Posted on 09/13/2022 9:44:37 PM PDT by DallasBiff
“The Waltons,” one of TV's most popular and enduring programs, turns 50 on Wednesday
The Rev. Matt Curry’s parents were children of the Great Depression, just like “The Waltons” — the beloved TV family whose prime-time series premiered 50 years ago.
When Curry was growing up on a farm in northern Texas, his carpenter father and teacher mother often argued playfully over who had a poorer childhood.
“The Depression was the seminal time of their lives — the time that was about family and survival and making it through,” said Curry, now a 59-year-old Presbyterian pastor in Owensboro, Kentucky. “My dad used to talk about how his dad would go work out of town and send $5 a week to feed and clothe the family.”
So when “The Waltons,” set in 1932 and running through World War II, debuted on CBS on Sept. 14, 1972, the Currys identified closely with the storylines. Millions of others felt the same, and the Thursday night drama about a Depression-era family in rural Virginia became one of TV’s most popular and enduring programs
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Yeah, hard to believe. I still watch “The Waltons” regularly. I prefer the earlier seasons when the kids are younger and the whole family is still there. The show has held up well.
Sheeesh! As if “the Waltons” wern’t pushing a liberal agenda way back then.
They were... Always.
Will Geer and Ellen Corby were homosexuals.
Just seeing the end of the show on H&I reruns reminds me of how boring it was. Plus seeing the guy who played grandpa who was a commie and a pedophile annoys me.
Ellen Corby did play a sweet old lady when selling a car to Barney Fife, but was a butch leader of a gang selling stolen cars.
For the young people, it was an epic episode of "The Andy Griffith Show".
A daughter of Will Geer played a great role (Sunshine Doré, one of Harold’s suitors.) in “Harold & Maude.”
My family watched this show back in the ‘70s, and I kinda hated it. I was a boring, preachy show. Even as a kid, I could see what they were doing. Though ostensibly set in the ‘30s, it seemed to me that they were always tackling some social issue du jour of the ‘70s, e.,g racism, poverty, single parenthood, antisemitism, whatever. Refugees from Nazi Germany just happened to move in up the road from the Waltons in rural Virginia. Go figure.
My family used to watch the show, Thursdays at 8:00pm. The creator and writer of the series, Earl Hamner, also wrote some Twilight Zone episodes, one I like very much, “The Hunt”.
I never saw The Waltons, but the 1970s was one of the most "woke" periods in TV history (in relation to American culture at the time). Most shows were pushing liberal politics, some more explicitly than others.
Norman Lear's shows (All in the Family being his flagship show) were blatantly and proudly political. But even MTM's The Mary Tyler Moore Show had the occasional messaging.
ABC’s “Kung Fu’’ was VERY preachy.
She played James Coburn’s hillbilly mom in an episode of “The Rifleman” that I saw yesterday.
To each his own but I found it a non-narcotic sleep aide. And Will Geer was just creepy.
“Will Geer and Ellen Corby were homosexuals.”
“
Just seeing the end of the show on H&I reruns reminds me of how boring it was. Plus seeing the guy who played grandpa who was a commie and a pedophile annoys me.”
“Refugees from Nazi Germany just happened to move in up the road from the Waltons in rural Virginia. Go figure.”
“To each his own but I found it a non-narcotic sleep aide. And Will Geer was just creepy.”
You’re enjoying your day, and along comes Debbie Downer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ1AjaNjack
Just think, the show would be taking place in 1985 if they continued to make it.
My mom loved it, but as a kid I thought it was boring. Loved Little House on the Prairie though
I remember watching the Waltons Christmas special as kid when the family thought the father was possibly killed in an accident and then he walked home in a snow storm, it’s still the best Christmas movie made.
“I auditioned to be on the Waltons. It was for the part of Boy Boy.”
- Jimmie Walker
>>Will Geer and Ellen Corby were homosexuals.<<
.
And they smoked like chimneys and swore like sailors.
I know. I remember watching them and a show called THE APPLES and both had a leftist slant.
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