Earl Hamner Jr's tale of a mountain top family trying to make it through the difficult times was not new when it came to television in the early 70's as a movie of the week and later was re-adapted for a T.V. series. The Spencers of Wyoming had been seen in the movies less than a decade before in "Spencer's Mountain" (with Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara) and now, they were transfered to Virginia to "Walton's Mountain" where Andrew Duggan originated the role of patriarch John Walton to Patricia Neal's Olivia. The first names did remain the same, and so did the line-up of children, so it is almost as if the Spencers were living in parallel to the Waltons in Hamner's mind, that each of our families could exist with a different name and slightly different set-up in different locations.
It's Christmas time and John Walton is trying to get home for the holidays. His hard-working wife is worried but hides her fears from her children. Neal's Olivia Walton is very different from Michael Learned's Olivia a few years later. Both love their children, but Neal's mother is harder pressed to show it, a seeming belief of "Spare the rod, spoil the child." Yet this element doesn't make her unsympathetic. She wants her entire family home for the holidays, and being a mountain woman, is tough both physically and emotionally.
Equally strong are the elders of the family, John's aging parents. Ellen Corby would go on to repeat her role on the T.V. series, but here, it is Edgar Bergen (minus his wooden companions) who essays the role of Grandpa, and it is nice to see him in a serious role for a change. Richard Thomas would be the heart and soul of most of the series, a true rock of strength, and obviously the future patriarch of the family. He's obviously based upon Hamner himself who grew up in rural America yet went onto great success as a writer while expressing his love for his background. Many of the actors who would play the children on the series are here too.
There's also the presence of the eccentric Baldwin sisters, played here by stage actress Dorothy Stickney ("Life With Father") and 1930's Warner Brothers contract player Josephine Hutchinson, creating "papa's recipe" and giving a thermos to John Boy to bring home to the judgmental Olivia who finds the two spinsters rather Bohemian. Some of my memories of this Christmas from childhood are the decorating of the Christmas tree where one of the children insists on putting a bird's nest in it and the well-meaning but ultimately short-sighted do-gooders who give out presents to the poor mountain children, one of which is a doll with a broken face. Of course, the real meaning of Christmas is also explored here with great sentimentality, and the message is that through troubles of all kinds, it will be your family who helps get you through.
It's Christmas time and John Walton is trying to get home for the holidays. His hard-working wife is worried but hides her fears from her children. Neal's Olivia Walton is very different from Michael Learned's Olivia a few years later. Both love their children, but Neal's mother is harder pressed to show it, a seeming belief of "Spare the rod, spoil the child." Yet this element doesn't make her unsympathetic. She wants her entire family home for the holidays, and being a mountain woman, is tough both physically and emotionally.
Equally strong are the elders of the family, John's aging parents. Ellen Corby would go on to repeat her role on the T.V. series, but here, it is Edgar Bergen (minus his wooden companions) who essays the role of Grandpa, and it is nice to see him in a serious role for a change. Richard Thomas would be the heart and soul of most of the series, a true rock of strength, and obviously the future patriarch of the family. He's obviously based upon Hamner himself who grew up in rural America yet went onto great success as a writer while expressing his love for his background. Many of the actors who would play the children on the series are here too.
There's also the presence of the eccentric Baldwin sisters, played here by stage actress Dorothy Stickney ("Life With Father") and 1930's Warner Brothers contract player Josephine Hutchinson, creating "papa's recipe" and giving a thermos to John Boy to bring home to the judgmental Olivia who finds the two spinsters rather Bohemian. Some of my memories of this Christmas from childhood are the decorating of the Christmas tree where one of the children insists on putting a bird's nest in it and the well-meaning but ultimately short-sighted do-gooders who give out presents to the poor mountain children, one of which is a doll with a broken face. Of course, the real meaning of Christmas is also explored here with great sentimentality, and the message is that through troubles of all kinds, it will be your family who helps get you through.