Airdate: 1/17/74
When a land developer gets a sample of the mineral water from the hot springs on Waltons Mountain, he immediately approaches John with an offer to buy the mountain for use as a tourist attraction. John initially hesitates, but reconsiders once the developer ups to offer to $30,000 as long as he can have the Walton house too. Much soul searching from the entire family ensues, but ultimately John realizes their heritage on he mountain is too strong to forego, and decides against selling for any price.
I think if I had to pick one Waltons episode from the early years that best sums up what the show is all about, this would be it. Despite living during the worst depression in American history, John Walton and his brood weight the value of money against the value of memories, and determine that the family ties they’ve created outweigh any material gains. Two scenes from the show illustrate these themes: the first shows the maintain with Grandpa’s voice-over explaining the circle of life to us:
Wow, what a meditation! The other is a now classic scene, featured on the Waltons retrospectives, of John-Boy finally convincing his dad not to selling by explaining that the two youngest Waltons will be the most deprived should they leave the mountain.
All in all, this one is about as heartwarming as the show gets, and even though we all know the outcome (see TV Tropes “Staus Quo Is King”), we’re disconcerted by even the faint notion that such an idyllic setting could become the 30s equivalent of an amusement park.
Guest star alert: Noah Beery plays the land developer here, who acted in tons of TV shows and movies, but of course is best known as Jim Rockford’s dad on The Rockford Files.
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