The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: mrclose on March 26, 2016, 01:04:29 AM
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“Good night, John-Boy.â€
If those words mean nothing to you, you’re probably under age 40, perhaps a millennial. If they do, you’re probably a boomer, to whom they are unforgettable, bound to bring back visions of a better time and a better place, an era, in the words Thursday of one fan of “The Waltons,†when “family was so much more appreciated.â€
That era, however, wouldn’t be the ’60s or the ’70s. The setting of “The Waltons,†from which “Good night, John-Boy†derived fame, belongs to “The Greatest Generation.†The television series was set in the Depression, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia, just below the “taller ridges … rimmed with a fading autumn silver,†as Earl Hamner Jr. wrote in his semi-autobiographical novel “Spencer’s Mountain,†from which “The Waltons†was drawn.
On “The Waltons,†John-Boy was played by actor Richard Thomas, better known these days not as the bookish country boy he once personified but as the spy-hunting bureaucrat Agent Gaad on another hit series, “The Americans.â€
In real life, John-Boy was indeed Hamner, creator and narrator of the show as well as author of “Spencer’s Mountain.†Now he is gone. He was 92, a veteran of World War II, one of America’s best-loved writers and, as the narrator of “The Waltons,†a much-loved voice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/25/good-night-john-boy-good-night-earl-hamner-jr/
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Huh. Well, may the family be comforted.
Another in a series of times I have been surprised that someone I would have thought long gone was still alive or had just passed on.
For example, still with us at 74, is Marina Prusakova Oswald Porter.
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He seems to have missed the generation that were actually children when the Waltons was running and the reason parents ie boomers tuned into the family friendly show. I am neither. A boomer or a millenial but spent elementary school years watching the Waltons every week with my family. Rip to this man. I just got a giggle that the writer of this tribute failed to even acknowledge the actual generation of children that would have watched this with thier family ie Gen x lol
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He seems to have missed the generation that were actually children when the Waltons was running and the reason parents ie boomers tuned into the family friendly show. I am neither. A boomer or a millenial but spent elementary school years watching the Waltons every week with my family. Rip to this man. I just got a giggle that the writer of this tribute failed to even acknowledge the actual generation of children that would have watched this with thier family ie Gen x lol
Perhaps not a boomer, but right on the cusp. The boomer era ran for about 20 years, from just after WWII to about 1965. As "The Waltons" ran into the mid-Seventies, you were born perhaps in the late Sixties. No matter - you watched the show and the point got across.
This was one of those shows that showed a simpler time with fewer social ills that the rest of prime time showed, mostly at the hands of Norman Lear who incessantly and successfully (?) paraded a series of TV shows that were relentless in their portrayal of how ****ed up Americans are. :whatever:
"The Waltons" was a bit of fresh air.
RIP Mr. Hamner. I found your voice to be peaceful and reassuring in an era when things were anything but.