Product Description

Front-page news! The Blue Ridge Chronicle hits the streets, with publisher John-Boy Walton covering everything from a local break-in (Ben is among the suspects) to his eyewitness account of the crash of the Hindenburg. And, in a story filled with surprises and a ceremony filled with beauty, Mary Ellen becomes the first Walton child to marry. More adventures await, including Jason's job in a honkytonk, Grandma's set-to with the minister, and an exciting, heartwarming Christmas episode that's sure to become a holiday favorite with your family. And along the way old friends return, new friends arrive and the family bedrock of love endures in this 5-Disc, 24-Episode Season-5 Set of one of television's most enduring series.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1376 in DVD
• Brand: WHV
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Released on: 2007-05-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds
• Running time: 1213 minutes

Features

• Front-page news! The Blue Ridge Chronicle hits the streets, with publisher John-Boy Walton covering everything from a local break-in (Ben is among the suspects) to his eyewitness account of the crash of the Hindenburg. And, in a story filled with surprises and a ceremony filled with beauty, Mary Ellen becomes the first Walton child to marry. More adventures await, including Jason's job in a honkyt

Amazon.com
The Waltons: The Complete Fifth Season finds the Depression-era, Blue Ridge Mountains 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 Mountain 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 Hitler’s 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, father 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-Boy’s 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

Customer Reviews

Excellent final season for Richard Thomas
With the exception of a few guest spots, this was Richard Thomas' final season as John-Boy. Stand out episodes include:

The Vigil - Mary Ellen makes a wrong diagnosis that puts Grandma near death.

The Baptism - Olivia struggles to get John and her kids baptized during a revival.

The Firestorm - John-Boy causes panic when he publishes parts of Hitler's Mein Kampf in his newspaper.

The Wedding - Mary Ellen goes through personal changes leading up to her wedding.

The Cloudburst - John-Boy crosses a line with Grandpa when he sells his meadow to a developer.

The Pony Cart - the best episode of the season IMO. Aunt Martha Corrine comes to visit the family and upsets everyone. But she's hiding a secret.

The Best Christmas - Olivia desperately wants the family to be together because she feels that this will be the last Christmas that the whole family will be together.

The Inferno - John-Boy travels to NJ and witnesses the Hindenburg disaster.

The Long Night - While visiting Esther in the hospital, Grandpa causes a disturbance and is banned from the hospital. Heartbreaking episode.

The Achievement - Grab your hankies. John-Boy travels to New York to check on the status of his novel and discovers it's time to leave home.

Season 5 quicker turnout then the other seasons....HORRAY!!!!!
I just love this series. This season 5 is being released just 4 months after season 4 was released. I applaud the studios for the quick release. Here's hoping for the quick release of the rest of the seasons....all of them! Let's not forget the movies that came out either. I applaud the fair price of these seasons too.

"The Waltons", Classic Fifth Season Says Goodbye To Two Unforgettable Characters
I believe you would be hard pressed to find a more genuinely loved television family than "The Waltons". The classic series which ran an amazing nine seasons and returned in a number of later television movies seems as fresh today as when it premiered in 1972. With simple stories based around love of family and respect for others, the value of giving without expecting something in return, and with a not always "happily ever after",conclusion to each episode this series has endeared itself to viewers all over the world ever since. Being in Australia to me "The Waltons", represents much that is fine about good old fashioned values no matter what the country you live in and there was rarely an episode that in some way did not move me to reflect on my own life and set of values. Season Five of "The Waltons" saw the series really at the top of its form, still fresh and beautifully written, popular in the ratings on many continents, and still winning Emmy Awards. Despite this continued success however season five also unfortunately saw the first of the cast changes that ultimately led to the series' decline. Just half way through the season Ellen Corby who brilliantly played sharp tongued, salt of the earth Grandma, suffered a stroke in real life which forced the producers to write her character out of the story for a season and a half. To add to the producers worries the final episode of the season also saw pivotal character John -Boy played superbly by a much underrated Richard Thomas leaving Waltons Mountain to pursue his dream of writing in New York. Loosing two major cast members in the one season was certainly a blow but these departures where handled in an expert way to keep the storyline moving along.

Every "The Waltons" fan will undoubtedly have their own favourite episodes from this last "complete cast", season of the series and with such a large number of really excellent stories present here it's difficult to single individual ones for special mention. A few that I believe standout are listed below.

"The Fire Storm", where John Boy flames local community tensions and fears regarding the growing menace from Nazi Germany by deciding to publish parts of Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf", in his local newspaper.

"The Wedding", which sees the first Walton Grandchild, (Mary Ellen) wed on the mountain but not to the man everyone thought was going to be the groom!

"The Pony Cart", Guest starring veteran actress Beulah Bondi in an Emmy Award winning performance as elderly aunt Martha Corinne who returns to Waltons Mountain one last time before her death.

"The Best Christmas", Amazingly the first Christmas episode in the series telling a poignant and action filled tale of Olivia's great desire to have the whole family together for one last special Christmas only to find the family scattered as the big day approaches.

"The Rebellion", (A great favourite of mine), where Olivia goes through an early mid-life crisis finding herself boring and predictable and sets out to "update", her image, while Grandma battles with a new rival for the right to continue as the organist at the church.

"The Long Night", a very moving story about love that knows no age when Grandpa becomes so lonely for Grandma who is still in the hospital recovering from her stroke, that he becomes a menace to the hosptial staff who then ban him from coming in to see his beloved Esther.

The excellence of so many episodes in this season as well as in the following sixth season went a long way towards compensating for the absense of the characters played Ellen Corby and later Richard Thomas in the stories and in fact actually gave the series a strong sense of reality where just as in real life, nothing of course ever stays the same and where real families often experience departures and long family separations. I highly recommend this latest box set, "The Waltons - The Complete Fifth Season", and despite the lack of any cast involvement in commentaries etc, the episodes alone makes this a more than worthwhile addition to your classic television DVD library. Enjoy!