A Walton Family Thanksgiving

In the first half of the nineties CBS returned to Waltons mountain for a Series of television movies. The Waltons, of course, had been a staple of the networks lineup in the seventies and the timing of nostalgia made the movies a good bet to garner a dependable audience.

The first movie in that series was A Walton Family Thanksgiving centering on the family as they gathered together for the holiday in 1963. As any history buff knows this year also coincided with the Kennedy assassination which allows the series, while catching us up with the family members, to show their reactions to the events of that fateful time.

One thing must be said, most child stars do not become great actors and actresses. The young people who played the children on The Waltons certainly are of that group. It would seem that a good portion of them have done no acting whatsoever, not a bad thing, they have moved on and lived there lives, it does however mean that the acting in this sort of a reunion show will be stilted.

Everyone that is remembered from the series makes an appearance. Ike and Corabeth, their daughter Amy, Verdi the black person on Walton's mountain, even Yancy Tucker. With the exception of the departed Will Geer the whole cast returns.

One has to put away the calculator to make this work. The characters of the show, primarily the children, are played younger than they would be in a direct timeline from the original show. At one point even John thinking of Grandpa says to himself Pa, you have been gone 15 years and it seems like just yesterday. Actually on a strict timeline Zeb has gone been gone about twenty years.

Watching Ben try to cry about baby Virginia (somehow she died) or Jim Bob show sadness after a rebuke from Mary Ellen, it is clear that great acting will not be on this show.

Still Ralph Waite is extremely likable and I cannot tell you how much seeing the very old Ellen Corby ( she reminds me of my Mother who died at 88 a couple of years ago) and the show just works.

When we were young it was the family we as kids made fun of while we secretly wanted to be a part of. I grew up a country kid and I could understand a bit of the life these people led and knew that it was a blessed existence if only a life that was lived on a television screen.

As the episode ends and all the family troubles that the children have been struggling with are resolved , as John Kennedy has been laid to rest, as John Boy sits out front with his lady friend and they all say goodnight like they have on every episode one thing becomes clear. For this person, me, this sometimes sarcastic, usually cynical ( though I try not to be as much) person one thing is clear. I still would like to be part of that family. That is why bad acting will make not a hoot of difference to anybody who grew up with this show.

It is a chance to revisit not only our own childhood but for many of us a childhood we dreamed about whilst in it. How many chances do you get to do that in your mid forties.