I think The Waltons did a better job of covering stuff like that than LHOTP, though the bar is on the ground. LOL But yeah the episodes I tended to enjoy the most were not the ones where they highlighted issues. It was at its best as a family drama, dealing with the mundane and everyday in a family of that size in that time and place. 

Edited July 24, 2022 by Zella

[Blergh]

Well, there HAD been at least one earlier episode'The Fire'(Season One, 1972) in which a teen girl had been very badly beaten (as in on the verge of needing hospitalization) by her abusive drunken male DNA donor who went onto to burn Miss Hunter's school down before dying of exposure (I think).

There also was the rather icky undercurrent implied in 'The Grandchild' (Season Seven,1977)  but never verbalized re the troubled orphaned backwoods unmarried girl named Cassie living alone with her creepy grandfather who'd gotten pregnant and the latter burying the stillborn great-grandchild in a box with all the emotion of disposing of a stray cat. It's never said (and not even her health care providers Curt or Mary Ellen ASK) by whom or how she had become pregnant. Nor after they'd discovered Cassie had kidnapped the newborn John Curtis do they ever alude to what her fate after this was: Did she go to prison for the kidnapping? Was she sent to a mental hospital? Did she ever find a life for herself away from her creepy grandfather? Not the slightest hint given.

Hence, the rape 'The Violated' (Season Eight,1979) wasn't too far off the mark of these episodes. I thought it good that Olivia immediately got to the heart of the matter and saw that the victim (the wife of a soldier posted away) had been raped by this drifter who had been previously harassing her via trying to insist on planting a sapling on her property which she only allowed in the hopes to be rid of him. After he had done so, THEN he raped her and the traumatized woman poured lime to kill the sapling but still was quite shattered by the crime.  Olivia tried to report the crime  ( making a beeline from the victim's house to the courthouse STILL in her blue jeans and not in a house dress) the Sheriff  blew her off. ..and it wound up that ALL that could be done was to pull strings to get the victim's husband an Emergency Weekend Pass to try to console her during that tiny window of time AND for John and some of the other men to run the rapist out of the county.  Yeah, he wasn't prosecuted and he had no impediment from attempting to do what he did to the soldier's wife to women in whatever new community he drifted to. When Olivia said that she was upset that nothing more could have been done for the victim or to punish the criminal  at the time, I couldn't help but believe that Miss Learned herself truly MEANT that (and not just for a fictional depiction of an early 1940's tiny town). Still, since nothing else had been done, I can see WHY Miss Learned was frustrated with the network for having somewhat watering down the essence of what this episode was trying to drive home. 

[Tim McD]

On 7/24/2022 at 1:48 PM, Blergh said:

There also was the rather icky undercurrent implied in 'The Grandchild' (Season Seven,1977)  but never verbalized re the troubled orphaned backwoods unmarried girl named Cassie living alone with her creepy grandfather who'd gotten pregnant and the latter burying the stillborn great-grandchild in a box with all the emotion of disposing of a stray cat.

Not to mention Grandpa taking his own grandsons to a strip show. That was weird.

[Blergh]

22 hours ago, Tim McD said:

Not to mention Grandpa taking his own grandsons to a strip show. That was weird.

And let's not forget that this was while Grandma was still in the hospital recuperating from her stroke! Yeah, I really wish John had brought that up instead of excusing Grandpa alone from that since he was' too old to punish'. 😠

[LadyIrony]

On 6/26/2022 at 10:40 AM, jason88cubs said:

I think it's really sad as the show goes on and on you start to see fewer people at the table for dinner

like a real family

 I do prefer that over them going down the usual path and starting to introduce obnoxious babies and kids and other new characters to try and spark new energy into the show. 

On 7/24/2022 at 10:17 PM, Egg McMuffin said:

Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. When your ratings are on the upswing, the network tends to leave you alone more. When you’re declining, they get more hands on, thinking that their input will help stem the decline.

Honestly, I don’t think The Waltons was the place to cover topics like sexual assault.

I think as the show declined and the main stars left the supporting cast stepped up and they probably got to have too much say as well. The girls all would have wanted to build their careers and started to dress and act differently. 

I don't think any of the shows of the 70's and 80's dealt with serious issues well. It was always neatly wrapped up by the end of the ep and never mentioned again in future eps. 

On 7/25/2022 at 1:39 AM, Zella said:

I think The Waltons did a better job of covering stuff like that than LHOTP, though the bar is on the ground. LOL But yeah the episodes I tended to enjoy the most were not the ones where they highlighted issues. It was at its best as a family drama, dealing with the mundane and everyday in a family of that size in that time and place. 

LHOTP is one of those shows where the ep ends and it's like nothing ever happened! Growing up I thought it was a serious show but when I watched it late last year it was almost (unintentionally) comedic. 

On 8/2/2022 at 12:50 PM, Tim McD said:

Not to mention Grandpa taking his own grandsons to a strip show. That was weird.

Which ep was that?! Sounds like an ep of Happy Days where Mr C goes to a strip club and is "busted" by Richie who is there with a fake ID. 

[sATL]

49 minutes ago, LadyIrony said:

49 minutes ago, LadyIrony said:

Not to mention Grandpa taking his own grandsons to a strip show. That was weird

Which ep was that?!Sounds like an ep of Happy Days where Mr C goes to a strip club and is "busted" by Richie who is there with a fake ID. 

http://www.allaboutthewaltons.com/ep-s6/s06-07.php

{7th paragraph... Jason gets a new job...Miss Honeysuckle Rose.}

Edited August 4, 2022 by sATL

[LadyIrony]

20 minutes ago, sATL said:

http://www.allaboutthewaltons.com/ep-s6/s06-07.php

{7th paragraph... Jason gets a new job...Miss Honeysuckle Rose.}

Thanks, I couldn't find the whole ep online but I did find this clip with Judy Norton talking about the episode. It has the scene in it. I do vaguely recall seeing this but it was ages ago. 

Edited August 4, 2022 by LadyIrony

[sATL]

8 minutes ago, LadyIrony said:

Thanks, I couldn't find the whole ep online but I did find this clip with Judy Norton talking about the episode. It has the scene in it. I do vaguely recall seeing this but it was ages ago. 

does the scene show John grinning like a "dirty old man" when he was talking to Jason? Jason was playing a sad song on his guitar alone in his bedroom b/c Olivia didn't approve of his new job.  John said something like " I guess you get used to seeing those women shimmying up there"...

that crept me out more than grandpa taking them there.

Sidenote: Curt bugged me in this episode. Just too clinical and serious.. why, why couldn't they find another actor and writer...

Edited August 4, 2022 by sATL

[LadyIrony]

47 minutes ago, sATL said:

does the scene show John grinning like a "dirty old man" when he was talking to Jason? Jason was playing a sad song on his guitar alone in his bedroom b/c Olivia didn't approve of his new job.  John said something like " I guess you get used to seeing those women shimmying up there"...

that crept me out more than grandpa taking them there.

No, it's really just Jason playing while the dancer does her thing. Then it skips to Jason doing a dance routine at home. 

I would have thought during his time in France during WW1 he may have taken in some of the topless revues they had! They would have made the American Burlesque shows look like a Bible reading!

Edited August 4, 2022 by LadyIrony

[Zella]

2 hours ago, LadyIrony said:

LHOTP is one of those shows where the ep ends and it's like nothing ever happened! Growing up I thought it was a serious show but when I watched it late last year it was almost (unintentionally) comedic. 

I watched the show for the first time last year, and that was my take after the first few seasons (which I thought were pretty solid though they could be heavy on the melodrama). I laughed my ass off all the way through whole later seasons. Though the Waltons definitely declined in quality, I did think it staved off the ridiculous much better in general, minus the last season. 

1 hour ago, sATL said:

Sidenote: Curt bugged me in this episode. Just too clinical and serious.. why, why couldn't they find another actor and writer...

Curt always acted like a pod person, even before he had the excuse of being mysteriously replaced. I was stunned to realize Original Curt was the creepy grandpa in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. LOL

Edited August 4, 2022 by Zella

[LadyIrony]

18 hours ago, Zella said:

I watched the show for the first time last year, and that was my take after the first few seasons (which I thought were pretty solid though they could be heavy on the melodrama). I laughed my ass off all the way through whole later seasons. Though the Waltons definitely declined in quality, I did think it staved off the ridiculous much better in general, minus the last season. 

Curt always acted like a pod person, even before he had the excuse of being mysteriously replaced. I was stunned to realize Original Curt was the creepy grandpa in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. LOL

The Walton's did start getting very soapy at times but it still had more substance than LHOTP. 

The actor who played Curt was previously the barnstormer pilot and I swear he wasn't as cold and one dimensional in that role as he was playing the doctor. As the Doctor he seemed very bored and like he couldn't act at all. 

[methodwriter85]

On 8/5/2022 at 6:20 AM, LadyIrony said:

The Walton's did start getting very soapy at times but it still had more substance than LHOTP.

I love Little House on the Prairie but that show was basically just Michael Landon directing his cast to chew the the scenery as much as possible while coming up with as much wacky hijinks and melodramatic tragedies as possible. This show seems a bit more rooted in naturalistic acting and doesn't really have the campiness which is why stuff like "Mary Ellen gets addicted to pep pills!" all the funnier because they really didn't do the high camp here nearly as much.

I also get the general vibe that Waltons fans don't really seem to make fun of their show nearly as much as Little House on the Prairie fans. 

Edited August 10, 2022 by methodwriter85

[sATL]

11 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I love Little House on the Prairie but that show was basically just Michael Landon directing his cast to chew the the scenery as much as possible while coming up with as much wacky hijinks and melodramatic tragedies as possible. This show seems a bit more rooted in naturalistic acting and doesn't really have the campiness which is why stuff like "Mary Ellen gets addicted to pep pills!" all the funnier because they really didn't do the high camp here nearly as much.

I also get the general vibe that Waltons fans don't really seem to make fun of their show nearly as much as Little House on the Prairie fans. 

One of my top 5 eposides... The look on Jason's face when he asked Mary Ellen if she was keeping herself awake on pills and Daisy had a suspicion when she ran into a tree.

"So what if I am!", Mary Ellen replied..

Jason acted the part perfectly... mouth hanging open and a shocked looked on his face.. he was speechless

[jason88cubs]

I know people say the show suffered when Richard Thomas left, but in a way, it was time for John-Boy to move on. In my opinion

[Zella]

26 minutes ago, jason88cubs said:

I know people say the show suffered when Richard Thomas left, but in a way, it was time for John-Boy to move on. In my opinion

I think both sides are right. I do think the show declined in quality after he left--though to be fair I don't think it truly became unwatchable until his dad left and I also think Grandpa's absence hurt it a lot--but I don't blame him or the character for moving on. 

[jason88cubs]

30 minutes ago, Zella said:

I think both sides are right. I do think the show declined in quality after he left--though to be fair I don't think it truly became unwatchable until his dad left and I also think Grandpa's absence hurt it a lot--but I don't blame him or the character for moving on. 

Agree. When Will Geer passed, it was a huge blow

[Egg McMuffin]

The Waltons is a respectable, Emmy-winning drama that declined in its later seasons. While LHOTP has some decent episodes, it’s ultimate a campy melodrama with all kinds of ridiculousness. Michael Landon had an obsession with the blind, orphans, and blind orphans. There was also, fire, hail, and tornadoes. Raping mimes ran loose. Parents adopted psychotic children and pretended they looked like their biological children who had grown up. Not to mention that the town blew up in the last episode.

[Tim McD]

One of the problems was that they didn't flesh out the siblings enough in the early seasons. Sure they kind of dabbled in Jason's musical stuff and Mary Ellen's nursing endeavors, but that was it. Poor Ben, Erin, Elizabeth and Jim-Bob were kind of left hanging without much defining characteristics (did Elizabeth even have any interests?) Suddenly the show loses John-Boy, Grandpa and Grandma and it was like "Oh crap, we gotta make these other kids interesting!" And I hate to say it but it didn't help that the actors playing the siblings, with the exception of Mary McDonough, were not skilled enough actors to carry a show.

[methodwriter85]

On 8/15/2022 at 10:55 PM, Tim McD said:

Poor Ben, Erin, Elizabeth and Jim-Bob were kind of left hanging without much defining characteristics (did Elizabeth even have any interests?) Suddenly the show loses John-Boy, Grandpa and Grandma and it was like "Oh crap, we gotta make these other kids interesting!" And I hate to say it but it didn't help that the actors playing the siblings, with the exception of Mary McDonough, were not skilled enough actors to carry a show.

Mary McDonough has been pretty open about not being happy that almost everything they gave her revolved around Erin being "the pretty one." She feels like Erin should have become a businesswoman.

Kami Cotler is an English teacher in real life and comes off as a very funny, engaging woman in real life and it's kind of sad they couldn't have worked more of that personality into the show. (You do see more of it in the 90's reunion movies.)

[Zella]

Honestly, I don't think McDonough was a very good actress, and I'm not sure that better storylines would have overcome that. During emotional scenes, I always found her kind of shrill, and a lot of times when she was supposed to seem charming, I thought she came across as obnoxious. I didn't think she had a natural presence or gravitas that would have helped with more serious storylines either. Just in general, she seemed to lack any sort of natural screen charisma. I am sure she's a perfectly nice person IRL, but I am not surprised that her career was pretty limited after the show ended. 

I really do think Richard Thomas was the only one of the kid actors who could really act, so it's not surprising they floundered around in replacing him with the other kids in the more dramatic storylines. And actually John Boy 2.0 wasn't bad either compared to the rest of the kids. Of the girls, I thought Kami was the best actor, but I thought she did a better job in the early seasons. She seemed to be phoning it in toward the end. 

Edited August 17, 2022 by Zella

[methodwriter85]

11 hours ago, Zella said:

Of the girls, I thought Kami was the best actor, but I thought she did a better job in the early seasons. She seemed to be phoning it in toward the end

She didn't really want to act anymore. You can just tell. It happens a lot with child stars that are really good but lose interest. Kami was very lucky in the sense that her parents made sure her money was well-taken care of and she was able to go to college and develop her own interests. She wasn't forced into trying to milk whatever acting gig she could get in order to keep afloat. She had moved on and by the last of the reunion movies she seemed like she was basically playing herself and having fun with it. 

[jason88cubs]

I really like the dirty grittier episodes towards the start of the series.

Kids dirty and sweaty, John coming in from the mill wiping sweat from his brow

I get why they cleaned it up but man they nailed it those first couple of seasons

[jason88cubs]

Just watched "the Search" simply fantastic

[andromeda331]

11 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

I really like the dirty grittier episodes towards the start of the series.

Kids dirty and sweaty, John coming in from the mill wiping sweat from his brow

I get why they cleaned it up but man they nailed it those first couple of seasons

So do I. It really fit better. Kids dirty from being outside playing, John and Grandpa working. It felt realistic.

[methodwriter85]

11 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

Kids dirty and sweaty, John coming in from the mill wiping sweat from his brow

I get why they cleaned it up but man they nailed it those first couple of seasons

It's funny they went from that to Erin shaking out her Jaclyn Smith hair after taking off her hat to get proposed to, lol.

[Blergh]

On 8/18/2022 at 6:42 PM, jason88cubs said:

Just watched "the Search" simply fantastic

I agree! From Jim-Bob acting like a young Tarzan (via recalling Grandpa's lessons about what was safe/unsafe in the woods)  to safeguard Olivia and Elizabeth while they are lost in the unfamiliar woods to Grandpa, John, John-Boy organizing their own search and using clues to even Grandma insisting on busying the girls with chores to keep them from feeling totally helpless and doomed over Olivia, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth, everyone did a great job here!

The only part I thought was lacking was the lack of followup to those moonshiner/squatters that Olivia,etc. inadvertently stumbled upon who, rather than give them shelter or even directions, tied them up then  drove them even FURTHER astray from civilization- even the one woman  in the group(the mother, perhaps) was needlessly hostile to the clearly lost and harmless Olivia who was trying to tend to her youngest children.  I knew someone whose mother had been a schoolteacher in the Appalachians about that era and she said that whenever her mother would need to visit any student's family, she'd ALWAYS would have to shout loudly 'I'm heading to the HOUSE!' so no one would think she was snooping around to seek out any stills. 

Edited August 20, 2022 by Blergh

[jason88cubs]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

I agree! From Jim-Bob acting like a young Tarzan (via recalling Grandpa's lessons about what was safe/unsafe in the woods)  to safeguard Olivia and Elizabeth while they are lost in the unfamiliar woods to Grandpa, John, John-Boy organizing their own search and using clues to even Grandma insisting on busying the girls with chores to keep them from feeling totally helpless and doomed over Olivia, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth, everyone did a great job here!

The only part I thought was lacking was the lack of followup to those moonshiner/squatters that Olivia,etc. inadvertently stumbled upon who, rather than give them shelter or even directions, tied them up then  drove them even FURTHER astray from civilization- even the one woman  in the group(the mother, perhaps) was needlessly hostile to the clearly lost and harmless Olivia who was trying to tend to her youngest children.  I knew someone who's mother had been a schoolteacher in the Appalachians about that era and she said that whenever her mother would need to visit any student's family, they ALWAYS would have to shout loudly 'I'm heading to the HOUSE!' so no one would think they were snooping around to seek out any stills. 

Ellen Corby actually wrote the episode as well

[jason88cubs]

4 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

Ellen Corby actually wrote the episode as well

someone advised me of this on a different forum

https://postlmg.cc/TLPxt7cL

Edited August 19, 2022 by jason88cubs

[Blergh]

18 hours ago, jason88cubs said:

Ellen Corby actually wrote the episode as well

She sure turned out a well-crafted plot (though I believe someone else wrote the actual script with all the dialogue and technical aspects).

IIRC, she also wrote the plot for an episode in which Zeb and Esther separate over a dumb lark on Zeb's part with the Baldwin Sisters that escalated with a major argument. Of course, Esther explored how much she DID love Zeb in spite of knowing how much of an 'old fool' he was- and how touched she was by some impromptu souvenir he'd bought her while on the lark (considering that he'd only bought her what she NEEDED for the household not anything as a pure gift). I wonder if she got any post-network broadcast royalties for those shows she'd plotted.

[jason88cubs]

The one thing about The Waltons that I love is how all the kids were different from one another

[Zella]

3 minutes ago, jason88cubs said:

The one thing about The Waltons that I love is how all the kids were different from one another

I also thought the sibling dynamics were pretty accurate. Their interactions often reminded me of my brothers and myself when we were younger, especially in the early seasons. 

[Blergh]

10 hours ago, Zella said:

I also thought the sibling dynamics were pretty accurate. Their interactions often reminded me of my brothers and myself when we were younger, especially in the early seasons. 

Yeah, I liked how (for all the constant declarations of family closeness) the kids were NOT above squabbling and having misunderstandings. Mary Ellen and Erin in the early years  were constantly squabbling due to Mary Ellen considering Erin to be prissy while Erin didn't approve of Mary Ellen being a 'tomboy'.

[Egg McMuffin]

Just a clarification - Ellen Corby got a “story by” credit for “The Search”, but she did not write the script (it was written by Paul West). She came up with the idea for the story and probably an outline, but the script itself was done by one of the series vets.

[jason88cubs]

21 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Just a clarification - Ellen Corby got a “story by” credit for “The Search”, but she did not write the script (it was written by Paul West). She came up with the idea for the story and probably an outline, but the script itself was done by one of the series vets.

Ah ok!

Still a very good episode though. I really like that Jim Bob stood up and took charge. We see him be such a shy "aw shucks" type of guy it was nice to see him take charge

[Egg McMuffin]

It’s a great episode, agreed. And you have to love the theme of the younger generation learning from the older one. Kudos to Ellen Corby for coming up with the story.

[Tim McD]

We just watched "The Dust Bowl Cousins," an episode I appreciate more and more. The actors playing Ham and Cora look like they stepped right out of a Dorothea Lange photograph, and they do a great job of portraying Cora's weariness and Ham's kind of manic desperation. I also like the brief appearance of Kick Ass Grandpa, single-handedly disarming a pitchfork-wielding Job and dragging him and JB away by the scruff of their necks.

[Egg McMuffin]

“The Dust Bowl Cousins” is one of my favorite episodes. The theme of the Waltons opening their home and then being taken advantage of is a great one. I love that halfway through the episode Olivia finally figures out that these visitors are poisoning the warm family atmosphere she’s worked so hard to build. And good for Grandma for not holding back her anger at these people.

The only thing that marred it for me was the faux-upbeat ending where John Boy narrates that Ham Denby made a go of it in New York State (?) after the family left Walton’s Mountain. I found that hard to believe because Ham Denby was a morally bankrupt dirtbag, and his wife was clearly his biggest enabler.

[Blergh]

To be fair, after Cora (NOT to be confused with the later Cora Beth)got confronted with how much her husband Ham and their son Job's antics got called out, she decided that they had caused enough trouble for HER kin (she was Zeb's niece by one of his late brothers who had been pestered by Ham to get her  late father's share ) and insisted their nuclear family had to leave to spare the others. It truly was great seeing her find her backbone and quit enabling the two! Of course, it was telling that  earlier when Ham and Job were shoplifting at Ike's store, Ham insisted to their son to keep this thievery from Cora.

All-in-all, I think the Regular Waltons were just relieved for Cora's husband and son to go away that they didn't care where they went or. ..even what happened to them as long as they never bothered the Regular Waltons again!

[Egg McMuffin]

Very good points, Blergh. I think Cora was aware of previous issues with Ham and Job but  she closed her eyes to it (she made a comment how her “pride blew away” in the dust bowl). But as you said, she stood up to him and did the right thing at the end.

[sATL]

10 hours ago, Tim McD said:

We just watched "The Dust Bowl Cousins," an episode I appreciate more and more. The actors playing Ham and Cora look like they stepped right out of a Dorothea Lange photograph, and they do a great job of portraying Cora's weariness and Ham's kind of manic desperation. I also like the brief appearance of Kick Ass Grandpa, single-handedly disarming a pitchfork-wielding Job and dragging him and JB away by the scruff of their necks.

Is this the same visiting family where the son tried to passionately kiss young Erin? I'm trying to remember what the daughter was up to - who she was trying to corrupt. 

And the mother didn't know how to operate the stove - which appeared even if the stove was the top of the line fancy model, she still would have been lost in the kitchen.

Edited August 24, 2022 by sATL

[crazy8s]

1 hour ago, sATL said:

Is this the same visiting family where the son tried to passionately kiss young Erin? I'm trying to remember what the daughter was up to - who she was trying to corrupt. 

And the mother didn't know how to operate the stove - which appeared even if the stove was the top of the line fancy model, she still would have been lost in the kitchen.

not the same family.

 The family in the one you mention was the Hanover family who fled NY because the dad wanted to return to the family homestead on the mountain when he lost all his money in the stock market crash.

[Tim McD]

11 hours ago, sATL said:

Is this the same visiting family where the son tried to passionately kiss young Erin? I'm trying to remember what the daughter was up to - who she was trying to corrupt. 

And the mother didn't know how to operate the stove - which appeared even if the stove was the top of the line fancy model, she still would have been lost in the kitchen.

That's "The Spoilers" from season 3. The dad is this clueless doofus who moves his family to the middle of nowhere and doesn't know how to do anything. When John asks him how he plans to make a living, he actually says something like "Gee, I hadn't given it much thought, do you have any ideas John?" And yeah the son rips Erin's dress trying to make a move on her, and the daughter gets irrationally enraged when John-Boy refuses to follow her advice on writing.