THE WALTONS – The Fifth Season

Review by Douglas A. Waltz

The Waltons are one of the true bedrocks of family programming. A good wholesome show that can be watched and enjoyed by everyone. When it first came out in 1972 it was up against two heavy hitters; The Mod Squad and The Flip Wilson Show. The Waltons were not expected to last a season. Neither The Mod Squad or Flip Wilson made it to another season and The Waltons ruled the airwaves for nine seasons.

Warner Brothers presents the fifth season, what may be the most pivotal of the series. From the first episode in which John Boy starts his own self published newspaper, The Blue Ridge Chronicles to Ellen Corby as Grandma diagnosed with an illness that put her in the hospital. And the first Walton wedding when Mary Ellen is supposed to marry David Spencer, but by the end of the two part episode she has definite eyes for the town doctor instead.

This is also the season where John Boy leaves Walton Mountain to become the novelist we always knew that he would be.

The Waltons always held a special place in my heart because of my desire to write. Here was a dirt poor kid from Virginia who spends his every waking moment trying to become a writer. His obsession leads him to self publish and even consider selling part of his family’s land to keep himself in print. All writers want to be read.
Sure, we have that desire to put pen to paper and would probably do it even if we were the last person on Earth and there was no one else to read it, but we love to have people read out stuff. The Waltons showed me that it was important to write.

As the last season with a fully intact cast, this is probably the most important set that Warner Brothers have released. It’s interesting to watch a show from the seventies that has defied dating itself because it takes place during the Depression. It makes for a fine history lesson and shows where we as a country have been and what we have done to persevere in the face of adversity. And they do it without any nudity, no swearing and good solid Christian values.

I think a show like this would still work today and it’s a shame that no one has thought to bring it back to television. As a rule, I despise remakes, but maybe we could use The Waltons to remind us of how we used to be.