La famille des collines

This is a delightful series with wholesome values that my own family often watched together during my son's earlier growing up years. It chronicles the ongoing story of a Depression Era family living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia...often seen though the eyes of the oldest son John Boy, a budding author, who relates his family's experiences in a journal. The series follows the Walton family through both the Depression and World War II. It also portrays the career paths, courtships, & marriages of many of the children, the births of new grandchildren, and the illnesses, aging, & deaths of some of the characters.

The mother, Olivia, is a devout Baptist who must deal with an extended stay in hospital as she suffers from tuberculosis. The father, John, though perhaps a little lapsed in his own faith, runs a saw mill and is a hard working man of integrity. The couple have seven children. John Boy eventually goes off to Richmond for college, Boatwright University, and later embarks upon a journalistic career in New York. Mary Ellen, a feisty tomboy, grows up to become a nurse and marries a doctor, Curtis Willard, sent to Pearl Harbour just prior to the Japanese attack. Jason is the family's budding musician, sometimes providing lively entertainment at the local Dew Drop Inn. Ben marries at a young age the pretty Cindy, and the two are set up with charming little accommodations adjacent to the main Walton house. Erin, the pretty one with her various beaux, is employed at the local telephone switchboard and later by G.W. Haines. Jim Bob is a mechanical tinkerer, and Elizabeth the rather spoiled and generally irritating baby of the family.

Also living under the same roof are John's parents, the devilish but wise old Grandpa Zebulun and the strict & proper but feisty Grandma Esther. Years ago, it became a family chuckle that if Grandma Walton wouldn't have approved of the language, then it just wasn't acceptable! The banter between these grandparents is absolutely precious. I liked the multi generational aspects of the program with eventually four generations of Waltons. An ongoing storyline involved the stroke suffered by Grandma (and actress Ellen Corby), which restricted her movement and left her with a severe speech impediment. Also, actor Will Greer passed away, so the family was forced to grieve the loss of Grandpa.

The likable country store keeper, Ike Godsey, and his prim & snooty wife, Corabeth, appear regularly on the show. Other local characters are featured, including Yancy Tucker and a succession of various parsons (one was portrayed by actor John Ritter). Of course my favourites are the charming, elderly Baldwin sisters with their legendary Recipe inherited from their dearly departed father! Olivia and Grandma were strongly opposed to alcohol, but Grandpa would sometimes stop by at the Baldwins for a wee nip of the Recipe, actually moonshine whiskey. Some episodes also featured interactions with 'outsiders', including circus acrobats and gypsies.

Most of the individual episodes are quite engaging, and the family's interactions even during conflict show an underlying warmth. Their famous extended calls of Good Night are of course legendary! Many plot lines revolve around their various financial struggles to live a decent life during the Great Depression. The marital relationship between John & Olivia is well captured, as well as the siblings' interactions and their relationship with their parents & grandparents.

Sadly, I am not surprised that this heartwarming series is receiving a few disparaging reviews these days. Perhaps life wasn't all rosy and moral back in the 1930's with issues of poverty, racism and so forth. However, its values were generally preferable to the decaying ones of today, where materialism reigns supreme, parents & offspring alike feel entitled to their self absorbed attitude, rudeness is the norm in human interactions, the nuclear family and moral absolutes are becoming obsolete, and faith is mocked everywhere. This series represents the very antithesis of all such modern views, but thankfully, the vast majority of reviewers here still seem to appreciate it. Yes, better the Waltons than the Simpsons. My son is now a college sophomore, but admits to looking back fondly upon the series.

Indeed, these Walton characters are almost like family members in many homes, including my own. My compliments to actors Ralph Waite (John), Michael Learned (Olivia), Richard Thomas (John Boy), and all the others who brought them so vividly to life. Yes, the series can be sappy at times and may not always be realistic, but it is really not overly sentimental as some claim. Rather it is a depiction of the way we should ALL treat each other and the love, closeness, concern, warmth, and often unselfish giving that should be found in ALL our homes. Pity there aren't more TV programs nowadays that give us something worthy to aspire to.

Ten years ago, I was working in private home healthcare for an elderly woman in her nineties. Every day at three o'clock, she would sit down and watch an episode of this show, which also happened to be what time my breaktime rolled around. I was enthralled with television shows like Breaking Bad and Lost at the time and my initial thought of this wholesome countryside yarn about a large family doing their best to get by was... Well, I just assumed it wouldn't be my cup of tea. But every time I'd sit down with my snack on her afghan-encased sofa, I found myself getting drawn more and more into the show, until one day she insisted I use the entire hour as a break so we could enjoy the episodes together. Her daughter, my boss, wasn't exactly keen on the idea of me being paid to literally watch television for an hour instead of taking a customary twenty-minute break, but her insistence persevered. She was old and lonely and told her daughter that having a guest to watch television with was worth the eight bucks. I worked there for about two and a half years, watching an episode of The Waltons with her everyday up until the day before her passing.

I still tune in once in a blue moon if I happen to catch a rerun, but it's never quite the same. This show opened my mind and broadened my viewing horizons and I couldn't be more thankful. Wild, out of sight action-dramas can be great, and so can terrifying horror flicks, but there's nothing wrong with enjoying something tethered to strong family values. You can learn a lot from this show. Yes, you. Everyone. Give it a chance.

Television has been going to the dogs over the past few years. I recently picked up the DVD set of the first season of The Waltons and have been engrossed with every episode. Each episode is like a miniature movie, with good acting and stories. And what people used to make fun of (the syrupy quality of the show) now is a welcome relief. I'd watch this over 99.9% of the junk on TV these days. One could have a field day writing about this show and comparing/contrasting it to The Sopranos. The Sopranos, a show that I enjoy equally for other reasons (I'm not counting HBO's shows as regular TV shows), is the polar opposite. That family is rich, profane, powerful, violent, confrontational, unhappy--while the Waltons are struggling (not exactly poor, despite the fact that it takes place during the Depression), wholesome, spiritual, loving, and HAPPY. The only thing I can quibble about The Waltons is the outdoor scenery. The tall mountains and pine trees are clearly in California, not Piedmont Virginia. The real Waltons mountain and home is not too far from where I live. There are signs off U.S. Route 29 directing tourists to the home, which I believe is now a museum. It may be worth a visit. All in all an excellent program. Definitely a collector's item.

Both my parents are dead and gone, but where raised in the Southwest mountains of Virginia during the depression, as Baptists, they along with myself and other members of our family watched this show every week. Several of us still watch it every morning, it comes on here at 7 am, it's a great start to my day. Every episode may not be exactly as some remember, that lived during that era, but it's a lot more true to life than most of what is on TV today. It would be nice if there were shows that even came close to this one, made now. Children and grown-ups alike could benefit from acting a little more like the Waltons, than a lot of people they try to imitate from TV in this day and time.

I can't help but be amazed at the few individuals who feel compelled to give negative reviews to this totally entertaining television show. It's one thing to accurately note that the quality of some specific episodes weren't up to the normally high standard that had been set by the vast majority, but it's a different matter completely when someone who obviously either hasn't watched any episodes, or who is basing their opinion of the entire series on one or two specific episodes, takes the time to run the series down. In virtually every case of someone taking the time to run down "The Waltons", it is obvious from their comments that either they have never seen it, they haven't seen enough of it, or they just "don't get it". "The Waltons" is fictional entertainment based loosely on the Hamner family's experiences during the thirties and forties (framed mostly against the Great Depression and WWII). It was almost never overly sentimental or "soppy" and most who have viewed the series agree that it was generally extremely well acted, written, and produced. There were very few exceptions. My wife and I raised three kids in the seventies and eighties, and "The Waltons" was, and is, universally loved and (still) viewed by all of us. The characters are almost like members of our family... and the love, devotion, and family values displayed on that series, became an integral part of the life lessons we chose to make a high priority in the raising of our own children.

The standards generally set for kids today is worlds away from those of just a generation ago, and it's not hard to see why those who were, and are, being raised without benefit of a strong family ethic might see "The Waltons" as somewhat "simple" and overly sentimental. Thankfully, these people are still in the minority. Most people still "get it" and we are forever grateful to the people who were involved in any way with the production of this wonderful television show for giving all of us a standard to which we might aspire even as society in general continues to degrade and cheapen the concept of a nuclear family at every opportunity.

To those who haven't tried it... I suggest that you do so while it is still available. I'm sure that somewhere some group of "new thinkers" is trying to outlaw shows like "The Waltons" for the very reasons that it became so monumentally popular in the first place. As a country, our standards, morals, and sense of family values is being eroded every day... we parents are very much aware of how hard it is today to instill a sense of right and wrong in our children. "The Waltons" made the "medicine" go down in the easiest and most effective way... as an integral part of an extremely entertaining TV show that everyone in the family could/can view without a worry that the wrong values might be represented in a positive light. I've seen the entire series multiple times (except the "reunion specials) and I've never seen an exception to that statement. Again,I invite the "snobs" out there to take a look... or even a second look... the vast majority knows what I know... that a very pleasant surprise awaits you if you'll just give "The Waltons" a chance.

John Christie

("Thumbs-down TVLand" and "Thumbs-up Hallmark Channel"