Product Description
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Waltons, The: The Complete Fifth Season (DVD)
In Season Five, John-Boy becomes a publisher and Mary Ellen
becomes a bride! In front-page news, The Blue Ridge Chronicle
hits the streets, with publisher John-Boy Walton covering
everything from a local break-in (with brother Ben among the
suspects) to his eyewitness account of the Hindenburg c. And,
in a story filled with surprises and a ceremony filled with
poignancy, Mary Ellen becomes the first Walton child to marry.
More adventures await, including Jason’s job in a honky-tonk,
Grandma’s set-to with the minister, and a heartwarming Christmas
episode that’s sure to become a holiday favorite with families
everywhere. Along the way, old friends return, new friends arrive
and the family foundation of love shines forth in one of
television’s most enduring series.
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The Waltons: The Complete Fifth Season finds the
Depression-era, Blue Ridge ains family a little more in
touch with the outside world, largely because of the aspirations
of the growing Walton children. The most dramatic example, over
numerous epsiodes, results from the assertiveness of professional
journalist John-Boy (Richard Thomas) as he insists on publishing
national and international news in the small-circulation Blue
Ridge Chronicle he writes, edits, and publishes. A lot of people
in the county are mystified as to why John-Boy would want to
bring Walton's ain closer to epochal events in Germany, or
why he would choose to provide coverage of the Hindenburg
zeppelin's aerial triumphs despite its link to the Nazis. Yet
John-Boy is just as interested in his backyard as the world
stage: In season opener "The First Edition," he stands up to
strong pressure to kill a story about a judge whose drunk-driving
offense causes costly property damage. In "The Fire Storm,"
locals are appalled when he prints excerpts from Hitlers Mein
Kampf in order to make readers aware of what kind of madman the
German chancellor is.
While John-Boy stands up to popular opinion, brother Jason (Jon
Walmsley), a talented musician, has to take a job playing piano
at a roadhouse to make up for the loss of his college
scholarship. The decision doesn't go down too well with the
Walton women, but Jason's presence at the Dew Drop Inn allows for
some interesting scenes over the course of the season, none more
so than the unexpected visit of a fire-and-brimstone evangelist
in "The Baptism." In that same show, her John Walton, played
by Ralph Waite, notorious in his Christian community for
eschewing church services, faces renewed pressure from wife
Olivia (Michael Learned) to accept her faith, making for one of
the most interesting episodes of the season. Meanwhile,
John-Boys sister, Mary Ellen (Judy Norton), is wooed by a couple
of different men and hears wedding bells with one of them. She
also pursues her nursing degree and misdiagnoses an ailment of
Grandma Esther (Ellen Corby), resulting in long-term
hospitalization and no end of grief for Grandpa Zeb (Will Geer).
The other, increasingly restless Walton boys and girls grab their
share of the spotlight, too, but The Complete Fifth Season is,
once again, John-Boy's year, capped by dramatic developments in
his career and vision of himself. --Tom Keogh