Reviews

A well-written episode that explores the ethics of academic honor codes, in this case one which requires students to rat on each other if caught cheating during exams. Richard Masur is very good as the big-hearted lug who John-Boy defends in front of the university's scary honor council against charges of cheating. Everyone else goes into full Perry Mason mode with John-Boy proving to be a not-too-bad defense attorney and his father giving sage advice. The student-led honor council itself provokes some eye-rolling; it's depicted as a some kind of fearsome kangaroo court where its members are addressed as "sir" and the student defendants may require actual legal counsel. Yikes. In an amusing secondary plot, Will Geer gets to show off his cigarette-smoking skills as Grandpa tries to sway Ben from that nasty habit.

A great start to the third season, and perhaps the most beautiful looking episode of the series (thanks to cinematographer Russell Metty and art director Ed Graves), mostly filmed amongst handsome mountain scenery; it was always nice when they got away from the Burbank backlot. A compelling, historically-based storyline and solid performances from guest actors Beulah Bondi, Richard Hatch, Morgan Woodward and Lindsay V. Jones help to kick this one up a notch. Granted, it is a bit weird to see the normally wise, good-natured Grandpa Walton suddenly turn into a hot-headed militant ready to do gun battle with the police, but that doesn't detract from this excellent episode.

Now in it's ninth and final season, we find "The Waltons" accelerating its' nosedive to its looming, merciful end. Once the gold standard of TV drama, "The Pearls" finds the once sterling show stumbling around pointlessly in one of the most tired TV tropes ever: the "never before mentioned identical twin who is the exact opposite of his/her sibling in every way" trope. Why nobody ever mentioned that Corabeth had an identical twin FOR THE PAST SIX SEASONS is a mystery fit for Agatha Christie. Despite the admirable efforts of the always marvelous Ronnie Claire Edwards, none of this tripe even remotely rings true, and nobody else seems to buy into it either; the actors, especially the Walton siblings, seem to be in a say-their-lines-and-go-home mode. It's a pointless, jaded exercise by a creative team that has officially checked out. A secondary plot about Elizabeth missing her parents is anemic, though it seems the better idea would have been to put some industry and effort into this story and leave the identical twin garbage to third rate sitcoms. Oh well, at least we'll always have the first few seasons!

Ben Piazza lends poignancy as Mr. Reed, a down-on-his-luck salesman with the thankless task of schlepping around the mountains trying to peddle books to impoverished mountain folk. Desperate for his daughter to have a birthday present, he sells The Harvard Classics to the Waltons with the intention of pocketing their down payment and skipping town. It's an oft told story of forgiveness and redemption made special by a sharp script and excellent performances. Piazza is absorbing as Reed, a man very near the end of his rope. Dirty and disheveled, his voice barely rising above a whisper, he looks, as Ike Godsey puts it, "like he's about to pass out from hunger." The scenes of Reed struggling along the dusty roads lugging his heavy case of book samples is enough to make your back hurt. The rest of the cast turn in their usual solid efforts, but it's Ralph Waite as John Walton that stands out. When John finally confronts Reed about his theft, we see John's indignation and anger, but also a sad resignation that Reed has been brought to his desperate actions by forces outside his control.

A terrific episode made even better by the great Bruce Davison. Olivia's late friend's daughter, also named Olivia, is getting married and the family is hosting the wedding. Her groom Bob Hill (Davison) is a high-strung fussy type, which doesn't bode well as the locals are planning a shivaree, a quaint rural custom that involves kidnapping the groom and dumping him in the woods. All hell breaks loose and Olivia and Bob's young marriage is immediately on the rocks. It would've been easy to make Bob a two-dimensional antagonist, a la Frank Burns, but Davison's outstanding performance lends an empathy that most actors wouldn't have found. A couple of standout scenes: the shivaree itself, with Ike Godsey, Yancy Tucker, Horace Brimley and Zack Roswell in all their hillbilly hootin' and hollerin' glory, and the funny (and RACY) bit of dialogue between John and Olivia concerning their children's honeymoons. Don't miss it.

The first few seasons of "The Waltons" was as good as character-driven TV series got. A rare confluence of great writing, directing and acting places many of these episodes in the pantheon of television drama. Episodes such as "The Literary Man," "The Star," "The Conflict," and "An Easter Story" are textbook examples of how to do TV drama. Buoyed by excellent writing (John McGreevey, Nigel McKeand, Joanna Lee, Hindi Brooks) and the foundational cast of Richard Thomas (John-Boy), Ralph Waite (John), Michael Learned (Olivia), Ellen Corby (Grandma) and the iconic Will Geer (Grandpa), "The Waltons" had few peers in 1970s TV.

Unfortunately the show never recovered from the triple gut punch it suffered after the fifth season; the departure of it's main star Richard Thomas, Ellen Corby's debilitating stroke which would essentially take her off the show, and the death of Will Geer. Although the show stayed on the air for four more seasons, the decline in quality was evident.

Writers did their best to make the Walton siblings interesting, but the lack of charisma and acting ability from these actors made it a hard sell. The show finally reached its nadir with the return of John-Boy played by a different actor (truly one of the most bizarre decisions ever made in TV history). Eventually Michael Learned and Ralph Waite would depart as well and the show would limp on for another season and a half before airing its final episode in 1981, a shadow of what it once was.

According to the narration, from time to time the Waltons would take in an orphan for a few days, after which they would return him to the orphanage. This seems...cruel? Anyhoo their current visiting orphan is Stevie, a tough little SOB who isn't exactly warming up to the family, but may have a future with local blacksmith Curtis Norton and wife Ann. We first saw Curtis in "The Bicycle" from the first season, played by Ned Beatty; here the role has been taken over by Victor French, a definite improvement (no offense to Mr. Beatty, who is a legend). Beatty portrayed Curtis as an overly-serious neurotic bumpkin; French's Curtis is easygoing and avuncular, the kind of guy you'd have some recipe with. His scenes with Stevie are delightful. It's too bad Curtis couldn't have been made a regular character; I think Victor French's talent would have been better spent on this show than "Little House on the Prairie," victim to Michael Landon's schmaltzy excesses. Ivy Jones is solid as highly-strung, but redeemable Ann Norton. Bonus points for the hilarious scene where Jason discovers staying up late with the grown-ups is boring as hell. 8/10 stars.

It's Christmas Eve in Michael Landon's Walnut Grove which means...TRAGEDY! In an act of abject idiocy, schoolmarm Miss Beadle sends the kids home when it starts to snow, unaware that sometimes in Minnesota blizzards are a thing! Charles, Mr Edwards and the men of the town venture out into the storm on a rescue mission while Doc Baker, the moms and the rescued kids hang back in the church drinking brandy. The blizzard scenes are actually done pretty well; as the kids trudge through the snow drifts you can feel your own toes and fingers going numb. I don't know what the Little House production crew used for fake snow, but it looks pretty realistic. Solid performances by the leads and particularly Bonnie Bartlett (Grace) who temporarily loses her mind. Fans of "The Waltons" will recognize John Carter who turned up in Waltons Mountain over the years in various roles. Everything ends with an super-sized overdose of Landonesque schmaltz. 7/10 stars, because Edwards saves his kids by getting them drunk.

Writer AJ Covington returns to Walton Mountain as the writer of a (what appears to be godawful) film being shot at the nearby Tabor house. Enraged by bystanders cackling at the terrible dialogue, the movie's peevish director hires John-Boy to script-doctor AJ's screenplay, leading to much awkwardness.

Meanwhile Mary Ellen, already swooning over the Edward VIII abdication drama playing out overseas, enthusiastically throws herself at the handsome British studio assistant Todd. One half expects her to drag him upstairs to, uh, "crown" him herself. Stephen Collins is in fine form here as the Englishman Todd (his accent is flawless), James Karen proves entertaining as the constantly annoyed director and George Dzundza is sympathetic as AJ Covington, whose fortunes seem to change like the wind.

The audience must overlook a couple of "yeah, RIGHT" plot details, such as a NY film company driving 500 miles to shoot a couple of scenes in rural Virginia, but overall a well-written episode and the real-life abdication is weaved in nicely with the goings on at Waltons Mountain.

Enjoyable yarn about how the Waltons house nearly burns down and the opportunity it affords the kids to get a reprieve from their possessive mother. Farmed out to various neighbors while the house is being repaired we find Jason living like the Duke of Windsor at the Baldwin sisters; Ben whooping it up and living in filth with Yancy Tucker; and Mary Ellen at Doctor Vance's house, maniacally reorganizing the doctor's drug supplies. Meanwhile John-Boy, his manuscript destroyed in the fire, struggles to overcome his own whininess and rewrite the blasted thing. Elizabeth, still stinging from the death of a butterfly she imprisoned in a jar, finally snaps when she finds her doll has burned up in the fire and enters a kind of catatonic state of nihilism. Worth viewing for the house fire scene itself, which is very well done and actually quite thrilling (the actors were so close to the flames Judy Norton had her hair wetted down for fear it would catch fire). Handsomely filmed. Seven stars, would have been eight but for the presence of the cackling Zuleika Dunbar.

Michael O'Keefe returns to Waltons Mountain in all his hammy acting glory as Chad Marshall, the forestry student we first saw in the season 4 episode "The Competition" with an eye on marrying Erin. "THIS IS MYYYYY LAAAAAAAAND," he screeches like a bizarre maniac when he shows Erin the plot of land he plans to build his house on. Erin couldn't be more thrilled, and the viewer couldn't be more bewildered at who would want to marry this insane, bellowing person. As the title of the episode gives away, their marriage plans are not approved by John and Olivia (an unintentionally hilarious scene thanks to Chad's slack-jawed reaction throughout) and they plan their elopement with predictable results. The secondary storyline treats us to Jason ineptly running Godsey's store while Ike's away, allowing shrieking, addled Maude Gormley to run up a big debt. Thankfully she's done a bunch of awful bird paintings which she sells (really?) to settle her bill.

One of the best episodes of the series, and it all centers around a simple storyline: Grandpa convinces himself that a chest pain he felt while witnessing a falling star is an omen of his impending demise, and he takes to his deathbed. Meanwhile the meteorite itself has landed in the Baldwin sisters' recipe room, prompting a diabolical plan from conman cousin Polonious Baldwin to steal the recipe machine. Everything works like a charm, even the secondary storyline about Ben competing in a school spelling bee; the little scene with him and Elizabeth at the beginning is quite sweet. This is also one of the best looking episodes, the cinematography and lighting are top notch.

A not very good episode that finds John Walton getting hired for a government office job. If you're ready to believe that a man who's worked in a sawmill his entire life could get hired writing reports for a highway department, then this episode's for you. A half-assed secondary plot involving Grandpa, Elizabeth and an annoying kid who's crushing on her doesn't help things. Only redeeming feature is the great cast of supporting players; Donald Moffat is his blustery best as the tyrant boss, Waltons semi-regular William Phipps as the target of his boss' ire and Patch MacKenzie as the office gossip. Barney Miller fans will recognize Kenneth Tigar, a frequent visitor to the 12th precinct. I give it one star, only because we get to see Olivia order a cocktail in a truck stop diner.