A Walton Easter

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.

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.

Good show, but there are some obvious time line problems. First, in the original "Homecoming" it was stated that John Walton died in 1969. It conceivably could have been set before his death, but he looks very good here. In another earlier show, Grandma's age was noted as 68 and that she lived to 94, which would have put her death date at about 1960. But here it is, 1969, and she was over a century old! The kids, especially Elizabeth and Jim Bob, looked far too young to be playing their characters. All this could have been rectified if the producers had set each reunion movie ten years earlier than they turned out, but then it wouldn't have worked with the Kennedy theme in "A Walton Thanksgiving".

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.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, the show begins with John Boy's coverage of Apollo 11's historic mission to the Moon--presumably assumed to be July 1969, which was the correct timeframe of the mission, yet John Boy is planning a combination Easter-parents' 40th anniversary celebration? Even a casual observer would immediately pick up on this error. And proceeding to error two--also previously noted is the incorrect timeline of John and "Liv's" "40th" anniversary? In a previous series episode taking place in 1937--in which Jim Bob runs away from home, he wanders into the office of the local army recruiter to enlist, to which the kind and patient recruiter begins to ask him basic questions about his age and whether he has a high school diploma, and then it comes out that Jim Bob--the baby boy of the family was born in 1924. So, if we're to assume John and "Liv's" 40th anniversary to be correct, then this would make Jim Bob having been born five years before his parents' wedding? Not to mention the chronological problem of his older siblings minus Elizabeth? The story is GREAT, ENTERTAINING, and does NOT FAIL Waltons fans, AND taking "The Waltons" as a historical novel, where liberties were taken with family names as well as place names, subsequent Walton movies should have continued to take great pains to remain true to original timeline/chronology of the original series for continuity. Otherwise, "A Waltons Easter" is a wonderful production.