User Reviews

This episode marks the end of Michael Learned's tenure as Olivia Walton and the first appearance of the new John- boy. I remember watching this episode when it first came out and was jarred by the visual shock of a new John-boy.

In my opinion Rose was not a suitable replacement for the cast turnover and in losing Olivia the show and the stories were never quite the same.

One of my favorite shows of all-time, but at this point it clearly jumped the shark.

I'm thinking this was a low point for Michael Learned to leave the series, though it had been going downhill (with a select few episodes as exceptions) since Richard Thomas left, then Grandma was incapacitated and effectively written out of the series soon after her "comeback". And Grandpa died, the departure of Will Geer in particular leaving a huge hole impossible to fill when deeper dramatics were required for more serious storylines.

In this episode, "The Waiting", imagine the shock when John & Olivia have hoped and waited all this time to be reunited with John-Boy.just to find a total stranger lying in the bed where their beloved son is supposed to be. Still, they carried it off well, without a glitch. Then the penny dropped with me and I realised the producers had resorted to that cheapo "out" of hiring a new actor. In this case, a John-Boy who looks nothing like the old one facially and who seems to have grown about six inches. At least in the daytime soaps they try to cover up as well as possible.

This is the lowest I have rated any episode. Why did they bother to put another actor in place of Jonboy? It makes little sense. We are exposed to a constant lack of bedside manner by hospital staff that just don't give a rat's patooty.

How would u like to be the poor actor who got this role to sit in bed the entire time and stare forward?? A pointless episode.

To begin with, the 'new' John Boy doesn't REMOTELY resemble Richard Thomas. (Did the plane crash remove his infamous mole?) And putting John Candy in a dress and calling him Aunt Rose was a poor replacement for Michael Learned.

This episode marked the end of a wonderful show, and the beginning of a tailspin into some Waltons Mountain Bizarro World. Sad, sad story.

Richard Thomas should have came back in this episode. The reason because there was not too many lines to memorize. It would have been more believable. Kinda ruined the Thanksgiving cause of the new John boy. Then Michael learned was in her final episode to help the Red Cross. It's a shame because we know that the real mother of the waltons would not leave unless all the children are past 18 years of age. Thankfully they had Rose to boost some morale in the household while the parents were away. And then they forgot to say where grandma was. I think it would have been better if they didn't have a replacement actor or at least find an actor identical to Thomas.