Review(s): DVD Waltons - The Foundling (TV Premiere DVD)
A wonderful first episode, but it's on the Season One DVD
The Foundling is the first episode of the first season of The Waltons, and it really is quite remarkable. You would be hard pressed to tell this was the first episode of the series, for one thing, as all of the qualities that made The Waltons such a wonderful, uniquely warm-hearted show, are all there on display. There is no effort made to somehow identify each of the characters for the audience, as this was from the very beginning a family rather than a grouping of characters. Granted, this was not the first time America had met this family. On December 19, 1971, The Homecoming aired on CBS, introducing America to the Walton family (originally, the Spencer family as described in Earl Hamner's novels and even a feature film from 1963 starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara). The success of that TV movie inspired the series, which debuted on September 14, 1972. Many of the actors and actresses from The Homecoming assumed the same roles on the series, with three very important exceptions: Ralph Waite now played the role of John Walton, Miss Michael Learned assumed the role of Olivia Walton, and Will Geer became not only Grandpa Walton but in many ways the entire nation's Grandpa (and, for my money, the most beloved character in television history).
As this first episode begins, a little girl is left on the proverbial doorstep of the Walton home. Livie's maternal instincts come to the fore immediately, and the whole family really takes the poor girl Holly immediately into its collective heart, even convincing the pragmatic John to keep her rather than turn her over to "a home." They soon learn that the silent little girl is deaf, at which point the family members take it upon themselves to learn the rudiments of sign language and teach the girl to communicate. The girl's mother secretly watches everything, and we learn that she abandoned her daughter in a last-ditch effort to keep her husband from putting the girl away somewhere as a worthless "throwback." John-boy is somewhat distracted early on, as he is busy pitching woo to the always incredibly wishy-washy Marsha Woolery, but he - as you might expect - makes the first real breakthrough in terms of drawing young Holly out of her shell. Elizabeth, of course, gets jealous when she sees Holly getting all of the family's attention, and this leads to a real crisis.
It's a wonderful episode, showcasing the warmth of TV's ultimate family-oriented series, but I must tell you there is really no reason at all to buy this DVD. The entire first season of The Waltons has now been released on DVD, and The Foundling is only one of the 24 heart-warming episodes included in that must-buy collection.
Great To Have a Quality Show on DVD!
I am really glad that Waltons episodes on DVD are finally hitting the shelves! This episode, in particular, is one of my favorites. It is in the first season boxed set, so I'm not quite sure why this episode was released separately. As far as I can tell, these shows are being released UNCUT! It would be great to have extras, but as long as the show itself is left "intact", I'll keep purchasing them and enjoying them.
Related DVD's Waltons - The Foundling (TV Premiere DVD)
The Waltons' nearly 10-year run on network television grew out of the popular, 1971 made-for-TV movie The Homecoming, which was derived from a Depression-era, rustic setting ("Walton's Mountain"), and characters based on Earl Hamner Jr.'s autobiographical novel Spencer's Mountain--itself the source for a very nice 1963 feature film starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. That's a lot of entertainment sprouting from Hamner's prose. But something about his seminal story of family values, rugged independence, and big dreams amidst a hardscrabble existence captured the hearts of American audiences, many of whom personally recalled severe economic adversity in the 1930s.
A true television classic, The Homecoming was the second movie (after 1963's Spencer's Mountain) based on Earl Hamner's autobiographical writings about love, pride, faith, and survival in rural America during the Great Depression. The Homecoming introduced the Walton family, a 1930s mountain clan living a hardscrabble existence that forces patriarch John Walton (Andrew Duggan) to seek work, far from home, in the city. When John fails to return home, as promised, on Christmas Eve, his iron-willed wife Olivia (Patricia Neal) keeps a lid on their children's worry. Oldest son John-Boy (Richard Thomas), who privately dreams of becoming a writer but worries about disappointing his parents, is dispatched to find his dad. Graceful yet harder-edged than the subsequent TV... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Fielder Cook DVD Release Date: Released the 23 September 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Long before Henry Fonda played an irascible patriarch in On Golden Pond, he played an equally crusty family man in this warmly rustic, 1963 drama Spencer's Mountain, based on an Earl Hamner Jr. novel that later inspired the television series The Waltons. Fonda plays Clay Spencer, a fiercely independent, hard-drinking, foul-mouthed Wyoming laborer who believes in God but rejects (to his tiny community's consternation) organized religion. Scraping together enough money to build a new house for his wife (Maureen O'Hara) and nine children, Spencer runs into an obstacle to both his plans and family pride when his college-bound son (James MacArthur) romances the daughter of Spencer's boss. Director Delmer Daves whips up a kind of morose schmaltz out of the earnest... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Henry Fonda - Maureen O'Hara Director(s): Delmer Daves DVD Release Date: Released the 08 July 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I loved LHOTP while I was growing up and I am glad that I can now own all the episodes on DVD to watch when I want. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Maury Dexter - Victor French DVD Release Date: Released the 17 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I was excited to buy the DVD box sets especially since the box covers brag at what lengths had gone into making the episodes at such highest quality. Truthfully, you will be getting better quality recording them off TV.
The TV episodes are probably an approximate 42 to 43 minutes to where the DVD episodes are an approximate 45 minutes. However, there are still some scenes cut out in the DVD episodes.
Some cuts I found are:
In the episode "Fagin", an important scene where Charles tells Albert that since he is having a hard time with kids at school making fun of him for not having a father, why not start calling him "Pa". Instead, they cut to the scene where Laura overhears Albert call Charles "Pa" and she mentions it to the boy, who tells her that... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Landon DVD Release Date: Released the 29 June 2004 Usually ships in 6 to 7 days
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