#THE WALTONS THE HOSTAGE MOVIE#
#THE WALTONS THE HOSTAGE MOD#
#THE WALTONS THE HOSTAGE TV#

Premiering in the fall of 1972, the hour-long dramatic series was scheduled in what was considered a 'suicidal' time slot against two popular Thursday-night shows, ABC's The Mod Squad and NBC's top-rated The Flip Wilson Show. They proposed to walk that fine line between 'excessive sentimentality and believable human warmth,' and took care not to caricature the mountain culture of the family, desiring to portray them as descendants of pioneer stock rather than stereotypical 'hillbillies.' Production notes in the Hamner papers emphasized the respect to be afforded the family and its culture: 'That the Waltons are poor should be obvious, but there should be no hint of squalor or debased living conditions usually associated with poverty.' Producers also stressed that The Waltons would not be like earlier wholesome family series Father Knows Best or I Remember Mama transplanted to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,' but instead would be 'the continuing story of a seventeen-year old boy who wants to be a writer, growing up during the Depression in a large and loving family.' Lorimar executives constructed the series to emphasize both the locale (the Blue Ridge Mountains) and the historical period (the Great Depression), hoping to evoke a nostalgia for the recent past. The initial public reaction to the special was so overwhelming that executives Lee Rich and Bob Jacks of the newly-formed Lorimar Productions convinced CBS to continue it as a series, with Hamner as co-executive producer and story editor.

The series was based on Hamner's novel Spencer's Mountain, which had been made into a feature film of the same name and subsequently adapted as a CBS-TV holiday special, The Homecoming, in 1971. Based upon the semi-autobiographical writings of Earl Hamner, Jr., much of the early narrative was enunciated from the perspective of the oldest son, John Boy, an aspiring writer. Set in the fictitious rural community of Walton's Mountain, Virginia, during the 1930s, the episodic narrative focused upon a large and dignified, 'salt-of-the-earth' rural white family consisting of grandparents, parents and seven children. sold the family's lumber mill to his son Ben and moved to Arizona where Olivia Walton was recovering from a relapse of Tuberculosis.The Waltons was a highly successful family drama series of the 1970s, which portrayed a sense of family in sharp contrast to the problem-ridden urban families of the 'socially relevant' sitcoms such as All in the Family, Maude or Sanford and Son which vied with it for top billing in the Nielsen ratings.

#THE WALTONS THE HOSTAGE TV#

Near the end of the Waltons TV show, John Walton Sr. Earl also was the Narrator (voice) on the TV show. wrote the story from his real-life perspective as a child in a large family during the depression who wanted to grow up to be an author (The John Boy character).

#THE WALTONS THE HOSTAGE MOVIE#

There was a movie made about them in 1963 called 'Spencer's Mountain' which inspired the TV show. The Waltons was based upon the life of the 'Hamner' family (written by Earl Hamner, Jr.). 'Michael Learned' who played his mother 'Olivia Walton' was only 11 years older than Richard Thomas!īy the sixth season, the Waltons were coming out of the Depression but into perhaps worse time as World War II began.Īlthough the regular episodes of the Waltons, the 1993 TV movie, the 1995 TV movie, and the 1997 TV movie all aired on CBS, the two 1982 TV movies aired on NBC (see further information below). It's fortunate that Richard Thomas had such 'boyish' looks at the time. The Waltons was originally scheduled in the same time slot as two very popular shows! It was risky for CBS to do that but it payed off big time! ' The Mod Squad' (ABC) only lasted one season and ' The Flip Wilson Show' (NBC) only survived two seasons. Audiences there just couldn't identify with the characters. The Waltons was extremely popular with the exception of large metropolitan areas like New York City and Los Angeles.

Walton's mountain was set in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Jefferson County, Virginia. Narrator / Creator of Storyline / 'Real-life 'John Boy''

Oh yes, they also owned their own mountain - Walton's mountain! The Waltons TV show was so popular that there were six reunion movies televised after the series ended! They didn't have many material things but they had a deep love for each other and their large number of friends. The Waltons was a 60 minute drama series on CBS about a family who lived and loved on Waltons mountain.

The waltons the hostage