Hi everyone,

Not a lot of news from me this week. We have had our first week of our term holidays just whizz by...I'm not kidding! It has been the most gorgeous week weather wise too. It's been sunny, cold at night, and the trees are turning the most luscious colours. If anyone wants to visit, I'd suggest that now is a great time. Definitely autumn is my most favourite time of the year over here.

I have been shocked, however, to see the aftermath of all of the storms you have been having in the USA though. I have never seen anything as "flattened" as I did the other day when I saw some news footage of one of the storms. They do seem to be hitting areas very harshly.

I also just wanted to send a special cheerio to Arthur too, this week. He has been having a problem with his heart valve and went in for exploratory surgery this week. I do hope that this went well for you Arthur and that your doctor will be able to rectify your problem soon. Hopefully I'll be able to read some excellent news about it on your site very soon.:-)

I'll leave it there for now. Goodnight everyone,

Karen.

I heard today that The Nashville Network will soon begin running the show. Usually only one cable channel shows reruns of something, so I guess it will disappear from the Family Channel. Has anybody else heard about this? I don't know when reruns begin on TNN.

Heather :)

KAREN'S COMMENT: Not being there, on the spot, Heather, I will stand corrected if I'm wrong here, but I think that the Family Channel didn't renew the rights to The Waltons, and so TNN then took it over. I guess that means that it will only air on TNN from the end of April.

Thanks for all the news and thanks also for including my comments. I am so glad to hear news from you and hope things are going well. I of course informed the Waltons Discussion forum on April 9 that the 9th of April was Michael Learned's 59th birthday.

April 22 will be the 20th anniversary of the death of grandpa(Will Geer). Hope there will be some mention of it. Perhaps there will be the tribute to Will Geer that day.

I remember seeing the Violation during the Walton reruns on the Family Channel but I cannot recall when it was.

Donald F Nelson

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for your timely note Donald. The anniversary of Will Geer's death occurs this week. Wouldn't it be a good time to air an episode where Grandpa has a large role? Or perhaps even the one where they pay tribute to him at the end. What are your favourite Grandpa episodes? What about your favourite Grandpa sayings? Let's devote some space to him next digest.

Hi everyone,

I had a Walton's sighting yesterday and just had to write and tell you about it. I happened to watch the NBC show, "The Pretender" last night. It was about a plane crash investigation, and the lead character had given his seat on the plane to a young guy. Then the plane crashed and the guy was killed and the other character kept thinking about him. Anyway, at the end of the show, the character went to talk to the guy's parents and his mother was played by Mary McDonough. I was so surprised to see her. She is still so pretty. Even though she was only on the show for a few minutes, it was still nice to see her. I hope she is going to start doing small roles on television again.

Hope you had a happy Easter everyone. :)

Maggy

KAREN'S COMMENT: Mary has been appearing on TV quite a bit over the past year. You're right...it's nice to have her back.

Hi, Everyone!

I was thrilled to notice a brief appearance by Mary McDonough in the latest episode of our show "The Pretender." She appeared at the very end, as the mother of an airline crash victim. Jarod, the lead character, had given up his airline seat to a young man, a college student who really wanted to get home on the next flight. When it crashed and he was killed, Jarod felt awful, avenged the crash by identifying the person responsible (long story...), and then visited the young man's parents at the end. Mary McDonough was the mother.

She has matured quite nicely and looks lovely. This reminds me that I read a brief interview with her in a recent "TV Guide" in a "Where are they now?" type of article. It said that she suffers from (or suffered from...I can't recall) lupus, unfortunately. But, she is doing quite well, I guess.

Actually, if I hadn't just seen that very recent photo of her accompanying the article, I might not have recognized her in "The Pretender." That's just because she is older than the 18-year-old girl I have been seeing so much of in recent Family Channel episodes.

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on "The Violated" and "The Waiting," too!

All the best,

Claire Natola Portsmouth, New Hampshire

KAREN'S COMMENT: I'll have to watch out for The Pretender. What season are you into?

Hello everyone,

I have been reading the digest for a month or so now, but this is the first time I have written to the group. I am thoroughly enjoying the digest, thank you!

I am one of those people who longs to live in the country and can't seem to get there so I suppose I, like a lot of people, live out my dreams through the Waltons. I have looked in on the irc Waltons chat a few times, but never seem to find anyone there when I come on. If anyone has any more information about Waltons irc chat I would appreciate that.

I am watching the Waltons on the family channel right now. Each one that passes by makes me wonder what happened to John Boy and his college studies. He never seems to be in school anymore, he only seems to be running the newspaper. So I am wondering if we ever really get to see that side of him again, the college student. The family channel is right at the point where Mary Ellen has just married Curt.

Also, I wonder if anyone else watches Will Geer as he is only around for a bit longer in the show at the point the family channel is at right now. He was so special. Any one know if his personality in real life was at all similar to his television interpretation of Grandpa? He was so close to the Earth, I liked that. And his humor! And the way he delivered lines, such unique inflection.

Better end here, this is getting long. Thanks again.

Susan

Niagara Falls, NY

KAREN'S COMMENT: Interesting point you raise about John Boy and his studies Susan. We see him going off to New York, but did he ever graduate? What about Jason?

Hi Karen:

Regarding the "Walton Legacy": I ordered it and really enjoyed it. The first part is a show that ran on public TV in Virginia and includes interviews with Earl Hamner and five of his brothers and sisters.

I remember thinking that these people actually seemed nicer than the Waltons, if that's possible. They all had good things to say about each other and were very upbeat about the series and their Virginia roots. I didn't realize that Rockfish was a real place, but we learn about it in the program. We see the actual Hamner home (smaller but similar to the Walton's version) and learn something about Earl Hamner's parents. While there seems to be a great similarity between the real parents and John and Olivia, I found it interesting that there was no mention of any grandparents. Perhaps that was 100 percent fiction. Does anyone know?

Mr. Hamner says he graduated from high school in 1940. Doesn't that make him about 74 or so now? He really doesn't look that old on this program.

The second part of the tape is a series of interviews with cast members of The Waltons. Olivia, Elizabeth, Erin (I don't know how it's spelled), Mary Ellen, Jason, Ben, Ike and Yancey. There may have been a few more. There's a brief on-camera shot of Ellen Corby at at reunion for the show. These interviews are more fun than the program that precedes it. They talk about the network (CBS is said to have wanted the series to fail) strange things that happened to various characters and nostalgic times. They come off as a group who apparently really liked each other on camera and off.

I would think it's a must-have for any true Waltons fan.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Good to have some feedback about the video. Thank you. For those of you out of the USA, you might want to email Tracey on <Tracey_Jewell@WVPT.pbs.org> for postage rates to your country and methods of payment. I am sending off for my video this week.

Dear Karen,

I am back again this week! In response to your question re. the book Fifty Roads To Town. I believe the book is Earl Hamner Jr.'s first novel published in 1956. The description on the back of the book reads: "a hell-fire and brimstone preacher whose fever-pitched revival meetings unleashed pent-up emotions and smoldering violence among the primitive men and women of an isolated mountain community." This book is available through The Walton's Mountain Museum. I happened to find the original paperback in a used book store.

With regards to Mr. William Hartley and the model he wishes to build of The Walton home. If you check out The Walton's Mountain Museum website, you will find a picture of a model of the house, barn, etc. Someone made it and donated it to the museum.

Well, let me tell you about some other items in my collection: I have the plastic Mego Waltons truck which goes with the Mego Walton house and Ike's General Store, which I also have. All I need now is the Walton Barn and my Walton homestead will be complete! I only wish I had the ability to show everyone a picture of them!

Take Care Everyone!

Cindy

KAREN'S COMMENT: I didn't know that was Earl's first book. I learn something new every week from you all out there. Now another memorabilia question. Is the General store a cardboard one too? There is a barn too? Keep your eye on eBay. You just never know what might come up.

Karen:

My name is Carolyn John and I have been on the list for about 6 months or so now. I read all the digests you send out and enjoy them tremendously. I have thus far been a "silent" member and have not written before. But I wanted to let you know that I want very much to remain on the list, even though I never had the chance to respond to your favorite Walton poll. I apologize for taking so long to tell you I wanted to stay on the list, but my job and family keep me very busy. By the way, my favorite was Grandpa so I was very happy that he won in the poll. He was always so funny and cheerful, but he was also very loving and caring. He reminded me a lot of my own "Papa" whom I loved very much.

I am married with a 12 year old daughter and live in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I love the Walton's and watched it from the time it started. I can't really which episode was my favorite, but I loved the episode when Grandpa had a heart attack and they put the tent up on the mountain and moved him in there so he could be near the land he loved so much.

Incidentally, I have a Walton sighting for you. Ellen Corby made an appearance in the movie "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" as a retired elementary teacher who appeared as a witness in a trial. The movie was a comedy and she was funny as a witness who was supposed to help the defendant but ended up hurting his case more, portraying him as a "little boy with a wild imagination".

Anyway, sorry this turned out to be so long, but I've been wanting to write for a while and had a lot saved up to say. Keep up the good work, you do a GREAT job with the digests and managing this list.

Carolyn John

KAREN'S COMMENT: Glad to have you aboard Carolyn. Ellen Corby keeps popping up in things doesn't she.

Hello Karen. Thank you very much for the digests. I'm enjoying them thoroughly. I also like your web page a great deal. A friend of mine, who isn't a big Waltons fan like me but who used to watch the show when she was growing up, spent some time at your web site recently and said that she had a lot of fun and rather enjoyed all the memories it brought back.

I don't know if you ever watched Love Boat but it's also one of my favourite shows. I found an unofficial but comprehensive Love Boat site. At least I thought it was comprehensive until I noticed that the list of guest stars seemed to include everyone except Will Geer. He was in the episode titled "The Old Man and the Runaway" which featured Bayn Johnson as a young teenage stowaway who tried to hide out in his cabin. Will played a grouchy coot who had turned away from people after the painful death of his wife. Anyway, I will be emailing the webmaster of the Love Boat page to let him know. His guest list isn't complete without Grandpa.

Thank you.

Kim W

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for this sighting Kim. I must have been one of his last performances I suppose, other than The Waltons. I like The Love Boat, and it's airing over here on one of our cable stations. Maybe I'll spot him.

Hi Karen and all other Walton lovers,

Some time ago me and my husband have put a new Waltons related site on the net about several types of communication. Your mailing list is one of the nicest forms of communication just like chatting with other fans. On this new site there's also a place where everyone can put their favorite Waltons scenes or quotes and that's why I want to bring it under everyone's attention. So I hope that you all will visit our page and send me one or more of your favorite Waltons scenes.

There's also some nice information for everyone who wants to chat with other people in a multi-user way or just one-to-one. I have experienced with the ICQ program for some time now and it's a great program! You can chat and e-mail with it and you can see when your friends are on line instantly. Try it yourself, it's easy to use. The address of our internet page is:

http://www.oocities.org/TelevisionCity/3436/

Hope you like it. Greetings from a rainy Holland.

Marca.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Marca and Alex have certainly been busy getting new and interesting things for Waltons fans. I visited some weeks ago, but haven't had a chance to contribute yet. I hope you all will though. There's definitely some interesting ideas and concepts there.

I am on your mailing list but I've always just read the Walton's Digest and never written to you before now. I am a 27 year old mother to a wonderful and beautiful 7 year old little girl. My morning routine is to wake up my daughter for school, have breakfast, and see her off. She leaves at 8:00am, which is when the Family Channel airs the Walton's in my area. I watch every morning. I've thought of video taping the episodes for my daughter to enjoy also but I was wondering if there is any type of Walton's Video Library. I'd love to have the entire collection of TV shows and specials. I'd love for my daughter to see the Walton's, from beginning to end.

Also, I've tried looking up information on Ralph Waite. I've found a few things but I would really love to know how to get in touch with a fan club of some type. I'd love to send him a letter about his role as John Walton and how it is such a source of inspiration to me each day. I have a very close relationship with my father and I recognize many of my father's characteristics in his character. Plus, they look very similar. Thanks very much for any information.

Stephanie

KAREN'S COMMENT: It must be the week for silent people to be contributing Stephanie! Your contribution is more than welcome. Have a look at the Columbia House for a source of Waltons videos. They seem to run a good library type of thing for those in the USA or Canada. As for Ralph Waite, does anyone know of an address or more information? You could try sending it through the museum or one of the fan clubs. I hear they are very good about forwarding mail. I'll let you know if I come up with anything else.

Hi Karen:

Thank you as always for the wonderful digests. I work in the television industry in a programming and research capacity and just wrote a memo on upcoming network pilots for next fall. In addition to the premiere of THE LOVE BOAT on UPN, ABC might be bringing back LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE and FANTASY ISLAND. Mary Tyler Moore and Valerie Harper will, additionally, be reuniting in THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, which has already been given a 13-episode commitment by ABC. With remakes becoming more common I would love to see a new version of THE WALTONS. While it would be difficult, if not impossible, to have the whole cast together, they could feature different family members each week. I would be curious to know what other readers think.

Marc

KAREN'S COMMENT: Talk of Fantasy Island and The Love Boat remakes have made it over here too. Yes, a new version of The Waltons would be lovely, but I dare say that we might have to remain content with the movie specials we are getting.