Waltons 1.13: The Reunion

Airdate: 12/14/72

John Boy wants to buy his mother one of them newfangled washin’ machines, so he starts doing odd jobs for the Baldwin sisters to get the money. This coincides with a visit by the sisters’ cousin, Homer (Denver Pyle), who takes everyone, along with Grandpa, to a picture show in Charlottesville. His true intentions come to light as it is discovered that he has been secretly selling the recipe and plans to take all the whiskey, which had been made for a family reunion, into town to sell. The sheriff uses John Boy as a stool pigeon to nab Homer on one of his runs.

Bootlegging comes up again as a plot point, and this time it is Denver Pyle as the ostensibly innocent but ultimately nefarious Cousin Homer who commits the dirty deed. Olivia once again expresses her disapproval of the Baldwins’ sinful ways, but ultimately allows the family pay a visit to the sisters when she realizes the house is empty of alcohol.

Of course, Denver Pyle went on the play Uncle Jesse on The Dukes of Hazzard, but does anyone else also remember him as Mad Jack on The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams? The role he played on that was similar to Will Geer’s in Jeremiah Johnson, so it’s definitely cool to see both in the same scene together in this episode.

Waltons 1.12: The Dust Bowl Cousins

Airdate: 12/7/72

Cousins of Olivia – Ham Denby, Cora, and their son, Job – arrive to stay with the Waltons after their Kansas farm is destroyed by the Dust Bowl. Dishonest, shiftless and believing hard times means doing anything in order to get by, they quickly disrupt the family harmony. Ham shoplifts items from Ike’s store (much to Erin’s moral disapproval), and Job soon develops less than honorable designs on Mary Ellen. When no letter for possible employment arrives to offer Ham financial stability, he puts his feelers out for some acreage on Walton’s Mountain that he believes is owed to his wife as an inheritance. It takes Cora to see that their welcome has been fully worn out, and bids adieu on behalf of her clan.

An edgy, offbeat episode, not only for its unsavory depiction of the Denbys, but also the direction, which features some interesting camerawork and acting choices (in fact, this episode won a Director’s Guild of America award). It’s a true testament to the Walton’s hospitality and family loyalty that they take in such a pack of scoundrels for as long as they did. Actor Ken Wolger is quite disturbing as Job; the scenes involving him and Mary Ellen as he considers sexual advances on her are quite chilling.

Yankee Doodle Cricket (1975)

I wanted a special holiday video to feature on the Rocket for the glorious Fourth, so I raided my trove of DVDs and found a great special from my past, Chuck Jones’ utterly charming Yankee Doodle Cricket from 1975, one year before the huge bicentennial celebration. Officially a sequel to A Cricket In Times Square, this was based on the book by George Selden, and features Mel Blanc doing the voices for multiple characters. The premise seems more than loosely based on Disney’s Ben and Me, in which a mouse is integral to all the myriad accomplishments credited to Ben Franklin. This time, our beloved founding fathers owe it all to a collection of cute critters, among them Chester Cricket, Harry the Cat, and Tucker the Mouse.

It all starts when Tucker drafts a declaration of “interdependence” between cats and mice, and shows it to Harry, who sneaks it to his owner, Thomas Jefferson, and… you can guess the rest. Meanwhile, both animals realize a flag is needed, so they take a cue from a trod-upon snake, and… well, you get the rest. And as for the show’s title, it has to do with a new national anthem (not the Star Spangled Banner) crafted by the “Yankee Doodle Cricket” and played by the “instruments” of all the woodland creatures.

Clever references to other presidential one-liners during Jefferson’s lame attempts at writing, and a nice musical interlude beginning the second half of the special. As for Chuck Jones’ animation, it’s, of course, magnificent, although this probably shouldn’t be your introduction for a non-Warner Bros. Jones work (I’d go with the more celebrated Rikki Tikki Tavi, which you can find on the same DVD as this one). On balance, a nice feature to include if you, like me, have a roster of patriotic videos to show to commemorate Independence Day. Perhaps you can sneak it somewhere between 1776 and The Stars and Stripes Forever.

Cutest scene: a boy and girl firefly need to light up to replace Paul Revere’s “one if by land, two if by sea” lanterns because he’s drunk. (I’m not quite sure if parents would appreciate this depiction!)

Waltons 1.11: The Literary Man

Airdate: 11/30/72

Another wanderer stops by the Waltons, an A.J. Covington, who helps John Boy when his truck breaks down. A literate, sophisticated man, he immediately takes a liking to the intellectually curious John Boy, and vice-versa. A jack of all trades, AJ even volunteers to help the family meet a lumber contract, but inadvertently causes them to fall behind when he gets tied up in a critique of John Boy’s writing instead of chopping trees.

Meanwhile, Jim Bob is very sick, suffering from stomach pains, and John and Grandpa are getting further behind on the lumber contract. AJ diagnoses Jim Bob’s pains as appendicitis, and the boy is rushed to hospital in Charlottesville. Developing a liking for Walton’s Mountain, AJ has his eye on an abandoned cottage, and sells his watch for money he plans to use to put a down payment on the house’s back taxes. Jim Bob pulls through, and AJ hatches an idea to increase the mill’s sawing capacity by changing the ratio of the machine’s pulleys. The extra force, however, burns out the bearings, ending any hope of making the contract.

John Boy, in humble awe of AJ’s literary accomplishments, confides in his journal that he will give up writing forever, but AJ confesses that had actually written very little, instead chasing dreams of writing “the big story.” After much reflection, AJ does what he needs to do: pay one final visit to his house, the one he must now give up, and give his watch money to the Waltons to cover the lost contract. Leaving without saying goodbye, he leaves the money in a letter, thanking everyone for their hospitality, and admitting that the letter was the most he had written in years.

As an English teacher and writer, I was profoundly affected by this episode. Actor David Huddleston performs AJ as simple yet accomplished man of the world, a Walt-Whitmanesque humanist who calls the world his home, but desperately (and futilely) also wants to carve out a small tract of earth for himself. A dreamer, and a tragic underachiever, he instills in John Boy the vicarious dreams that he himself could not live out. He is a living embodiment of a frustrated soul, living a life of “quiet desperation,” never going home, only forth.

I even cried at the end of this one, a culmination of so many great scenes and moments, particularly the “chopping adjectives instead of trees” scene, and AJ’s final, soul-baring yet understated monologue in the barn (which seems to be where the best Walton’s monologues are delivered). Bravo to teleplay writer Colley Cibber, for this, the best episode so far of The Waltons.

Waltons 1.10: The Legend

Airdate: 11/16/72

John’s old World War I buddy, Tip Harrison, visits the Waltons, sharing old memories of days gone by. As John Boy is the first to notice, Tip isn’t all as he appears, for beneath his classy, fun-loving exterior lies a depressed, alcoholic man who can’t live in the present. He starts a fire and lets Jason takes the blame for it, and drunkenly shoots Reckless, the Waltons’ dog (gasp!), before finally admitting his transgressions when his conscience gets the best of him. (Don’t worry, the dog is ok.)

Another lost soul stops by the Walton’s abode and sees the error of his ways. This time it takes the form of John’s old army buddy, allowing us to learn a bit about John’s military past. Tensest scene: Reckless gets shot and we wait, eagerly, to find out if Tip will admit what he did.  Most maddening scene: John gives Tip a long-winded earful about his sins instead of going to find and help the dog!

I think this episode has resonance because we all know a Tip Harrison: someone who’s a gaggle of laughs but doesn’t quite have it together. I like to think we have part of this within us, an id as Freud pointed out, balanced on the other side (the superego) by the ego in the middle. We'll see more ids stopping by as the years go on, some more unbalanced than others.