The Waltons

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The Waltons
Image:Waltonsdvd.jpg
Cover art for the DVD release of The Waltons first season. Bottom row from left to right; Ben, Mary Ellen, Jim Bob, John-Boy, Olivia, John Sr. Top row from left to right; Grandma (Esther) Walton, Jason, Erin, Elizabeth, Grandpa (Zeb)
Genre Drama
Created by Earl Hamner, Jr.
Starring See cast list below
Narrated by Earl Hamner Jr.
Country of origin Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 9
No. of episodes 221 + 6 TV movies (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) Robert L. Jacks
Andy White
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 14 1972 – June 4 1981
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name, starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. The series pilot was a TV movie entitled The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, broadcast in 1971. The show originally aired in the United States on CBS from 1972 to 1981. After the series left the air, three TV movie sequels were broadcast in 1982, with three more following in the 1990s.

Contents

[edit] Inspiration

Earl Hamner's rural childhood, growing up in the unincorporated community of Schuyler, Virginia, provided the basis for many of the story lines of The Waltons. The setting of the series was referred to as Walton's Mountain. The closest town, Rockfish, is frequently mentioned on the show, as are the larger towns of Charlottesville and Scottsville.

[edit] Plot summary

A family, consisting of John and Olivia Walton and their seven children, as well as John's aging parents, Zebulon "Zeb" and Esther, struggles to make a decent life during the Great Depression and World War II. The family's story is seen through the eyes of John-Boy, the eldest son and an aspiring novelist. John Walton and his father operate a lumber mill, with the Walton sons helping out in the business as they grow older. Occasional strangers needing temporary shelter for various reasons periodically stay with the hospitable Walton family.

In the signature scene that closes almost every episode, the family house is draped in darkness, save for one light in an upstairs window. Through voice-overs, two or more characters have a very brief conversation, often humorous and related to the episode, then bid each other good-night.

After completing high school, John-Boy attends (the fictional) Boatwright College. He later goes to New York to work as a journalist. Richard Thomas, the original John-Boy, left the series in 1976 in an effort to expand his repertoire (his farewell episode aired March 17, 1977). He would make two guest appearances before the role was recast.

For the latter half of the 1976-77 season, Grandma Esther Walton was not seen because actress Ellen Corby had suffered a stroke, which was written into the storyline. In mid 1978, Corby and Will Geer shared one final episode together as Grandma returns from rehab. The following September, it was revealed that Grandpa had died (actor Will Geer had died during the summer hiatus). Subsequent episodes featured Grandma dealing with her diminished ability to move and speak. (In an early episode dealing with Grandpa's illness, the narrator mentions that in coming years, Grandma would be the first to die. This inconsistency was not edited from reruns.)

During the later years of the series, several of the Walton children marry and begin having families of their own.

World War II deeply affects the family. All four of the Walton boys enlist in the military. Mary-Ellen's physician husband Curtis "Curt" Willard is sent to Pearl Harbor and is reported to have perished in the Japanese attack on December 7 1941. Years later, Mary Ellen hears of sightings of her "late" husband, investigates, and finds him alive (played by another actor), but brooding over his war wounds. This was the last time Curt is seen on the show.

The second John-Boy (Robert Wightman) made his debut in "The Waiting" in a storyline involving John-Boy's military plane being shot down. Olivia and John hold a bedside Thanksgiving vigil at the veterans hospital. While reprising the John-Boy character, this was also the last episode Michael Learned had as a contracted regular player. Olivia becomes a volunteer at the hospital and is seen less and less. Eventually, she develops tuberculosis, and must enter an Arizona sanitarium. Olivia's cousin Rose (Peggy Rea) moves in to watch the brood. Two years later, John Sr. moves to Arizona to be near Olivia.

[edit] Emmy awards

The Waltons won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 1973. Also in 1973 Richard Thomas won the Emmy for Lead Actor in a Drama Series. Michael Learned won the Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times (1973, 1974, and 1976). Ellen Corby was also a three-time winner in the Supporting Actress category, winning in 1973, 1975, and 1976. Will Geer was awarded the Supporting Actor Emmy in 1975. Beulah Bondi also won an Emmy in 1977 for Lead Actress in a Single Performance for a guest appearance on the series.

[edit] Cast

¹ These actors were also in 1971’s The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.

Three of the major characters were played by different actors in the 1971 movie pilot. John Walton was played by Andrew Duggan, Olivia Walton by Patricia Neal, and Grandpa Walton by Edgar Bergen. Though all of the child actors who appeared in the original Homecoming movie carried their roles over into the series, Ellen Corby was the only adult actor who made the transition.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of The Waltons episodes


[edit] Ratings

  • 1972-1973:#20[1]
  • 1973-1974:#2[2]
  • 1974-1975:#8[3]
  • 1975-1976:#14[4]
  • 1976-1977:#15[5]
  • 1977-1978:#21[6]

[edit] Movie sequels

  • A Wedding on Walton's Mountain, Feb. 22, 1982
  • Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain, May 9, 1982
  • A Day of Thanks on Walton's Mountain, Nov. 22, 1982
  • A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, Nov. 21, 1993
  • A Walton Wedding, Feb. 12, 1995
  • A Walton Easter, March 30, 1997

[edit] DVD releases

Warner Home Video is releasing The Waltons on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. As of January 2008, the first six seasons have been released. The pilot movie, The Homecoming - A Christmas Story, was released by Paramount Home Entertainment on September 232003 (while Lorimar produced the series, CBS produced the pilot film, which is why Paramount, under CBS DVD, handles home video rights for The Homecoming). The 6th season of The Waltons on DVD will be released on January 82008.[1] The 7th season will be released on April 292008.[2]


DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete 1st Season 25 May 112004
The Complete 2nd Season 25 April 262005
The Complete 3rd Season 25 April 252006
The Complete 4th Season 25 January 232007
The Complete 5th Season 25 May 82007
The Complete 6th Season 25 January 82008
The Complete 7th Season 23 April 292008
The Complete 8th Season 23
The Complete 9th Season 21
Complete Box Set 221

[edit] Current status

The Waltons currently airs on Hallmark Channel weekdays at 8:00am and 9:00am both EST and PST.

[edit] Trivia

  • In the German dubbing version, the name of Zebulon "Zeb" Walton was changed to Samuel "Sam" Walton. The television network ZDF which first aired The Waltons in Germany was worried that the name "Zeb" could be mistaken with "Sepp" which is a Bavarian short form of the name Joseph and could be seen as being cliché. Also, a few minutes were cut from each episode in the German version so that the show would fit into its designated time slot. There were further cuts when the show was re-run on Pro 7.
  • In 1974, "The Carol Burnett Show" did a "Waltons" send-up called "The Walnuts" featuring the family sitting around a hot dog singing, "Things can't get much leaner than Thanksgiving wiener."
  • Whenever Cracked Magazine parodied the Waltons, they invariably had a celebrity or character as an adopted son, adding the suffix "-boy" to his name.
  • In the very first episode of the series (apart from the pilot) the family assembles around their new radio and listens to the Edgar Bergen and Charly McCarthy Show. This was an homage to Bergen who had played Zeb Walton in the pilot (The Homecoming: A Christmas Story). Edgar Bergen was a famous ventriloquist who had vicious dialogues with W. C. Fields in that radio show.
  • Long after the show was done filming, the set was burned down by serial arsonist John Orr.
  • Earl and Mary Frances Hamner actually had 5 sons, but CBS could not afford 8 children, thus Ben is a combination of 2 of Earl Hamner Jr.'s younger brothers.
  • The Baldwin Sisters were actually modeled for a Mother and Daughter.
  • The most recent reunion movie, 1997's "A Waltons Mountain Easter", featured a serious continuity error: Set in 1969 (around the time of the moon landing), the movie found John and Olivia getting ready to celebrate their fortieth wedding anniversary. This would place their marriage in 1929. However, when the Waltons premiered, the series was set somewhere around 1934, and John and Olivia would presumably have already been married for at least sixteen years since their oldest son, John-Boy, was 15. Thus their wedding would have occurred somewhere around 1918. "The Homecoming" also stated that John died in 1969, when Earl Hamner Sr. died, but John is still alive in this movie.
  • The reunion movies seem to have sped time up by more than 16 years, even though the actors have only aged 10 years. By 1963, at the setting of the Thanksgiving Reunion movie, John-Boy should have been 45, and Elizabeth in her late 30's. It seems as though Jason and Toni were both in their 40's when their 2 daughters were born in the last 2 movies. This should have also placed Esther Walton and The Baldwin Sisters in their late 90's to early 100's in the 3 reunion movies, even though the actresses were in their 80's. John and Olivia were supposedly in their 30's-40's during the show, but were only in their 50's-60's in the reunion movies, when they should have been much older.
  • During a speech, then president George H. W. Bush mentioned that he wanted to "make American families more like The Waltons and less like The Simpsons".
  • “Walton’s Mountain” was built in the rear area of the Warner Brothers Studios The house is still, even as of today, used as scenery, for example as “Dragonfly Inn” for the TV series Gilmore Girls.

[edit] External links

nl:The Waltons sv:Familjen Walton

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/The_Waltons"
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