The Rev. Matt Curry’s mother and father have been kids of the Great Depression, similar to “The Waltons” — the beloved TV household whose prime-time collection premiered 50 years in the past. When Curry was rising up on a farm in northern Texas, his carpenter father and trainer mom usually argued playfully over who had a poorer childhood. “The Depression was the seminal time of their lives — the time that was about family and survival and making it through,” mentioned Curry, now a 59-year-old Presbyterian pastor in Owensboro, Kentucky. “My dad used to talk about how his dad would go work out of town and send $5 a week to feed and clothe the family.”Also Read – Review: ‘Barbarian’ Gleefully Messes With Horror Customs
So when “The Waltons,” set in 1932 and working via World War II, debuted on CBS on Sept. 14, 1972, the Currys recognized intently with the storylines. Millions of others felt the identical, and the Thursday night time drama a couple of Depression-era household in rural Virginia grew to become certainly one of TV’s hottest and enduring applications. Also Read – The Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power Sets Milestone Viewership Record
At a time when the networks usually averted “dangerous” content material, “The Waltons” was notable for taking up tough subjects — faith, specifically — mentioned Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. Also Read – Poland To Seek Reparations Worth $1.3 Trillion From Germany For The Nazis’ WW II Invasion
“I think it was an important show, and I think it actually doesn’t get the attention that it deserves,” Thompson mentioned.
“‘The Waltons’ really did get down and roll around in some very, very serious spiritual themes,” he added. “For example, an atheist comes to town, and we get this whole discussion between atheism and spirituality.”
“The Waltons” ran for 9 seasons and 221 episodes, rating as excessive as No. 2 within the Nielsen rankings. A half-century later it nonetheless stirs nostalgia amongst loyal followers who can’t resist taking in cable TV reruns, binging episodes through streaming apps and maintaining with former stars via social media.
Based on the lifetime of its creator, the late Earl Hamner Jr., the present adopted a big prolonged household residing in a white, two-story farmhouse and working a sawmill within the fictional Blue Ridge foothills city of Walton’s Mountain. The mother and father, grandparents and 7 kids — John Jr., Jason, Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, Jim-Bob and Elizabeth — have been depicted carrying overalls and clothes, praying at meals and overcoming adversity via onerous work and style.
“The Waltons” targeted on John Jr., often called John-Boy, performed by Richard Thomas and modeled on Hamner. The oldest sibling, he aspired to be a author and expertise the world past his humble upbringing.
Now 71 and starring as lawyer Atticus Finch in a touring manufacturing of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Thomas mentioned he nonetheless hears followers name “Good night, John-Boy!” after every efficiency. The acquainted catchphrase pays homage to the Emmy-winning function that made him well-known.
“It’s kind of astonishing that we’re still talking about a show 50 years later,” mentioned Thomas, who narrates “A Waltons Thanksgiving,” a made-for-TV film airing this fall on the CW community.
“To have that kind of longevity and then have it mean enough for people to want to do a new version of it — I’m not sure exactly why,” he added. “I know it affected a lot of people’s lives. But I think primarily Earl Hamner’s writing was just so great and the cast loved each other so much and we were so committed.”
John-Boy had quite a bit to do with the present’s reputation — and impressed many a crush again then amongst followers like Jerri Harrington, now 67, of Centreville, Virginia.
Harrington nonetheless watches an episode each night time together with her husband of 47 years. During the scary early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she mentioned, its characters — notably grandma Esther, performed by the late Ellen Corby — introduced a way of consolation and return to childhood.
“It just feels familiar,” mentioned Harrington, a grandmother herself.
Another lifelong fan, Carol Jackson, like Curry the daughter of Depression-era mother and father, sees her circle of relatives’s story mirrored.
She grew to become a fan as a kindergartner and as an grownup positioned “Waltons” DVDs within the resort cabins that her household operated within the Ozarks of northern Arkansas. The homespun tales nonetheless join with the 55-year-old mom of three.
“I just told my kids, ‘One day when I’m old and in my wheelchair … just wheel me in front of ‘The Waltons’ on a continual loop, and I’ll be happy,’” Jackson mentioned.
Kami Cotler, who was 6 years previous when she first starred as youngest sibling Elizabeth in a 1971 vacation TV film that launched the collection, nonetheless interacts recurrently with such followers through her Facebook web page, which has practically 150,000 followers.
Cotler mentioned “The Waltons” shared “universal truths” that assist clarify its lasting reputation.
“The show frequently told really simple human stories that resonate with people because that’s what life is like,” mentioned Cotler, now an educator in Southern California. “People will joke that it was very saccharine sweet, but I don’t think that it actually was.”
On the present, mother and father John Walton Sr. and Olivia Walton — performed, respectively, by the late Ralph Waite, an ordained minister in actual life, and Michael Learned — regularly clashed over their differing approaches to God. Olivia was a religious Baptist, however John Sr. was not a churchgoer.
“I’ve always looked for God in my own way,” he mentioned in a single episode.
An ongoing theme was the looks in Walton’s Mountain of an outsider — a Jewish household fleeing Nazi persecution, a Black boxer and preacher elevating cash for a brand new church, a Hollywood actress who smoked and drank — who met a blended reception.
In 1972’s “The Sinner” episode, a younger pastor performed by the late John Ritter arrived preaching fire-and-brimstone Bible verses. But he inadvertently grew to become intoxicated after consuming an excessive amount of of the “secret recipe” served by the Baldwin sisters, two prim and correct recurring characters who didn’t appear to appreciate they have been bootleggers.
After the mishap touched off one thing of a scandal, John Sr. made a uncommon look at church and pointed to Jesus’ phrases from John 8:7: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
“The religious aspect of the show had to do with the fact that Earl Hamner was talking about a time and a place … where those issues were very much in play,” mentioned Thomas, now a grandfather of 4. “I mean, in a small community in the mountains of Virginia in the Depression, if you don’t deal with the church aspect of things, then you don’t deal with things as they were.”
Over the present’s long term, the Waltons and their neighbors discovered useful classes about overcoming variations and treating everybody with love and respect. Those classes, Cotler mentioned, “are perhaps even more relevant today.”
On a private observe, Cotler, a secular Jew, credit grandpa Zeb, performed by the late Will Geer, with educating her how you can sing church songs on the present.
Curry, the Kentucky pastor, mentioned “The Waltons” mirrored how Jesus usually rebukes spiritual folks for hypocrisy within the Bible, whereas commending an surprising particular person — corresponding to a Samaritan who helped a stranger — for exhibiting love and style.
The present “talked about religion and faith … in a way that does not demean people,” Curry mentioned. “There’s something in there that we are missing today, and it’s the sense of community, of unity, of battling through hard times.”