| WALTONS DIGEST 6:
Hi everyone,
Welcome to all of you who are new, and there are quite a few of you! Please feel free to write and introduce yourself to the group...just drop me a note. I will be away from home for a few days so the next digest might be a little late, so don't worry if it doesn't arrive when you are expecting it. I am trying to send them on a Wednesday and a Saturday, our time. I'm not sure of the time difference so I'm not sure when to tell you to expect them. I often just queue them too, then wait for someone to hop on the computer to send them.
I really appreciated all of your mail and thanks to those of you who sent in bits and pieces of Waltons family history for me, as well as the timeline notes. I really liked Lee's notes about the Baldwin sisters cousins. Aren't they fabulous characters? Enjoy the digest, Karen.
From Anne Mary: Hello to Everyone! I am new to Karen's wonderful Walton's Digest and am so grateful to have found so many other Waltons fans like myself. My name is Anne Mary Shebell, I am 33 years old and live in a small town called Pennsville, NJ. I have been watching the Waltons for as long as I can remember, and still do--every night on the Family Channel and of course when they have all of the season specials.
Like many of you, I also collect the Waltons Video Library from Columbia House. I still have a few more to buy but as long as they keep sending them to me, I will continue to buy them.
For those of you who wonder what the real Waltons Mountain is like, I was fortunate enough to visit there last summer with a friend. I had such a marvelous time! It is breathtakingly beautiful and everyone is was so nice. The Postmaster General who works in the little post office across from the real Hamner home was such a pleasant man to speak with. He was thrilled to tell us all about the mountain, who lives there now, what the real "Waltons" are like and a ton of facts about the area in general. He even directed us to a rock quarry around the corner from the post office where we found some of the large limestone rocks they sell in the museum. We brought them back and he stamped them with the "Waltons Mountain" postmark -- instant souvenirs.
From Jeff:
Hi Karen and other Waltons fans. I'm so glad to be part of such a large group of people who appreciate the simplicity, the beauty and the warmth of The Waltons. I was not quite ten years old when "The Homecoming" was shown on TV, and I've been a fan of that family ever since.
I do get The Family Channel and have enjoyed the re-runs, but I missed so many, that last year I joined the Columbia House Video Club and subscribed to the series. I get a new tape about every six weeks, each containing two episodes. However, I discovered something recently that has greatly distressed me. The Columbia series is MISSING several episodes. I have not missed a single tape and when I was checking an episode guide on the Internet, I noticed several gaps. For instance, I do not have "The Bicycle," "The Matchmaker," "The Conflict" and a good half-dozen others. And the last tape I received from Columbia was already from the 4th season. I called Columbia and was told that the episodes I reported as missing are "not available." The woman explained that the distributor, which she identified as Warner Bros. has not released those episodes to Columbia. I was greatly annoyed, and wonder if anyone else who subscribes to the series through Columbia has noticed the same thing... However, the episodes that I do have are wonderful. And it is good to see them without those annoying commercial breaks! KAREN'S COMMENT: I wonder why some of the episodes aren't available. Does the Family Channel still air these? If so then I guess the episodes are still available from somewhere.
We have a network out here (the one which aired The Waltons), which had a lot of trouble finding archival material to show when it was celebrating 40 years of TV in Australia last year. One of its most successful shows, Young Talent Time, which ran for about 10 years, had hardly any tapes left. Apparently the budget was so tight that they just taped new shows over old shows, thus wiping them out! One of the regular performers on this show had a guest role on a Waltons episode. Sally Boyden went over to the USA to look at possible acting work and promptly landed herself the role of the English evacuee in A Children's Carol. Sally joined Young Talent Time when she was only 7 and was with the show for about 3 years. I believe she is now living in England and is a fairly successful songwriter.
This article appeared in our local paper, Sarasota Herald-Tribune on the day "A Walton Easter was aired (March 30, 1997). It was written by Jennifer Bowles of The Associated Press.
WALTONS REUNITE FOR EASTER MOVIE "I think maybe that's one of the reasons "The Waltons" was popular, it touched on everyone's life in a way," says author Earl Hamner Jr., whose life was the basis for the old TV series. "I once had dinner and a lady was sitting next to me and she said, 'I'm so glad to meet you. Your stories remind me of my childhood.'" The woman, in fact, had grown up on a Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The cast of the original series, "The Waltons," which aired from 1972 to 1981, got back together to film "A Walton Easter," which airs at 9 p.m. today on CBS. As with the series, Hamner narrates the opening and closing sequences. He also serves as executive producer. Bringing the family together is the 40th wedding anniversary of John and Olivia Walton (played by Ralph Waite and Michael Learned). All is not perfect on Walton's Mountain in 1969. A globe-trotting Elizabeth Walton (Kami Cotler) returns to find her true love Drew didn't wait for her. "Times are changing." Olivia tells her husband as they eat a store-bought pie. And John-Boy, a writer and TV commentator in New York, returns with his wife Janet (Kate McNeil), who is pregnant. Home again and surrounded by the peacefulness of the countryside, John-Boy begins to have second thoughts about living and raising a family in New York. His turmoil causes conflict with his wife, who is anxious to return to the city. Adding to the excitement is a fast-talking, New York reporter who accompanies John-Boy home to write an article to promote his upcoming book. "It's sort of the culture clash of Walton's Mountain meets New York City, and they both have their values and it comes out very clearly in John-Boy's feelings," Hamner said. It isn't the first Waltons reunion movie; in fact, it's the third. The cast reassembled in 1993 for "A Walton Thanksgiving," and again in 1995 for "A Walton Wedding." This one, though, was the "most fun of all," said the ever-youthful Richard Thomas, who plays John-Boy. "It's more like a party than anything else," Thomas said. "It is like a real family reunion. We've maintained real close contact and there's a lot of good feelings." This seems to be the season for reunion movies. It started out in November with "Dallas," and will continue next month with "The Dukes of Hazard" and in May with "Knots Landing." Some actors hesitate to participate in reunion movies and return to the roles that made them famous, usually out of fear of typecasting. "Only in the last couple of years has it lightened up and I've been able to do characters that weren't the responsible father," said Waite, who in the last two years played mean-spirited characters on TV's "Murder One" and "Orleans." But no regrets on Waite's part: "That was an important part of my life and if I had to fight that, I'd be a miserable human being."
So does that mean we'll be seeing another Waltons reunion? "As long as some of us are still standing, we'll keep doing them," said Thomas. From Leon: Hi everyone on The Walton - Mailing List. My name is Leon. I'm an 30 year old redheaded single who lives in Heesch, which is a small village (10,000 people) in the south of The Netherlands, Europe. At this moment I'm an unemployed architect working as a gardener and garden designer. I grew up in a city called Tilburg (200,000 people) but I didn't like it there. The small community where I live now is more in line with my character: cities are nice to visit for a while but not to live in. After studying at the university of Delft, in the west of The Netherlands, I moved to Heesch where my mother's family has lived for more then 200 years. There I stayed with my uncle and aunt. The last of 7 redheaded children had just left home and a grandma of 93 was living nearby. I hadn't seen them for 10 years but was taken in their home with great love. In the beginning I was even called their "little" boy. After almost two years I moved to my own home just a few streets away. Only last year, when I started watching a rerun of The Waltons a resemblance between the series and my family struck me. Not only the red hair and big family but also the Walton-style of living and the values they stand for. My favorite characters are John Walton and Grandpa, I suppose because they are a kind of role model for me, although I'm still single. I myself, am more like John-boy. At home I was the eldest of two, moved away from home to study and do things that nobody in the family had done before. Seen as the eccentric intellectual, but still enjoying the country side. After reading the Waltons digest up to now I suppose that I'm the only European on this list. We in The Netherlands watch a re-run of season 4 on public television. It's screened twice a week in the afternoon as a program to fill up the gap between the children's programs and the news, and it's taken off regularly for sports events. In the late 70's and early 80's I watched The Waltons for the first time on German television. It became a tradition to watch them on Sunday evening after dinner before the sports-program began. Karen asked me before how we watch The Waltons. Well over here they speak English and we have subtitles, like all foreign programs. We grow up with subtitles. Even the cartoons for little children have subtitles. When I watched the series on German television they spoke German: our neighbors dub all foreign programs. In Europe we haven't seen the Easter special or the other specials and I think we will not see them for many years. So I have to settle for the descriptions you are giving me. Karen, you asked for information about The Walton family history and other information for a timeline. In the Walton digests I noticed that many of the people on the list take an interest in genealogy, just like me. Putting together a family tree of The Waltons shouldn't be a problem with all of us. I have been writing down what I have heard up till now in season 4: - John Walton has a brother called Ben. - Cora Beth is called a Walton in the episode she marries Ike Godsey and a cousin of John Walton, so her father must be a brother of Zeb Walton. - In the double-episode 'The Conflict' much was told about family history. Aunt Martha Corinne (born 1846; died 1939) was married to Zeb's brother Henry Walton (born 1845; died 1921). He married Martha Corinne in 1861 when the Civil War started. They have two children; Boone Walton (born 1864; died 1943 in a car accident while moonshining whiskey) and Henry jr. Walton (born 1870; died 1870). Boone's wife and son must have died before 1935 because they didn't appear in this episode. Boone's son was mentioned while he was fishing with Zeb; he drowned during a flood. Boone has a grandson Wade Walton (Born 1916) who is married to Vera Moyer and they have a son called Floyd Walton (Born 1935). There is only one problem. In the episode when Wade and Vera return to Waltons Mountain, Grandpa and John call Boone the uncle of Wade.
This is enough for now. I look forward for the next Walton Digest and the updates of The Walton Homepages of Karen and Ralph. Goodnight everyone (it's 1:30 AM). From Leon: Today I saw the episode "The Secret" (season 4) in which Jim Bob thinks he isn't a Walton. He and John Boy went to the Hall of Records in Charlottesville and found out that Jim Bob (James Robert) had a twin-brother called Joseph Zebulon who died at birth. Jim Bob was born in hospital in Charlottesville on the 13th of January 1923, all the other Walton children were born at Waltons Mountain.
KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for both of these bits of information, Leon...you've been busy. I still can't imagine The Waltons in another language, I wonder how many countries it aired in? I really like this episode (The Secret) as it has some very sensitive scenes between Jim Bob and John Boy. Imagine what a shock it would have been to find out that your twin died at birth. From Lee: You had asked about Olivia's family. I only remember that she went to her Aunt Kate's in her home town of Alberene when she was going through menopause and there was some information on her family. It was the The Milestone episode. I will have to watch it to see if there is any thing else there. Grandma mentions an Uncle Matt that received a medal in the war, WWI I assume. That would be one of John's brothers. That was in The Typewriter. Corabeth had a sister Orma Lee and a brother Frank, mentioned in The Pearls. I have also started listing the Baldwin's cousins. They seemed to have a cousin for every occasion. I thought it would be an interesting bit of trivia to see how many could be identified. Here is my list so far. Elvira: Kept bats in the house and chased them with a bat. Raymon: Was a writer, but Papa didn't like his stories. Went on to be a basket weaver
Marvin: Had fleas and lots of dogs, which apparently turned on him and killed him. KAREN'S COMMENT: This is the first I've ever heard of Uncle Matt. Was he referred to as John's brother, along with Ben? Perhaps he is meant to be Cora Beth's father?
Lee I'd like to add Cousin Octavia to your list. He/she was referred to in A Day of Thanks on Waltons Mountain. Apparently they were obliged to visit each Thanksgiving. Probably they were only invited so that there would be some of "the recipe" present as well! I also remember them referring to "black strap molasses" in this one. I can't remember though whether the recipe was added to it or something. From Eric: Well I see from digest five that we still are on this time frame thing, so I decided to get in on the investigation myself. I have started to go through my WALTON episode collection that is at about 206 at last count. This will be a long task indeed. I decided to touch on the episodes that come into mind right away: Second Season: "The Graduation" John Boy as valedictorian begins his speech with, "We the graduating class of 1934." So to me that clearly implies that he is seventeen or eighteen years old. Fourth Season: "The Fox" (Directed by Richard Thomas) Tells the story of the 40th anniversary of the rough riders, in Cuba in 1898. So we know that this is 1938. We also learn that Grandma was pregnant with John in 1898. So by that we can deduce that in 1969 from the Easter Special John must be around 71 years old. By the way check out the man in this episode who is trying to put this reunion together (Mr. McQuerry). His desk appears to sit backwards in every scene. Fourth Season: "The Prophesy" There is a line where John Boy mentions that the book, "Gone With the Wind has only been out several months." So you guys can check that one out. As I don't have the book.
Seventh Season: "The Empty Nest" This clearly takes place in 1941.
One more thing, did you guys know that John's brother Ben died in WW1 in France? This is shown in the fifth season in "The Achievement," which by the way was Richard Thomas's last appearance in the series as a regular. Ben Walton's death in WW1 is also dealt with in the fifth season quite dramatically in, "The Hero."
KAREN'S COMMENT: Thanks for this information Eric...you've certainly been busy. A trivia question for you all: How many Walton children were valedictorian of their class and who were they? You might know the answer to this better than me!
I think it is great that Waltons fans finally have several means of joining together. It is about time! |
