Growing up in rural Southern Illinois, you hear stories about how tough the Great Depression was on farm families. If you stick around into adulthood to call it home, you continue to hear how bad it was on farm families, and if you paid attention, you learned how bad it was for your own.

Over the years, I’ve complained about the TV show, The Waltons. It takes place in rural America around the time of the Great Depression and World War II, but, from what it looks like to me, it takes place in an alternate universe where poverty is disguised as plentiful bounty. I mean, the Waltons have a large home, a working truck, and from what it seems, a thriving family business where every day is either picking berries in the forest or taking a hike up a mountain to philosophize on life.

Well, lately, I’ve started to think differently of this show. It is slowly becoming, not there completely, a story about a family living the best they can through a difficult time by choosing to remain totally oblivious to what’s happening in the world around them. It reminds me of something writer Hunter S. Thompson said when he ran for sheriff of Aspen, Colorado. To paraphrase, he said something along the lines of, “We know how to run our lives better than Washington D.C.”

Thompson lost the election, but I totally get where he was going with that. As a journalist, he wasn’t oblivious to the problems of the world. There’s plenty of writing and footage of him speaking to show he was acutely aware of social problems, but I feel, what he meant was, everyone needs a place to call home, a place to relax, to take a break, and enjoy life even if it means turning on the blinders for a while to get some peace.

I kind of feel that’s what The Waltons represent. Metaphorically speaking, the farm represents a communal experience by which everyone helps each other and likewise leaves each other alone to live as they choose. For example, John Boy’s allowed time to write without anyone making fun of him for wanting to lock himself away with his books. In one episode, a younger son opens a tavern, and nobody cares. They even show up to find him drinking alone because he feels like a failure for not opening the tavern and the family pitches in to help him get it open. And, then there’s Grandpa who walks around sharing his wisdom from a lifetime spent on the mountain with a bottle of Daddy’s “special” recipe. Even when the sheriff shows up on the show, he quite often walks away without a person in handcuffs as a friendly conversation among neighbors tends to resolve the situation.

Anyway… I just wanted to share that.

I'm amused that you're worried The Waltons is not an accurate description of reality. I didn't watch much of it, too sentimental. However, I know for some people who came from dysfunctional or abusive families the show was quite a pleasure. "OMG so that's how a healthy family operates, I had no idea that existed."

I hadn't seen many episodes of The Waltons until my mother started to have a problem receiving over-the-air signals from the television channel she watches weather on. Some amateur radio operators said her local news station had to reduce their transmitting power due to reallocation of frequencies. With that info, I installed an inexpensive antenna, and it pulls in her news plus MeTV which airs The Waltons.

I've only seen a few episodes of The Waltons in my life. It never appealed to me that much, possibly because my own upbringing was so dysfunctional and I couldn't identify with family solidarity and homespun values dramatized in the show.

But I still occasionally say Goodnight John Boy as a joke. Very few young people know what I'm talking about.

The show, Yellowstone, might be described as an antithesis to The Waltons. But in some ways there are many similarities. And likewise that show bears little resemblance to reality, or so I hope.

The show, Yellowstone, might be described as an antithesis to The Waltons.

As crazy as this is going to sound, this is first time I've heard of Yellow Stone. I read the Wiki intro to the show. Seems interesting. Thanks to 1990s western movies/shows, I associate Kevin Costner with sepia tone.

Apparently, there's a spinoff of the show in the works: https://parade.com/1212453/klconniewang ... e-spinoff/

My favorite TV show of all time is Northern Exposure. It takes place in rural Alaska. Back in the 1990s, I rarely missed an episode of it. Friends back then found it funny I liked it so much given I'm into heavy metal music. lol

I wasn't a regular Waltons watcher, so I'm not a good judge of it. I do think I recall that sometimes the troubled outer world intruded on the idyll on the mountain, but it seemed that the self-reliant family was able to close ranks and ward off the threats. I think most people watching knew the Waltons' world was idealized, but they enjoyed the example of a close, loving family anyway, and the 'simpler times' theme was comforting nostalgia.

Geo mentioned "Yellowstone" as a Waltons antithesis. In the same way, that older show, "Deadwood," was the antithesis of many standard westerns. I watched a couple of Yellowstone episodes, but it seemed too derivitive of other sagas of powerful families. I felt that the Kevin Costner character was presented as complex, having both admirable and deplorable qualities, but I could see only the negative side of this land baron/rancher with his fleet of gas-guzzling trucks and a helicopter to buzz around his Rhode Island-size estate in. A scene that really bugged me was when the men all plunge into the river on horseback, wielding flyrods and proceed to haul in nice big trout, as a guided fishing raft floats by with its glum, luckless passengers. It just seemed to epitomize the phoniness of the show.

I see there is now a Yellowstone prequel series, "1883," starring Sam Elliot.

it seemed too derivitive of other sagas of powerful families.

Your comment made me think of the TV show Bonanza. I never realized how protective the father was of his land until I watched an episode where a wagon broke down on the property, and he rushed out to tell the wagon team they were trespassing while they worked to fix their wagon. It seems like in every episode they remind people about the fame of the Ponderosa.

According to this article, Pernell Roberts (Adam Cartwright) didn't like how the show glorified wealth: https://outsider.com/news/entertainment ... ised-show/