Waltons 3.19: “The Shivaree”

Airdate: 1/30/75

Olivia, the orphaned daughter of Olivia Walton’s best friend, has returned to the mountain for her wedding. When Bob, the groom, arrives, the family finds him to be overly prim and somewhat stuffy, but welcome him with open arms as Olivia loves him very much. Why, they even plan an initiation ritual for him, a country custom called a “shivaree” in which a group of men cause a ruckus outside the newlyweds’ house on their wedding night, then tie up the groom, “kidnapping” him and leaving him out in the woods somewhere. When Bob hears this he wants no part of it and the Waltons cancel it, but the men in the shivaree party never get the message and go through with it anyway. Bob is enraged after the humiliation, and wants to leave town, but the Waltons fix up a nice cabin for their “honeymoon,” leaving the second half of the shivaree to occur: everyone singing “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” to the couple as they appear to reconcile.

Another Waltons educational experience – we now know what shivaree means. (Stop, spell-check – it’s a word.) A fun show; Bruce Davison is great as the anal-retentive Bob Hill, and we so want him to loosen up. What better way than being handcuffed and blindfolded and tossed out in the middle of the Virginia woods? Davison of course later starred as the teacher in the now famous Afterschool Special episode “The Wave,” and was nominated for a Supporting Actor Oscar for Longtime Companion. Young Olivia did a lot of TV – maybe she is best known for the 70s sexploitation flick The Van. Most likely you caught it at the drive-in.