Culburn I watched an episode where John is discovering that life is moving fast, "running" as it were. His 25th High School Reunion is taking place and he is not comfortable with the reality. This is an episode about running & walking thru life and the affect that one person has on so many others. It's a stunning piece of television as in the end it is John who is amazed that it is he who was & is the "boy most likely to succeed." And it is he who is "graveled" to silence as his classmate cites him painstakingly and at length about 25 years of running and walking and of life and lives.Television can be so brilliant and here it is.

giffey-1 I have watched this series for many years, and was so glad to see it again on the INSP Network, who is running all nine seasons, as well as the fact that they produced a new "looking back" special, co-written by Mary McDonough (Erin).This series was never as corny or sappy as many reviewers would have you believe. The children were refreshingly normal, and all the parts were extremely well acted. The story of a family in rural America, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, it showed how the family coped with the Depression of the 1930's and how the world changed with the advent of WWII, mainly as seen through the eyes of the oldest child, the son John Walton Jr. (In my opinion, the ONLY problem was his nickname John-boy. Couldn't they have called him Jack, or Junior or some other nickname that in a big city in the real world, would have gotten him beat up in school?) John wanted to be a writer, and he showed a depth and maturity far beyond his years. He depicted his family as real people with real problems, but with much love and faith. I love the series, but I must admit that I like the later seasons, as I do with any series where children start on the show. To me the children become more interesting as they grow and start to interact with the world around them. All of the children were talented and were truly actors, not just children trained to react, as so many children are today. If you enjoy this show, I also recommend what I consider the Canadian version, a series called Wind At My Back, which tells of a family in small town Canada during the depression, also on the INSP network.

talbotttk Great to see how many positive comments there are about this series. I was raised in a ranch family and remember the closeness that we had growing up and beyond. I actually stayed in cattle all my life because although we don't have much money, we have maintained a higher level of integrity in our business and personal relationships. I also understand the negative comments people make when the run down the show as being unrealistic. The problem is, in order to live a clean life you have to stay away from the societal mainstream, so people don't believe what they see. I can't blame anyone for that, since most of what you see on t.v. these days you don't WANT to believe.

toddrandall68 I found it hard to select which TV show I liked the best between "Little House," and "The Waltons." I eventually choose "Little House," but "The Waltons" was close. I am not sure who was better, though, between Pa Ingalls and John Walton. I liked both shows so much that I scheduled work and college around reruns of them.My ultimate favorite episodes of "The Waltons" centered around John Boy in college. I was always puzzled however by that one character that hazed John Boy on his first day and threw him in the water, then became the president of the student disciplinary council in the episode with the football player that cheated on a test, and then became John Boys best friend during WWII after he was wounded and wouldn't get hired by JD Pickett. I liked that episode when John was wrongfully accused of stealing from that rich family, John Walton was usually forgiving, but I could tell he was p.o.'d by that son that actually did the stealing.And the acting by the children was horrible, but grew better as they got older. Except Jim Bob, Erin, and Mary Ellen. Their acting sucked even when they got older. Erin was cute as h*ll though.One of my least favorite episodes was when that Jewish family came from Germany and the Walton clan befriended the boy. Was that boy John from "Little House?" I think he was, I am going to go check it out.In fact, my wife will probably kill me, but now since both shows are available on DVD, I am going to go buy it.