The Waltons TV Show

[Big Man]

I enjoyed watching "The Waltons" when it was on TV in the 1970's, and thought the show presented a very good representation of life during the Great Depression in the Blue Ridge mountains. While the show was set in Virginia, I could see a lot of similarities to my home area here in rural western North Carolina. Many of the scenarios from the show echoed stories my grandmother, aunts, and my parents told about their experiences in the 1930's.

Over the last couple years my 16 year-old daughter has become interested in The Waltons, and has collected the first six years of the show on DVD. We make it a "family thing" to all sit down and watch the old shows together.

That being said, I have a couple questions:

How many of the fine folks here at the Fedora Lounge remember this show, and how many watch the old episodes (either on reruns or on DVD)?

What do you think about the "historical accuracy" of the show (i.e. the cars, clothing, story-lines, etc.)?

And speaking of the cars on the show, does anyone know the make and model of the big four-door sedan the Baldwin sisters drove?

 

[CharlieB]

My parents both grew up during the depression and loved the show. I have not watched it in many years, but I remember it being fairly accurate (as much as any weekly TV show can be considering time for research in realtionship to the production schedule.)

I had two aunts (my Dad's sisters) who never married and lived together all their lives. We used to call them (not to their faces of course) "the Baldwin sisters." Unfortunately, they did not make "the recipe"...

Thanks for bringing back some very fond memories of my dearly departed parents!

 

[LizzieMaine]

I watched it thruout its original network run in the 70s, and generally they did a pretty good job with the setting, although I thought the boys' haircuts got a little too 70s-cheesy toward the end of the run.

There are a few details of set dressing that were a bit off -- for one the famous "Walton Radio" was a top-of-the-line expensive Zenith that a poor mountain family would not have been very likely to own. They would more likely have made do with a cheap Philco or Crosley, but it wouldn't have been as impressive to look at.

I have a vague memory that someone once referred to the Baldwins' car as a Pierce-Arrow, but I couldn't say if that was accurate or not. But that was a kind of car elderly Southern ladies might be prone to own.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I remember the show. I wasn't too much of a fan as I was going through a bit of a rebellious phase when it was popular. At the time, it was just too sappy for my long-haired taste. I do remember the narrator (Earl Hamner, I believe) having a pronounced Eastern Virginia accent.

AF

 

[Widebrim]

One thing that they didn't mention from the book, which I was kind of forced to read as a kid, was that Olivia's maiden name was Italiano. I suppose that the producers thought that wouldn't jive with current ideas of what background Southerners were supposed to be...I stopped watching the show when the youngest daughter encountered a poltergeist...seriously...

 

[Big Man]

One thing that they didn't mention from the book, which I was kind of forced to read as a kid, was that Olivia's maiden name was Italiano. I suppose that the producers thought that wouldn't jive with current ideas of what background Southerners were supposed to be ...

Interesting. Now that I think of it, there was little if any mention of Olivia's family background.

 

[Big Man]

... I do remember the narrator (Earl Hamner, I believe) having a pronounced Eastern Virginia accent.

Yeah, I always wondered about that too. I never heard anyone from the mountains talk like that. [huh]

 

[Michael Carter]

I remember watching many of the episodes. Thursday nights IIRC, but might have been another. I enjoyed the show and having a look back at the depression era furnishings and way of life for a rual family.

 

[Foofoogal]

the youngest daughter encountered a poltergeist...seriously...

Must of missed this episode.
----------------
My parents but my Father especially loved that show. They were depression era teens but my Father especially had a hard time during the depression. He completely related to the show so I think a big chunk of it was true to form.
Night John Boy...Night Mary Ellen...Night Grandp...

I was a teen then so basically ran by the TV with a chicken leg in my hand I had grabbed running out the door to have my fun.

 

[Big Man]

... There are a few details of set dressing that were a bit off -- for one the famous "Walton Radio" was a top-of-the-line expensive Zenith that a poor mountain family would not have been very likely to own. They would more likely have made do with a cheap Philco or Crosley, but it wouldn't have been as impressive to look at ...

Good point on the radio. My grandmother bought our family's first radio in 1936. It was a Gunrow. From the stories I recall about their radio, it came into the house with the same "celebration" that the Walton's radio had on the show. I remember my Dad telling how his uncle, Joe Padgett, strung the antenna on a post out into the garden. In the house today, there is still a notch in the window sash where the antenna wire came into the house and the ground pipe is still buried up in the ground under the dining room window.

 

[kpreed]

I watch the pretty regular, I have seasons 1-6 at this point. I will most likely end there as it is not the same show with no John-boy.
On my view of how accurate: 90% is only fair from my view. As for the radio, I know from my Mother that my Grandfolks made a big deal, when they got their first radio (that I now have and play often) in 1936.
As for the Walton Zenith radio, they got it on the show in 1934 per season one, but that model is newer.
I too remember hearing that the Baldwin's had a Pierce-Arrow.

 

[kpreed]

Per a Waltons fan site it is a 1920's Studebaker.

 

[Doctor Strange]

I watched the show for its first two or three seasons during its original run, then went off to college... In those pre-cable days, in a small upstate NY city with only five TV stations (two of them UHF) and TVs extremely scarce in the dorms, I stopped watching TV entirely. I remember it being an excellent show, a real standout at the time in terms of quality drama. But it was clear to me that its recreation of the late 1930s was a lot more 1970s than it should have been, as was (and still often is) true of most set-in-the-past stuff.

And no, I haven't revisited the series since, but I have fond memories...

 

[PADDY]

I loved the original showings in the 70's. I was just at "that" age where I fancied the two elder sisters (the Walton sisters! Not the old ladies!! Haha).

 

[Foofoogal]

(the Walton sisters! Not the old ladies!

made me think of the Baldwin sisters and their "recipe"

 

[hatophile]

I really liked the show, as I always liked things "old fashioned" cars, radios, clothes, hats, etc.
I was also told I had a resemblance to Richard Thomas, so was called John Boy often. I agree with other posters that most things were accurate, with some 70's thrown in.

Interestingly, Earl Hamner was born in Schyler, VA, which is west-central VA, but his accent was definitely more like tidewater/Richmond sound. Apparently his maternal grandparents were Italo-American, which is where Mrs. Walton's Italian roots originated.

 

[hatophile]

You do realize, Paddy, that the girl who played the eldest daughter posed for playboy in later years?

 

[Dan'l]

I watched it thruout its original network run in the 70s, and generally they did a pretty good job with the setting, although I thought the boys' haircuts got a little too 70s-cheesy toward the end of the run.

That was my first thought, the hair styles seemed modern, to the 70s.

I loved the show. We watched it every week for the entire series. My wife had never seen any episodes so a few years ago I bought the first season on DVD. The wife loved it, knew she would, and now we have the first five seasons. I agree with what others have said, John Boy moving out, the poltergiest episode, grandma and grandpa passing away, it just seemed very different at the end of the series. "Livy" even left the show before the series ended. Didn't they have her character living in AZ for medical reasons?

My mother is from rural Southwestern Virginia, not far from the Carter family home. So, for mom it was always a trip "back home" every week the show was on tv. Mom wasn't born until '48, but that part of the country was still dirt poor. Mom forgive me for telling your age.

 

[Foofoogal]

:eeek::eusa_doh:
Mary Ellen. Please say it isn't so!

 

[hatophile]

:eeek::eusa_doh:
Mary Ellen. Please say it isn't so!

Apparently, like a few other well-known T.V. family children, Ms. Norton-Taylor (aka Mary Ellen Walton) was trying to shed her good-girl image. I guess it worked.