Waltons 3.11: “The Job”

Airdate: 11/21/74

John-Boy gets a part-time job reading to a young blind woman. Before long, he sees that she is hostile and withdrawn, refusing to venture into the outside world or let others into her own. Finally coaxed into visiting the Waltons for a family picnic, she starts to see the beauty of life again, and ultimately comes to terms with her handicap.

Just a matter of time before The Waltons tackled the subject of blindness. Elaine Heiveil delivers a good performance as the blind Ruth Thomas, but the actress too closely resembles another Waltons character, John-Boy’s girlfriend Jenny Pendleton, for my taste. Uber-sensitive Mary Ellen tries to empathize with Ruth’s perspective – in the show’s most awkward moment, she blindfolds herself and drops a pie, before running up to her room in teary-eyed vicariousness.