...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The Waltons

808 statements
158 feature instances
45 referencing feature instances

The Waltons	type	TVTItem
The Waltons	label	The Waltons
The Waltons	page	TheWaltons
The Waltons	comment	A popular Family Drama that aired on CBS from 1972 to 1981, The Waltons is about the life and trials of the eponymous family in The '30s and The '40s.The Waltons are a large family who run a saw mill on Walton's Mountain in rural Virginia, and the series depicts their grinding struggle to make ends meet during The Great Depression, and later World War II. As initial lead character (and adult narrator) John-Boy Walton noted, they didn't have much money, but they had more than enough love and fortitude to keep the whole brood going through thick and thin.The remarkable thing is that this series debuted on CBS right in the middle of that network's notorious Rural Purge, the period from 1968 through 1973 in which shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres were cancelled en masse for not appealing to desirable audience demographics. Instead of dying a quick death against The Mod Squad and The Flip Wilson Show as it was expected to do, The Waltons soon killed them and continued for a successful nine-year run. Some have therefore called it the lone survivor of the Rural Purge. The show and its cast also picked up several Emmy Awards and a Peabody.Series creator Earl Hamner Jr. based the premise on his own childhood experiences, which he had previously mined for the 1961 novel Spencers Mountain (itself adapted as a 1963 film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara). Prior to the actual series, CBS aired a 1971 Made-for-TV Movie called The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, which featured Patricia Neal as Olivia Walton, Andrew Duggan as John Walton Sr., and Edgar Bergen as Grandpa; these roles would be re-cast for the series (and the movie hadn't been intended as a pilot; a series was only proposed after the favorable critical and audience reaction to the movie). A few more TV-movie reunions brought the cast back together after the series ended and followed the characters into the postwar years, such as the 1993 Thanksgiving movie, which centers around the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 2021, The CW aired a remake of The Homecoming to coincide with the original's fiftieth anniversary, narrated by original John-Boy actor Richard Thomas and starring Bellamy Young as Olivia. After the success of that movie, the CW produced a sequel, A Waltons Thanksgiving, in 2022.This was the first series to come from Lorimar Productions, which went on to produce such popular shows as Eight is Enough, Dallas, Knots Landing, Falcon Crest, and half of ABC's TGIF lineup.
The Waltons	fetched	2024-04-16T23:46:25Z
The Waltons	parsed	2024-04-16T23:46:25Z
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to CallBack: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to ClipShow: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to ForgottenAesop: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to HollywoodHistory: Not a Feature - IGNORE
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to Poltergeist: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to SeriesFinale: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
The Waltons	processingComment	Dropped link to TheThirties: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
The Waltons	processingUnknown	ForgottenAesop
The Waltons	processingUnknown	SeriesFinale
The Waltons	processingUnknown	TheThirties
The Waltons	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Waltons / int_10dcbe05	type	Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other
The Waltons / int_10dcbe05	comment	Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ike and Corabeth have several scenes like this. She gives him a hard time about some things, and he gets frustrated with her high-minded ideas, but theirs really is a happy marriage and it shows.
The Waltons / int_10dcbe05	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_10dcbe05	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_10dcbe05
The Waltons / int_1116591	type	Best Friends-in-Law
The Waltons / int_1116591	comment	Best Friends-in-Law: Olivia and her mother-in-law Esther have a relationship like this. While John and his father occasionally butt heads, it's much rarer for the two women to be at all combative; they share tasks and confide in each other. Grandma usually addresses her daughter-in-law by the Affectionate Nickname of "Livvy."
The Waltons / int_1116591	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_1116591	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_1116591
The Waltons / int_1237828f	type	Anyone Can Die
The Waltons / int_1237828f	comment	Anyone Can Die: After the war starts, this sort of happens. One main and two recurring are killed. Four seasons after his first heart attack and running himself ragged waiting for his wife Esther to come home from the hospital, Zebulon Walton has a second heart attack climbing up the mountain to plant flowers. He is implied to have died instantly and by himself, and was found keeled over dead up there. Even though he and Esther had plans to be buried together, rather than go to the difficult and heartwrenching task of carting him down to the burial plot, the family found it more fitting to bury him up on the mountain, because he loved it so much. G. W. Haines proposes to Erin, but she turns him down, so he ends up joining the Army to cope with the rejection. In a cruel twist of fate, when Erin begins to reciprocate his feelings, World War II has completely sucked him into the Army, and he ends up taking part in a routine training exercise where the men practice throwing dummy grenades. Unfortunately, it just so happened that someone decided they were ready for live ammo, and a wayward bunny bounded too close to the testing site as G. W. wound up to throw an active grenade. His kindness toward the bunny caused him to redirect his grenade, but cost him the time he should have used to chuck it far enough away that it wouldn't blow up in his face, which it did, and G. W. became Walton's Mountain's first casualty of World War II. Instead of seeing their son off to the army with high hopes, they would see his casket off to the grave. Worst of all, he wrote a posthumous letter to Erin telling her that he really loved her, which was enough to make her run out into the field outside his grieving parents' house and bawl her eyes out in the arms of her father. Widow Flossie Brimmer dies under similar circumstances as Zebulon around the same time, joining her late husband in paradise. Her boarding house was boarded up until another recurring character, Zulieka Dunbar, took it over. Virginia, Ben and Cindy's young daughter, suffers a terrible death by drowning. One of the subplots of the Thanksgiving reunion movie is about whether or not they might adopt a child, since they found themselves unable to conceive again.
The Waltons / int_1237828f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_1237828f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_1237828f
The Waltons / int_127fc252	type	Creator Cameo
The Waltons / int_127fc252	comment	Creator Cameo: In addition to serving as the narrator at the beginning and end of each episode, series creator Earl Hamner Jr. appears as a minor character in "The Journey."
The Waltons / int_127fc252	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_127fc252	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_127fc252
The Waltons / int_13eea985	type	Arbitrary Skepticism
The Waltons / int_13eea985	comment	Arbitrary Skepticism: Elizabeth says in one episode that she does not believe in ghosts, even though she attracted a poltergeist in the previous season.
The Waltons / int_13eea985	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_13eea985	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_13eea985
The Waltons / int_1759ff85	type	Four-Philosophy Ensemble
The Waltons / int_1759ff85	comment	Four-Philosophy Ensemble: The adults: John (The Realist), Olivia (The Apathetic), Zeb (The Optimist), and Esther (The Cynic). Among the sons and son-in-law: John-Boy (the Realist), Jason (the Conflicted), Ben (the Optimist), Jim-Bob (the Apathetic), and Curt (the Cynic). The daughters and daughter-in-law as well: Mary Ellen (the Realist), Erin (the Cynic), Elizabeth (the Optimist), and Cindy (the Conflicted).
The Waltons / int_1759ff85	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_1759ff85	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_1759ff85
The Waltons / int_1869b4b1	type	Unreliable Narrator
The Waltons / int_1869b4b1	comment	Unreliable Narrator: Not an intentional trope, in this case, but he does contradict himself. For example, in one episode the narrator states that Zebulon outlived Esther, when the opposite was true; in this case, it was because of the untimely death of Will Geer, which forced the written-in, unplanned death of his character. In another, he says that A.J. Covington never returned to the mountain (he was back a few years later). However, in the case of A.J., it was technically true because two actors played him, the first being David Huddleston, and the second being the much younger-looking George Dzundza; so in a way, the A.J. we knew didn't come back.
The Waltons / int_1869b4b1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_1869b4b1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_1869b4b1
The Waltons / int_18d15922	type	Title Drop
The Waltons / int_18d15922	comment	Title Drop: In one episode John-Boy mentions that, if he made a TV show, it'd be called The Waltons. This is right after televisions have started to become commercial products in their time.
The Waltons / int_18d15922	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_18d15922	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_18d15922
The Waltons / int_196d2598	type	Too Good to be True
The Waltons / int_196d2598	comment	Too Good to Be True: How Grandpa views Muffin in "The Big Brother." Everyone else completely buys into her sweet and innocent act, but he insists that there's something more to the girl than just 'nice.' Sure enough, she's a kiddie con artist.
The Waltons / int_196d2598	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_196d2598	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_196d2598
The Waltons / int_1c9537cd	type	The Main Characters Do Everything
The Waltons / int_1c9537cd	comment	The Main Characters Do Everything: John-Boy. You start to realize how small and under-educated the population of Walton's Mountain is when they rely on a teenage boy to take on every prestigious task you can imagine.
The Waltons / int_1c9537cd	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_1c9537cd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_1c9537cd
The Waltons / int_20314beb	type	Cousin Oliver
The Waltons / int_20314beb	comment	Cousin Oliver: Olivia's cousin Rose and her young grandchildren Serena and Jeffrey joined the cast in the final seasons. Rose filled in for Esther after Ellen Corby left the show and Jeffrey and Serena took on the cute kid roles now that Elizabeth and Jim-Bob were both teenagers. When they proved to be unpopular additions, their roles swiftly and quietly vanished.
The Waltons / int_20314beb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_20314beb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_20314beb
The Waltons / int_21c05222	type	Long-Runners
The Waltons / int_21c05222	comment	Long-Runners: Nine seasons and six post-series specials, and this for a series not expected to last one.
The Waltons / int_21c05222	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_21c05222	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_21c05222
The Waltons / int_23473ae7	type	Adaptation Expansion
The Waltons / int_23473ae7	comment	Adaptation Expansion: There is a lot more that happens in The Waltons than in the novel Spencer's Mountain.
The Waltons / int_23473ae7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_23473ae7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_23473ae7
The Waltons / int_235a2706	type	Baseball Episode
The Waltons / int_235a2706	comment	Baseball Episode: Season two's "The Braggart" has a young orphan who once stayed with the family before the show began come back to Walton's Mountain to have John Sr. help him with his professional tryout and contract negotiations. He is signed, but falls out of a tree house while goofing off celebrating and breaks his pitching arm, causing the contract to be voided. The Waltons and the orphanage where he grew up stage a baseball game in an attempt to get his spirits back up. After some consideration and moping, the young man joins the orphanage team as a coach and is then hired as their athletic director.
The Waltons / int_235a2706	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_235a2706	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_235a2706
The Waltons / int_23698fa8	type	Aborted Arc
The Waltons / int_23698fa8	comment	Aborted Arc: When Jenny Pendleton appears in "The Thanksgiving Story," she mentions that she'll be going to the same college as John-Boy next year, which suggests she was probably planned to appear in Season 3 (when John-Boy starts college) but she's never seen again. Probably just another case of a crush that didn't work out in the long term for John-Boy.note In reality, it had more to do with Sian Barbara Allen, who mentioned in one interview that she didn't consider herself "strong" enough to do a series. She and Richard Thomas broke up in 1973, which also didn't help. The third-season episode "The First Day" introduces an aborted setting in the form of Boatwright College. Although John-Boy still continues to go to this college, none of the myriad characters introduced in this episode (which include potential friends, enemies, and favorite professors) ever appear again.
The Waltons / int_23698fa8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_23698fa8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_23698fa8
The Waltons / int_23ff95fb	type	Brutal Honesty
The Waltons / int_23ff95fb	comment	Brutal Honesty: Grandma Esther is a kind and compassionate soul underneath her stern demeanor, but she also never minces her words when calling stupidity for what it is. For example, in "The Gypsies", Esther mocks a Romani family for their stubborn refusal to accept help even as they're about to starve and their youngest child is ailing, rightfully pointing out that they're just ignorant fools clinging to nothing but their empty pride in the face of misery and impending death.
The Waltons / int_23ff95fb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_23ff95fb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_23ff95fb
The Waltons / int_25256404	type	Barefoot Poverty
The Waltons / int_25256404	comment	Barefoot Poverty: A few of the hill folk went around barefoot in the later seasons, including a recurring patient of Mary Ellen's who lost some of her children to sickness. The Walton children seem like this in the earlier seasons, but it's actually a case of Prefers Going Barefoot. Mary Ellen dumbfounds a snooty rich girl, who comes to the mountain in "The Spoilers," by tromping into her house barefoot straight from school. The girl grabs a pair of spare dress shoes from her own collection and eagerly slams them on her dresser as if pitying the fact she had no shoes, and then gifts them to her along with a fancy ballroom dress and turban. When Mary Ellen gets home that day, she turns some heads, both in good ways and bad.
The Waltons / int_25256404	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_25256404	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_25256404
The Waltons / int_25c7875f	type	Practically Different Generations
The Waltons / int_25c7875f	comment	Practically Different Generations: Olivia gets pregnant and loses the baby in season 2. Had the child lived, she would have been 18 or 19 years younger than her oldest sibling John-Boy.
The Waltons / int_25c7875f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_25c7875f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_25c7875f
The Waltons / int_2854b56d	type	Uncertain Doom
The Waltons / int_2854b56d	comment	Uncertain Doom: The Baldwin sisters' cousin Hilary and her husband may or may not have been killed by Nazis.
The Waltons / int_2854b56d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_2854b56d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_2854b56d
The Waltons / int_297170d3	type	Halloween Episode
The Waltons / int_297170d3	comment	Halloween Episode: Season 2's "The Ghost Story" when John-Boy and Jason use the Ouija board. Season 5 has two. "The Nightwalker" revolves around an unknown person wandering the mountain at night, while "The Ferris Wheel" centers around Elizabeth's recurring nightmares of being trapped on a Ferris wheel. Season 7's "The Changeling" has Elizabeth harassed by a poltergeist on the cusp of her 13th birthday.
The Waltons / int_297170d3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_297170d3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_297170d3
The Waltons / int_2d364c81	type	Tomboy and Girly Girl
The Waltons / int_2d364c81	comment	Tomboy and Girly Girl: Mary Ellen is a complete tomboy to Erin's totally girly-girl. This causes many, many arguments for the girls when they are young.
The Waltons / int_2d364c81	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_2d364c81	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_2d364c81
The Waltons / int_2da5273e	type	Just Like Robin Hood
The Waltons / int_2da5273e	comment	Just Like Robin Hood: The original TV movie has "The Robin Hood Bandit", who steals food from larger stores and gives them to needy families on Christmas Eve. It's Charlie Snead, the small shopkeeper. Yancy Tucker keeps the tradition going in the series proper. He steals smaller livestock like chickens and pigs from more well-off families and gives them to poorer families in the area and friends.
The Waltons / int_2da5273e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_2da5273e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_2da5273e
The Waltons / int_2fa4b747	type	Barefoot Loon
The Waltons / int_2fa4b747	comment	Barefoot Loon: Cassie, who appears in "The Grandchild", is a shoeless hill person and a mother-to-be who takes the stillbirth of her child very badly. She begins acting really off, believes a curse has fallen on her and expectant Mary Ellen, chants a Madness Mantra so potent that Mary Ellen freaks out and runs off into a raging thunderstorm in hysterics, stalks Mary Ellen until she gives birth, then snatches her baby without warning and finally holes herself up in a rotting cabin in the woods, having 'borrowed' newborn John Curtis Willard to play pretend mother. Bizarrely, there is absolutely zero malice behind her actions.
The Waltons / int_2fa4b747	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_2fa4b747	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_2fa4b747
The Waltons / int_2fd7200b	type	Dead Guy Junior
The Waltons / int_2fd7200b	comment	Dead Guy Junior: Ben was named after John's brother Ben, who died in World War I.
The Waltons / int_2fd7200b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_2fd7200b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_2fd7200b
The Waltons / int_308ac24f	type	Fantasy-Forbidding Father
The Waltons / int_308ac24f	comment	Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Averted with John Walton; in the pilot movie, his Christmas present to John-Boy is writing material, and he says that while he might not understand his son's dream of being a writer as opposed to being a laborer, he expects his son to apply himself with real diligence to succeed. He likewise encourages his younger children to pursue their dreams, even if they don't seem necessarily realistic.
The Waltons / int_308ac24f	featureApplicability	-1.0
The Waltons / int_308ac24f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_308ac24f
The Waltons / int_322f6b34	type	Angsty Surviving Twin
The Waltons / int_322f6b34	comment	Angsty Surviving Twin: Zig-zagged in "The Secret." Jim-Bob goes through a fair bit of angst, because a few of his siblings have put it into his head that he's adopted. As the episode progresses, his angst increases because he keeps stumbling across hints that this might be true. Finally, John-Boy takes him to the county courthouse to read his birth record, which proves that Jim-Bob really is a Walton... and that he had a twin brother, Joseph, who died at birth. Learning that he's the surviving twin actually quells his angst rather than creates it, since now he knows the truth.
The Waltons / int_322f6b34	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_322f6b34	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_322f6b34
The Waltons / int_34f8042a	type	Gratuitous French
The Waltons / int_34f8042a	comment	Corabeth's habit of calling Ike "Mr. Godsey", as well as breaking into Gratuitous French to sound classier (usually only making herself look prissy).
The Waltons / int_34f8042a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_34f8042a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_34f8042a
The Waltons / int_355007c3	type	Brilliant, but Lazy
The Waltons / int_355007c3	comment	Brilliant, but Lazy: Jim-Bob. Seriously, he'd be a renowned genius if he tried. His achievements include being able to repair virtually any mechanical item, building his own car from pieces he finds, building his own shortwave radio which he uses to talk to people in the UK, and building his own airplane!
The Waltons / int_355007c3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_355007c3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_355007c3
The Waltons / int_36c64123	type	Gentle Giant
The Waltons / int_36c64123	comment	Gentle Giant: Jason is one of the tallest characters, and probably the most gentle and tenderhearted of all.
The Waltons / int_36c64123	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_36c64123	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_36c64123
The Waltons / int_37499c8	type	OnceAnEpisode
The Waltons / int_37499c8	comment	Once an Episode: The "good night" sequence. Played with, as it wasn't always the Waltons who bid each other goodnight; occasionally it was other people, who were central to the episode in question.
The Waltons / int_37499c8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_37499c8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_37499c8
The Waltons / int_37a6a66a	type	Instrumental Theme Tune
The Waltons / int_37a6a66a	comment	Instrumental Theme Tune: Composed by Jerry Goldsmith.
The Waltons / int_37a6a66a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_37a6a66a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_37a6a66a
The Waltons / int_37d94ed9	type	Agony of the Feet
The Waltons / int_37d94ed9	comment	Exaggerated in "The Stray" with the introduction of Josh. He preferred to be totally barefoot at all times, and for that reason, had no shoes at all. His presence in the story was revealed when because of this choice, he got his foot mangled from stepping on a fishhook and left a nasty blood trail, exposing him as a stowaway on the Walton's property. Even when Olivia donated some old shoes to him, Josh kept going barefoot, defending his reason for keeping them off as "My feet aren't free." It wasn't until he went to meet Verdie Foster (who then adopted him as Josh Foster) that he was convinced to start using his new shoes.
The Waltons / int_37d94ed9	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_37d94ed9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_37d94ed9
The Waltons / int_3b113b7	type	Character Development
The Waltons / int_3b113b7	comment	Character Development: Both Olivia and Esther became much less strict and more easygoing as the series went on.
The Waltons / int_3b113b7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_3b113b7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_3b113b7
The Waltons / int_3f1aadeb	type	Strictly Formula
The Waltons / int_3f1aadeb	comment	Strictly Formula: To the detriment of the series in later seasons, most episodes of the show follow three predictable beats where romance is involved. 1: A character of the week graces the mountain. 2: One of the Walton kids gets attached to the newcomer, who isn't tied down by anything, and wants to be alongside them. 3: The child in question is reminded that their family is plagued by hardship and they have a duty to them foremost, forcing them to let go of this person; if that doesn't break them up, a freak stroke of misfortune will. This caused the Walton kids to go through dozens of false starts to their true loves, and some to never find the right one at all. John-Boy's list of ill-fated girlfriends in particular could fill a sleeve.
The Waltons / int_3f1aadeb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_3f1aadeb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_3f1aadeb
The Waltons / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
The Waltons / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: Several episodes end this way. Most of the time it's because the Waltons can't get involved with people - either because those characters have to move on while they have to stay put, or the Waltons themselves have to move on while those people want them to stay put at their own expense. In "The Achievement," John-Boy leaves to become a writer, fulfilling his dream, but leaving his family. "Grandma Comes Home" is this in hindsight, since it was the final appearance of Will Geer as Zebulon; both in real life and within the show, he died shortly afterward.
The Waltons / int_40cc0c7e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_40cc0c7e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_40cc0c7e
The Waltons / int_42fe0cde	type	Festival Episode
The Waltons / int_42fe0cde	comment	Festival Episode: A season two episode has the family attend the first county fair in years. Olivia enters a cake (with whiskey-based icing) into the baking contest, the Baldwin sisters easily take first prize in the jam/jelly contest with their Recipe-based jelly, and Ben lets the pig that Yancy Tucker gave him be the entrant of the greased hog contest. Grandma enters a patchwork quilt into a contest as well, and is convinced that her rival is entering in her winning quilt from the last fair in 1927.
The Waltons / int_42fe0cde	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_42fe0cde	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_42fe0cde
The Waltons / int_44f6517d	type	Beach Episode
The Waltons / int_44f6517d	comment	Beach Episode: In "The Seashore," the Waltons have to look after the Baldwins' beach house for a while. It even resurrects their old tendency to go barefoot for a while, given that the setting is appropriate for it.
The Waltons / int_44f6517d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_44f6517d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_44f6517d
The Waltons / int_4583a262	type	Shirtless Scene
The Waltons / int_4583a262	comment	Shirtless Scene: John, John-Boy, Ben, Ike, and even Zebulon have had them. Curt also gets one in his final appearance after getting ripped from chopping wood (played by a different actor, however).
The Waltons / int_4583a262	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_4583a262	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_4583a262
The Waltons / int_461aad62	type	Mistaken for Thief
The Waltons / int_461aad62	comment	Mistaken for Thief: In "The Theft", John Walton Sr. is accused of stealing some fancy silver from an affluent family after doing some handyman work for them. The episode even teases this as it shows him admiring the silver tea kettle while alone and then cuts to him in the big city, buying new tires for his truck, with the story giving him a plausible motivation due to the family going through an extremely rough patch. While the rest of the family doesn't think he stole the silver, his acting strangely uncooperative in telling them where he got the influx of money makes them uncomfortable. It eventually comes out that the affluent family's son has sold several items behind his mother's back in an attempt to keep the secretly broke family's lifestyle intact. As for where John got the money and why he was uncomfortable bringing up where he got it? He was ashamed that he had to pawn his wedding band off to pay for the truck repairs.
The Waltons / int_461aad62	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_461aad62	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_461aad62
The Waltons / int_479f9ad0	type	Characterization Marches On
The Waltons / int_479f9ad0	comment	Characterization Marches On: The slightly snobbish, judgmental side of Corabeth is not present in her early appearances. When she first comes to Walton's Mountain, Corabeth is a very timid and withdrawn woman who has lived a sheltered life, and is forced to come out of it now that her mother has died. She even cries to Olivia that as much as she wants to marry Ike, she's terrified. After they marry, she gains a sense of confidence, and subsequently changes. Her inner desires slowly begin to emerge as she becomes constantly fed up with the unappetizing and sometimes boorish nature of country life, and she explodes into a needy trend-keeper with a love of fine culture.
The Waltons / int_479f9ad0	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_479f9ad0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_479f9ad0
The Waltons / int_48e8fe57	type	Happily Adopted
The Waltons / int_48e8fe57	comment	Happily Adopted: Aimee Godsey - well, usually. It was initially not a happy adoption, as the Godseys have a hard time helping her adjust to family life after years in the orphanage; it doesn't help when she finds out that they initially planned to adopt a baby boy. However, once she settles in, there are a number of episodes which indicate that she really does love her adoptive parents, and they really do love her.
The Waltons / int_48e8fe57	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_48e8fe57	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_48e8fe57
The Waltons / int_4a3e547f	type	Leaning on the Fourth Wall
The Waltons / int_4a3e547f	comment	Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In "The Threshold," Elizabeth talks to John-Boy about what he'd call a TV show he'd make about the family, and he says it'd be called The Waltons.
The Waltons / int_4a3e547f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_4a3e547f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_4a3e547f
The Waltons / int_4ae13674	type	To Know Him, I Must Become Him
The Waltons / int_4ae13674	comment	To Know Him, I Must Become Him: A downplayed version of this was the reason John-Boy published parts of Mein Kampf in his newspaper in "The Firestorm": he wants people to understand how Hitler actually thinks and what he plans to do so they'll understand how dangerous he and the Nazis actually are and what they're truly up against. At this point most of the neighborhood only knows he's burned the Bible, which they consider horrible, but which is nowhere near the worst of it. John-Boy also points out that while nothing has happened yet, Hitler could easily start a war and it will become their problem. He's right, of course.
The Waltons / int_4ae13674	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_4ae13674	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_4ae13674
The Waltons / int_524f94d3	type	Rape as Backstory
The Waltons / int_524f94d3	comment	Rape as Backstory: John-Boy's Love Interest in "The Wing-Walker" was attacked at 15.
The Waltons / int_524f94d3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_524f94d3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_524f94d3
The Waltons / int_52d1f46e	type	Not What It Looks Like
The Waltons / int_52d1f46e	comment	Not What It Looks Like: The TV Movie, Homecoming has this when John-Boy returns home after an unsuccessful attempt to find his father in the snow. He's been driven home by two spinsters known for making moonshine and with a jug in his hands as a gift. His mother obviously thinks that he forsook his trip to go party with them, when the truth is that they hooked up their sled in an attempt to reach the city, but had to turn back after the road was blocked. As for the jug? It was eggnog, though we don't know if it was spiked or not. "The Ceremony" is full of this, as various accidents and unintended incidents cause the newly-arrived German family to live in fear every day... because they're Jews who have just fled Germany in the face of the rising Nazis, and they're paranoid of having it happen again.
The Waltons / int_52d1f46e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_52d1f46e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_52d1f46e
The Waltons / int_55365db5	type	City Mouse
The Waltons / int_55365db5	comment	John-Boy suggests to Bob in "The Shivaree", a City Mouse who keeps obsessively shining his shoes, that he should try going barefoot because it's fun. Bob scoffs at this. True to form, he gets shivareed just before his marriage and ends up stumbling through the woods in his pajamas with bare feet.
The Waltons / int_55365db5	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_55365db5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_55365db5
The Waltons / int_5cd8680b	type	Doorstop Baby
The Waltons / int_5cd8680b	comment	Doorstop Baby: The first episode has a young deaf girl who was unable to communicate left on the Waltons' doorstep by her mother to prevent the father (who mistook her for mentally disabled) from sending her to an orphanage. One of the earliest examples of a clip show.
The Waltons / int_5cd8680b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_5cd8680b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_5cd8680b
The Waltons / int_5f5b7872	type	Little Miss Con Artist
The Waltons / int_5f5b7872	comment	Little Miss Con Artist: Muffin Maloney, in "The Big Brother," is twelve years old and just as sweet and innocent as she can be - except that she's really a crook who swindles people. She and her grandfather are a con duo, and she spends the episode trying to rip off enough people for the money to pay his bail. By the time she's caught, she's enjoyed the Waltons' hospitality for several days and tricked Ike and the Baldwins into giving her money as well. Worse, she ends up being a Karma Houdini thanks to Jim-Bob, who has a crush on her and is easily duped into helping her escape.
The Waltons / int_5f5b7872	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_5f5b7872	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_5f5b7872
The Waltons / int_5fcb9ad1	type	Time Skip
The Waltons / int_5fcb9ad1	comment	Time Skip: The episode that deals with Grandpaâ€™s death takes place at least six months after the previous episode, possibly more since it isnâ€™t established how long Grandpa lived after the events of that episode.
The Waltons / int_5fcb9ad1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_5fcb9ad1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_5fcb9ad1
The Waltons / int_63b02752	type	Hair-Trigger Temper
The Waltons / int_63b02752	comment	Hair-Trigger Temper: Several examples of this. Grandma, John-Boy, Mary Ellen, Ben, and Erin display it often; occasionally John, Curt, and Elizabeth do as well. Grandpa and Olivia have their moments as well.
The Waltons / int_63b02752	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_63b02752	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_63b02752
The Waltons / int_64265de8	type	Multigenerational Household
The Waltons / int_64265de8	comment	Multigenerational Household: There's Zeb and Esther, their son John, his children, and eventually the children's children.
The Waltons / int_64265de8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_64265de8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_64265de8
The Waltons / int_643618e5	type	Replacement Goldfish
The Waltons / int_643618e5	comment	Replacement Goldfish: Near the end of season 2, the Waltons' prized milk cow, Chance, gets sick and dies of old age. By the next season, John has purchased a new milk cow, whom they also name Chance. (Could be regarded as an in-universe joke, as this cow is their second Chance.) Somewhat the case regarding Jeffrey's relationship with the family hound Reckless. Although Reckless wasn't actually his dog, he loved her like she was his. By the time he met her, though, she was an old dog who had given birth to a single pup fathered by Tiger, Yancy Tucker's dog (which, being the only pup of the litter, he claimed for himself as owner of the sire while remarking that Reckless went for quality over quantity). Unfortunately, as Jeffrey bonded with Reckless on a walk through the woods, Reckless's time came and she went to the big doghouse in the sky, breaking Jeffrey's heart. A few episodes later, Jeffrey met a half-German war refugee/POW who gifted him with a puppy. Since it was Christmastime, Jeffrey named the puppy Nick after St. Nick. Jeffrey then forgot to let Nick out to do his business and the puppy widdled in his bed.
The Waltons / int_643618e5	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_643618e5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_643618e5
The Waltons / int_64e975cf	type	Manly Tears
The Waltons / int_64e975cf	comment	Manly Tears: Almost nothing makes John Walton cry. The only thing that evokes real tears from him is seeing his oldest son lost in a coma with very little evidence that he was recovering.
The Waltons / int_64e975cf	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_64e975cf	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_64e975cf
The Waltons / int_65bc92fc	type	Four-Temperament Ensemble
The Waltons / int_65bc92fc	comment	Four-Temperament Ensemble: The adults: John (phlegmatic), Olivia (melancholic), Zebulon (sanguine), and Esther (choleric). The sons and son-in-law: John-Boy (choleric), Jason (phlegmatic), Ben (sanguine), and Jim-Bob (melancholic), and Curt (leukine). The daughters and daughter-in-law: Mary Ellen (choleric), Erin (melancholic), Elizabeth (sanguine), and Cindy (phlegmatic). The Godseys: Corabeth (melancholic/choleric) and Ike (phlegmatic/sanguine). The Baldwin sisters: Emily (melancholic/phlegmatic) and Mamie (sanguine).
The Waltons / int_65bc92fc	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_65bc92fc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_65bc92fc
The Waltons / int_6627695f	type	Author Appeal
The Waltons / int_6627695f	comment	Author Appeal: This is based on Earl Hamner's real life childhood.
The Waltons / int_6627695f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6627695f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6627695f
The Waltons / int_66dfe36a	type	Missing Mom
The Waltons / int_66dfe36a	comment	Missing Mom/Disappeared Dad: We never see Olivia's parents on the show. Her maiden name is given as Daly, and there's an indication in at least one episode that they disapproved of her marrying John Walton, but otherwise nothing about them is known and they are never seen or mentioned.
The Waltons / int_66dfe36a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_66dfe36a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_66dfe36a
The Waltons / int_680f950	type	Gilligan Cut
The Waltons / int_680f950	comment	Gilligan Cut: "I wouldn't marry you, Curtis Willard, if you were the last man on Earth!" Cue the wedding.
The Waltons / int_680f950	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_680f950	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_680f950
The Waltons / int_69681e01	type	Big Brother Instinct
The Waltons / int_69681e01	comment	Big Brother Instinct: In "The Big Brother," John-Boy talks about how he feels this for everybody. Many episodes prove it, as he has several opportunities to help, protect, and defend his younger brothers and sisters.
The Waltons / int_69681e01	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_69681e01	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_69681e01
The Waltons / int_6a696742	type	The Power of Love
The Waltons / int_6a696742	comment	Olivia's cousin Rose Burton outlived her husband Burt, a train conductor on the Northwestern line. However, she had a beau prior to him named Stanley Perkins, who was a traveling salesman and a dancer. Eventually, he comes back into her life and tries once more to win her heart, but she declines him. The second time, he's ready to give up if Rose turns him down again; Rose considers saying yes, but she discovers her heart is too weak for them to go traveling like he has always done. But The Power of Love conquers all, and Stanley doesn't care if he can't travel anymore, so they get married.
The Waltons / int_6a696742	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6a696742	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6a696742
The Waltons / int_6b1013ef	type	Paranormal Episode
The Waltons / int_6b1013ef	comment	Paranormal Episode: Of all shows, this one had an episode about one of the kids being haunted by a poltergeist. It was The '70s, after all. A Day For Thanks On Walton's Mountain provides a subplot with a downplayed example. Zeb's spirit is allegedly seen by his great-grandchildren and implied to be watching over the family.
The Waltons / int_6b1013ef	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6b1013ef	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6b1013ef
The Waltons / int_6b7e3069	type	Birth-Death Juxtaposition
The Waltons / int_6b7e3069	comment	Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Used thematically with Calico in "The Loss." Calico is a very pregnant stray cat that Elizabeth discovered wandering onto the property, but is far too old to give birth without killing herself in the process. This is not helped by the fact that Walton cousin Olivia, previously introduced in "The Shivaree," has just lost her husband to a tragic accident and has gone temporarily mad as a result.
The Waltons / int_6b7e3069	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6b7e3069	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6b7e3069
The Waltons / int_6bda9a30	type	Meaningful Name
The Waltons / int_6bda9a30	comment	Somewhat the case regarding Jeffrey's relationship with the family hound Reckless. Although Reckless wasn't actually his dog, he loved her like she was his. By the time he met her, though, she was an old dog who had given birth to a single pup fathered by Tiger, Yancy Tucker's dog (which, being the only pup of the litter, he claimed for himself as owner of the sire while remarking that Reckless went for quality over quantity). Unfortunately, as Jeffrey bonded with Reckless on a walk through the woods, Reckless's time came and she went to the big doghouse in the sky, breaking Jeffrey's heart. A few episodes later, Jeffrey met a half-German war refugee/POW who gifted him with a puppy. Since it was Christmastime, Jeffrey named the puppy Nick after St. Nick. Jeffrey then forgot to let Nick out to do his business and the puppy widdled in his bed.
The Waltons / int_6bda9a30	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6bda9a30	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6bda9a30
The Waltons / int_6dc502d1	type	Big Brother Worship
The Waltons / int_6dc502d1	comment	Big Brother Worship: Jason towards John-Boy in the early seasons. Jason often idolizes John-Boy, wanting to be just like him. Elizabeth also shows elements of this toward John-Boy, particularly after he moves to New York City; she attempts to become a writer just like him, and even wears his old glasses whenever she's writing. When Ben asks John about his brother Ben (for whom son Ben is named), John recalls that this was his feeling toward his older brother.
The Waltons / int_6dc502d1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6dc502d1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6dc502d1
The Waltons / int_6ebb6b43	type	Died During Production
The Waltons / int_6ebb6b43	comment	Died During Production: An In-Universe example with the woman who wrote Jessica, Girl Spy, Elizabeth's favorite book. She passed away while working on the sequel. John-Boy meets her mother while in New York, and the mother gives him a page from the unfinished sequel in her daughter's own handwriting as a gift for Elizabeth.
The Waltons / int_6ebb6b43	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6ebb6b43	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6ebb6b43
The Waltons / int_6ef9d3fe	type	Christmas Episode
The Waltons / int_6ef9d3fe	comment	Christmas Episode: Several, not counting the Pilot Movie.
The Waltons / int_6ef9d3fe	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_6ef9d3fe	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_6ef9d3fe
The Waltons / int_70c73c20	type	TheUnseen
The Waltons / int_70c73c20	comment	The Unseen: Zeb and Esther's third child is only mentioned in passing, and never even named. Many fans might not even realize they had a third child, the mentions are so seldom.
The Waltons / int_70c73c20	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_70c73c20	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_70c73c20
The Waltons / int_711714da	type	Opposites Attract
The Waltons / int_711714da	comment	Opposites Attract: Several examples of this. Easygoing joker Zeb married rigid, strict Esther. Hot-headed, workaholic Ben married sweet, quiet Cindy. While not as obvious as Zeb and Esther or Ben and Cindy, John and Olivia are also different.
The Waltons / int_711714da	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_711714da	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_711714da
The Waltons / int_716d9138	type	Bar Brawl
The Waltons / int_716d9138	comment	Bar Brawl: John-Boy and John get into one in one episode. Ben and Jason also end up caught up in a lot of these, because Ben has a Hair-Trigger Temper that detonates when his pride gets insulted, and Jason actually works at a bar to make ends meet and is witness and bouncer to many drunken disputes. Jason got into a brawl personally when he got flak for signing up to be a conscientious objector in front of a very loose-lipped recruiter who didn't have the sense to talk to him in private about how people got blasted as cowards for this, thinking it would have been enough to talk him out of it right from the front desk. He also gets into a personal fight, and gets badly hurt, in "The Career Girl." He arrives to pick up Erin from her new job as a truck stop waitress, only to find a trucker attempting to grab his sister, who is terrified by the encounter. Jason doesn't hesitate to throw the first punch, but he comes out the worse for it, with a broken wrist and a swollen black eye.
The Waltons / int_716d9138	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_716d9138	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_716d9138
The Waltons / int_741e8e7	type	The Cast Showoff
The Waltons / int_741e8e7	comment	The Cast Show Off: Will Geer had a Master's Degree in Botany from the University of Chicago, and worked as a professional botanist after being blacklisted in 1950. Grandpa's knowledge of plants makes a lot more sense now... Jon Walmsley's musical talents were often showcased on the series. In addition to doing all of Jason's singing and playing, he wrote some of the original songs himself.
The Waltons / int_741e8e7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_741e8e7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_741e8e7
The Waltons / int_754df088	type	Put on a Bus
The Waltons / int_754df088	comment	Put on a Bus: In the second to last episode of Season 6, John-Boy literally leaves on a bus (though he had already been 'put on a bus' a season before when he moved to New York), but the season still followed his exploits in The Big Apple. The Bus Came Back in Season 8, but with a new actor until the fourth reunion movie, when Richard Thomas reprised the role. Esther, in a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, was out of the story for the latter half of Season 5 all the way to the tail end of Season 6 because Ellen Corby had a very debilitating stroke. Although she came back for Season 7, she was Commuting on a Bus because Corby's health was precarious and her stroke had rendered her nearly incapable of speaking, and by Season 8, she was reduced to a single guest appearance at the end of the season and did not come back until the reunion movies, all of which feature her. This is explained, quite sensibly, as Grandma moving in with Mary Ellen - who, being a nurse, is in the best position to care for her. Olivia contracts tuberculosis and has to leave for a sanatorium midway through Season 8. She comes back for the first half of Season 9 and is back for the reunion movies. John follows Olivia midway through season 9 when her tuberculosis relapses and he needs to be with her in the hospital to comfort her for the long term. Aimee is sent to private school sometime offscreen in Season 7, but comes back in the second reunion movie.
The Waltons / int_754df088	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_754df088	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_754df088
The Waltons / int_757bbdb8	type	Massive Numbered Siblings
The Waltons / int_757bbdb8	comment	Massive Numbered Siblings: John-Boy is the oldest of seven living children. Had all of Olivia's pregnancies been successful, he would have been the oldest of ten.
The Waltons / int_757bbdb8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_757bbdb8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_757bbdb8
The Waltons / int_76b4b7dd	type	The Comically Serious
The Waltons / int_76b4b7dd	comment	Zeb is the life of the party and a perpetual joker, often annoying his wife.
The Waltons / int_76b4b7dd	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_76b4b7dd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_76b4b7dd
The Waltons / int_77b03c0a	type	Remember the New Guy?
The Waltons / int_77b03c0a	comment	Remember the New Guy?: Happened frequently in at least the first two seasons. Several new characters were mentioned as having been friendly neighbors that lived on/near Walton's Mountain. This includes an older teenager that the Waltons fostered for a while.
The Waltons / int_77b03c0a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_77b03c0a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_77b03c0a
The Waltons / int_786bf97f	type	Real Life Writes the Plot
The Waltons / int_786bf97f	comment	Real Life Writes the Plot: This is the reason behind Esther's stroke and Zebulon's death.
The Waltons / int_786bf97f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_786bf97f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_786bf97f
The Waltons / int_7886d4d0	type	Decemberâ€“December Romance
The Waltons / int_7886d4d0	comment	As noted under Decemberâ€“December Romance, Olivia's elderly Uncle Cody romances and marries neighbor Cordelia, who has had four prior husbands.
The Waltons / int_7886d4d0	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_7886d4d0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_7886d4d0
The Waltons / int_7b8b3def	type	Celebrity Paradox
The Waltons / int_7b8b3def	comment	Celebrity Paradox: The family were occasionally seen listening to their favorite radio shows, including Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy... after Bergen appeared in the pilot movie as Grandpa!
The Waltons / int_7b8b3def	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_7b8b3def	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_7b8b3def
The Waltons / int_7f080f98	type	Vague Age
The Waltons / int_7f080f98	comment	Jim-Bob's Vague Age becomes another issue. When attempting to enlist following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jim-Bob is told he is too young. Where this becomes an issue is depending on which birth date is correct.note The Season 3 episode "The Runaway" has his birth date as June 13, 1924, in which case the recruiter would be correct about his being too young. However, the following season's "The Secret" lists his date of birth as January 13, 1923 (which would make Jim-Bob 18 going on 19). Finally, Jim-Bob is shown as high school valedictorian for the Class of 1944 in the Season 8 episode "The Valedictorian". Assuming that Jim-Bob was the "standard" 18 years of age at high school graduation, a 1944 graduation would have placed his birthday sometime in 1926.
The Waltons / int_7f080f98	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_7f080f98	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_7f080f98
The Waltons / int_823c6e3e	type	Large Ham
The Waltons / int_823c6e3e	comment	Large Ham: The episode which introduces John Ritter as Rev. Fordwick paints him this way, especially when practicing his sermons in the Waltons' backyard. "REPAAAAAYNT, YE SINNERS!" He does get better as the show goes on, though he still retains much of his intensity. Zeb is the life of the party and a perpetual joker, often annoying his wife. John-Boy slips into this when he has a victory shout of "YAAAAAHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
The Waltons / int_823c6e3e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_823c6e3e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_823c6e3e
The Waltons / int_82a631b8	type	Present-Day Past
The Waltons / int_82a631b8	comment	Present-Day Past: In the episode "The Silver Wings", Jim-Bob meets an attractive older woman who looks and dresses like a woman from the 1970s. From her nearly Farrah-like hair to her too-skimpy-for-the-1940s wardrobe (which seems to consist mainly of bathing suit tops), she looks like something straight out of Three's Company rather than Walton's Mountain.
The Waltons / int_82a631b8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_82a631b8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_82a631b8
The Waltons / int_863fa679	type	What Happened to the Mouse?
The Waltons / int_863fa679	comment	What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to Bullet the calf? Elizabeth and Jim-Bob try so hard to save him, but then he's never seen again. The only logical explanations are that the calf died, it ran away, or the children gave it away to someone who would care for it without slaughtering it. Rover the peacock disappears after season 7.
The Waltons / int_863fa679	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_863fa679	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_863fa679
The Waltons / int_8a986cc7	type	The Great Depression
The Waltons / int_8a986cc7	comment	The Great Depression: The first three seasons of the show take place in the midst of the Great Depression, but by season 4 it begins to come to an end.
The Waltons / int_8a986cc7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8a986cc7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8a986cc7
The Waltons / int_8b4f2a4f	type	'80s Hair
The Waltons / int_8b4f2a4f	comment	'80s Hair: Mary Ellen in the last season has this.
The Waltons / int_8b4f2a4f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8b4f2a4f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8b4f2a4f
The Waltons / int_8b568cb7	type	Posthumous Character
The Waltons / int_8b568cb7	comment	Posthumous Character: Ben Walton, John's older brother, was killed in action in France during World War I and reported buried there (likely in a mass grave). He is only mentioned in passing, but his family eventually erects a memorial for him on the mountain in lieu of having a burial site to visit. Judge Baldwin, the long-dead father of the Baldwin ladies. His portrait hangs on their fireplace mantle wall, and they constantly praise their papa for being their father, but the man sounds like a terror in the flesh; he was bent on keeping his daughters single, lived 20 years after a stroke in a half-vegetated state, and Ashley Longworth was his own personal Berserk Button. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to hear about their mother, considering how little she gets talked about compared to him. Jim-Bob was actually a twin; his identical brother, Joe, died at birth. This is first revealed in the Season 4 episode "The Secret" and thereafter referenced in at least one other episode. It's also revealed in the Season 2 episode "The Prize" that there was another Walton daughter, Anne, born before Jim-Bob; like Joe, she died at birth.
The Waltons / int_8b568cb7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8b568cb7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8b568cb7
The Waltons / int_8b6e8d7	type	Anachronic Order
The Waltons / int_8b6e8d7	comment	Anachronic Order: The first season zig-zags between seasons during the year of 1933-4. Somewhat justified as the framing device is John-Boy writing about what happened in his life, and he may not necessarily be publishing the stories in order.
The Waltons / int_8b6e8d7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8b6e8d7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8b6e8d7
The Waltons / int_8d718b9e	type	Bears Are Bad News
The Waltons / int_8d718b9e	comment	In an early episode, John takes John-Boy out on his first real father-son hunt to christen him, but John-Boy gets cold feet at the idea of killing creatures for sport. As for self-defense, that line is crossed between fight or flight, and John-Boy makes a stand when a wounded bear on its last legs stumbles upon John during a later outing. It was desperate to survive to the point that it was attacking anything in its way, and had been foreshadowed the whole episode. As soon as John encounters it, the bear gets the drop on him. It nearly kills him, but John-Boy empties his shotgun into the bear and fells it, and he later brags about his first kill for years to come because he saved his father's life!
The Waltons / int_8d718b9e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8d718b9e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8d718b9e
The Waltons / int_8ebe7e03	type	13th Birthday Milestone
The Waltons / int_8ebe7e03	comment	13th Birthday Milestone: The episode "The Changeling" is centered around the youngest Walton child, Elizabeth, about to have her 13th birthday, with her mother reminding her that entering her teens is a big deal and everyone expressing surprise over the baby of the family becoming a teenager. It's treated as quite a Coming of Age Story since at the beginning Elizabeth still wants to walk home from school hopping on one foot with her friend Aimee, while Aimee walks off hinting the command for Elizabeth to grow up. Elizabeth experiences the wind tossing her hair on the way home from school and it continues at home through the window. It gets even weirder when she summons two piano keys to play themselves and causes items to fall down, move, or fly out the window without even touching them, which nobody in the family can seem to recognize the cause of. This causes Elizabeth to have second thoughts about throwing a party for her 13th birthday, along with Aimee's peer pressure. However, she eventually changes her mind but wants a slumber party with her girlfriends instead of a traditional kids' party. Since her friends tell ghost stories that summon the scary movements of the house items again, it is officially revealed that Elizabeth's superstitions were just caused by fear of growing up, and the house turns back to normal in the end.
The Waltons / int_8ebe7e03	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_8ebe7e03	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_8ebe7e03
The Waltons / int_90507020	type	TheForties
The Waltons / int_90507020	comment	The '40s: The later seasons took place during this period, as the Walton children transitioned to adulthood and World War II became a reality.
The Waltons / int_90507020	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_90507020	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_90507020
The Waltons / int_927b2f11	type	The Bus Came Back
The Waltons / int_927b2f11	comment	Olivia contracts tuberculosis and has to leave for a sanatorium midway through Season 8. She comes back for the first half of Season 9 and is back for the reunion movies.
The Waltons / int_927b2f11	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_927b2f11	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_927b2f11
The Waltons / int_930a6407	type	Rewrite
The Waltons / int_930a6407	comment	Rewrite: The made-for-TV movies of the 1980s-1990s are notorious for these, contradicting details given in the series, and sometimes contradicting each other. To give one example: In the last movie, A Walton Easter, John and Olivia celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary during the same year as the moon landing (1969). That would put them as being married in 1929. However, the TV series was set from approximately 1933 to 1945. When the series begins, John-Boy is in his last few years of high school, making him around 16 at the very least. That would mean he was born around 1916-1917 in the series timeline, with John & Olivia getting married some time before that.
The Waltons / int_930a6407	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_930a6407	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_930a6407
The Waltons / int_95c2a9dd	type	Outliving One's Offspring
The Waltons / int_95c2a9dd	comment	Outliving One's Offspring: Because of the realistic nature of the show, the parents and grandparents naturally go through a fair bit of this whenever anything happens to any of the children. Two of John and Olivia's children died at birth prior to the beginning of the show, and she miscarries another one during the course of the series. Zebulon and Esther lost their other son in World War One. Mary Ellen's infant son John Curtis gets kidnapped in the two-part episode "The Grandchild." Ben's daughter Virginia accidentally drowns.
The Waltons / int_95c2a9dd	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_95c2a9dd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_95c2a9dd
The Waltons / int_96cc4848	type	"Dear John" Letter
The Waltons / int_96cc4848	comment	Ashley Longworth Jr. consistently tried to court Erin, only to then pull a "Dear John" Letter on her. Ironically, it backfired on him when his lover suddenly died (perhaps as karmic punishment for spurning Erin) and he was on the receiving end of the curse instead of Erin.
The Waltons / int_96cc4848	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_96cc4848	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_96cc4848
The Waltons / int_970c8a84	type	Big Fun
The Waltons / int_970c8a84	comment	Jim-Bob also has notoriously bad luck with girls. Eventually, he just embraces his bachelorhood, lets himself go, and becomes a rotund mechanic.
The Waltons / int_970c8a84	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_970c8a84	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_970c8a84
The Waltons / int_9890e176	type	Same Character, But Different
The Waltons / int_9890e176	comment	Same Character, But Different: Curtis was originally a loving, loyal husband and father who died an honorable death at Pearl Harbor; they brought him back as a broken drunk who faked his death and left Mary Ellen out of pure selfishness.
The Waltons / int_9890e176	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_9890e176	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_9890e176
The Waltons / int_9b86a4f8	type	Nostalgic Narrator
The Waltons / int_9b86a4f8	comment	Nostalgic Narrator: Series creator Earl Hamner, Jr., as the voice of the older John-Boy Walton. In the finale of Season 7, he notably gives a very touching monologue that almost seems like he's setting the stage for the show to end, but it doesn't.
The Waltons / int_9b86a4f8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_9b86a4f8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_9b86a4f8
The Waltons / int_9dab0a6e	type	Continuity Nod
The Waltons / int_9dab0a6e	comment	Continuity Nod: In "The Typewriter", from what John-Boy tells the Baldwin sisters, the story that he wrote and submitted to Colliers are about "The Homecoming", the television movie that was, in retrospect, an accidental pilot to the series.
The Waltons / int_9dab0a6e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_9dab0a6e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_9dab0a6e
The Waltons / int_9e9203e1	type	Dramatically Missing the Point
The Waltons / int_9e9203e1	comment	Dramatically Missing the Point: In "The Firestorm", this is the main cause of conflict for John-Boy's story: he publishes parts of Mein Kampf in his newspaper. Everyone is outraged, mistaking him for supporting Hitler, whom they hate for burning the Bible. As he points out several times and chews into the community for at the climax, that's the exact opposite of what he wants: he just wants them to know what Hitler is thinking and thus understand how dangerous he actually is.
The Waltons / int_9e9203e1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_9e9203e1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_9e9203e1
The Waltons / int_a06b62b7	type	Frozen in Time
The Waltons / int_a06b62b7	comment	Frozen in Time: Very much averted. The series advanced from 1933 to 1945, while the last reunion movie was set in 1969.
The Waltons / int_a06b62b7	featureApplicability	-1.0
The Waltons / int_a06b62b7	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a06b62b7
The Waltons / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
The Waltons / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: No pun intended, but in season 5's "The Firestorm," the anti-German Rev. Fordwick, in response to Hitler burning the Holy Bible (a passage in Revelation warns of punishment to all those who seek to destroy the Bible), plans on burning Mein Kampf and any other German literature he can get his hands on in protest. John-boy stands up to the group, trying to get them to see how wrong it is; he spots one black book in the pile and picks it up. Mrs. Brimmer (whose late husband was German) comes forward to read the German words and translate them into English. Rev. Fordwick and those assembled are nearly in tears as they realized she's reading the Holy Bible.note You'd think they would have spotted this, as the German for "Bible" is "Bibel".
The Waltons / int_a1b141f4	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a1b141f4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a1b141f4
The Waltons / int_a536f3a3	type	Gender-Blender Name
The Waltons / int_a536f3a3	comment	Gender-Blender Name: Michael Learned (Olivia) was billed in the credits as "Miss Michael Learned" for the first five seasons in order to avoid confusion. There was also Sian Barbara Allen, who played John-Boy's girlfriend Jenny Pendleton. Her first name is pronounced "shawn" - she was named after her father. In Welsh, however, SiÃ¢n is an unambiguously female name, equivalent to Jane.
The Waltons / int_a536f3a3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a536f3a3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a536f3a3
The Waltons / int_a5cb8326	type	PromotedToOpeningCredits
The Waltons / int_a5cb8326	comment	Promoted to Opening Credits: The show's earliest seasons only credit the integral Walton elders at the beginning of episodes, but ironically, the setup flipped after John-Boy stopped being center stage midway through and the younger Walton children took over; starting with season 7, they were given opening credit billing instead of the end credits. In season 9, Joe Conley and Ronnie Claire Edwards (Ike and Corabeth Godsey) get this treatment, having become breakout characters and filling the space that the Walton adults had left behind.
The Waltons / int_a5cb8326	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a5cb8326	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a5cb8326
The Waltons / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
The Waltons / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: In one episode honoring members of the community who died in World War I, Ben carves a handsome bench to serve as a memorial to the four young men from the county who were killed and buried overseas, including John's older brother Ben.
The Waltons / int_a679184b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a679184b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a679184b
The Waltons / int_a68421bb	type	Animated Adaptation
The Waltons / int_a68421bb	comment	Animated Adaptation: Not officially, but in 1974 Hanna-Barbera created an Expy called These Are the Days, about the early-20th-century Day family (who might as well have been called Walton).
The Waltons / int_a68421bb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a68421bb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a68421bb
The Waltons / int_a7f99c1f	type	Two First Names
The Waltons / int_a7f99c1f	comment	Two First Names: Mary Ellen's husband, Curtis Willard. Their son, John Curtis Willard, has three first names.
The Waltons / int_a7f99c1f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a7f99c1f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a7f99c1f
The Waltons / int_a98abeda	type	Roguish Romani
The Waltons / int_a98abeda	comment	Roguish Romani: Defied to an extent in Episode 19, where a family of Romani are invited by the Waltons to camp out on their land. They refuse to accept anything from the Waltons even if it means going hungry, and it's not until their baby is near death that they allow Esther to tend to him. Ultimately more of a downplayed case, however, because while they're not straight-up malicious, these Romani are shown to be hypocrites who do resort to underhanded means of survival, namely by invading people's homes when the residents aren't around to steal from their food supplies. It's evident that their pretense of self-sufficiency stems not so much from genuine belief, but because it hurts their pride to openly receive aid from people who tend to view them with prejudice and/or bigotry, and also because of their own prejudices against non-Romani.
The Waltons / int_a98abeda	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a98abeda	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a98abeda
The Waltons / int_a9f392fd	type	Pilot Movie
The Waltons / int_a9f392fd	comment	Pilot Movie: As noted above, The Homecoming wasn't technically one of these, but its critical and ratings success did pave the way for the series that followed.
The Waltons / int_a9f392fd	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_a9f392fd	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_a9f392fd
The Waltons / int_aa0ed8a9	type	Look Both Ways
The Waltons / int_aa0ed8a9	comment	Look Both Ways: Both Bob Hill (married to cousin Olivia) and Boone Walton (the son of Zeb's brother) make the mistake of walking onto unlit sections of highway roads in the middle of the night as shortcuts instead of taking streets like normal, reasonable people should, and both are summarily killed by oncoming cars. The former was as stubborn as they come and a thoughtless person by nature who did things his way or the highway, and the highway did him one in return. The latter is an even worse case, as the narrator tells us that he was 85 years old, and implied to be possibly drunk at the time, as he was found with two full helpings of moonshine; this was a man who once survived a flood that took away his wife and child. At least they're back together now...
The Waltons / int_aa0ed8a9	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_aa0ed8a9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_aa0ed8a9
The Waltons / int_ac4ac8e5	type	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming
The Waltons / int_ac4ac8e5	comment	Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Almost every episode is titled "The [X]." The first set of reunion movies all have "Walton's Mountain" in the titles, while the second set of movies are all titled "A Walton [X]."
The Waltons / int_ac4ac8e5	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_ac4ac8e5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ac4ac8e5
The Waltons / int_ae3d6438	type	Deadpan Snarker
The Waltons / int_ae3d6438	comment	Deadpan Snarker: Curt Willard is one of these. Jim-Bob and Elizabeth also fall into this category when they become teenagers and develop attitudes.
The Waltons / int_ae3d6438	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_ae3d6438	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ae3d6438
The Waltons / int_aec43c5f	type	Thanksgiving Episode
The Waltons / int_aec43c5f	comment	Thanksgiving Episode: Season 2's "The Thanksgiving Story", as well as two reunion movies centered around the holiday. Well, it is a holiday all about family gatherings!
The Waltons / int_aec43c5f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_aec43c5f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_aec43c5f
The Waltons / int_afab5e94	type	Reunion Show
The Waltons / int_afab5e94	comment	Reunion Show: Several reunion movies aired in the '80s and '90s.
The Waltons / int_afab5e94	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_afab5e94	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_afab5e94
The Waltons / int_afc6df04	type	What You Are in the Dark
The Waltons / int_afc6df04	comment	What You Are in the Dark: Jason and his squad are pinned down by a German soldier... a short while after the war has ended, and the soldier doesn't know it's over. While they could kill him in self-defense and likely be okay, they ultimately decide to risk themselves to spare him.
The Waltons / int_afc6df04	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_afc6df04	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_afc6df04
The Waltons / int_b01abe4f	type	Catchphrase
The Waltons / int_b01abe4f	comment	Catchphrase: A few characters have some. Esther often says "Good Lord!" and, in later episodes of the series, "Oh boy..." note The reason her catchphrase changed was because her stroke caused her brain to lose the ability to fluidly control her diction and elocution while speaking (it strained her to the point her words had to be as monosyllabic as possible or she couldn't get them out), and she also resolved to stop getting so worked up over everything because she thought God was punishing her with forced silence for tongue-jabbing people all the time. Zebulon usually says "awomen" after grace has been said, rather than "amen". Jim-Bob sometimes peppers his sentences with the word "swell", usually as a snide retort. Corabeth's habit of calling Ike "Mr. Godsey", as well as breaking into Gratuitous French to sound classier (usually only making herself look prissy). Nearly every episode ends with everyone saying "Good night [insert name]!"
The Waltons / int_b01abe4f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_b01abe4f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_b01abe4f
The Waltons / int_b06bbf4b	type	Be Careful What You Wish For
The Waltons / int_b06bbf4b	comment	Be Careful What You Wish For: After Bob is given a shivaree in "The Shivaree", he's so angry about being kidnapped against his will (which the locals think is all in good fun) that he shouts, "I WANNA KILL!" Come next season in "The Loss," we learn he got killed instead when he hurried out onto an open road in the pitch dark back home to his wife after getting off work and a passing car ran him down.
The Waltons / int_b06bbf4b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_b06bbf4b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_b06bbf4b
The Waltons / int_b2280b66	type	Retcon
The Waltons / int_b2280b66	comment	Retcon: In The Homecoming, Olivia finds out about John-Boy's writing when he is fifteen years old, but in a Season 8 episode she mentions knowing about him and his writing when he was a little boy. In "The Fox," Grandma reveals to Olivia and John-Boy that she was pregnant with John when Grandpa was away fighting in the Spanish-American War, but didn't tell him before he left because she didn't want him to feel trapped by fatherhood. Later episodes indicate that John is their second child, and that his brother Ben (the one killed in World War I) was older.
The Waltons / int_b2280b66	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_b2280b66	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_b2280b66
The Waltons / int_bb0c0a4d	type	Fiery Redhead
The Waltons / int_bb0c0a4d	comment	Fiery Redhead: Ben and Elizabeth both have their moments, as does Olivia, who was originally a redhead whose hair faded in season 2 to a straw color.
The Waltons / int_bb0c0a4d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_bb0c0a4d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_bb0c0a4d
The Waltons / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
The Waltons / int_bc74ef27	comment	Judge Baldwin, the long-dead father of the Baldwin ladies. His portrait hangs on their fireplace mantle wall, and they constantly praise their papa for being their father, but the man sounds like a terror in the flesh; he was bent on keeping his daughters single, lived 20 years after a stroke in a half-vegetated state, and Ashley Longworth was his own personal Berserk Button. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to hear about their mother, considering how little she gets talked about compared to him.
The Waltons / int_bc74ef27	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_bc74ef27	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_bc74ef27
The Waltons / int_bcc5c9a5	type	Replaced the Theme Tune
The Waltons / int_bcc5c9a5	comment	Replaced the Theme Tune: Jerry Goldsmith scored The Homecoming: A Christmas Story and he returned when it became a series (he did six episodes in the first season), so you'd think the producers would have retained his quiet, rustic theme music. You'd be wrong:
The Waltons / int_bcc5c9a5	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_bcc5c9a5	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_bcc5c9a5
The Waltons / int_bec0417c	type	Happily Married
The Waltons / int_bec0417c	comment	Happily Married: The show is a big fan of this one: Grandma Esther and Grandpa Zeb, John Sr. and Olivia, most of the kids eventually, Rev. Fordwick and Rosemary, Ike and Corabeth, Sheriff Bridges and Sara. Even when they have arguments, they rarely erupt into anything big except for a few times in the later seasons.
The Waltons / int_bec0417c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_bec0417c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_bec0417c
The Waltons / int_c335b9ec	type	Irony
The Waltons / int_c335b9ec	comment	Widow Flossie Brimmer dies under similar circumstances as Zebulon around the same time, joining her late husband in paradise. Her boarding house was boarded up until another recurring character, Zulieka Dunbar, took it over.
The Waltons / int_c335b9ec	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_c335b9ec	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_c335b9ec
The Waltons / int_c33ba0a8	type	Chuck Cunningham Syndrome
The Waltons / int_c33ba0a8	comment	Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Godseys' adopted daughter Aimee during season 7. She is last seen dealing with Corabeth's alcoholism, and then suddenly the show acted as if she never existed for the rest of the season. Most notably in the episode when her father Ike has a heart attack, she's never shown or mentioned once during the episode - even when Ike tells John who would get what in his will in case he died. It was later mentioned that at some point, Corabeth enrolled Aimee in private school, so she was actually Put on a Bus; she gets mentioned in the season 9 episode in which her parents nearly split up. She does, however, come back for the Easter post-series special, having finished private school. She also makes a brief reappearance near the end of the Thanksgiving reunion movie in 1963, in which it was revealed she had eloped with a Marine and that Corabeth disapproved of the match (unlike Ike, who liked the guy), which may have somewhat accounted for her lack of mention. Aimee tended to be rebellious and follow the daring trends instead of the prim and proper ones, so naturally, it strained their relationship. However, when Aimee comes back bearing a grandchild, Corabeth's iced-up heart thaws.
The Waltons / int_c33ba0a8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_c33ba0a8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_c33ba0a8
The Waltons / int_c3782352	type	Exiled to the Couch
The Waltons / int_c3782352	comment	Exiled to the Couch: In one episode, Esther does this to Zeb when she gets the impression that he's cheating on her with the Baldwin sisters after learning that he spent an entire day in their company without informing anyone, and refuses to hear his explanation even though the truth is Zeb was just doing jobs for the sisters to help pay for the family's electric bill. Not one to take undeserved punishment, Zeb angrily storms out of the house in protest and ends up spending the night in Ike's store, where John-Boy finds him asleep on the pool table the next morning.
The Waltons / int_c3782352	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_c3782352	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_c3782352
The Waltons / int_c5ef2d50	type	Cringe Comedy
The Waltons / int_c5ef2d50	comment	Cringe Comedy: Some of the pranks played on John-Boy in "The First Day" could be called this. For example, somebody tells him he needs to deliver a goat to a specific room and he goes there very eagerly, unaware that he's taking it to the room of Professor Gote, a man who does not appreciate jokes about his name...
The Waltons / int_c5ef2d50	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_c5ef2d50	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_c5ef2d50
The Waltons / int_c819533b	type	Rage Breaking Point
The Waltons / int_c819533b	comment	Rage Breaking Point: Jason in season 4's "The Breakdown." After becoming irritated with being compared to his older brother John-Boy, working his job, and keeping up on schoolwork, he can't take it anymore. One afternoon when he and John-Boy are driving home from school, Jason begins shouting at his brother in the car. He soon apologizes. While John-Boy is being cared for during his coma and the doctors see his son as a liability because he's just taking up space, John explodes.
The Waltons / int_c819533b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_c819533b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_c819533b
The Waltons / int_cafca250	type	Conscience Makes You Go Back
The Waltons / int_cafca250	comment	Conscience Makes You Go Back: In "The Five Foot Shelf", a struggling door-to-door book seller named George Reed convinces Olivia and John-Boy to buy an entire fifty volume stack of books in downpayment, with a promise to deliver the rest of the volumes in the upcoming weeks. Driven by homesickness, desperation and loneliness, Reed secretly doesn't intend to honor the deal and opts to use the Waltons' downpayment to buy an expensive doll for his daughter on her seventh birthday. In the end, however, Reed decides to return the doll and the Waltons' money out of guilt, with the Waltons forgiving him in return by renewing their deal.
The Waltons / int_cafca250	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_cafca250	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_cafca250
The Waltons / int_cb70651c	type	Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
The Waltons / int_cb70651c	comment	Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The kids get a Ouija board in "The Ghost Story" and ask assorted questions, but the supposed answers consistently refer to Luke (who is due to see his father by way of train). Those who believe the board is legit get spooked, while those who don't get irritated with these histrionics. Tension mounts amid talk of Luke's late mother and him suddenly being unable to find his train ticket. Ultimately, Luke just misses getting on the train, but once back home, they learn it derailed. They then notice Luke's mother's portrait suddenly on the mantle, but no one's sure if one of the kids simply put it up there earlier or if it means something more.
The Waltons / int_cb70651c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_cb70651c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_cb70651c
The Waltons / int_cfdb9e17	type	Cerebus Syndrome
The Waltons / int_cfdb9e17	comment	Absolutely all of the Walton children preferred to go barefoot around the mountain when they were young and the weather allowed, and also go barefoot to school, as did some of their friends, like Marcia Woolery. When Olivia jokes in "The Boy From the C.C.C." about using a $50 bill to buy them all shoes for the winter so they wouldn't be running around barefooted, the kids whine and moan at the thought of wearing shoes. This was especially true of Mary Ellen, who at that point was a full-blown tomboy who loved being barefoot (and who rather thoughtlessly propped her dirty feet on the table while her mother was churning butter in "The Star," only to have Olivia push them off again), and Jim-Bob, who groaned, "Shoes?! ...SHOES...!" Their father replied, "It's mighty cold." Season 4's "The Burn-Out" seemed to be the last episode where they did this, because the house caught fire and some of the children reentered the damaged house barefooted due to fleeing at night and came to realize this was unsuitable for them anymore. Jim-Bob even has mismatched shoes with him due to throwing out some clothes at random in the dark. After remarking "I could go barefoot," Olivia tells him it's much too cold for that, and basically vetoes the idea. Come season 5, the show underwent Cerebus Syndrome, which only worsened when Esther was hospitalized, and the kids could no longer afford to enjoy barefoot and carefree lives. All of them had to pitch in with work, and all of them dropped the habit completely because their society was creeping into World War II and it marked their loss of innocence. A few of them already had dropped this habit by then, because they had taken on jobs and educational responsibilities. Each time a Walton child permanently shoes their feet, you can take it as a mark of their maturity and their shift from child to young adult.
The Waltons / int_cfdb9e17	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_cfdb9e17	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_cfdb9e17
The Waltons / int_d076824c	type	Every Episode Ending
The Waltons / int_d076824c	comment	Every Episode Ending: The family members all telling one another good night. There are a few exceptions. These include "The Marathon", where the ending takes place in the morning and Elizabeth wishes John-Boy a "good morning"; "The Long Night", where the ending extends to Zeb outside Esther's hospital window; and both "The Medal" and "The Indiscretion," where the good night takes place at the Godsey home because the plots of both center around the strength of Ike and Corabeth's marriage. Most episodes will end with the Waltons turning off the lights in their house as they go to bed, but a lot of the time John-Boy will keep his light on as he stays up writing or studying. However, sometimes the lights of the house will come on instead when something stirs the family back to life - be it arguing, all getting in the mood for ice cream, a crying John Curtis, or the stunning announcement that John-Boy's love interest Janet said yes to his marriage proposal (or rather, that he accepted hers) in the Thanksgiving reunion movie. It gets a Dark Reprise at the end of the season 9 opener, which features the Waltons standing outside their house in the night instead of going to sleep. They're listening to the sound of a train going over the nearby trestle... the funeral procession for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had just signed a pardon for their friend Harvey Foster - one of the last things he did before he succumbed to polio. They, along with practically everyone else in the state of Virginia, had arisen that night to pay last respects to their fallen leader as his casket crossed the nation.
The Waltons / int_d076824c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_d076824c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_d076824c
The Waltons / int_d0caee40	type	Uncanny Family Resemblance
The Waltons / int_d0caee40	comment	Uncanny Family Resemblance: Corabeth and her less sophisticated sister Orma Lee. (Of course, the resemblance is explained by the fact that Ronnie Claire Edwards plays both.)
The Waltons / int_d0caee40	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_d0caee40	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_d0caee40
The Waltons / int_d46ddfa2	type	CloudCuckooLander
The Waltons / int_d46ddfa2	comment	Cloud Cuckoolander: Miss Emily Baldwin has shades of this, putting her less nutty sister Mamie in the role of Cloud Cuckoolanders Minder. (Miss Mamie is goofy in her own right, but not as much as Emily.)
The Waltons / int_d46ddfa2	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_d46ddfa2	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_d46ddfa2
The Waltons / int_d52d28b6	type	Hypocrite
The Waltons / int_d52d28b6	comment	Hypocrite: Episode 19, "The Gypsies", centers on a Romani family who claim to live by an "ask for nothing and take nothing" philosophy, and they demonstrate this by rudely turning down kind offers of aid from others. Only the "ask for nothing" part holds true, however, because the story opens with them breaking into the Baldwins' house while the sisters are out of town, proceeding to not only help themselves to the Baldwins' comforts, but also steal from their food and wine supplies. Their hypocrisy is further proven when, shortly after camping right outside the Waltons' home and smugly telling their hosts that they don't need anything, Olivia catches them making use of her family's tap water without even the basic courtesy to ask permission first.
The Waltons / int_d52d28b6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_d52d28b6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_d52d28b6
The Waltons / int_d5ca97d	type	Dream-Crushing Handicap
The Waltons / int_d5ca97d	comment	Dream-Crushing Handicap: Jim-Bob desperately wants to be a pilot in the Air Corps and even goes as far as to get a tattoo of the Air Corps insignia (which, to this day, he regrets). Unfortunately, bad eyesight runs in the Walton family, with Esther, John, and John-Boy all needing reading glasses. To Jim-Bob's great dismay, a vision screening reveals that his eyesight is poor and he will never be able to qualify to fly for them; his dream is killed half-grown. This sort of soul-crushing thing happens to a multitude of people who try to fly in the military only to learn their vision, the single most crucial aspect of the screen, doesn't cut the mustard.
The Waltons / int_d5ca97d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_d5ca97d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_d5ca97d
The Waltons / int_da1c8191	type	Writers Cannot Do Math
The Waltons / int_da1c8191	comment	Writers Cannot Do Math: The 1990s reunion films depict the family at least ten to fifteen years younger than they should be. For example, one of them has the family celebrating John and Olivia's fortieth anniversary in 1969, which would make the year they were married 1929... which results in the kids being too young to have had the experiences they did on the show during the Depression and World War II. Jim-Bob's Vague Age becomes another issue. When attempting to enlist following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Jim-Bob is told he is too young. Where this becomes an issue is depending on which birth date is correct.note The Season 3 episode "The Runaway" has his birth date as June 13, 1924, in which case the recruiter would be correct about his being too young. However, the following season's "The Secret" lists his date of birth as January 13, 1923 (which would make Jim-Bob 18 going on 19). Finally, Jim-Bob is shown as high school valedictorian for the Class of 1944 in the Season 8 episode "The Valedictorian". Assuming that Jim-Bob was the "standard" 18 years of age at high school graduation, a 1944 graduation would have placed his birthday sometime in 1926.
The Waltons / int_da1c8191	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_da1c8191	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_da1c8191
The Waltons / int_dca70c44	type	Reasonable Authority Figure
The Waltons / int_dca70c44	comment	Reasonable Authority Figure: John Walton may be the undisputed head of the household, but it's hard to find a father more understanding under such difficult circumstances. He is even shown to change his mind on unpopular decisions, and will admit when he's made an error, especially to Olivia and John-Boy. He's also wise enough to recognize when to let his wife or children handle their own problems, such as when Olivia's art teacher is attracted to her, and serves as a sounding board instead of rushing to act for them. As mentioned above, he doesn't pretend to understand his children's dreams, but he expects them to apply themselves to make them come true. The reliable Sheriff Ep Bridges is about as honest and incorruptible as a local county official can get. A lifelong family friend of the Waltons, he can always be counted on to uphold justice within his jurisdiction with dignity, fairness and respect, whether it be through helping the innocent, punishing the guilty, or settling disputes.
The Waltons / int_dca70c44	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_dca70c44	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_dca70c44
The Waltons / int_e01bf9f9	type	Flashback with the Other Darrin
The Waltons / int_e01bf9f9	comment	Flashback with the Other Darrin: In the Season 5 episode "The Achievement," there are clips of the pilot movie, and all the clips of the adult characters were refilmed with the new actors.
The Waltons / int_e01bf9f9	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e01bf9f9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e01bf9f9
The Waltons / int_e085feeb	type	Broken Record
The Waltons / int_e085feeb	comment	Emily Baldwin is constantly going on about her star-crossed romance with distant cousin Ashley Longworth and how they kissed under an old oak tree amid a swirl of falling autumn leaves, and how her father effectively killed it by shooing him away for good. She even continues harping on about it long after learning he has up and died and had a son. When we first hear about him, it's 1934. The last time she brings him up, she and her sister have finally been busted and put out of the moonshine business, both of them are rickety old ladies, and it is 1963.
The Waltons / int_e085feeb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e085feeb	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e085feeb
The Waltons / int_e1311c40	type	Romancing the Widow
The Waltons / int_e1311c40	comment	Romancing the Widow: This is how Harley Foster (himself a widower) ends up with Verdie Grant. As noted under Decemberâ€“December Romance, Olivia's elderly Uncle Cody romances and marries neighbor Cordelia, who has had four prior husbands. One of Esther's old beaus comes to visit her after Zeb passes on, having gone through a stroke like she did and outlived his wife Betty. Olivia's cousin Rose Burton outlived her husband Burt, a train conductor on the Northwestern line. However, she had a beau prior to him named Stanley Perkins, who was a traveling salesman and a dancer. Eventually, he comes back into her life and tries once more to win her heart, but she declines him. The second time, he's ready to give up if Rose turns him down again; Rose considers saying yes, but she discovers her heart is too weak for them to go traveling like he has always done. But The Power of Love conquers all, and Stanley doesn't care if he can't travel anymore, so they get married.
The Waltons / int_e1311c40	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e1311c40	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e1311c40
The Waltons / int_e4965307	type	Composite Character
The Waltons / int_e4965307	comment	Composite Character: Ben was actually based on two of Earl Hamner's brothers, compressed into one person.
The Waltons / int_e4965307	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e4965307	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e4965307
The Waltons / int_e5421161	type	Expy
The Waltons / int_e5421161	comment	Expy: The addition of pretentious and gossipy cousin Corabeth as Ike's new wife seemed to serve no other purpose than to make her and Ike the Walton's Mountain versions of Harriet and Nels Oleson of Little House on the Prairie (which had premiered a year before Corabeth's introduction). The show's producers saw this and tried to avoid making her tyrannical like Harriet, and rationalized her behavior as a pained desire to enjoy the finer things in life and high society while stuck in the humdrum boonies. Thankfully, while snobbish, Corabeth is never portrayed as being spiteful; she frequently really does mean well, and is not above apologizing when she realizes that her behavior is wrong. Also, unlike Harriet Oleson, Corabeth is often shown to learn from her mistakes instead of suffering Aesop Amnesia.
The Waltons / int_e5421161	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e5421161	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e5421161
The Waltons / int_e7c52a5e	type	Family Drama
The Waltons / int_e7c52a5e	comment	Family Drama: One of the pioneers of the genre, portraying a big and generally warm-hearted family as the most important installment of life over possessions and notoriety, facing a lot of hardship. The Waltons as a model American family became so iconic that Norman Rockwell painted them.
The Waltons / int_e7c52a5e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e7c52a5e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e7c52a5e
The Waltons / int_e853bdb8	type	Plagued by Nightmares
The Waltons / int_e853bdb8	comment	Plagued by Nightmares: "The Ferris Wheel" centers around Elizabeth's recurring nightmares of being trapped on a Ferris wheel.
The Waltons / int_e853bdb8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_e853bdb8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_e853bdb8
The Waltons / int_ea2e9f2d	type	No Ending
The Waltons / int_ea2e9f2d	comment	No Ending: Season 9's final episode "The Revel" was not written as a final episode for the show, nor was the final special A Walton Easter; and so, sadly, The Waltons does not have a proper ending. Keep in mind, though, that the show is based on real life, and life goes on, so we can assume it's not necessarily meant to have one.
The Waltons / int_ea2e9f2d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_ea2e9f2d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ea2e9f2d
The Waltons / int_eb5b71fe	type	Clingy Jealous Girl
The Waltons / int_eb5b71fe	comment	Clingy Jealous Girl: Elizabeth acts a bit like one of these about Jim-Bob in "The Silver Wings," when he spends a lot of time with an older married woman with whom he's infatuated. Her objection to the fact that the woman is married is understandable, but she comes off as mostly being resentful that her brother prefers someone else's company to hers. Somewhat justified by the fact that Jim-Bob and Elizabeth are the two youngest siblings and have always been close.
The Waltons / int_eb5b71fe	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_eb5b71fe	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_eb5b71fe
The Waltons / int_edc22fe8	type	Cartwright Curse
The Waltons / int_edc22fe8	comment	Cartwright Curse: Many of the guys in whom Erin shows interest end up dead not long after; or if they survive, they turn out to be of poor character. Even when she gets married, she discovers that her husband already has an infamous reputation and he ends up being unfaithful... so she has her marriage annulled, only to run into another unfaithful suitor who was already in the process of cheating on his own spouse to avoid an unhappy marriage. Sadly, she shot herself in the foot with the one person who truly loved her (G. W. Haines) by rejecting his marriage proposal because she had already gone through the pain of a previous proposal falling through the cracks, which made him join the Army when it was too much to bear and ultimately led him to get killed in a training accident - right about the time that their relationship actually took off and she realized the feelings between them were genuine. Ashley Longworth Jr. consistently tried to court Erin, only to then pull a "Dear John" Letter on her. Ironically, it backfired on him when his lover suddenly died (perhaps as karmic punishment for spurning Erin) and he was on the receiving end of the curse instead of Erin. Jim-Bob also has notoriously bad luck with girls. Eventually, he just embraces his bachelorhood, lets himself go, and becomes a rotund mechanic.
The Waltons / int_edc22fe8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_edc22fe8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_edc22fe8
The Waltons / int_edf0331d	type	Of Course I Smoke
The Waltons / int_edf0331d	comment	One episode has Ben sneaking around rolling up his own cigarettes and lighting up in the barn trying not to get caught. Inevitably, this task proves impossible in a big family and the cat gets out of the bag sooner rather than later. Zeb has a veteran tactic for this kind of thing and has it down-pat by now, to make his grandkids smoke 'em all if they got caught huffing and puffing. When he catches wind of Ben's little hobby, he decides to pull the old reverse psychology tactic on him by making him think Of Course I Smoke and brings him out to Drusilla's Pond to go out and smoke a whole pack together. Ben promptly gets too sick to ever think about smoking cigarettes again, while seasoned Zeb masterfully and dominantly takes his smokes without batting an eyelash. Jason even warns Ben about what would happen, because he was subjected to this torture himself.
The Waltons / int_edf0331d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_edf0331d	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_edf0331d
The Waltons / int_ee2a3bfc	type	Prefers Going Barefoot
The Waltons / int_ee2a3bfc	comment	Prefers Going Barefoot: Absolutely all of the Walton children preferred to go barefoot around the mountain when they were young and the weather allowed, and also go barefoot to school, as did some of their friends, like Marcia Woolery. When Olivia jokes in "The Boy From the C.C.C." about using a $50 bill to buy them all shoes for the winter so they wouldn't be running around barefooted, the kids whine and moan at the thought of wearing shoes. This was especially true of Mary Ellen, who at that point was a full-blown tomboy who loved being barefoot (and who rather thoughtlessly propped her dirty feet on the table while her mother was churning butter in "The Star," only to have Olivia push them off again), and Jim-Bob, who groaned, "Shoes?! ...SHOES...!" Their father replied, "It's mighty cold." Season 4's "The Burn-Out" seemed to be the last episode where they did this, because the house caught fire and some of the children reentered the damaged house barefooted due to fleeing at night and came to realize this was unsuitable for them anymore. Jim-Bob even has mismatched shoes with him due to throwing out some clothes at random in the dark. After remarking "I could go barefoot," Olivia tells him it's much too cold for that, and basically vetoes the idea. Come season 5, the show underwent Cerebus Syndrome, which only worsened when Esther was hospitalized, and the kids could no longer afford to enjoy barefoot and carefree lives. All of them had to pitch in with work, and all of them dropped the habit completely because their society was creeping into World War II and it marked their loss of innocence. A few of them already had dropped this habit by then, because they had taken on jobs and educational responsibilities. Each time a Walton child permanently shoes their feet, you can take it as a mark of their maturity and their shift from child to young adult. Exaggerated in "The Stray" with the introduction of Josh. He preferred to be totally barefoot at all times, and for that reason, had no shoes at all. His presence in the story was revealed when because of this choice, he got his foot mangled from stepping on a fishhook and left a nasty blood trail, exposing him as a stowaway on the Walton's property. Even when Olivia donated some old shoes to him, Josh kept going barefoot, defending his reason for keeping them off as "My feet aren't free." It wasn't until he went to meet Verdie Foster (who then adopted him as Josh Foster) that he was convinced to start using his new shoes. John-Boy suggests to Bob in "The Shivaree", a City Mouse who keeps obsessively shining his shoes, that he should try going barefoot because it's fun. Bob scoffs at this. True to form, he gets shivareed just before his marriage and ends up stumbling through the woods in his pajamas with bare feet. Humorously in Season 7's "The Outsider", Cindy (Ben's brand new wife) turns out to be an aversion to this trope, as she notes she wants a throw rug for the floor by the bed so she doesn't have to feel the cold wood floor under her bare feet when she gets out of bed. This only serves to differentiate her from the other Waltons further.
The Waltons / int_ee2a3bfc	featureApplicability	-1.0
The Waltons / int_ee2a3bfc	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ee2a3bfc
The Waltons / int_ee7a60e9	type	One-Steve Limit
The Waltons / int_ee7a60e9	comment	One-Steve Limit: A Truth in Television aversion, as this was a time when people often used the names of their parentage as components of their children's names. John-Boy's real name is John Walton, Jr., but he affectionately goes by John-Boy to differentiate himself from his father, sometimes getting laughed at for his nickname by the snooty. There are two Bens, two Esthers, and two Sarahs. Mary Ellen's second name is Esther's middle name, Erin has Esther for her middle name, and John Curtis is named after his father Curtis and grandfather John. Jim-Bob's twin Joseph, who died at birth, had the middle name of Zebulon. Olivia has a cousin named Cora, who appears in one early episode, and later we meet Corabeth, who is John's cousin. There is also a second Olivia, a cousin who comes from a very unfortunate side of the family that is pockmarked with death. (She's introduced in "The Shivaree.")
The Waltons / int_ee7a60e9	featureApplicability	-1.0
The Waltons / int_ee7a60e9	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ee7a60e9
The Waltons / int_ee9877ea	type	Too Good for This Sinful Earth
The Waltons / int_ee9877ea	comment	G. W. Haines proposes to Erin, but she turns him down, so he ends up joining the Army to cope with the rejection. In a cruel twist of fate, when Erin begins to reciprocate his feelings, World War II has completely sucked him into the Army, and he ends up taking part in a routine training exercise where the men practice throwing dummy grenades. Unfortunately, it just so happened that someone decided they were ready for live ammo, and a wayward bunny bounded too close to the testing site as G. W. wound up to throw an active grenade. His kindness toward the bunny caused him to redirect his grenade, but cost him the time he should have used to chuck it far enough away that it wouldn't blow up in his face, which it did, and G. W. became Walton's Mountain's first casualty of World War II. Instead of seeing their son off to the army with high hopes, they would see his casket off to the grave. Worst of all, he wrote a posthumous letter to Erin telling her that he really loved her, which was enough to make her run out into the field outside his grieving parents' house and bawl her eyes out in the arms of her father.
The Waltons / int_ee9877ea	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_ee9877ea	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ee9877ea
The Waltons / int_f1462f0b	type	Smoking Is Not Cool
The Waltons / int_f1462f0b	comment	Smoking Is Not Cool: One episode has Ben sneaking around rolling up his own cigarettes and lighting up in the barn trying not to get caught. Inevitably, this task proves impossible in a big family and the cat gets out of the bag sooner rather than later. Zeb has a veteran tactic for this kind of thing and has it down-pat by now, to make his grandkids smoke 'em all if they got caught huffing and puffing. When he catches wind of Ben's little hobby, he decides to pull the old reverse psychology tactic on him by making him think Of Course I Smoke and brings him out to Drusilla's Pond to go out and smoke a whole pack together. Ben promptly gets too sick to ever think about smoking cigarettes again, while seasoned Zeb masterfully and dominantly takes his smokes without batting an eyelash. Jason even warns Ben about what would happen, because he was subjected to this torture himself. A later episode, "The Furlough," note the first episode with John-Boy out of his coma played by a new actor reveals that this was the bog standard punishment Zeb used to wean every one of the boys off smoking at one point or another. Ironically, when this conversation comes up, all of the boys are drinking beer in the house in private, a thing which would certainly have gotten their female elders up in arms had any of them been at the house to scold them and Zeb still been alive. The only one who isn't drinking is underage Jim-Bob, who is given a root beer.
The Waltons / int_f1462f0b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_f1462f0b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_f1462f0b
The Waltons / int_f3fd818b	type	Dark Reprise
The Waltons / int_f3fd818b	comment	It gets a Dark Reprise at the end of the season 9 opener, which features the Waltons standing outside their house in the night instead of going to sleep. They're listening to the sound of a train going over the nearby trestle... the funeral procession for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had just signed a pardon for their friend Harvey Foster - one of the last things he did before he succumbed to polio. They, along with practically everyone else in the state of Virginia, had arisen that night to pay last respects to their fallen leader as his casket crossed the nation.
The Waltons / int_f3fd818b	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_f3fd818b	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_f3fd818b
The Waltons / int_f4f3252e	type	Law of Inverse Fertility
The Waltons / int_f4f3252e	comment	Law of Inverse Fertility: Implied in a few episodes for the Godseys. It's particularly noticeable in the second half of "The Burn-Out," when the Walton children are staying with various neighbors while the house is restored; Ike and Corabeth are taking care of Elizabeth, and they plead with Olivia to let her stay with them for a bit longer because they so enjoy having a child with them. They eventually adopt daughter Aimee from an orphanage because they're never able to have a child of their own.
The Waltons / int_f4f3252e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_f4f3252e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_f4f3252e
The Waltons / int_f765e2d3	type	Dying Alone
The Waltons / int_f765e2d3	comment	Four seasons after his first heart attack and running himself ragged waiting for his wife Esther to come home from the hospital, Zebulon Walton has a second heart attack climbing up the mountain to plant flowers. He is implied to have died instantly and by himself, and was found keeled over dead up there. Even though he and Esther had plans to be buried together, rather than go to the difficult and heartwrenching task of carting him down to the burial plot, the family found it more fitting to bury him up on the mountain, because he loved it so much.
The Waltons / int_f765e2d3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_f765e2d3	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_f765e2d3
The Waltons / int_f9f2c33	type	Running Gag
The Waltons / int_f9f2c33	comment	Running Gag: In the early seasons, Mary Ellen was a raging tomboy who was always getting into trouble, and Olivia's go-to punishment was to make her go read ten Bible verses until she memorized them. The other children were not exempt to this punishment, either, and any backtalk would net them more verses on top of the first volley. This gets a rather funny nod in The Homecoming, when the children go to church to watch presents being distributed. Olivia forbids them to accept any gifts themselves, because she won't take charity, but allows them to watch, and the woman doling out the gifts will give one to each child who can say a Bible verse to her. Mary Ellen is able to whisper some of the many, many verses she's memorized to all of their friends so they can receive presents. Olivia frequently urges her husband to come to church more often because she is a straitlaced Baptist and he is a realist who is a little skeptical of the faith. She also encourages John to get baptized, as does Elizabeth at one point, but John was stubborn enough that, according to John-Boy's narration, he went to the grave unbaptized. The Baldwin ladies, being naive, shut-in spinsters who live stuck exclusively in their own little world and never leave the mountain, always refer to their family's bootleg moonshine as "the recipe". They don't even realize it's totally illegal, especially during Prohibition, and at one point they actually want to send some to the President. Emily Baldwin is constantly going on about her star-crossed romance with distant cousin Ashley Longworth and how they kissed under an old oak tree amid a swirl of falling autumn leaves, and how her father effectively killed it by shooing him away for good. She even continues harping on about it long after learning he has up and died and had a son. When we first hear about him, it's 1934. The last time she brings him up, she and her sister have finally been busted and put out of the moonshine business, both of them are rickety old ladies, and it is 1963. Zeb has a fixation with naming plants (Will Geer was a real-life botanist), especially trailing arbutus flowers, arguably his favorites. The Waltons have to keep going to Ike Godsey's store to place phone calls and receive them because they don't have a telephone installed in the house. It isn't until John and Olivia's silver anniversary that they finally get one of their own. Elizabeth is obsessed with Jessica, Girl Spy until she learns the author has died.
The Waltons / int_f9f2c33	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_f9f2c33	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_f9f2c33
The Waltons / int_fccd06b6	type	Beware the Nice Ones
The Waltons / int_fccd06b6	comment	Beware the Nice Ones: John Walton may be the iconic loving father, but do not think you can take advantage of him. One drifter makes this mistake when bunking with the family and tries to steal some money before making his escape. The next thing he knows, he's staring down a shotgun wielded by John, who is quite adamant that the thief put back the money and explain himself. Zeb is even scarier than his son in this respect. As soon as he hears that his kinfolk are being threatened off their property by a highway developer, he takes up a gun and is ready to fight to death if need be! John-Boy is no pushover when facing bad guys, either. He once forces a young girl con artist to confess her crimes in front of the family, and later single-handedly beats up both of the boys who had jumped him earlier in the episode. In another episode, he gets into a fight which almost turns deadly when the son of Olivia's cousin Cora comes onto Mary Ellen way too forcefully; the boy grabs a pitchfork and seems ready to stab John-Boy, who nevertheless does not back down. In an early episode, John takes John-Boy out on his first real father-son hunt to christen him, but John-Boy gets cold feet at the idea of killing creatures for sport. As for self-defense, that line is crossed between fight or flight, and John-Boy makes a stand when a wounded bear on its last legs stumbles upon John during a later outing. It was desperate to survive to the point that it was attacking anything in its way, and had been foreshadowed the whole episode. As soon as John encounters it, the bear gets the drop on him. It nearly kills him, but John-Boy empties his shotgun into the bear and fells it, and he later brags about his first kill for years to come because he saved his father's life! This is especially the case with Jason, who goes into World War II as a conscientious objector, but ended up having to deal with actual combat. That said, he still keeps enough kindness to spare a German soldier after the war officially ends. There's also Ben, who is taken prisoner of war and raises hell at the Japanese POW camp.
The Waltons / int_fccd06b6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_fccd06b6	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_fccd06b6
The Waltons / int_fd7f0823	type	Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe
The Waltons / int_fd7f0823	comment	Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Both John and John-Boy smoke pipes in early episodes. John eventually kicks the habit because he stopped enjoying it. John-Boy, even though he's old enough to smoke, always does so in private - until he has a horrific experience in "The Burn-Out," when the Walton house catches fire and he believes his pipe was the cause (though it's implied Zeb's unattended space heater was the true culprit). Feeling guilty, he resolves to never smoke again.
The Waltons / int_fd7f0823	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_fd7f0823	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_fd7f0823
The Waltons / int_fdaf37f0	type	Captain's Log
The Waltons / int_fdaf37f0	comment	Captain's Log: John-Boy's memoirs.
The Waltons / int_fdaf37f0	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_fdaf37f0	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_fdaf37f0
The Waltons / int_fdc1e848	type	Will They or Won't They?
The Waltons / int_fdc1e848	comment	Will They or Won't They?: The B-plot of the season 9 episode "The Indiscretion" has Elizabeth and Drew considering spending the night together. They don't.
The Waltons / int_fdc1e848	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_fdc1e848	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_fdc1e848
The Waltons / int_ff17ccf1	type	Innocently Insensitive
The Waltons / int_ff17ccf1	comment	Innocently Insensitive: When Olivia is stricken with polio and the local doctor has a grim prognosis on her chances of full recovery, the Baldwin sisters visit Olivia and gift her a high-end (for the time) wheelchair. Olivia, who is determined to walk again, does not take the gift kindly.
The Waltons / int_ff17ccf1	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_ff17ccf1	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_ff17ccf1
The Waltons / int_name	type	ItemName
The Waltons / int_name	comment
The Waltons / int_name	featureApplicability	1.0
The Waltons / int_name	featureConfidence	1.0
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Waltons / int_name
The Waltons / int_name	itemName	The Waltons

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Waltons	hasFeature	Affectionate Nickname / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Amazing Freaking Grace / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Answer Cut / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Author Avatar / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Best Friends-in-Law / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Blowing a Raspberry / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Bouquet Toss / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Captain's Log / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Caregiver Angst / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Credits Pushback / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Doorstop Baby / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Drill Sergeant Nasty / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Even the Dog Is Ashamed / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Every Episode Ending / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Family Drama / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Family Title / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Flashback with the Other Darrin / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Go-to-Sleep Ending / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Hayseed Name / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Hillbilly Moonshiner / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Incest Subtext / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Indian Burial Ground / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Killed Offscreen / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Little Miss Con Artist / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Maiden Aunt / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Miss Conception / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Mistaken for Thief / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Narrator / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Never Learned to Read / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Overalls and Gingham / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Plagued by Nightmares / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Roguish Romani / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Series of the 1970s / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Sexiled / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Thanksgiving Episode / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	The '40s / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Danza / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	The Great Depression / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	13th Birthday Milestone / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Two First Names / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names / int_b3bb3618
The Waltons	hasFeature	Written by Cast Member / int_b3bb3618
Switch!	seeAlso	The Waltons
TheseAreTheDays	seeAlso	The Waltons
The Waltons	hasFeature	Paranormal Episode / int_b3bb3618

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.