Hi there everyone,

We're a little light on for letters for this digest, but I'm sure you will all enjoy the comments anyway. Once again we have a few new members so welcome. Please don't be shy about writing to the list. Just send you letters to me and I will add them to the next digest. As you can see, we discuss lots of different things from Earl's accent to the pets the Waltons owned!

So many of you have written to let me that you are enjoying the digests, and I thank you for your comments. I must say though, it is those of you who contribute to the digest who make it so successful and I thank each and every one of you who has contributed.

Have a look at Shirley's letter for the very latest in Waltons gossip. Thanks for letting us know so quickly Shirley...how did you find out? In case you're all wondering what I'm talking about, see her letter below! I wonder how many of you knew...nobody else has mentioned it yet. :-)

Well I'll leave you to read the rest of the digest now. Enjoy your last few weeks of spring and school. I know that many of you have your summer holidays coming up very soon.

All the best, Karen.

From Marie:

Hello, everyone! We are leaving today but took a few minutes to enjoy Digest 13. All my files are packed unfortunately. I know I have a synopsis of The Revel. Also have it taped because I want to write out the speech the Baldwin ladies give at the end.

Thanks, Lee, for the trivia questions. The pets I remember off the top of my head: Reckless, of course; Blue, the mule, which first appeared in The Odyssey; Calico, the cat, who dies having kittens in The Loss; Chance, the cow, who dies in The Graduation; Porthos, who dies while Jim-Bob is taking care of it and prompts him to run away when no one pays any attention; Myrtle, who has a baby named Gingerbread; Rover, the peacock, Earl Hamner said one of his brothers really had a peacock; in a later episode, Elizabeth had a horse, Molly, who Cindy had to shoot when it broke a leg, and its foal (what was its name?); Elizabeth also raised a pig for 4-H but it kept running back to Clarence (was that his name? He was a classmate of Elizabeth's that was overweight and sweet on her). Have to go. I promise to give a full report of our visit to the museum in Schuyler! Goodnight, everybody!

KAREN'S COMMENT: Marie you've recalled far more pets than I had remembered. The Walton children don't seem to have had much luck with their pets judging from all the ones which died!

From Shirley:

I just received some news tonight, that there is another Walton Special coming. It seems that the ratings were so great that CBS has asked for another Walton special. Only thing is, I don't have anymore details.
PS Maybe this one will have Elizabeth getting married, or maybe Elizabeth having a baby (great to hear about Elizabeth's baby).

KAREN'S COMMENT: That is fabulous news Shirley. No doubt we'll hear all about it sometime soon. The network must have been very pleased with the ratings.

From Shirley again!:

One pet was the mule, named "Blue", then there was Erin's short term pet baby deer named "Sir Lancelot" (sp?), The family dog was "Reckless" I'm trying to remember the cow's name, but just can not remember it right now, but then I believe there was more then one cow. Oh! yes! the cow was named "Chase" I believe the peacock was named "Rover".

KAREN'S COMMENT: There you go...I didn't know about the deer. Which episode was he from?

From Lee:

To Leon, I was thinking about your question of why the Waltons couldn't take place in California. As soon as I read that I thought well, good heavens no it couldn't! I dont know if you have be to in the states, but there is certainly a difference in people and history between the two coasts. I think part of the charm of the Waltons is the history of the family and its being rooted for so long on the mountain. If it had taken place in California the family would have only been there since the late 1800s or only slightly possibly the early 1800s, as a family that is. California was a Spanish (or Mexican, show my ignorance here) property until the 1800s sometime. The Waltons on the EAST coast go back to almost the beginning of the Country in the late 1700's. It gives the family a solid tradition and belonging that I dont think could have been made up in California. The eccentric characters are a little more typical to the east and south. I heard a quote once that said southerners dont hide there crazy folks like northerners do, they just argue over which are the craziest! I don't think there would be the lovable oddballs that we sometimes find hanging out at Ike's if it were to take place in Calif. Not that California doesn't have its odd balls! :0) It is hard to explain unless you are familiar with the American stereotypes of the different regions here in the US.

I have a question for those who get Entertainment Tonight. Does anyone remember that when the 93 Thanksgiving reunion came out, Mary McDonough was working as a reporter type announcer for Entertainment Tonight? It was not a very long period, but I swear I remember her covering some entertainment reports.

Karen you were mentioning Mary Ellen in Playboy and Grandma's disapproval. I just happened to be watching the Dust Bowl Cousins the other day. There is a scene in there where M.E. is caught smoking a cigarette. Well as she runs into the house, take a look at her shorts and the shortness of them. I don't think Olivia would have stood for those, I think it was a wardrobe error. Made me laugh about what Grandma would have said!

KAREN'S COMMENT: We get ET over here too, but I don't watch it often and I haven't seen M.Mc on it. She would probably be very good though...she impresses me with her natural manner.

Our Mary Ellen certainly was a bit of a rebel at times wasn't she? Remember how she rebelled against having her quilting. How short were the shorts? I seem to recall that the girl's dresses were fairly short at times too. Maybe in the Depression there simply was no money for extra "length" on dresses/shorts etc.

From Laura:

Hi Karen and everyone else. I've been receiving these digests for several weeks now and am just finding the time to say how much I enjoy them. I am a sixth-grade teacher in Washington state, and this is a very chaotic time to get anything outside of school accomplished. Summer break, hurry up!!!

I've been a Walton's fan since the show originally aired. I have everything on tape, from "Spencer's Mountain" to the Easter special that just aired. I completed my collection of episode tapes several years ago, and am glad I did. This year, or it may have been last, FAM began inserting an extra commercial break into the episodes. Three minutes of original footage are missing. This probably isn't noticeable to most viewers, but if you know certain episodes really well, you know what has been cut. For instance, my favorite episode is "The Gift," guest starring Ron Howard. On my tape, there is a scene where Jason is upset and goes upstairs to herd his brothers and sisters out of his room and then begins to angrily strum his guitar, with John standing outside his room listening. This scene has not been in for the last two times FAM aired this episode. And there are many other examples of missing scenes in other episodes. Has anyone else noticed this?

My favorite character is Grandpa, and my favorite child is Jason. John Boy is my least favorite. I always thought he was too self-righteous, even though his character was meant to be that way and there were even some episodes centered around that flaw. And I really like John. It is so true to family life that he cares about his family above all other things, but that he is not perfect--he has a temper and will reprimand a child if the situation warrants it. In the reunion movies, I have been missing the everyday interactions between the characters. The Easter special was especially disappointing for me. I saw more of the reporter from New York than I did of family members. I was prepared for the movie to not follow the timeline of the series and to leave out family members, because the first special messed that up royally, and I figured that this one would follow suit. So I had already steeled myself for the nonexistence of John Curtis and Charlie and the addition of Mary Ellen's two children whom it was medically impossible to conceive. And I was ready for the hokey names of Jason's kids named after country and western stars, but still....

I have so much more to say--trivia kinds of things and some questions to answer asked by others on the list, but I'll save it for another time. But before I go: Karen, I hope you'll pardon me if I borrow your forum for another show: As much as I love "The Waltons," I am an absolute fanatic about Hamner's show "Snowy River: The McGregor Saga." I am helping to make a web page for it and would love to talk to any other fans of the show. FAM only agreed to produce the first three seasons of the show, but there is fourth season which has been made. If you want to know more about that, or if you just want to chat about the show, e-mail me at: lhittenr@onysd.wednet.edu But do it soon because school's out June 12 and I lose my e-mail access after that. Yikes! A summer without The Walton's Digest. Bummer.

KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for your letter Laura...I'll have to save up all the digests for you for when you get online again. It's interesting to note that episodes are being cut. I think someone else told me that too. I find it really annoying. Just recently we were watching Road to Avonlea. Our cable network has aired all of the episodes now but our free to air network is still at about season 2 or 3. When we were watching one episode on free to air we noticed that several of the scenes had been cut...as you said, not so anyone would notice, but certainly noticeable if you had seen them as complete episodes before. I really wish they wouldn't! :-(

Laura, I certainly don't mind that you have mentioned about "Snowy River", or "Man From Snowy River" as it is called over here. It is still being aired on our cable network but I still haven't caught up with it yet. I wonder how many of you know of Earl Hamner's involvement in this show? I, for one, didn't until he wrote and told me that this was the reason he had been in Australia not so long ago. The show is based, very loosely, around the Australian poem "The Man From Snowy River" written by A.B. (Banjo) Patterson.