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My Home Page on The Waltons
Note: Portions of this section are from my news entry on July 16, 2001, describing my 2001 visit to Schuyler, Virginia. Schuyler was the childhood home of Earl Hamner, Jr., who created the 1970s CBS television show, The Waltons. Three years later, that visit inspired me to create this section of my website, devoted to The Waltons.
It's probably hard for some of you to believe, but I was young once. And back in those long-ago days (I'm talking here about the 1970s), my favorite television show was a CBS series called The Waltons. In fact, I think The Waltons was one of the best television programs ever produced. Yeah, I know, guys aren't supposed to like The Waltons – or at least they're not supposed to admit that they like The Waltons. But what the heck, I've never done all those things that I'm "supposed" to do, like get married, have a family, and not quit a good job to go traveling for a few years.
Yep, I'm a Waltons fan and I'm darn proud of it. Now, I couldn't write a 500-page website without honoring my favorite television show, so I decided to write this section devoted to The Waltons.
Creating The Waltons The Waltons was a fictional show but was based on the life of author Earl Hamner, Jr., who grew up during the Great Depression in the town of Schuyler (pronounced "Sky-ler"), Virginia. Hamner wrote a book about his upbringing in Virginia called Spencer's Mountain which, in 1963, was made into a movie starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara as Clay and Olivia Spencer. James MacArthur portrayed their son, Clay-Boy, the model for Earl Hamner himself.
Hamner later wrote another book with a similar theme and setting called The Homecoming, which was based on an actual event in his family one year at Christmas during the Great Depression. The Homecoming was made into a CBS TV movie in 1971, but since the name "The Spencers" was copyrighted, Earl Hamner decided to call the family "The Waltons."
The Homecoming, a two-hour movie, aired on December 19, 1971 and was a huge ratings success, so CBS decided to turn it into a TV series. They shot the first season's episodes that spring, at the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California, using what was known as the Skeffington house for the exterior shots of the Waltons house. Earl Hamner, Jr. himself selected the house because it reminded him of his childhood home in Virginia (see News: July 16, 2001 to see the actual Hamner house in Virginia during my visit there). That house in Burbank, by the way, had been used in an earlier television series, Mayberry R.F.D. In 1991, ten years after the Waltons had said a final goodnight to America, the house was partly burned down by a disgruntled studio employee, but it was repaired and rebuilt and, starting in 2001, was used as the Dragonfly Inn in the TV series, "Gilmore Girls." You can read more about the Waltons house and the sets in Burbank used for the filming of The Waltons on this page.
The first episode of The Waltons aired on Thursday, September 14, 1972. The CBS executives couldn't have picked a worse time slot for the show, though, because The Waltons squared off against two popular shows: The Mod Squad on ABC and the #1 rated program in the country, The Flip Wilson Show over on NBC.
During its first few weeks, and despite critical acclaim, The Waltons wallowed near the bottom of the TV ratings. It seemed that the show, stressing homespun themes, was doomed from the start given its high-powered and glitzier competition, and no one in the Waltons cast expected to stick around very long. To help rescue the show, CBS mounted a PR campaign, which was how I first heard about it. I remember as a kid seeing a full-page ad in Life Magazine (remember Life Magazine?) that fall titled, "Help Save The Waltons," so the next Thursday evening I checked it out. Nearly Cancelled – But Then a Hit
Their PR campaign worked because, through the ads and word-of-mouth, not only did I start watching The Waltons every Thursday night at 8 p.m., but so did millions of other Americans. The show received a lot of critical acclaim, as well, with both Richard Thomas (John-Boy) and Michael Learned (Olivia) winning Best Actor Emmys that first year, along with Ellen Corby, who played the crusty-but-loving Grandma, the first of 19 Emmys the show would eventually win. The show's family-oriented message was a welcome relief during that time of political upheaval, with the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal dominating the news.
The show, which Earl Hamner had based on his childhood, was about a poor-but-contented family headed by John and Olivia Walton, who lived in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The family-oriented series centered on John and Olivia's oldest son, John-Boy, who, during the show, grew up to become a writer (just as Hamner had). The other key cast members, who modeled the large family Hamner had grown up in, included John's parents (Grandma and Grandpa) and John and Olivia's six other mostly-red-headed kids: Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim-Bob, and Elizabeth. Living in rural Virginia, they all spoke with a slight drawl which, oddly enough, disappeared after the first few episodes.
By the way, and if you're wondering about the "Boy" part, as in "John-Boy," rural families back in the early 1900s often called their young children who had the same name as the father "Boy," instead of the "Jr." we use today. My grandmother, for instance, who lived a rural life, used to call me "Del-Boy" when I was little (even though my father's name wasn't Del. She just liked the sound of it).
The overriding theme of the The Waltons is that family bonds and personal relationships are more important than money and possessions. Each hour-long episode stressed the homespun values of compassion, resourcefulness, heritage, simplicity and perseverance. Of course, those values are unfortunately becoming rare in today's increasingly materialistic world, which is why I believe The Waltons should be a reminder of the way our lives could (and should) be lived.
The first few years of the The Waltons, when Ellen Corby and Will Geer (a.k.a., "You old fool") were both alive and well, were definitely the best. After about five years, though, things started to fall apart and the show began going downhill. Mary Ellen got married, Ellen Corby had a stroke, John-Boy headed off to New York, and, in 1978, Will Geer (Grandpa) died. The show became pretty pathetic towards the end, especially with Livvy shuffled off to a sanitarium and a reconstituted John-Boy working in New York City (does anyone even remember the second John-Boy?) The final episode aired in 1981, although after nine seasons The Waltons probably should've said goodnight to America a few years earlier. Nevertheless, The Waltons has since thrived in syndication while endearing a whole new generation of viewers. The Walton's Eternal Message
I was fortunate to have grown up in a stable household with two parents who were both wonderful role models. I didn't realize it at the time, but watching The Waltons when I was young helped to cement the positive values that I'd been raised with, values like honesty, hard work, and judging people not based on how much money they had, but rather on their character and integrity. With recent surveys showing that most American high school students cheat on tests, perhaps we could use more shows now like The Waltons and fewer shows like The Osbornes or Jersey Shore.
It's been 30 years since I've seen The Waltons, but I recently started watching reruns of it on the Hallmark Channel. From seeing the reruns, I realized what a positive impact the show had on my life these past three decades. That includes important things, like not judging others based on their wealth, but also simple things, like wanting to play the harmonica like Jason when I was younger (I wasn't nearly as good as him), and wanting to date a woman named Jenny (as in John-Boy's "Jenny" from episode #17, "The Love Story.") I never got my wish on that one, by the way – though my first girlfriend did look a lot like Mary Ellen, which I admit is kind of weird.
Yes, The Waltons looks a bit dated now, but its message about values and family harmony is timeless. To honor the show and to promote its eternal message, I've dedicated this section of my website to celebrate The Waltons. I hope you like it.
And if your name is Jenny, drop me a line.
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