I loved the Waltons. It was one of the tv family's I wanted to be a part of (the other was The Addams Family). The show was about the everyday life of them. There were neighbors -- the Baldwin sisters, the Goddseys, then there were the mountain people.

Some of the story lines I remember are -- a young girl is found who can't speak and they teach her sign language (and I think look for her parents), but in the meantime she and Elizabeth play hide and seek and Elizabeth gets trapped in a trunk. The girl uses sign langauge to tell the family where she was.

There was always stuff about the Baldwin sisters and "the recipe". Then there were the war years where they dealt with one of the boys , Jason, I think, struggling with whether or not to be a contentious objector.

S described it as kind of like Seventh Heaven, but I'm enough of a child of the current era that, even though I can see where the stories come from on Seventh Heaven, I was still having a hard time seeing the stories for the Waltons.

I'm sure the stories were good and compelling, as the show ran for a long time and won awards, but the premise alone left me dumbfounded as to what kind of stories you would tell that anyone would care about.

Here's a fansite for The Waltons - [link] If you click on the episode guide it will give you a brief synopsis of each episode.

There was some interesting casting -- John Ritter was a semi regular for awhile playing a reverend, Sissy Spacek played a love interest of John Boy, Jonathan Frakes played the love interest of Erin or Mary Ellen (I can't remember which).

The Waltons was set during The Depression, so you had people trying to make do however they could, as there was no work and no pay. The Waltons themselves had the mountain, and eventually they built a sawmill and cut and sold their own timber. There was quite a great deal about how small communities worked, especially early on in the series, during hard times. How people were the same, and tended to shut out those who were "different," but would take in and help those in need. There were stories about how important it felt for the elder boy, who wanted to be a writer, to win a newspaper contest for best essay--the prize was something like two dollars, which actually made a difference to his family. But the recognition and validation were immensely important, too.

There were scenes of the family gathered around the radio after supper.

It was a chronicle of a time even our grandparents don't remember today, but it also made connections to the motivations and emotional needs that transcend era.

It did get tired, and also fairly trite, over the last years of the series, but the first several were very good.

The stories in the Waltons were the stories that anyone who grew up in the country during the Depression and WWII could tell. Most of the boys ended up in the service, so there were their stories. Their sisters left at home ended up doing things like working in factories, and resenting it when the jobs went to men when they came back. There were social issues, such as black families and refugees coming to the mountain. I suppose in a sense it's like Seventh Heaven, except that for most of its run it was well written and surprisingly unsappy.

I've never seen Seventh Heaven, but I did see the early Waltons. It was beautifully presented with quality acting. It was a show that just about everybody loved. I watched almost no television for many years, but if the Waltons happened to be on the screen I got sucked in too.

eta: Goodnight John boy

Finally caught up on GA. Is it wrong to be an Addison/Chief shipper? I really wish they weren't spinning her off, I like her on GA and I really don't want to have to add another show to all the ones I watch now. I can't keep up!

Also, when did George and Izzy sleep together? I missed some episodes in there somewhere and I don't know how.

I'm really enjoying Raines. The season was so short; I can't believe it's over already! Goldblum is doing a bang-up job. I'm sorry the ratings aren't good, and it surprises me. If people love Medium and Ghost Whisperer, and they love procedurals, why don't they like this? Maybe if the "ghosts" were really ghosts, it would be doing better. People are weird.

Fox aired the Pilot of Bones last night. I remember when the ads for the show were first airing, I was thinking I might watch it, but I'm really glad I didn't, because man was everybody just mean. I kept yelling at them to stop talking and/or being an idiot.