Friday, October 05, 2007

High on Waltons Mountain

The Waltons showed '70s audiences life in the Virginia mountains forty years earlier in the Depression, when life was simpler and you could fill the tank with a gallon of gas. Originally a TV movie with Patricia Neal, it aired for nine years and won a boatload of Emmys.

Their opening credits used to take almost two minutes; watch them here. When they figured out they could get to commercial a lot faster with a shorter theme, they switched to the sepia snapshot look. (The original music wasn't really this fast; it's been compressed to allow for even more ads.)



The show centered around writer-wannabe John-Boy Walton, played by Richard Thomas. He had a mole and was wholesome. Though you wouldn't know it to watch him in this outtake.

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