It’s rare for John Walton to enter a church, but he goes there when his youngest daughter Elizabeth is afflicted with a handicap. The negotiation and balance between John’s more universal spiritualism and his wife Olivia’s traditional Baptist religion is at the center of the show. (Photo courtesy CBS, Illustrated Waltons Episodes)
Top 10 Spiritual Episodes of ‘The Waltons’
by John A. Zukowski
January 21, 2014
Don’t categorize ‘The Waltons’ as a rural melodrama. It was Depression-era realism. And the combination of religion and spirituality was groundbreaking.
For many years, there wasn’t much religion or spirituality on TV shows.
Other than occasional references about going to church — and a few lightweight oddities like “The Flying Nun” –religion wasn’t depicted on TV shows often for about two decades. But two landmark shows in the 1970s changed that.
One was “Kung Fu.” The show about the Taoist monk Caine (David Carradine) journeying through the American West was a hit partly because of a Bruce Lee-induced karate fad. But along with the popular end-of-show fight scenes, it introduced Eastern religion to middle America.
The other important TV show was “The Waltons” which featured religion regularly. It was a combination of cultural Southern Baptist religion, New Deal-inspired Social Gospel and universal spirituality.
I don’t know why “The Waltons” has a reputation in some circles as a lightweight show. It’s far from that. The Depression-era realism makes it one of the great television dramas — at least in the first six seasons. (The seventh season had a few good episodes, but by seasons eight and nine too many of the main characters had left the show — which ruined its chemistry).
On one level the show was strong because of its multiple coming of age stories. The children were always in some phase of spiritual and moral development. And the large cast gave the show a wider and deeper presentation of viewpoints.
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