Waltons 4.23: “The Fledgling”

Airdate: 2/26/76

Mr. Johnson, the owner of The Jefferson County Times, the newspaper where John-Boy works as a stringer, has decided to pack up and move to Florida, but offers to sell John-Boy his old printing press. Stirred by the prospect of starting up his very own local newspaper, he accepts the offer, but takes up a part time job at a bus station to afford the down payment. Additionally, he moves out of the Waltons homestead into a boarding house, but finds that they’re aren’t enough hours in the day for everything, not even his novel, which his college professor is pressuring him to work on. Fired from his job, John-Boy is disheartened to find that Mr. Johnson has already moved away and taken the press, but when he arrives home, he sees that the press is in the barn, the down-payment paid off by his professor.

Autobiographical episode penned by series creator Earl Hamner is a touchtone in John-Boy’s life: with the acquisition of a printing press, he’s now a budding entrepreneur, one step closer to being gainfully employed as a writer. Good supporting characters enhance a sharp, singular-plot script, and now we know the secret ingredient in a top-notch burger!