Founders' Day

This is the episode that should have ended this amazing series.

The Waltons series was among the greatest of television series. It started in the Great Depression and extended to World War II. This episode wraps up the series in a nice pretty bow. Anything after this was not up to the standard set by the seven years prior. Why they decided to do another two seasons was probably financially based and not creatively based. I'm not going into the episode as much as why it should have ended with this episode. The last five minutes of this episode were among the finest written for the series. It completely sums up the show's seven seasons along with giving us the audience what they wanted.

I refuse to watch any episodes created after this one since I know the quality is substandard.

Great series should end with great episodes.

10/10.

The storyline itself was fairly straightforward, nothing too outstanding, but it had the feel of a series finale. It touched on the lives and history of the family and the beautiful poetic ending was a nice capper. To my mind this is where the series should have ended. If it had, we would not have had to deal with all the "shark jumping" storylines, like Curt turning up alive with his (ahem) unmentionables missing in action; fake John Boy who was a whole head taller and had no facial mole and a narrow range of emotion; all the added characters that were thrown in to pad out the void left by Grandpa and Olivia being gone. But, it kept dragging on for two more years. Oh well. If you're like me, you just watch the last two seasons for its silliness and occasional bright spots.

This episode has one of the most powerful, and in ways, emotional conclusions of any television program I have seen. I think it was designed as a possible series finale in case the show wasn't renewed. The soliloquy narrated by Earl Hamner was a beautiful expression of family and ties to the earth. It is worth watching just for the last two minutes.

I did love the soliloquy at the end. It was nice to see each cast member highlighted. It did have the feel of a series finale; so much that I came here to check. I enjoyed the history of the mountain, too. All together one of the best episodes of the show.