"The Waltons" was about a Depression-era (and later WW2) family who pulled together through the good and bad times; the show had characters that almost anyone can relate to, despite its setting.  Good dramas don't have to be full of filthy language and explicit detail to be enjoyable, and this program is proof.

The best episode was one in which a guy talks a kid into enlisting and the kid ends up dying overseas. Very intense show. My Grandma LOVED it and now I'm appreciating it too.

A classic

Godawful and boring show, the only way it could have been interesting would have been this:

Ditch the Blue Ridge setting, the only thing anyone thinks about that is Deliverance like scenes and Grizzly chewing tobaccy. Ditch the wholesomey goodness too, nobody believes in that crap anymore, and anything praised by Dan Quayle...( shudder)

Get rid of the overalls.

Get rid of the Waltons themselves- Walton doesn't mean a family of Depression era rustics, it's a synonym for a pothead NBA announcer- and a dreadful one- and former star player who was about as durable as a wet paper bag.
&On top of that the show was utterly boring. This show may have been about Depression era rustics, but it was STILL about as whitebread as you could get...What seven year old full of sugar in 1978 wanted an unintelligible morality lesson when you could watch Land of the Lost or the freaking Planet of the Apes?

The only way this show could have been good is if they did a 180 and made it about Malcolm McDowell and say the guy who played Huggy Bear going back in time.

Romanticized Depression-era preachy treacle. Talk to some folks who lived through the era, and get their take on it.

If they're honest, they'll tell you what garbage it was.

One of the worst all-time...

I still like the reruns of this heart warming program.

the waltons ruled, i never missed a show.

Another one of my old time favs. The lessons I learned from that show...they were like my second family. I still watch the Christmas special every single year!

Wholesome but nauseating some how.This shows only contribution to tv history is good nite Johnboy,Goodnite Jimbob.

i grew up watching the waltons. it may be some what corny but looking at the way the world is today it would be a pleasure to back and live in a simpler time. they were a loving family that had their share of downs but always were there for each other. the little old ladies that made the moonshine were great.

Booooring! A celebration of mediocrity and dullness.

Not as sappy as many claim and certainly not depressing, the show- especially the first few seasons - is one of the best shows ever made. It has its points that seem quaint and out-dated today but I think society could use shows like this now.

For several consecutive seasons, a landmark show, deep and meaningful. But in its last couple of seasons, some of the characters started sounding like socially-conscious people of the 1980s, and the program was never the same again.

They shouldn't have took it off the air. But being them they always take the good ones off and leave the terrible ones on.

Sucked

Uhh! Mother forced me to watch this wholesome show about the Walton Family on Walton Mountain right here in the Commonwealth.

The Waltons was a good show set for in the 1930's.

A really beautiful show,it be sure.

Hello!. The series has a good an idea, but the handle is so totally boring and every time I see an episode I almost sleep. Is no dramatic or action, its so ordinary. But I am going to be nice, so I give the series three stars.

This wasn't really a bad show, I just never could get interested in it. Everybody was always so somber and sad, you felt like if they cracked a smile someone would cut them a dirty look.

A wonderful. wonderfulshow!!. My mom said that was how it was in the 1930's. Of course as the kids grew up the tone of the show changed, but I think it stayed pretty much on course. But when Richard Thomas and Micheal Learned left and when "Grandpa " passed away the show couldnt help but change. Ity's till a good one to watch tho.

The first 5 or 6 seasons of this show is classic tv at its best, stay away from the last seasons, it turned into a bad soap.

The original Christmas episode is wonderful. The acting from the adults in the cast was amazing (some of the kids needed more acting lessons) It was a great show for about the first five years or so...then Will Gear died, Ellen Corby had a stroke, Michael Learned left and then we got a new John Boy. The show was about family, and when the cast started to fall apart the dynamics of the show changed. It became less believable when no adults were left on the show. I remember some cousin with two kids moved into the house...which were the worst episodes.

I'll stick with my original 4 stars because it was arguably one of the better family shows going for about two years. Have to add tho' that the TV special with Patricia Neal was much better/believable overall. The series, however, lost momentum and zip as the better cast members began to die or drift away making it tragically clear that the Walton kiddies (with the exception of Richard Thomas) could not cut it past their "cute" years. The final death nell came when Thomas vacated. And the worst actor on the show award goes to Mary Recite-Your-Lines-Like-a-Thirdgrader Ellen. Incredibly stink-o performances - one and all!

Just like Little House On the Prarie, Boresville USA.

I appreciate this show more now in reruns than when it was on originally, maybe because there's nothing like it on TV now. It's heartwarming to watch a show about a family that has problems but deals with them together, a family that's not always perfect. Most of the plots are not dramatic, but they keep me watching. One of the most memorable episodes (but there are many!) was when Grandma came home from the hospital after Ellen Geer had a stroke in real life. This is not a show about contrived family values -- it's a show that reminds us, if we're lucky, about the love and warmth in our own family relationships.

Wasn't this show also called "Little House on the Prairie"? Both were sappy, depressing, and bad.

The Waltons is basically the same thing as Little House On The Prarie. They ran the same amount of years, the plots were the ssame, the scripts were just as bad, I mean did alien's clone the shows or something?

Another show that mistakenly gets lumped into the "sappy, sweet" catagory. It was really quite intelligent and, for all it's sentiment, presented a much harder edged view of the world than people often remember.

Can't beat the Waltons for that "fell good" feeling. Reminds us that it's the simple things in life that make you rich: family, friends, honor and hope!

The Waltons is a seriously underrated show. Certainly, bad things happened to the Waltons and their neighbors, but such was life in the 1930s. The most important thing the series showed was how ordinary people handle extraordinary difficulties through faith in God and a loving, supportive family. And they always came through the hard times stronger and closer to each other and to God.

If you feel the need to be seriously depressed for some reason, watch one episode of "The Waltons." That should do the trick. You are guaranteed to see at least one tragedy per show, ranging from death to disease to financial ruin. You'll also get to hear John Boy drone on endlessly about the meaning of life, which is enough to make a person suicidal, in my opinion. I never did enjoy watching "The Waltons" because it was such an incredible downer.

The Waltons is great family entertainment. We need more shows like this.

Good, thoughtful, drama -- excellent actors, solid scripts. Got a bit weaker towards the end, but, on balance, one of the best of its genre (family drama).