A Walton Easter

With the three TV movies, there was little doubt that Hamner and the network were trying to squeeze the last drops of blood from the stone. The anachronisms have been pointed out by others. Beyond that, the series of conflicts (John Boy and his pregnant wife, Elizabeth and Drew, money problems still, etc) were pretty much contrived to pad the script.

It was nice to see the old characters, including Ellen Corby, though. Sad thing is that most of the old timers are now gone, and died some time ago, including Hamner himself. Michael Learned is about the only one left.

For some reason, creator Hamner has no problem ignoring true-time. The original series was so well produced, acted and directed, with a serious consideration of the time period. To start randomly selecting years for reunion movies, regardless of the logical age of the characters, is quite distracting. In 1969, these people would actually have been ten years older than they are portrayed. The old series was very consistent in its realism, although they did indeed drag it on two years too. John Boy had several interesting girlfriends in the series, so it's hard to figure out why they chose Kate McNeil to play his wife in the reunion films. Her personality is unlike any of his previous romantic interests, and she is not the type of person that John-Boy has ever cared for.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, the show begins with John Boy's coverage of Apollo 11's historic mission to the Moon--presumably assumed to be July 1969, which was the correct timeframe of the mission, yet John Boy is planning a combination Easter-parents' 40th anniversary celebration? Even a casual observer would immediately pick up on this error. And proceeding to error two--also previously noted is the incorrect timeline of John and "Liv's" "40th" anniversary? In a previous series episode taking place in 1937--in which Jim Bob runs away from home, he wanders into the office of the local army recruiter to enlist, to which the kind and patient recruiter begins to ask him basic questions about his age and whether he has a high school diploma, and then it comes out that Jim Bob--the baby boy of the family was born in 1924. So, if we're to assume John and "Liv's" 40th anniversary to be correct, then this would make Jim Bob having been born five years before his parents' wedding? Not to mention the chronological problem of his older siblings minus Elizabeth? The story is GREAT, ENTERTAINING, and does NOT FAIL Waltons fans, AND taking "The Waltons" as a historical novel, where liberties were taken with family names as well as place names, subsequent Walton movies should have continued to take great pains to remain true to original timeline/chronology of the original series for continuity. Otherwise, "A Waltons Easter" is a wonderful production.

I think this movie follows right along with the others. Kate McNiel was wonderful as Janet Walton. Though she was pregnant she looked beautiful in this movie. For some reason I thought that Kate McNeil was the same in all the Waltons movies in the 90's. I do hope they do another reunion movie sometime in the 2000's because I would like to know what each Walton family member is up to especially the father. Thank you and I think that Richard Thomas wouldn't mind telling us about how his two children are up to. Also I would like to see what the father is up to. Even though they might be too old to play the Waltons I think it would still be nice to see everyone again. Maybe they could do one around the time the space shuttle Columbia disaster. I don't know.

My opinion is that Kate McNeil works well as John-Boy's wife because she is different from the other actresses the character was interested in on the show. She comes across as a sweet and kind person who has a career and who truly tries to stand up to her meddling aunt in the previous reunion film. She also has blonde hair, as does the real Mrs. Jane "Earl" Hamner in real life. I thought the film wrapped up the story nicely if this is indeed, as it looks, the last Walton reunion film with the original cast. What happens to John-Boy in the end brings him "full circle" in my opinion as a character. We see him reach this place in his life after seeing him years ago for the first time as the struggling young writer.