Customer Reviews
Wonderful Reminiscence of Childhood - By: Mrs. C. L. Ottey, 21 Jul 2008 
I purchased this DVD because we used to watch it at my grandparents on a Sunday & always loved it. All of those childhood memories came flooding back. It is such an enjoyable programme with such innocence that you wish you were living in that time.
As soon as the music starts it brings a smile to your face. I would reallly highly recommend this for a feel good hour worth of viewing to anyone that wants to get away from alll the modern day humdrum & enjoy a simpler time.
Bliss! - By: Sea Sprite, 17 Jul 2008 Forgive the cliche but they just don't make shows like this anymore. It may be, sadly, that the world is too selfish & cynical to produce anything as delightful as The Waltons now. It's a double whammy of nostalgia, taking you back to your childhood when you watched it, & also back to a time just in living memory that you may not remember but, somehow, still feel an ache at its passing. Having been taking anti-depressants for a few months, this dvd is the first thing to truly make me smile from within. It's a gem.
Nostalgia IS what it used to be - By: A. Butterfield, 19 Jun 2008 When I was a kid, everybody laughed at the Waltons, & especiallly the way every episode closes with a long shot of the house & the various characters bidding each other a cosy goodnight.
That's what people remember it for.
But there's a bit more to it than that, which is why, even now, it stands rewatching.
The same holds true for any drama, but get a good cast together & you're onto a winner. The Waltons has a great cast. Richard Thomas holds everything together, since it's his character, John Boy's older self that's the narrator. He's only seventeen in this first series & he's torn between being one of the kids & one of the adults, so it puts him in an ideal position to look at everything in a somewhat dispassionate way. Richard Thomas plays John Boy brilliantly, though his innocent & earnest enthusiasm may make you wince now & again!
The parents are interesting. Olivia, the mother, isn't what I remembered. I forgot she can be puritanical & unbending, excessively religious, overly strict with the children & with her husband. John Walton, played memorably by Ralph Waite, isn't a religious man, & this is an interesting conflict that runs right through things.
Each episode is pretty much a self-contained story, though there are threads that run through the series.
I bought this to watch on my iPod & I reallly like being able to access the Walton's wholesome yet never dull world while on a busy train or bus. It reallly takes you out of the modern world.
The DVD set is great value considering how many episodes there are. There aren't any special features, but image quality is decent & the packaging fairly informative.
Soo, to sum up: The Waltons is high quality drama, with great characters & a great cast. It has stood the test of time very well. It may be sentimental at times, but it's usuallly in a good way that will leave you feeling happier about the world.
Perfection in a box - By: Dr. J. S. E. Sullivan-lyons, 09 Apr 2008 This box set has given hours of entertainment, & led me on a journey back to my childhood when I loved watching The Walton's with my Auntie. It might be sentimental trash, but sometimes that hits the spot perfectly. Delicious, delightful, delectable.
A Refreshing View from Walton's Mountain - By: J. Davis, 17 Jul 2007 It's hard to find anything bad to say about this American series.
This first one, like the subsequent years, is top-notch. The scripts are intelligent & the actors -- adults & children -- are natural in their portrayal of this legendary family. Will Geer as Zebulon, the grandfather, & Michael Learned as the mother, Olivia, deserve special mention. Their portrayals are authentic, down to the smalll gestures & facial expressions. Having said that, there's not a bad performance in the bunch. The overalll effect is so natural that it appears the cast developed as a real family over the years of filming.
There are no extras in the set, but given the overalll high quality of the programme it seems churlish to complain about that. The presentation case is handsome & well designed, though the reversible discs should have been more clearly marked as to content. It's a generous offering of 24 episodes, 50 minutes each. The original breaks & fadeouts for commercials are unobtrusive. With rare exceptions the photography is clean & crisp & the quality of direction up to the standard of most feature films. It's remarkable that such high quality was maintained, considering the rigorous shooting routine.
The period chronicled by this series (and those which followed) was already 40 years in the past when it was produced in the early 70s. It's hard to imagine "The Waltons" being made today. The absence of swearing, sexual display & misanthropic heroes makes this a unique & uplifting family offering.
Truly moving -- a keeper for frequent re-visits.
