| WALTONS DIGEST 4-98:
Hi there everyone, I really can't decide at the moment if time really is racing ahead at an extraordinary pace, or am I just getting old. I remember when the year used to really drag. It seemed as if Christmas would never come! Anyway, another week of 1998 has indeed gone, and I'm chatting with you once more. I received my Christmas edition of the Blue Ridge Chronicle this week (it takes a while to travel out here!). It has a lovely Waltons family photo from The Homecoming on the front. The children look so young, particularly Jim Bob and Erin! It also comments that 1998 marks 2 different Waltons anniversaries. Can anyone guess what they are? I'm tempted to leave the answers till next week's edition. :-)) Yes, I think I will. Put on your thinking caps and if you come up with anything jot me a line. If you get this newsletter though, please don't answer. If you would like a clue, I'll put it at the bottom of this email. Just on another quick note, I checked out the list of sites in Brenda's web ring the other day. It continues to grow and there are now a few more Waltons sites being added. Have a click around the web if you haven't done so lately. There are some treats. Have a great week, and enjoy your weekend wherever you might be. Till next week,
Goodnight everyone, Karen. Hi Karen! I am enjoying learning all these new things about one my favorite programs and it's people. I watched the show when I was growing up and didn't start watching it again until 3 years ago. My husband was out to sea for 6 months and while channel flipping I spotted a sailor returning home after being gone a long time. That was Ben! I had to watch cause I could identify with Cindy during this episode. I began watching it again every day and introducing it to my children. I now have 4 ( 7 years, 6 years, 3 years and 17 months ). They watch it with me too in the evenings and I'm sorry to hear that the FAM channel is going to be giving them up. We live here in Virginia Beach not far from the museum but we haven't gotten there yet. It seems we have to work around the ship, school and me being pregnant. Now we are planning our trip in April!! Cross your fingers for us cause we are all excited about finally going! Have you been there? I really like this digest and I look forward to reading it each week! :) Bye for now. Karna KAREN'S COMMENT: Hi and welcome Karna. So many of us continue to share The Waltons with our own families, and it really does stand the test of time. I have to say, I love learning about the program and the actors too. I'm no longer "starved of Waltons". I now have a whole huge group of people to share things with, and it's great! Sadly I haven't been to the museum, but a lot of our members have. Ask any questions you want Karna.
Hello to everyone, I am so happy to see other Walton fans out there. I didn't know there such a following. We are a home schooling family in Texas and the Waltons are such a good role model family for us. I look forward to my mornings on line with people with similar interests. We don't have the Family channel but we do have TNN so we are looking forward to March. We buy our Walton videos at Walmart. We have all 6 of the episodes that they had and hoping they will get more. We purchased the Christmas Box this year with Richard Thomas. While in Colorado on vacation last year I purchased the Walton book UP SHE RISES. What a joy! We read the book all the way back to Texas. I purchased it for $1.25. At that price I wish she had more. Now I'm keeping my eye open for more copies. Mary
KAREN'S COMMENT: Which 6 episodes did they have available Mary? We don't have Walmart out here. I love Richard Thomas in the Christmas Box. It first aired out here during our winter (June/July) and I couldn't believe that they didn't wait for Christmas to show it. Fortunately they did replay it at Christmas. Glad you found Up She Rises! I have 4 of this series, and I love the books. Every time I read them, I can here the voices of the characters speaking the words. Hello to all: Things are rather chilly on the Gulf Coast. El Nino is definitely disturbing the "norm" around here! Greg is starting to fertilize the fields, getting them ready for corn. He's having a hard time with all the rain these past few months. I have a question concerning the Waltons: Did they ever mention Olivia's parents in any of the episodes?? We were wondering that during last night's episode when Grandma and Grandpa left the house to be caretaker's on another man's property. We had never seen that episode before! Thanks for the news concerning TNN. That's the channel my husband thought would pick it up! Well, I must get some baking done before the kids come home from school. Michele KAREN'S COMMENT: The El Nino is certainly responsible for a lot of things weather wise isn't it? We are still having fairly fine weather here...still in short sleeves which is pleasant, but not too hot. Olivia's parents are mentioned briefly by her Aunt in the episode where Olivia finds she has TB, but other members may be able to shed more light on that, and more, because I haven't seen it for a while.
I would like to thank everyone for letting us know that TNN will be picking up the Waltons and giving them a "new home". Speaking of "homes", I was watching The Dukes of Hazzard on TNN the other night and in that episode....Was the Walton House!!!! There was no mistaking it. They only showed the outside of the front porch and the barn, but it was definitely The Walton House! My husband asked me how they were able to use it, since he thought that the shows were on the air about the same time. I told him that it was used in the later episodes of " The Dukes" and that by that time, the Waltons had already gone off the air. I think that after seeing that, it is kinda fitting that TNN take over the Waltons.
Dear Karen, Thanks for re-sending Digest 3-98. This time it arrived OK! If this goes into the Digest, I should explain that I got just the first few lines and the rest vanished before I could read it.... My fault, I'd wrongly configured my e-mail program. Now for a few points arising from the latest Digest ----- About Ralph Waite in Roots: So he did! He was the Mate on the slave ship which took Kunta Kinte to America (Roots episodes 1 and 2). And then, I remember after The Waltons, Ralph set up his own production company and made a series with himself playing a travelling lawyer on the Mississippi River. Can't remember what the series was called, though. About Michael Learned in "Little Mo": That would have been "Little Mo" Connolly. My Mum liked watching her playing at Wimbledon (on the TV). As for "Ellen Corby" sightings - anyone remember her (very) brief appearance in an early episode of The Invaders where she was an alien (in human form)? Then, in "I Remember Mama" (RKO, 1948), there was a sequence in a railroad carriage when Ellen was asked a question, and came out with such a totally inappropriate reply that I burst out laughing. "The mails must get through" she suddenly said and it tickled me so much I couldn't stop for some time (you've got to see the film to appreciate this....!). Warmest regards to you all!
KAREN'S COMMENT: You're quite welcome Arthur. From time to time many of our members have had to have individual digests re-sent for one reason or another. You are not alone. Yes, the feedback "thingy" on Ralph's site is known as the Forum. There's all this new "cyber jargon" that would have the Walton family looking at us as if we were from Mars now I think. Hope everyone in the UK can catch the Easter film. Still no sign of it here though. Hi Karen! I'm new to this list, but a loooong time lover of the Waltons. In fact, when I was in junior high school, I took a great deal of teasing because, while all of my friends were watching "Welcome Back Kotter," I chose instead to spend Thursday evenings on Walton's Mountain. My grandmother died when I was 15. Before leaving her hospital room on the last night I saw her, she said to me before I went out the door, "Turn the TV on so I can watch 'The Waltons' in a minute." That night, she died. She loved that show, especially the rapport between Grandma and Grandpa and I wish there was some way I could let Earl Hamner know that probably the last thing she did was spend the evening on Walton's Mountain. Well, enough serious stuff! I too like to look for cast members in other places. I also like to find discrepancies in the scripts from time to time. Here are a couple of my favorites: Ellen Corby--plays one of the ladies at the run on the bank in "It's a Wonderful Life." Later, in the early 1960s, she played "Mrs. Lesh," on "The Andy Griffin Show." She sales a car to Barney, who thinks she's a nice little old lady, but she turns out to be the head of a stolen car ring! It's priceless and good to see her on the second of my two favorite shows! In fact, I know that, somewhere just a few miles from Walton's Mountain, just at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, lies the little town of Mayberry. One discrepancy in the scripts I've noticed involves "The Literary Man." Although Hamner's narration at the end states "We were never to see A. J. Covington again. . . " he does show up again several seasons later. Its the episode where a movie is being made on the mountain. I believe its the same episode in which one of Earl Hamner's sisters appears. Well, I've rambled on long enough. You can rest assured most of my future posts will not be this long. Great to find you guys!! Marty D. Matthews
KAREN'S COMMENT: Hi Marty. I'm sure that this message will probably get through to Earl and that he will be very touched. I can't think of a nicer way to leave the world than to have family members around you watching The Waltons. It is fun to catch out the discrepancies. If anyone spots any others, let us know.
I hate post so soon after the first, but I forgot to ask a question. What's up with the two episodes mentioned at the end of the most recent digest that haven't been shown on FAM? I believe they're "The Changeling" and "The Ghost Story." Were they too controversial for the FAM sensors or unavailable or what? Thanks!
KAREN'S COMMENT: This has had a lot of discussion over the months, and we decided that maybe the FAM network felt that the supernatural content of them both may have opposed their guidelines. Have a look back at the some of the old digests and you'll find some discussion on them. Hopefully these will air on TNN and you can make up your own minds.
Hi Karen, Yesterday's episode on (UK's Channel 4) of The Walton's was the one when the family are reunited at home after the fire. Just to let you know where we are with the series in this part of the world. I recently saw a video with Richard Thomas in it, called 'Narrow Escape'. It is distributed over here by Odyssey, who do a lot of weepies. This one is a worthy weepy, set at the end of the Korean War, and based on a true story of an orphan on a navy ship. Tricia Slattery KAREN'S COMMENT: Nice to know you're still getting the show over there. I think you're about to enter the really interesting seasons. Actually Richard Thomas has popped up in movies here a lot lately too. Always good to see him.
Dear Karen, I just finished watching the episode "The Song", in which Ben gets Jason to sing a duet with Sally Ann Harper on the radio to a song that Jason has written. I was wanting to catch the credits to see if Jon Walmsley really wrote the song, but got called out of the room at the last minute. Do you know if he did write the song "Will You Be Mine?"? There have been other songs in the series that Jason was supposed to have written. Do you know if Jon wrote them, either?
Thanks again for all the work you do on the digest, KAREN'S COMMENT: This episode must be the one with Erin Moran? I have never seen this one, so if someone can help us with an answer, please do so.
NOW I'M ABOUT TO GIVE YOU A CLUE OR TWO SO CLOSE OFF IF YOU WANT TO TRY TO GUESS THE ANNIVERSARIES YOURSELF. CLUE: The first clue is that it is one of the anniversaries is a 20th one. The other is more than that. What might the events be?
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