The Waltons made its TV debut in the midst of the Nixon Presidency and I think its popularity had a lot to do with the fact that people were yearning for some simpler times when issues were not so complex. They also took to their hearts a family that stuck together through some very hard times as the Depression in rural America.
The show was seen through the eyes of eldest son John-Boy as played by Richard Thomas. He wanted to be a writer, a budding Hemingway or Faulkner, and he made it to college. The parents were Ralph Waite and Michael Learned and they were a down to earth pair. John-Boy was the first of several kids and they were played by Jon Walmsley, Mary Beth McDonough, Eric Scott, David Harper, Kami Cotler and Judy Norton. A lot of mouths to feed, but somehow they were all fed both materially and spiritually.
We had the extended family as well with Waite's parents Will Geer and Ellen Corby lending the wisdom of the older generations. The Waltons may have been the closest knit family in the history of television.
People in that were either farmers or miners. With agriculture now agribusiness and mines closed these same folks, New Deal Democrats to the core now vote Republican. You kind of wonder what the kids who are most aged if they are still alive think.
It was a simpler time.
The show was seen through the eyes of eldest son John-Boy as played by Richard Thomas. He wanted to be a writer, a budding Hemingway or Faulkner, and he made it to college. The parents were Ralph Waite and Michael Learned and they were a down to earth pair. John-Boy was the first of several kids and they were played by Jon Walmsley, Mary Beth McDonough, Eric Scott, David Harper, Kami Cotler and Judy Norton. A lot of mouths to feed, but somehow they were all fed both materially and spiritually.
We had the extended family as well with Waite's parents Will Geer and Ellen Corby lending the wisdom of the older generations. The Waltons may have been the closest knit family in the history of television.
People in that were either farmers or miners. With agriculture now agribusiness and mines closed these same folks, New Deal Democrats to the core now vote Republican. You kind of wonder what the kids who are most aged if they are still alive think.
It was a simpler time.