Welcome the Waltons

She was right. My weekly schedule reads Monday — workshops, Wednesday and Friday —rehearsals; Saturday or Sunday —performances in rural areas, sometimes. I’m really a busy old guy, enjoying myself doing what I fell in love with more than 60 years ago. But, somehow, I did manage to see a few programmes in black and white when TTT was the only TV station in the country.

How well I remember the ending, “Good night, Grand Pa, good night John Boy, good night Grand Ma, good night Jim Bob, goodnight Elizabeth” and so on and on with eleven persons in the household on Waltons’ mountain saying, “Good night” to one another.

There was an episode where the whole Walton family sat still listening to the radio on December 10, 1936 to the historic moment when King Edward VIII announced his abdication, handing over the throne to his younger brother who became King George VI – the father of the present Queen Elizabeth. Edward stated that he “found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and discharge my duties as King as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love.”

The Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin objected boldly to the twice divorced American socialite Mrs Walls Simpson to become Queen of England. The all-American Walton family was in Baldwin’s corner with grandmother Esther being very empathic that Mrs Simpson was unfit to be queen. The family also commented on another momentous event —the explosion of the giant German airship the Hildenburg in New Jersey on May 6 1937.

Although The Waltons lived in ‘Almost heaven, West Virginia’ as John Denver sings in ‘Country Road’, the fictional family had their share of the good, the bad and the bittersweet experiences of the life as everybody else. The series ran for several years and television viewers saw the characters grow up on the set. When actors were offered contacts to appear in films, the panel of writers found reasons for them to be in Charlotte, Richmond, or New York.

After the Japanese attacked the United States base at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, the USA and Britain declared war on Japan the next day. Two days later, US declared war on Germany and Italy. This meant conscription in the States and the Walton men were drafted into the army, navy and marines. John Boy was reported missing in action but was eventually found badly wounded and sent back to a hospital in the States.

Richard Thomas as John Boy was not in several episodes because he had left the series to act in movies but the producers felt the character was too important to be left out permanently so they hired a new actor to play the role. When the grandmother suffered a stroke in real life, they wanted to leave her out but she insisted on returning so they wrote scripts where she was battling to speak again.

At the beginning of each programme, little Elizabeth is shown in a sketch dragging a long stick on the dusty road while on her way to school. Years later, we see her at about 17 or so with a boyfriend. The prim and proper Cora Beth was shocked at the behaviour of the young couple when they left the dance floor, and went out on the patio away from the others. Poor Cora would have gotten a heart attack had she seen them engaged in a little good night kiss.

The gym instructor declared, “The only exercise some folks get is walking . . . over other people , running . . . down their friends and jumping . . . to conclusion.”