A Walton Easter

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.

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.

I loved the Waltons as a kid -- it premiered on my seventh birthday. I was so disappointed by the reunion movies. Seeing Ralph Waite recently on Bones made me think about it. Why did they need to "jump the shark" and make a movie out of linear time? They did that the first time with the one about the Kennedy assassination. The original show was perfect -- these final movies (and unless they correct all the errors of the first three I hope they were the final ones) were just heartbreaking for anyone who loved The Waltons. In this movie Mama and Daddy are supposed to be celebrating their 40th anniversary. If that were so, then their first six children were born our of wedlock, and Mama, who is always portrayed as having been a beauty in her youth, withered unmarried on the vine until she was almost 30. We know that's not true -- why make it so fake in a movie based on something we who actually watched the series when it originally ran loved so much? So disappointing. But it's nice to hear John Boy's voice on Mercedes commercials these days.

Good show, but there are some obvious time line problems. First, in the original "Homecoming" it was stated that John Walton died in 1969. It conceivably could have been set before his death, but he looks very good here. In another earlier show, Grandma's age was noted as 68 and that she lived to 94, which would have put her death date at about 1960. But here it is, 1969, and she was over a century old! The kids, especially Elizabeth and Jim Bob, looked far too young to be playing their characters. All this could have been rectified if the producers had set each reunion movie ten years earlier than they turned out, but then it wouldn't have worked with the Kennedy theme in "A Walton Thanksgiving".

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.