Things you pick up on binge-watching. In season two, there is an episode where the Walton's cow, Chance, dies. Then, a few episodes later, they are threatening to make Jim-Bob sleep out in the barn with Chance. Unless they left the dead cow lying in the barn for a few months, or bought another cow and gave it the same name, someone had forgotten that the cow died, or to tell us that they named the new cow Chance.
Before almost every episode they have trivia like that... Things that weren't even invented around that time, etc
Episode 11 of Season 1 features A.J. Covington, a traveling writer who John-Boy meets and invites home with him. He wants badly to buy an old house that is for sale on Walton’s Mountain. He sells a treasured gold watch in order to come up with the money for it but then gives it up to help the Waltons out with an emergency. I forget what the emergency was now. Although the narrated voiceover says that they were never to hear from A.J. Covington again, he nevertheless reappears in Season 4, after a book he wrote about his experiences on Walton’s Mountain is being made into a movie, to be filmed at that house.
When I first watched the Waltons, I thought Mary Ellen as a young woman was kinda attractive, in an agricultural sorta way. Later I decided the mother, Olivia, was lovely. Now, you know, those Baldwin sisters are hot!
Strengths Besides the obvious, such as it being a family show with something for a variety of people. The show generally follows up on characters who play significant guest roles, bringing them back a season or so later. Nearly every character in the show is played by talented actors and actresses. Characters in each scene are engaged, which is something that becomes more noticeable when re-watching an episode; by this, I mean that they don't have characters who are just standing by waiting for their next speaking part. Facial gestures, and so on, are appropriate for the scene. Most of the regulars and semi-regular characters are interesting and unique in some way.
Another flub. In one episode the Walton's get a phone in their house and another at their mill. In the very next episode, John Walton calls Godsey's store to have Ike Godsey deliver a message to his family members at the house. Did he forget to pay the phone bill already?
When Ellen Corby, the actress who played Grandma Walton, had a stroke in real life, her character also had a stroke. When she returned to the show in the last episode of season 6, there was nothing to indicate that Grandpa Walton was sick. Yet, by the very next episode, he is dead. Will Geer died of respiratory failure before the start of season 7. Neither his death or funeral are written into the show, except that episode 1 of season 7 begins by showing his gravestone. That same episode, Mary Ellen moves out again, taking her sister, Erin, with her, leaving only Jason, Jim Bob, Ben, and Elizabeth at home. John Boy had returned for the two episodes before Grandma Walton's stroke. Jon Walmsley, who plays Jason, the musical Walton, actually has had a large musical career, as well as his acting career, and doesn't show up a lot in the show by season 7. He appears in most episodes but doesn't play a large part. He wasn't involved in another film at that time, so I am guessing he was concentrating on his music career. He has worked with several bands and musicians, including Merle Haggard, the Beach Boys, the Doobie Brothers, and Strawberry Alarm Clock. Oh, and he's British - born in Blackburn, Lancashire.
Ike and Corabeth Godsey (storekeepers) adopt a young girl in season 7 because Corabeth was unable to bear children, and they badly wanted a child. Yet, after only a couple of episodes, they are rarely seen with their daughter, Aimee Godsey, who, when she does appear, is usually at Walton's farm, where she becomes a friend of Elizabeth Walton, the younger daughter. She was probably added because most of the Walton kids were grown by then, and John Boy was living in New York, rarely to be seen again in the series. In my opinion, Aimee Godsey was a good character. The actress did a great job of portraying someone who was, at first, uncomfortable in her new surroundings and with her rather strange adopted mother, Corabeth. I thought she added something to the show, particularly since she was added early enough to integrate into the show as it still had a few seasons to go. However, she had only a couple of central roles and appeared in only sixteen episodes, disappearing from the Godsey home on two different occasions. The first one, it was explained that she was at a finishing school, but I don't think they adequately explained her second absence.
Trivia: Walton's Mountain was played by the same mountain that hosts the famous HOLLYWOOD sign in California. Views of the mountain itself and most of the scenes taking place on the mountain were filmed on the side of the mountain opposite the HOLLYWOOD sign.
They brought in a couple of kids as the grandchildren of a cousin or something, after introducing the cousin as a way of substituting for Olivia Walton, who disappears from the series for several episodes on a few occasions. Oddly in the episode after all of the Walton boys go away to fight in the war, the kids are gone. The explanation is that they went to live with their father, except that the grandmother had them to begin with because the father was beating the boy repeatedly. Now, their absence is dismissed with the remark that they are happy to be back with their father. Strange.
I'm getting near the end of the series, but I'll probably follow it up with the movies, which I have on DVD. The grandparents are dead (the actors as well as the characters, both parents are away, I forget where this time, and there are no children on the show. Ike and Corabeth Godsey sent their child away somewhere, but she wouldn't exactly be a child anymore anyhow, even if she were still in the show. It seems that Mary Ellen's boy, who was walking around last season, is gone without explanation. The two kids that came to live with the Waltons a couple of seasons ago are gone, and apparently, no one on Walton's Mountain is having children anymore. The series generally does very well with its regulars and semi-regulars. Most characters who play a significant part in one or more episodes will show up again during the series. However, their ministers seem to just disappear, with new ones coming in without as much as a goodbye to the old. John Ritter, from Three's Company, was the first (or maybe the second) minister on the series.
Are the movies available to stream? I have a vague memory of watching one not too long ago but can't remember, lol I know I was looking for them....isn't there a Thanksgiving or Christmas one? I think I did watch an older one with other actors playing the parts of Liv and John...and I see the actress's face in my mind but can't think of her name... very stoic looking lady with a deeper voice. Think I need to check out that website your wife recommended to Holly. Luminosity??