Shark Bytes

I followed all of the original shows. Now at age 57 I still watch in the morning getting ready for work. My personal less liked character was Grandma. She was a crabby, negative, too straight laced woman, until she came back from her stroke. She became quieter and kinder. I now work in a retirement community and we have a woman living here who has the personality of the pre-stroke Grandma Walton. So when my boss and I are talking about this particular woman and what she said or did today, we refer to her as Grandma Walton.

I just saw the episode where Elisabeth turning 13 somehow creates the presence of a poltergeist in the house! I thought in the end it would reveal who was behind it but left the viewer to believe that it had really been a poltergeist. If they wanted rid of it, they should have called up the Pentecostals!!

Peace out.

This is by far a down to earth look back at a time gone past. I remember watching this as a kid and being scared of the grandma, her coldness and grouchiness were a bit too much. Although I love the show and will always watch it in syndication

I thought the Waltons was a great show! I don't think it ever JTS!!
I remember a little bit when the actor who played Grandpa died. and then they wrote him out on the show too. that was kind of sad.

I noticed that several negative comments have been made about the Waltons series, so how did they find this website? Somebody liked the show. Not many TV shows last for nine years. I loved it for nine years and I am still watching the reruns. Yes, it was different after Grandma had a stroke and Grandpa died. These things actually happened to the characters. It was good that they wrote these things into the story line instead of trying to replace the actors who played them. I had a hard time accepting the new John Boy but he was the star of the show.

Did anyone notice, early on in series mary ellen was said to be 13, john boy 17 and jason 15...then in the minstrel episode mary ellen is all of a sudden 16. This made more sense as she definitely did not look 13...but she could have been lying to the minstrel.
Any info on this?

I was always disturbed by Mary Ellen marrying Curt. To me, he seemed the same age as her father, John,Sr. I was glad when he "died". I did like however that Mary Ellen later went on to become a doctor.

The first 3 seasons of the show were the best but I got tired when in every episode they went to town. Come on wasn't that considered a luxury back then and with the price of gas and considering none of the family memebers made much money it seemed ridulious and that also made Waltons Moutain lose it autenicay.

I loved this show. Good, wholesome entertainment. Okay, everyone wasn't perfect looking, but that just made it more realistic. If it were made now, everyone would look like they belonged in a Ralph Lauren ad. Losing Michael Learned and Richard Thomas hurt the show, but to its credit it wasn't destroyed. I agree, having everyone move in with their spouses was a bit much, but in those times a lot of families shared homes to make ends meet. Looking back, the worst thing for me was the cloying, pukemaking "Goodnight, insert name here" at the end of every show. Nobody, not even a family of backwoods hicks, would do that every night.

I don't agree about the 'ugliness' of the male actors. 'John-Boy Walton' is very handsome, (though not conventionally so).

Am I the only one who found John-Boy's big mole an attractive feature?

Good question about Sweet Billy. It wasn't just Mary Ellen but everyone called him that including his older sister. It was never spelled out but it seemed as though he was somehow mentally challenged who needed his older sister to care for him. However; even if others were mean to him, he never was anything but kind to others.
One character I wish we'd learned more about was that very disturbed, , unmarried teenaged mountain girl named Cassie who lived with her grandfather and gave birth to a stillborn baby whose paternity no one seemed to even want to hint at. Her grandfather buried the baby in a tiny coffin with no emotion whatsoever as though the coffin had a stray cat instead of his great-grandchild inside. She's the one who kidnapped the newborn John Curtis to replace her stillborn daughter and even though they recovered Mary Ellen's baby with no harm done, they never said if she was punished in any way for kidnapping a newborn nor a clue as to what became of her. For a supposedly squeaky-clean, family friendly show, the idea of kidnapping someone else's stillborn child- not to mention the character Cassie's rather disturbing situation seemed extremely warped- almost in a 'Little House on the Prairie' way!

The only thing that I remember from that show was when Mary Ellen was calling that mountain boy "sweet billy". I wonder why she had that pet name for him? Did he taste sweet or what?

I agree with most of the sentiments expressed by Miles. However his 'drooling' over John-Boy Walton is plain embarrassing. The guy is undeniably admirable as a person and role model to be sure, but what a whimp. As for being 'handsome', get real man. Ok, he's got nice eyes and a fetching smile but that huge disfiguring mole on his left cheek is for me (and I suspect many others) a serious distraction and major turn-off. Am I the only person who breathed a sigh of relief when J-B departed or New York?

'The Waltons' was telecast in the UK during my teenage years and it has had a lasting influence. My schoolmates treated the series, (and my liking for it) with some derision saying it was far too sentimental and 'un-cool'. The wholesomeness of the characters and the gentle accentuation of the positive in humanity was what appealed to me so much in a contemporary culture glorifying aggressive stereotypes. (This was the age of punk rock and football hooliganism).
More specifically, I became hopelessly in love with John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) who was for me perfection, handsome, gentle and a poet, in every way the antithesis of most of my school colleagues.Having seen Richard Thomas in several films subsequent to 'The Waltons', my admiration of him has not diminished. However, no doubt to his irritation, it is as the beautiful John-Boy Walton that he will always occupy a place in my heart.