Walton's Mountain - Mountain featured on the rural
drama THE WALTONS/CBS/1972-81.
Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains
in Jefferson County, Virginia, "Walton's Mountain" was the home of
three generations of the Walton Family including:
-
Will Geer as Grandpa Zeb
-
Ellen Corby as Grandma Esther
-
Ralph Waite as their married son, John Walton
-
Michael Learned as John's wife, Olivia Walton
-
Richard Thomas/Robert Wightman, as the oldest John
Boy
-
Judy Norton-Taylor as Mary Ellen
-
David W. Harper as Jim-Bob
-
Kami Cotler as Elizabeth
-
Jon Walmsley as Jason
-
Mary Elizabeth McDonough as Erin
-
Eric Scott as Ben
From the days of the Depression through the Second World War, the
family lived and loved, and supported themselves with an income
produced by the family's small lumber mill operated by Grandpa Zeb
and John Walton.
Three Generations of the Waltons
At the end of the series, after the death of both
grandparents, John Walton sold the mill to his son Ben. John
accompanied his wife to California so she could recuperate from
Tuberculosis.
The program was filmed on sound stages and backlots
of the Burbank Studios in Burbank, California with additional
location shooting done in nearby areas to do mountain and woodland
scenes.
The towns of Hickory Creek, Waynesboro and
Charlottesville were nearby municipalities mentioned on the series.
View of Walton Mountain
THE WALTONS was based on the childhood memories of writer Earl Hamner, Jr. who narrated each episode. He had previously written the
script for the 1950s motion picture Spencer's Mountain, a precursor
to the series and the made-for-TV movie The Homecoming (1971) which
was the pilot for the series.
In real-life, Hamner's family lived in
the small town of Schuyler, Virginia (pop. 400). On October 24,
1992, some 6,000 zealous fans converged on the friendly hamlet of
Schuyler for the opening of the Walton's Mountain Museum which
showcased replicas of the famous Walton kitchen, living room,
John-Boy's bedroom and Ike Godsey's store.
The museum was conceived
by Schuyler county supervisor Woody Greenberg to boost the town's
economy. With the exception of John Boy's eyeglasses, most of the
museum was filled with furniture from antique stores and thrift
shops because the "Waltons" sets were destroyed by a fire at the
Warner Brothers Studios in late 1991 (People Weekly 11/9/92
p.63-64).
TRIVIA NOTE: In 1987, genealogy
researcher Johni Cerny traced the roots of comedian Bill Cosby
through three generations of slaves in an area known as Walton's
Mountain. Documented in the special 75th anniversary issue of
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Cerny established that Bill
Cosby was a descendant of Zach Cosby, a freed slave who reared 18
children on Walton's Mountain in Nelson County, Virginia, after the
Civil War. The same mountain which was the inspiration for THE
WALTONS.
On the episode "The One with the Boobies" of the sitcom
FRIENDS/NBC/1994-2004 Joey Tribianni (Matt LeBlanc) comments on his
family's dysfunctional situation "Yeah. He's (Joey's dad) gonna keep
cheating on my Ma, like she wanted. My Ma's gonna keep pretending
she doesn't know, even though she does. And my little sister, Tina
can't see her husband anymore 'cause he got a restraining
order-which has nothing to do with anything, except, I found our
today." His friend Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) responds "Things
sure have changed here on Walton's Mountain."
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