A Walton Easter

I'm confused if it's 1969 and. Olivia and John are celebrating their 40 wedding annivsary which means they would have married in 1929?? But John Boy was born in 1916 which would make him 53??? I'm so confused.

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.

For some reason, creator Hamner has no problem ignoring true-time. The original series was so well produced, acted and directed, with a serious consideration of the time period. To start randomly selecting years for reunion movies, regardless of the logical age of the characters, is quite distracting. In 1969, these people would actually have been ten years older than they are portrayed. The old series was very consistent in its realism, although they did indeed drag it on two years too. John Boy had several interesting girlfriends in the series, so it's hard to figure out why they chose Kate McNeil to play his wife in the reunion films. Her personality is unlike any of his previous romantic interests, and she is not the type of person that John-Boy has ever cared for.

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.

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.