The first time I saw that damn leech ad, for about half-way through I thought it was for real (granted, I was not entirely sober). I got covered in leeches once as a kid, from swimming in a pond. My mother was wigging out, and I was, Hmm. Interesting.

What thread is this? Oh yeah... I may get another toaster. A colleague has promised to watch Firefly after he finishes devouring Buffy and Angel (from the top, not the bottom) because he likes them so much.

So. Cool. I have always wanted the time/money/insanity to X-Wing out my car.

</rebelpilotfan>

Topic? Uhm...Wash is no Wedge, but Firefly loses none of its awesome anyway.

I was going to clean today. But I got a cold. I also got my present for my mom late, after I had given her another and decided this would be for her birthday in February. It's S1-3 of The Waltons. But did I mention I have a cold? Well, I do. So I was weak. Weak, and also thrifty, so I thought I should watch The Waltons first, before giving it to my mom.

A bit of backstory: When I was a kid, The Waltons was the only show my mom would regularly let me watch. I loved it, but dreamed of watching other shows. Visions of Little House on the Prairie, Mork and Mindy, and The Dukes of Hazzard danced in my head, but pretty much it was The Waltons. Even when we had no TV, my mom would search out friends with TVs to visit on The Waltons night so that I could see it and not be a DEPRIVED CHILD. You might think that this would make me hate The Waltons as a form of rebellion or something, but instead, for years it was the One. True. Show, until it was eclipsed by the True. One. True. Show: Firefly.

At this point, I hadn't seen The Waltons for ages. I expected that watching it would be a little like watching Little House on the Prairie reruns - kind of fun, but not as satisfying as the original. OMGWTF The Waltons is freakin' fantastic!! I don't know if I'm going to be able to give my mom these DVDs. If I learned anything from this show, it would be that I would be selfless and give them to her, but I may have learned a bit too much from watching Firefly.

xposted with Bitches, because I just can't help myself.

Aw libkitty, you're adorable, and you made me want to watch The Waltons, and the movie Spencer's Mountain, too.

Aw, shucks, Cindy, thanks.

I wasn't familiar with Spencer's Mountain, so I went to IMDb. It lists it as a working title for The Waltons. Is there something else called Spencer's Mountain, or is this what you're talking about? I know that IMDb is not always reliable.

Also, have you seen The Homecoming? It has mostly the same cast, but Patricia Neal as Olivia. I love Michael Learned, but always thought that Patricia Neal (at the age she was when she made the movie) was much more believable playing the mother of 7, the oldest of which was 17. Ok, by always I mean always since I first saw The Homecoming, which was about 8-9 years ago.

I was a huge Homecoming and Waltons fan! It was definitely required viewing in my house. The whole family once drove 4 hours to go picnic in the actual town the Hamners lived in, which was the model for Walton's Mountain. I went to college with Scott Hamner, son of Earl. I was secretly incredibly impressed by that, although I managed to be cool about it.

God, I loved "The Homecoming". Used to watch it at the holidays every year. The tv show wore on me, but The Homecoming felt so true and real.

Also, Patricia Neal rocked.

Project: Take a script of a Walton's episode. Use it as a basis for a Firefly fanfic. "Good night, Jayne."

I also watched the Waltons in its first three or four seasons. Much later in life, after I'd moved to San Francisco, I got to personally know the actress who had played Elizabeth. She was very very smart and cool, and teaching ESL. She was dating a friend of mine - a British cartoonist.

Before I was even formally introduced to her, she introduced herself to me on the train because I was wearing a Krazy Kat button.

Spencer's Mountain. It's a movie starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara and is sort of the mother of Homecoming and The Waltons. It was based on Earl Hamner's novel.

Here, wiki has a little more on it: [link]

It's just beautiful. And Henry Fonda is beautiful. Maureen O'Hara is beautiful. A very young, pretty frisky James MacArthur is just beautiful.