Waltons 5.2: “The Vigil”

Airdate: 9/30/76

John-Boy wants to do a story for his paper on Dr. Vance, the local doctor who says he needs to leave Waltons Mountain for a big city, where he’s paid with money and not chickens, eggs and roof shingles. Meanwhile, Grandma becomes gravely ill with stomach pains, which aspiring nurse Mary Ellen diagnoses as stomach flu. When it turns out to be appendicitis, which escalates to peritonitis and now requires surgery, Mary Ellen is now wracked with guilt and feels that she has failed in her profession. Grandma pulls through and asks Mary Ellen’s forgiveness in putting too much pressure on her nascent yet still untrained nursing skills, Dr. Vance decides to stay, and Erin saves the day by summoning Sheriff Bridges on her first day as a telephone operator.

Another tearjerker that goes beyond the standard-issue illness formula with the Mary-Ellen plot arm. Both she and Grandpa have uber-emotional scenes toward the end, but I resented Dr. Vance’s tongue lashing at her for her misdiagnosis; after all, he was MIA and Mary Ellen had to do something! Boo, Dr. Vance – I was actually hoping you’d leave Walton’s Mountain and make room for someone with a better bedside manner (and a less-grousy wife).