The Waltons


The Waltons is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural mountainous Western Virginia of the Appalachian Mountains /Blue Ridge Mountains chain, during the economic hardships and mass unemployment of the Great Depression in the 1930s and the subsequent United States home front during World War II in the 1940s. It was created by screenwriter / author Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain. The Waltons aired from September 14, 1972, to June 4, 1981, and took place in the fictional Walton's Mountain, Virginia.
The TV film special The Homecoming: A Christmas Story was broadcast on December 19, 1971. Based on its high ratings and critical success, the CBS network ordered the first season of episodes which became known as the television series The Waltons. Beginning in September 1972, the series was broadcast on the CBS network for nine seasons. After the series was canceled in 1981, three television film reunion sequels aired in 1982 on NBC, with three more in the 1990s back on CBS. The Waltons was produced by Lorimar Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in later syndication after 1981.
Each episode's end sequence featured the voices of the family's members saying goodnight to one another before going to sleep for the night. According to the BBC which broadcast the series in the United Kingdom, "Goodnight, John-Boy" was one of the most common catchphrases of the 1970s.

Premise

Setting

The main story is set in Walton's Mountain, a fictional mountain community in the fictitious Jefferson County, Virginia. The stories are based upon events in Hamner's childhood home in Schuyler in Nelson County, Virginia.
The time period is from 1933 to 1946, during the Great Depression and World War II and the presidencies of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman ; FDR's picture hangs in the Walton homestead and neighboring Ike Godsey's General Mercantile store. The deepest Depression year of 1933 is suggested by a mentioned reference to the opening of the Century of Progress exposition held in Chicago, a brief shot of an antique automobile registration license plate, and when it is divulged in episode 5 that the date is in the spring of 1933. The last episode of season one, "An Easter Story," is set in February–April 1934. The year 1934 is covered over two seasons, while some successive years are covered over the course of a few months.
The series finale, "The Revel," revolves around a party and the invitation date is given as June 4, 1946. A span of 13 years is therefore covered in nine seasons. There are some chronological inconsistencies, most of which do not hinder the storyline. The episode depicting the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was first broadcast on December 7, 1978.
The first three reunion movies, all produced in 1982, and aired several weeks apart are set in the later post-war year of 1947. Of the later reunions TV films, A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion, filmed in 1993, is set in 1963, and revolves around the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A Walton Wedding, made two years later in 1995, is set in 1964, and A Walton Easter, filmed another two years following in 1997, is set in fictional 1969, with the social / political themes of the turbulent late 1960s intertwined in the updated story of the later generations of the Walton family.
The series began relating stories that occurred 39 years in the past and ended with its last reunion show set 28 years in the past.
A continuity error exists in the final reunion movie about how many years John and wife / mother Olivia are said to be married, counting back to the first episode. In this reunion movie, John and Olivia are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in 1969, which dates their wedding to 1929. However, in the first episode of the series aired in September 1972, it is supposedly set in 1933, John Boy is 17 years old and he already has six brothers and sisters.

Story

The story is about the family of John Walton Jr. : his six siblings, his parents John and Olivia Walton, and paternal grandparents Zebulon "Zeb" and Esther Walton. John-Boy is the first of the seven children, who becomes a journalist and novelist. Each episode is narrated at the opening and closing by a middle-aged John Jr.. John Sr., who quit his city job after the traumatic events in the pilot episode, manages to eke out a living for his family by operating a lumber mill with the help of his sons as they grow older. The family income is augmented by some small-scale farming, and John occasionally hunts to put meat on the table. In the simpler days of their country youth, all of the children are rambunctious and curious, but as times grow tough, the children slowly depart from the innocent, carefree days of walking everywhere barefoot while clad in overalls and hand-sewn pinafores, and into the harsh, demanding world of accountability and responsibility.
The family shares hospitality with relatives and strangers as they are able. The small community named after their property is also home to folk of various income levels, ranging from the well-to-do Baldwin sisters, two spinsters who distill moonshine that they call "Papa's recipe;" Ike Godsey, postmaster and owner of the general store with his somewhat snobbish wife Corabeth ; an African-American couple, Verdie and Harley Foster; Maude Gormley, a presumptuous artist who paints on wood; Flossie Brimmer, a friendly though somewhat gossipy widow who runs a nearby boarding house; and Yancy Tucker, a good-hearted handyman with big plans but little motivation. Jefferson County sheriff Ep Bridges, who fought alongside John in World War I and was awarded the Medal of Honor, keeps law and order in Walton's Mountain. The entire family attends a Baptist church, of which Olivia and Grandma Esther are the most regular attendees.
In the signature scene that closes almost every episode, the family house is enveloped in darkness, save for 1, 2 or 3 lights in the upstairs bedroom windows. Through voice-overs, two or more characters make some brief comments related to that episode's events, and then bid each other goodnight, after which the lights go out.
After completing high school, John-Boy attends fictional Boatwright University in the fictional nearby town of Westham. He later goes to New York City to work as a journalist.
During the latter half of the 1976–77 season, Grandma Esther Walton suffers a stroke and returns home shortly before the death of her husband, Grandpa Zeb Walton.
During the series' last few years, Mary Ellen and Ben start their own families; Erin, Jason and John-Boy are married in later television movie sequels. Younger children Jim-Bob and Elizabeth struggle to find and cement true love.
World War II deeply affects the family. All four Walton boys enlist in the armed services. Mary Ellen's physician husband, Curtis "Curt" Willard who is played by Tom Bower is sent to Pearl Harbor and is reported to have perished in the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941. Years later, Mary Ellen hears of sightings of her "late" husband, investigates and finds him alive, but brooding over his war wounds and living under an assumed name. She divorces him and later remarries.
John-Boy's military plane is shot down, while Olivia becomes a volunteer at the VA hospital and is seen less and less. She eventually develops tuberculosis and enters an Arizona sanatorium. Olivia's cousin, Rose Burton, moves in at the Walton house to look after the family. Two years later, John Sr. moves to Arizona to be with Olivia. Grandma appears in only a handful of episodes during the eighth season. She was usually said to be visiting relatives in nearby Buckingham County. Consistent with the effects of Ellen Corby's actual stroke, Grandma rarely speaks during the remainder of the series, usually limited to uttering brief one-or two-word lines such as "No!" or "Oh, boy!"
6 movies were made after the series run. Set from 1947 to 1969, they aired between 1982 and 1997.

Characters

  • John "John-Boy" Walton Jr., the eldest of the 7 children
  • John Walton Sr., the family patriarch
  • Olivia Walton, the matriarch
  • Zebulon "Grandpa" Walton, John's father. Due to Geer's declining health during the sixth season, the script was adapted to the fictional death of his character with Geer's death in 1978.
  • Esther "Grandma" Walton, John's mother
  • Jason Walton, second-oldest brother; musically talented
  • Mary Ellen Walton, headstrong oldest daughter; becomes a nurse
  • Erin Walton, second Walton daughter; works as a telephone operator and as manufacturing supervisor
  • Benjamin "Ben" Walton, third Walton son; has an entrepreneurial spirit
  • James Robert "Jim-Bob" Walton, youngest Walton son; mechanically inclined
  • Elizabeth Walton, youngest of the 7 children
  • Ike Godsey, proprietor of the general store
  • Corabeth Walton Godsey, seasons 3–9, John Walton's cousin, marries Ike
  • Curtis Willard, Mary Ellen's husband
  • Cindy Walton, Ben's wife
  • Rose Burton, Olivia's matronly cousin who fills in as matriarch during Olivia's absence

    Production

Inspiration

Earl Hamner's rural childhood growing up in the unincorporated community of Schuyler, Virginia, provided the basis for the setting and many of the storylines of The Waltons. His family and the community provided many life experiences which aided in the characters, values, area, and human-interest stories of his books, movies, and television series. Hamner provided the voice-over of the older John-Boy, usually heard at the beginning and end of each episode.
John-Boy Walton's fictional alma mater, Boatwright University, is patterned after Richmond College, which became part of the University of Richmond on Boatwright Drive near Westham Station in The West End of Richmond, Virginia, about east of Schuyler.