A Waltons Thanksgiving

This was an excellent show that has all the quality and character of the original series that touches the heartstrings of what is upright and overflowing with an often rare goodness seldom seen in the morals we experience in this world almost 50 years after the original series.

How wonderful to be suspended in a world free from technology, hype and the distraction we experience in todays world often devoid of meaningful interaction with those we come in contact on a daily bases. What a joy to see that those that we touch can be effected in one positive life changing event

The special topped off a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you Magnolia Hill!

'Nuff said.

Everything you wanted in a sentimental, nostalgic heartstring Tugger- and less.

If you want to watch the waltons, find out what channel is doing the reruns or get the DVDs from Netflix or eBay or Amazon. I don't even know if it's streaming anywhere, but this... this is a travesty. This reminds me of an episode of Happy Days where Mr Cunningham had paid for a TV advert and the studio replaced him and Marion with perfect Teeth perfect hair facsimiles, and Howard got to play the stock boy. Pretty ridiculous right? All I can figure here is that Mr Thomas needed a paycheck, and enough for decades so fast that they didn't figure anybody would get too upset or be too unhappy with this bizarre, otherworldly alternate reality version.

This is not 1930s Virginia. I wasn't born during The Waltons series original run. And that doesn't and shouldn't matter because art, whether it's music, television, movies, even artwork itself, moves you, transports you and if powerful enough - it has the ability to inspire and transform you. CW's Waltons is not Earl Hamner Jr.'s Waltons. I was skeptical coming into it. This is CW after all. I proceeded positively...and cautiously. I ever saw last year's CW's Waltons movie and it's safe to say I never will now. CW'S A Waltons Thanksgiving movie does not resemble Hamner's Waltons visually, verbally, historically or morally. It's also missing a kid. Where's Ben? Why are CW'S Waltons daughters so bossy and unlikable now? Twenty-three minutes in, and I barely see the Waltons patriarch played by Teddy Sears? Last year's CW's Waltons movie got 960,000 viewers. Great for CW. This year's movie attracted about 500,000 less (Fewer? Help me Stannis.) viewers. I see why. I lasted 25 minutes and decided to go watch Hamner's Waltons instead.

I grew up on the Waltons and this completely new cast was not relatable as the Waltons. I had high hopes with the way the show started out with the original John BOY. I thought it would be a show on his family carrying on the traditions he grew up with on the mountain not a redo of something that had already been done. Turned it off after 20 minutes. I'd rather watch a rerun of the original thana pooly made remake. If it's not broke don't try to fix it. The Waltons were good and wholesome. When you watched the original cast, it drew you in. You wanted to be a part of their family. It always made you want to be a better person.

Why on earth would you even try to redo/imitate an iconic show like The Waltons? There's no point, especially when the end result is mediocre at best. The only way A Waltons Thanksgiving works is if you know nothing whatsoever about the original show, or better yet, never even heard of it. And you'd also have to know absolutely nothing about the Great Depression and its grinding poverty; segregation and the Jim Crow south; rural farm life; social hierarchy; and just life in general in the mid-1930s. It was no happy-go-lucky picnic back then.

The acting in this movie is average at best, with occasional scenery-chewing by Bellamy Young (Olivia). But then Patricia Neal and Michael Learned are very tough acts to follow.

The dialogue in this movie was also way off, at times much more 2022 than 1934. The clothes were too bright and spiffy. In 1934, no rural farm family would waste pumpkins to decorate a porch. They'd be pureed and canned for winter or stored in the root cellar. Food was not for decoration. And in the mountains of Virginia, is it really warm enough in late November to eat Thanksgiving dinner outside in short sleeved clothes?

These may seem like nit-picky observations, but to a true Waltons fan, they matter. Hence, this movie would be best targeted to a Waltons newbie.

Very disappointing.