Die Waltons - Nachwuchs für John Boy

I think this movie follows right along with the others. Kate McNiel was wonderful as Janet Walton. Though she was pregnant she looked beautiful in this movie. For some reason I thought that Kate McNeil was the same in all the Waltons movies in the 90's. I do hope they do another reunion movie sometime in the 2000's because I would like to know what each Walton family member is up to especially the father. Thank you and I think that Richard Thomas wouldn't mind telling us about how his two children are up to. Also I would like to see what the father is up to. Even though they might be too old to play the Waltons I think it would still be nice to see everyone again. Maybe they could do one around the time the space shuttle Columbia disaster. I don't know.

When they did the Walton reunion movies with Richard Thomas returning as John Boy the major problem is continuity. First off the year it started with is 1963 some sixteen years after the other reunion movies ten tears earlier with the retconning of Mary Ellen's son John Curtis and her having two children when she couldn't get anymore pregnant and the disappearance of Ben and Cindy's son.

Now with the final movie John and Olivia is celebrating their 40 anniversary which they married in 1929 which in the series the show is set in the Great Depression and all the children was already was born. The explanation is that the writers at the time wanted to make the movies more up to date.

I loved the Waltons as a kid -- it premiered on my seventh birthday. I was so disappointed by the reunion movies. Seeing Ralph Waite recently on Bones made me think about it. Why did they need to "jump the shark" and make a movie out of linear time? They did that the first time with the one about the Kennedy assassination. The original show was perfect -- these final movies (and unless they correct all the errors of the first three I hope they were the final ones) were just heartbreaking for anyone who loved The Waltons. In this movie Mama and Daddy are supposed to be celebrating their 40th anniversary. If that were so, then their first six children were born our of wedlock, and Mama, who is always portrayed as having been a beauty in her youth, withered unmarried on the vine until she was almost 30. We know that's not true -- why make it so fake in a movie based on something we who actually watched the series when it originally ran loved so much? So disappointing. But it's nice to hear John Boy's voice on Mercedes commercials these days.

My opinion is that Kate McNeil works well as John-Boy's wife because she is different from the other actresses the character was interested in on the show. She comes across as a sweet and kind person who has a career and who truly tries to stand up to her meddling aunt in the previous reunion film. She also has blonde hair, as does the real Mrs. Jane "Earl" Hamner in real life. I thought the film wrapped up the story nicely if this is indeed, as it looks, the last Walton reunion film with the original cast. What happens to John-Boy in the end brings him "full circle" in my opinion as a character. We see him reach this place in his life after seeing him years ago for the first time as the struggling young writer.

With the three TV movies, there was little doubt that Hamner and the network were trying to squeeze the last drops of blood from the stone. The anachronisms have been pointed out by others. Beyond that, the series of conflicts (John Boy and his pregnant wife, Elizabeth and Drew, money problems still, etc) were pretty much contrived to pad the script.

It was nice to see the old characters, including Ellen Corby, though. Sad thing is that most of the old timers are now gone, and died some time ago, including Hamner himself. Michael Learned is about the only one left.