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The Waltons Season 1 Episodes
Season 1 Episode Guide
24 Episodes 1972 - 1973
Episode 1
The Foundling
Thu, Sep 14, 197260 mins
The family takes in a deaf girl who was abandoned by her mother.
Episode 2
The Carnival
Thu, Sep 21, 197260 mins
Four carnival performers are stranded after the carnival leaves Walton's Mountain, so they stay with the Waltons while they try to get back home.
Episode 3
The Calf
Thu, Sep 28, 197260 mins
The children are upset when their father sells a newborn calf to another farmer who intends to slaughter it for beef.
Episode 4
The Hunt
Thu, Oct 5, 197260 mins
John-Boy goes on his first turkey hunt with his father and two of his friends.
Episode 5
The Typewriter
Thu, Oct 12, 197260 mins
John-Boy secretly borrows a typewriter from the Baldwin sisters, and Mary Ellen inadvertently gives it to a junk dealer.
Episode 6
The Star
Thu, Oct 19, 197260 mins
When a meteorite falls through the Baldwin sisters' roof, it has strange effects on the people of Walton's Mountain; the sisters are convinced by their cousin Polonius that the star is a sign from their father saying that they should stop making "the recipe," while Grandpa believes he is going to die soon.
Episode 7
The Sinner
Thu, Oct 26, 197260 mins
Reverend Mathew Fordwick arrives in Walton's Mountain, but his credibility is tarnished even before his first service after drinking "the recipe" at an afternoon with the Baldwin sisters.
Episode 8
The Boy from the CCC
Thu, Nov 2, 197260 mins
A cynical New York teenager ends up staying on Walton's Mountain.
Episode 9
The Ceremony
Thu, Nov 9, 197260 mins
A family of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany move to Walton's Mountain, where they try to hide their Judaism for fears of antisemitism.
Episode 10
The Legend
Thu, Nov 16, 197260 mins
For years John has thrilled his family with tales of his old Army buddy "Tip". Now Tip has come to Walton's Mountain for a visit. Is the children's hero all he's cracked up to be?
Episode 11
The Literary Man
Thu, Nov 30, 197260 mins
When John Boy meets a writer passing through Walton's Mountain, he impulsively asks him to come home to meet his family. Staying a few days and helping in the mill for his room and board, the writer fills John Boy's head with tales of travels and stories about famous authors he has known. When John Boy's interest in these tales causes him to shirk his duties at the mill, he begins to question whether he should abandon his own writing aspirations and concentrate on his duty to his family.
Episode 12
The Dust Bowl Cousins
Thu, Dec 7, 197260 mins
Cousins from Kansas come to visit while they await news of possible employment in Newport News.
Episode 13
The Reunion
Thu, Dec 14, 197260 mins
The Baldwin sisters' cousin Homer Lee Baldwin visits them, and inspires the sisters to organize a family reunion.
Episode 14
The Minstrel
Thu, Dec 21, 197260 mins
The Waltons have a contract to pick an apple orchard, but Mary Ellen shirks it to listen to a traveling musician who convinces her that her dreams are more important than her responsibilities.
Episode 15
The Actress
Thu, Jan 4, 197360 mins
When a famous actress's car breaks down on Walton's Mountain, starstruck John-Boy convinces his parents to invite her to dinner while Ike is fixing her car. All the children are enthralled with her flashy personality and world-traveling tales, although Olivia and Grandma disapprove of her. Finding her car will need major repairs, and wanting to stay put, Alvira manages to fall and injure her ankle, turning her night on the couch into a lengthy stay. Despite her worldliness, the whole Walton family falls under her spell at the end when she opens them up to John -Boy's view of his home through his writings, heretofore unseen by his family members.
Episode 16
The Fire
Thu, Jan 11, 197360 mins
Miss Hunter is threatened by Lutie Bascomb for teaching the origins of the human race, accusing her of filling his daughter Lois Mae's head with "blasphemy" and "atheism".
Episode 17
The Love Story
Thu, Jan 18, 197350 mins
John-Boy falls in love with Jenny Pendleton, a young girl staying with the family while her father and stepmother are in Richmond.
Episode 18
The Courtship
Thu, Jan 25, 197360 mins
When the Cincinnati bank he works in closes during the bank holidays of the Depression, Olivia's never-married uncle Cody returns to Virginia for a visit. While there, John-Boy proposes they invite a local widow to dinner to meet him. Cody and Cordelia hit it off, somewhat to the dismay of Olivia and grandma, who both disapprove of the marital history of their lively neighbor.
Episode 19
The Gypsies
Thu, Feb 1, 197360 mins
A summer storm, which topples a tree onto their caravan, forces a family of wanderers to take shelter in the empty Balwin house. John-Boy and Jason discover them when they go to check on the house, and call the sheriff. Facing arrest, and with a sick baby in tow, the wanderers accept John-Boy's offer of a camp at the Walton's home. Pride and a way of life prevents the refugees from Bulgaria from accepting any other hospitality from the Waltons, until their baby's illness becomes so serious that Grandma intervenes despite not being welcomed to do so.
Episode 20
The Deed
Thu, Feb 8, 197360 mins
While scouting lumber for their mill, Grandpa and John Boy come across surveyors who tell them a lumber company has claimed timber rights to the mountain. Finding that their ancestors never bothered to file for a legal deed to their land, the Waltons must come up with $200 to pay court costs in order to protect their birthright. Everyone pitches in to raise the money, including John Boy who moves to Wheeling in order to get a job and send money home.
Episode 21
The Scholar
Thu, Feb 22, 197360 mins
When Verdie Grant learns her daughter is graduating from college, she feels embarrassed by the fact that she never learned to read or write. She asks John-Boy to teach her, on the condition that he keeps it a secret.
Episode 22
The Bicycle
Thu, Mar 1, 197360 mins
When neighbor Curtis meets a woman in Richmond named Ann, he is smitten, and asks John-Boy to help him write letters to her. The letters convince Ann to move from New York to Walton's Mountain, to marry Curtis. Meanwhile, Olivia is particularly exasperated by her mounting duties and sees a second hand bicycle as a ticket out of the home a few times a week for choir practice. When Ann meets Curtis she discovers he is not as articulate as "his" letters, and has second thoughts about marrying him. And when Olivia gets a taste of the gossipy nature of her choir meetings, she has second thoughts about the worth of her homely tasks.
Episode 23
The Townie
Thu, Mar 8, 197360 mins
Rewarded for excelling in a bible-studies test, Sarah is taken to her first picture show by John-Boy, with reluctant approval of her hovering mother. Sarah is looking for a way out from under her mother's smothering attentions and sees marriage to John-Boy as the answer. John-Boy isn't ready for such a step (nor does he love Sarah), so she plots to elope with a rich boy she knows.
Episode 24
An Easter Story
Thu, Apr 19, 197360 mins
Olivia is suddenly stricken down with polio, and is forced to take to her bed. The local doctor follows the accepted treatment of splints attached to Olivia's legs, but John-Boy searches for more than just accepting a lifetime of paralysis. While the community rallies behind Olivia, John-Boy travels to the University of Virginia and talks with a doctor on the faculty who describes a revolutionary treatment which John-Boy is anxious to have his mother try -- anything to avoid a lifetime in a wheelchair.