Una famiglia americana

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.

Richard Thomas, "John Boy", left the series after Season 5. Ellen Corby, "Grandma Walton", suffered a stroke in November 1976, then was not in any further episodes until 1978, and only on a very limited basis because her stroke greatly impaired her ability to speak. The quality of the episodes without the John Boy character nosedived in Season 6, with many contrived storylines and the limited acting ability of the rest of the cast portraying the other six Walton children. Then Will Geer, "Grandpa Zeb Walton", died after Season 6 had been completed. The producers should have called it quits after Episodes 1-2 in Season 7, which were a tribute to Grandpa Walton and Geer, and the storylines continued to get worse. Michael Learned (Olivia Walton), also curtailed her performances on the series, and the writers had to come up with some dubious reasons why she'd be gone for much of the time, then reappear on occasions. The "Jump the Shark" moment came in Season 8 when they introduced not one but two "Cousin Olivers" (the Brady Bunch had just one) and even a fake John Boy! Given Richard Thomas's strong portrayal of John Boy for the first five seasons, the producers should have been smart enough (I know that's expecting a lot) to realize that a Fake John Boy was a terrible idea. The two kids were gone by Season 9, and I don't remember any explanation being given. In Season 9, the writers even came up with a fake Curtis, "resurrecting" Mary Ellen's husband, supposedly lost at Pearl Harbor in Season 7. The associated storyline was equally ludicrous. After that, the producers, who were obviously more concerned with the Bottom Line than program quality, fired Ralph Waite after just a few episodes in Season 9 in order to dump his salary. With the real John Boy, Grandpa, Grandma, Olivia, and now John Sr gone from the cast, , Season 9 was a complete embarrassment.

This was one of the most popular series on CBS in the mid-1970's and it is one of the most ironic. This show came one year after CBS's infamous purge of all of its rural comedies. In 1971 hugely popular shows like The Beverly Hillbillies, Mayberry RFD, Green Acres, He Haw and The Ed Sullivan show were all canceled because of the perception that they didn't appeal to urban dwellers or young people. Ironically all these shows were still in the top-10 at the time they were canceled. The next year The Waltons debuted and quickly became one of the most popular shows in the network's history, it even was responsible, in part, for the cancellation of the hugely popular Flip Wilson Show on NBC. I wonder how Fred Silverman, the man responsible for the purge, felt after this show became a hit.

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.

I truely believe that this program is my all-time favorite. I had been married two months when, on September 14, 1972, Earl Hamner Jr. came on the TV screen just prior to the first episode of "The Waltons" to explain the nature of the series. I remember well his dialogue of introduction and the episode that followed. "The Waltons" was well acted, well scripted and very down to earth and touching. I wasn't living during the Depression, but, my parents and my in-laws were and their stories and descriptions of the life back then during those trying times was exactly reinacted in the series "The Waltons". The writing and the cast are truely amazing as they literally make the characters portrayed come alive. I will always love the series, "The Waltons". I only wish they produced programs of this calibre today.