Cast List
John Walton: Ralph Waite (through “The Move”)
Mary Ellen Walton Willard: Judy Norton-Taylor
John Curtis Willard: Michael and Marshall Reed
Jason Walton: Jon Walmsley
Ben Walton: Eric Scott
Cindy Walton: Leslie Winston
Virginia “Ginny” Walton: Clare and Elizabeth Schoene
Erin Walton: Mary Beth McDonough
Jim-Bob Walton: David W. Harper
Elizabeth Walton: Kami Cotler
Rose Burton: Peggy Rea (through “The Heartache”)
Ike Godsey: Joe Conley
Corabeth Godsey: Ronnie Claire Edwards

Production Staff
Executive Producers: Earl Hamner and Rod Peterson
Producer: Claylene Jones
Story Editor: E.F. Wallengren
Executive Story Editor: Claire Whitaker
Executive Production Supervisor: Edward O. Denault
Unit Production Manager: Paul L. Helmick
Music: Alexander Courage
Theme Song by Jerry Goldsmith
Created by Earl Hamner

Note
Rose stays on as “Mom” to the busy family, but Jeffrey and Serena have completely disappeared with no word spoken about their whereabouts. Perhaps they are now with their mother (and hopefully not with their abusive dad).

“The Outrage” (2 hours)
Original airdate: 11/27/1980
Screenplay: Rod Peterson and Claire Whitaker
Director: Philip Leacock
In the spring of 1945, Harley, who is now working for John, is thrown out of a restaurant by white bigots, angering his friend. With no men around, the girls have to pitch in with the farm chores, while Ben’s outfit prepares to go overseas and Corabeth looks forward to the postwar boom by preparing to sell real estate, to Ike’s dismay. Ep Bridges then tells John that Harley was recognized as a “Leroy Harley,” the escaped murderer of a white man. John pooh-poohs the idea, but Harley refuses to give Ep a straight answer and puzzles Verdie with his brooding. In Paris, John-Boy tries desperately to contact Jason, who is nearby in a combat unit south of the city. He accidentally meets Toni Hazelton in Paris and bets her he can find Jason before she can. Corabeth, in an effort to mollify Ike, becomes the perfect housewife, while Cindy smarts at the restrictions put on her doing chores. Before he runs away, Harley tells John he’s the man Ep is looking for, and that the killing was an accident: while pushing away a drunken, deadbeat customer, Harley shoved him so hard that the man struck his head and died. John and Verdie beg him to stay to clear himself, and he reluctantly does while John hunts up a solution. To Drew’s dismay, Elizabeth seems to be totally preoccupied with her horse, Molly, and her filly Pepper, while Ben’s CPO reprimands him for working without a helmet and weapon in a combat zone. With further evidence against Harley, Ep is forced to search the Fosters’ house, and not finding him, goes to the Walton house instead with his arrest warrant, giving John one day to do something or go to jail. While Harley hides at a logging cabin, John and Verdie seek out Harley’s original defense attorney, Nathan Moore, who reluctantly and wearily takes the case. John is later jailed when he refuses to give up Harley, who turns himself in when he finds out John’s sacrifice. Toni finally catches up with Jason. Verdie and Harley part in tears before he’s taken back to prison, leaving Ep guilty and John further resolves to do something. Because Harley won a Naval commendation in World War I, John heads for Warm Springs to see President Roosevelt, who was Assistant Secretary of the Navy at that time. Finally realizing how bored Corabeth is with housewifely duties, Ike sets her up in the real estate business. Elizabeth is just about to entice Drew into going horseback riding when Molly breaks loose and crashes through the fence, severely injuring herself, and Cindy is the only one with enough courage to shoot the suffering horse. Drew buys Pepper from Elizabeth and gets her to agree to raise her together. John’s papers about Harley are taken to the President—and then a few hours later news comes that he has died. Verdie loses hope. The sad news mars John-Boy, Jason, and Toni’s reunion, but makes Ben discover his CPO has a heart after all. Then John arrives home with Harley; the last thing the President did was sign his pardon. The family then watches the President’s funeral train go by.
Harley Foster: Hal Williams. Verdie Foster: Lynn Hamilton. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Sheriff Ep Bridges: John Crawford. Drew Cutler: Tony Becker. Toni Hazelton: Lisa Harrison. CPO: Dick Sargent. Josh Foster: Jason Moses. Norman: Jordan Suffin. Deputy: Charles Thomas Murphy. Mac: Jack O’Leary. Soldier: Jack McCullough. Nathan Moore: John McLiam. Radio Announcer: Hank Stahl. FDR’s Aide: Hank Brandt. Patrolman: David Clover.
Note
Jim-Bob does not appear in this episode.

“The Pledge”
Original airdate: 12/04/1980
Screenplay: Kathleen Hite
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
John-Boy is transferred back to Paris just as Mary Ellen writes to him about trying to find a direction in her left, while the family wonders what to get Jason for his birthday. On her rounds, Mary Ellen discovers Sweet Billy Cotter in terrible pain, but he won’t let her take him to the doctor until it’s too late and then they cannot save him. His sister Ronie comes down from the hills, knowing with her odd intuition that he is dead. Celebrating the receipt of a bank check, the Baldwin sisters send Jason some Recipe for his birthday, while Corabeth is adopted by a young soldier. After doing a reading at Sweet Billy’s funeral, Mary Ellen resolves to study to be a doctor, discouraged by her father and Dr. Bill Holliston. John-Boy and Jason celebrate the latter’s birthday with a parcel of Elizabeth’s gingerbread, the Recipe, and a bottle of wine they find in a bombed-out building. Mary Ellen’s admissions clerk refuses to enter her into a pre-med program, suggesting “womanly” occupations instead, and she comes home discouraged until Elizabeth reminds her that she was the one with “the shadow that never stood still.” Acting as his mother, Corabeth bakes her young soldier a cake and is warmed by his enthusiasm, especially when it turns out the perfume she helped him pick out was for his mother. Ronie’s initial scorn and then tears make Mary Ellen return to Boatwright to tell Dean Clifford that if she is turned down for medical school, she will just apply over and over until she is accepted. Knowing she is serious, Clifford relents.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Drew Cutler: Tony Becker. Sweet Billy: Richard Lineback. Ronie Cotter: Ellen Geer. Dean J.R. Clifford: Dennis Robertson. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Sergeant Carey: Dick Christie. Man at Grove: Robert Telford. Dr. Bill Holliston: Bucklind Beery. Charley: Chip Frye. Young GI: Laurence Lau.
Note
Jim-Bob does not appear in this episode.

“The Triumph”
Original airdate: 12/18/1980
Screenplay: Robert Pirosh
Director: Philip Leacock
Jason’s front line troop, including the new man, Willis, shelter at a woodcutter’s shack and dine on goat’s milk. Meanwhile, when Ike allows the Baldwin sisters to not pay ration stamps, he is caught and charged with violating rationing laws. A frightened Willlis confesses to Jason that he had a nervous breakdown after being the only survivor of a strafing run, while Ben and his buddy Norman, in the Pacific, survive a typhoon. It’s bad enough when the Baldwin sisters’ testimony gets Ike sent to court, but when the store is robbed, Corabeth gives up, despite urging and Elizabeth looking on the bright side of things. They decide to close the store. Willis freezes on the way to a German town during an ambush and Slate is shot as a result. Jim-Bob wends his way home on leave on a genial black farmer’s slow-moving mule wagon. Jason assures Willis that they are all afraid, and they certainly are when they march into the eerie, deserted town. There they get word of Germany’s surrender, just as a lone German soldier starts firing at them. Willis’ knowledge of German comes in handy in convincing the disbelieving sniper to come out of the church he’s taken cover in, and when the German will still not believe them, Willis throws down his weapon to convince him. Jim-Bob arrives home in time to help the family celebrate, and John organizes all the neighbors to patronize the store and force the Godseys to reopen. Elizabeth breaks down finally, saying that she’s happy, but she wants all her brothers home—soon.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Norman: Jordan Suffin. Willis: Marc McClure. Lusca: Dana Gladstone. Slate: Ken Wright. Farmer: Davis Roberts. German Sniper: Brian Utman. Parsons: Eldon Quick. Jenkins: James Nolan. Jackson: Jack McCullough. Lieutenant: Hank Stahl.

“The Premonition”
Original airdate: 12/25/1980
Screenplay: E.F. Wallengren
Director: Bernard McEveety
Cindy has taken to having recurring, chilling dreams about Ben surrounded by Japanese with rifles and bayonets. In the Pacific, Ben, too, is uneasy about the supposedly “cleared” island they are working on. In Paris, John-Boy is beguiled by Simone, a French bookstore owner who is angry with him for not wanting to write about the dangers of abandoned minefields. On leave, he and Jason go fishing, where John-Boy tells his brother he will muster out in France and keep writing. They see children injured by a mine explosion and John-Boy decides to write the article. Thinking her premonitions are caused by tiredness, John ships Cindy off to her aunt in Richmond, but Cindy’s dreams are correct: Ben and Norman have been captured! After using Simone’s material, John-Boy finds himself falling in love with her and courts her at a puppet show. He also accompanies a bomb-disposal unit, where a sergeant guides him through a sweaty defusing of what turns out to be a dummy bomb in order to convince people of the dangers of the job. Rose is alone when a telegram for Cindy arrives, and Jim-Bob has arrived home on leave when Cindy gets home to find that Ben is a prisoner of war. Ben had reported in his last letter that he also had a premonition, one of coming home safely, which gives Cindy some hope. In Paris, a letter from Elizabeth makes John-Boy homesick, but it is only when the news of Ben’s capture reaches him that he decides to go home. He has a final dinner with Simone, who refuses his marriage proposal, and returns home, to Elizabeth’s joy. There is unsettling news, however: Jason has been assigned to a bomb-disposal unit.
John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Norman: Jordan Suffin. Simone Berringer: Anita Jodelsohn. Sergeant Norton: Ed Call. Soldier: Patrick Skelton. Major Sawyer: Woody Eney. Frenchwoman: Danielle Aubrey. Frenchman: Roger Etienne.

“The Pursuit”
Original airdate: 01/01/1981
Screenplay: Michael McGreevey
Director: Philip Leacock
While out in the Pacific Ben leads a “revolution” at his POW camp to agitate his crazy camp commander, Jim-Bob comes home on a ten-day pass tailed by Kathy Seals, a possessive girl he dated a few times and bragged to; she arrives at the house saying that Jim-Bob invited her to share a house with him on the mountain. When Cindy tries to tell her Jim-Bob is not interested in her, she refuses to listen to her. Toni gets Jason transferred to Paris to direct music for a USO show. When Jim-Bob tells Kathy he doesn’t love her, she retorts that she’s carrying his child. Jim-Bob says he did visit her at her house, but he was drunk that night and doesn’t remember doing anything, but he does take responsibility and agrees to marry her. The girls discover Kathy’s parents were divorced while Mary Ellen worms the information out of Jim-Bob. Toni gets shipped home just as Jason is given command of a bevy of WACS. Mary Ellen suspects Kathy is lying about the pregnancy and John, told what’s going on, reminds her that a basis for marriage is honesty. Ben, undaunted by the punishments rained down by the camp commander, makes an American flag out of some of the camp’s laundry and the sight of it flying sustains him through a session in the “hot box.” A guilty Kathy, realizing Jim-Bob is only marrying her because of the baby, confesses to him that she lied about the pregnancy; she wants to be married to get some of the love she missed out on as a child. He confesses he wasn’t honest with her, either, and they part friends.
Toni Hazelton: Lisa Harrison. Norman: Jordan Suffin. Kathy Seals: Jennifer Jason Leigh. Augie: Frank Catalano. Camp Commander: Jerry Fujikawa. Corporal Bergstrom: Ken Michelman. Billy: Richard Molnar. Japanese Corporal: Hatsuo Uda. Lt. Saunders: Jerry Hoffman. Clint: Dane Witherspoon. Master Sergeant Bruner: Ted Noose.

“The Last Ten Days”
Original airdate: 01/08/1981
Screenplay: Marion Hargrove
Director: Bernard McEveety
It is now August of 1945 and Toni, on her way to make a delivery to the Baldwin sisters, tells the family she feels something is wrong from the tone of Jason’s last letter. It turns out he unexpectedly comes home on 10-days leave, preparatory to being shipped out to the Pacific, where Ben, weak from recently being pulled out of the “hot box,” is marched along in the jungle by a Japanese soldier along with his buddy Norman. Learning about a new Army aircraft, a jet, Drew cons Elizabeth into taking him into Charlottesville so he can sign up. A war-weary Jason argues with John-Boy against going to the Pacific as a civilian correspondent, and, afraid he’ll be changed by combat or be killed, tells a hurt Toni that he cannot marry her, so she flees back to Camp Rockfish. Then the news of Hiroshima comes on the radio, horrifying the family but raising hope of war’s end. The Baldwins invite Jason and a frosty Toni to tea, and their tiff almost turns into a reconciliation until Jason makes a blunder. Cindy is fearful when they get no word of Japan’s surrender, and Ben and Norman, lame, exhausted, subsisting on sweet potatoes, are numbed by thoughts of impending death. Even the news offers no hope. Elizabeth’s beauty treatment turns Drew’s attention away from war, however, and the Japanese soldier reveals his ulterior motive when he delivers Ben and Norman into American hands. Toni, the Baldwins, Ike and Corabeth all come to the Walton house to learn the good news: Japan has surrendered—the war is over! In joy, Toni and Jason make up and Cindy is able to talk to Ben via shortwave.
John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Norman: Jordan Suffin. Toni Hazelton: Lisa Harrison. Drew Cutler: Tony Becker. Corporal Kyoto: Bob Shimono. Sergeant: James Saito. Radio Announcer #1: Walker Edmiston. Radio Announcer #2: Bud Hiestand.

“The Move”
Original airdate: 01/15/1981
Screenplay: Kathleen Hite
Director: Harvey Laidman
On a troopship coming home, Ben wonders how his family will react to some news he has, while Erin lends Cindy her precious gas rationing coupons so she can pick up Ben in Norfolk. The two have an at-first timid, then joyful reunion, and Ben comes home to find the sign “Walton and Son” on the mill. John does not know that Ben has agreed to accept Cindy’s father’s help and go to engineering school. John is dismayed and surprised, but recovers and tells them to do what is best for them, but despite what he tells Ben, John confides to Ike that he’s hurt that there’s no one to carry on the family business. On her vacation, Erin is begged to come into the office by J.D. Pickett, but she refuses. Cindy’s father, Colonel Brunson, arrives to encourage his son-in-law, but warns him of the drawbacks, and later confesses to John that he regrets not having spent more time with Cindy growing up. He also accuses John of being too insular. While John is away visiting Olivia, the boys catch Ben in the mill in the middle of the night finishing an order. Ben has just gotten accepted to college when John returns with bad news: Olivia’s tuberculosis has returned from overwork and she needs to go to a sanatorium in Arizona—and he is taking her there and staying with her. He plans to sell the mill, despite Ben’s protest that he will stay, and a tearful Elizabeth helps John back. Ben is incensed when a potential buyer wants to turn the mill into a factory, and sends the man away, telling his father he wants to run the mill. The family and the Baldwin sisters bid a grateful John farewell.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. J.D. Pickett: Lewis Arquette. Colonel Henry A. Brunson: Dan Frazer. Captain Bennett: Ed Couppee. Sailor: Jerold Pearson. Mr. Gentry: Len Wayland.

“The Whirlwind”
Original airdate: 01/22/1981
Screenplay: Claire Whitaker
Director: Nell Cox
Jim-Bob accepts a ride from Arlington Westcott Jones III, “Jonesy,” but the traveler's brakes fail, and the vehicle turns over. They are rescued by Jason and Mary Ellen, and an injured Jonesy tells them he is a recently-discharged veteran seeing the country. The charming man stays to help with the mill work and falls in love with Mary Ellen. He begins to court her, while Jason announces that he’s bought the Dew Drop Inn, to everyone’s dismay. Jonesy has to bully Mary Ellen into giving up studying to go on a picnic with him, revealing he has a geology degree, and where she discovers she’s fallen for him as well. Hurt by the family’s attitude to his new venture, Jason is driving himself to exhaustion to get the Dew Drop reopened on the proper date. Jones’s car is repaired by Jim-Bob and he begs Mary Ellen to marry him, and for her and John Curtis, whom he calls “Johnny,” to come with him. She accepts finally, joyfully, although she will have to quit school. The family takes their engagement party to the Dew Drop, where they find Jason in his cups due to all the problems with opening, so it turns into a repair party. At home, a woman arrives with a photo of Curt that she claims was taken only a month earlier. She says “Curt” is a hunting guide named Curtis Packer in Florida and is gentle but moody; it is obvious that she is in love with him. Mary Ellen refuses to believe it’s her Curt and demurs on going to Florida to find out. Still, she tells Jonesy she wants to wait, but he says he can’t. Then John Curtis sees the snapshot of Curt, recognizing it as his father, whom Mary Ellen has kept alive for him. After the successful opening of the Dew Drop Inn, Mary Ellen tells Jonesy she must go to Florida to understand what has happened, and he leaves, reluctantly.
Jonesy: Richard Gilliland. Betty Howell: Pamela McMylar. Waitress: Debbie Richmond.

“The Tempest”
Original airdate: 02/05/1981
Screenplay: E.F. Wallengren
Director: Gabrielle Beaumont
Jason reluctantly sees Mary Ellen and Betty off to Florida, while Jonesy reappears and applies at Pickett’s for a job while an overworked Erin demands a raise from J.D. When J.D. gives Jonesy the first assistant manager’s job, Erin quits and bets that Jonesy won’t last a week, while taking a job selling real estate with Corabeth. When he sees Mary Ellen, Curt claims he doesn’t know her, but she catches him watching her. In a bar to finally talk with her, Curt reveals what really happened to him and says he thought it was best that he stay dead. His indifference to stories about John Curtis and his hard drinking dismay Mary Ellen. While she’s alone in his cabin, she finds a photo of Betty. After turning down J.D.’s new job offer, but reluctantly helping Jonesy with his assignments, Erin’s first real estate task is to persuade the Baldwin sisters to sell their big house and buy a cottage instead. She flunks dismally when she tells the sisters to stay where they’re happy. Curt returns to find his cabin cleaned, and Mary Ellen bullies her into telling her what’s really wrong: while he gradually regained use of legs paralyzed in the Pearl Harbor attack, he is still impotent and cannot give her any more children. When Betty returns, Mary Ellen discovers the woman has guessed what Curt’s problem was and also knows all the nice things he did for her. She tells Curt that Betty knows about his condition but that it doesn’t matter; there are other ways of loving each other. Jonesy, who quits the job at Pickett’s, tells Erin it’s time for him to settle down, and J.D. comes to Erin on his knees. She says she won’t come back until she gets a larger salary and a share of the profits. He agrees. Curt comes to see Mary Ellen off with a fishing pole for John Curtis, and Jonesy meets her with the news that he’s accepted a teaching position at Boatwright University.
Betty Howell: Pamela McMyler. Jonesy: Richard Gilliland. Curtis Packer/Willard: Scott Hylands. J.D. Pickett: Lewis Arquette. Estelle: Mo Malone. Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson.
Note
Most Waltons fans would prefer this episode not exist, like the “Bobby in the shower” sequence from Dallas.

“The Carousel”
02/12/1981
Screenplay: Robert Pirosh
Director: Herbert Hirschman
During a violent rainstorm, Cindy's father Colonel Brunson is killed in a car accident while on his way to visit Cindy and Ben. At his funeral, Cindy sees a mysterious woman who arouses a memory of a carousel. Later, while going through her father’s papers, she discovers she was adopted and she decides she must know where she came from. Her search takes her to an uncooperative lawyer and an obstetrician, and her first lead comes when Ben swipes the doctor’s birth records. At home, Drew, staying with the family while his own is away, is monopolized by everyone to Elizabeth’s irritation. Cindy finally gives up on her search until she has a dream about a woman named Bernadine who used to meet her on a park carousel when she was a toddler, so she sends notices to personal columns in different papers, despite Corabeth’s insistence that she not do so. A signature-less reply gives her an address in Washington, and she rushes to that city to an uncertain reunion. The woman—the mysterious lady at the funeral—at first disavows any knowledge of her, then agrees to meet her at the carousel. She tells Cindy she was unmarried, her fiancée having died before they could be married, and that she gave Cindy up for adoption so she could have all the advantages in life. She also asks Cindy not to call again because she doesn’t want her husband to know she had a child out of wedlock, and Cindy retorts that she could never desert her own child if she needed her. Drew and Elizabeth mend their rift when Steve is going to take her to a dance, and Bernadine arrives at the house to confess that she told her husband, who knew already, and who had been the one who sent the note to Cindy.
Drew Cutler: Tony Becker. Bernadine Norris: Penelope Windust. Dr. Grover: Bill Erwin. Mrs. Foley: Anita Dangler. Mr. Nichols: Edward Bell. Steve Prince: Philip Linton.

“The Hot Rod”
Original airdate: 02/19/1981
Screenplay: Scott Hamner
Director: Bob Sweeney
Both now mustered out, Jim-Bob and Jody Foster are nearly ticketed for speeding on their first day home, setting the tone for their carefree post-war behavior; neither wants to be tied down. Miss Emily comes wildly driving up to Ike’s to gasp that Mamie is missing; he and Miss Emily find her trapped behind a secret panel in a wall at their house, behind which is the secret room where the Judge and the Colonel made the Recipe when snoopers were about. That liquid is used by the boys to toast Jim-Bob’s return, but he resents the family's insistence that he go to work right away or take over some chores. He gets a ticket for driving fast in Cindy’s car when he’s supposed to be doing errands, but is unquenched enough to take Jody out in the car, which has been converted into a hot rod. Both boys are jailed, however, when they raise a ruckus after Jody is refused service in a bar because he’s “colored.” The Baldwin sisters are devastated when a “revenue man” tells them their Recipe machine must be dismantled and taken away, until Ike suggests the use of the machine in the secret room from now on. Still smarting from the disapproval of their families when they’re bailed out, Jim-Bob and Jody escape into a headlong race in the hot rod and Jody is hurt in the ensuing accident. A guilty Jim-Bob tells the family he’s going to re-enlist to be less of a burden, until Elizabeth accuses him of running away. The revenuers permit the Baldwin ladies to keep a copper coil as a “souvenir,” which they promptly use to restore the old machine in the secret room. Jim-Bob uses his separation pay to buy an old barn near Ike’s store so he and Jody can go into the mechanic business.
Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Jody Foster: Charles R. Penland. Verdie Foster: Lynn Hamilton. Deputy Walt Hendrix: John Carter. Josh Foster: Jason Moses. Café Customer: Gordon Hodgins. Fred Winthrop: Tom Williams. Café Customer: Herb Armstrong.
Note
Cindy does not appear in this episode. Writer Scott Hamner is Earl Hamner’s son.

“The Gold Watch”
Original airdate: 02/26/1981
Screenplay: Juliet Packer
Director: Walt Gilmore
A rumpled Stanley Perkins appears on the Waltons’ doorstep, delighting Rose, while Jason complains to Ike that a roadhouse with a country singer is stealing all his business at the Dew Drop Inn. Stanley tells Rose he has retired and is invited to stay, but in reality he has escaped from a hospital after having a nervous breakdown. Rose, unsure of how she feels, is grateful when Stanley confesses he’s had “bad times”; he then gets a part-time job at Ike’s. Toni, on assignment in Washington, finds out about Jason’s problem and hires a country-western singer to audition for the Dew Drop, confident he will draw in customers. She’s right, but arrogant Johnny Calico also arouses Jason’s jealousy when he tries to seduce Toni. Stanley’s sister Elvira tracks him down, and he confesses his “dream territory” became a nightmare when ex-soldiers began competing for his job and he was finally fired. He is terrified because his father also had a nervous breakdown and committed suicide thereafter. His job at Ike’s goes well, however, until the Baldwin sisters’ exposure of their father’s old dueling pistols make him so nervous that he quits. Rebuffed by Toni, Johnny walks out of his performance, but Jason and Toni instead do a song they worked up for a USO show and are a success. Depressed, Stanley wants to return to the Marshall Hospital, but Rose gathers all the people he has helped, including Ike with a proposition for a job on the Rockfish paper, and presents him with a gold watch. This—and Rose’s tears—inspire him to stay.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Stanley Perkins: William Schallert. Toni Hazelton: Lisa Harrison. Cuthbert: Rex Benson. Johnny Calico: Curtis Credel. Elvira Perkins: Carolyn Coates. Angry Woman: Virginia Peters. Man at Bar: Robert Ritchie. Dr. Martin: Terry Burns. Customer: George Strattan.

“The Beginning”
Original airdate: 03/05/1981
Screenplay: Kathleen Hite
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
The new minister Tom Marshall is angered by the community’s decaying church and summons the perplexed congregation by ringing the church bell in the middle of the night. A disbelieving Corabeth finds out he was an honor student and a war hero. The community church repairs inspire a dinner-table conversation during which Jason tells the family that Toni, who has mustered out and is staying at the Baldwins, is Jewish. Their unease in her presence drives Toni from the house and Jason is irritated when they berate him for not having told them. Toni admits to Jason that she’s never practiced her religion. Miss Emily, who was expecting a bird from her sister as a birthday gift, is surprised when it turns out to be a Golden Retriever that she names “Dickie.” After confiding to Tom that she really doesn’t know what being a Jew means, Toni begins to investigate her religion and loves it. She—and a spoiled Dickie—attend Tom’s first sermon, in which he emphasizes on the value of faith in any religion and also tolerance. The family is all impressed, except Ben, who views Jason sitting with Toni instead of with the family as “treasonous.” Jason takes Toni to see Grandpa’s grave, but when he proposes to her she says no and flees, the news of which cools Ben’s anger over Jason’s “desertion.” But Jason returns to tell Toni that they can work out their problems together—and Tom finds them in church in the middle of the night, ringing the church bell to announce she’s finally said “Yes!”
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Toni Hazelton: Lisa Harrison. Reverend Tom Marshall: Kip Niven.

“The Pearls”
Original airdate: 03/12/1981
Screenplay: Mary Worrell
Director: James Sheldon
Corabeth takes an emergency trip to her hometown of Doe Hill to keep her little sister Orma Lee from taking possession of a string of pearls belonging to their Aunt Cordelia, who is seriously ill, while Orma Lee is deposited at the store by her husband, Vern Billy; she’s Corabeth’s dead ringer in looks, but not in temperament: she’s high living and hard drinking. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is suffering form the absence of her parents. Orma Lee gets Ike drunk during a pool game, admitting she’s always been the black sheep of her part of the family. Next day she regales Elizabeth with tales of her first husband, and accompanies Ike to Jason’s bingo game wearing the coveted pearls. There she “tells fortunes” gleaned from her chat with Elizabeth, pulls the numbers, and generally endears herself to everyone. When the other children get home, Rose begs them to include Elizabeth in their plans, but the girl overhears and sticks closer to Orma Lee. Then a belligerent Vern Billy returns, throwing the store into chaos when Ike won’t tell him where “his woman” is because he’s been so patronizing. Vern Billy knocks Ike out and Orma Lee must come to his rescue. Rose plans a family dinner to placate Elizabeth, but it turns into a search when the girl runs away, heading for Arizona to see her mother and dad. Orma Lee blames herself. Jason finds Elizabeth at the bus station, telling her they love her but they cannot fill the void in her life. Understanding, she returns home, as does Corabeth, finding Orma Lee at the store. Softened by the years, the sisters swap memories—as well as half the pearls and Aunt Cordelia’s china, and finally reconcile.
Orma Lee Stalcup: Ronnie Claire Edwards. Vern Billy Stalcup: Taylor Lacher. Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Miss Edwards’ Double: Candace Coster. Taxi Driver: Rand Hopkins. Bus Station Announcer: Llynn Storer.
Note
Cindy does not appear in this episode.

“The Victims”
Original airdate: 03/19/1981
Screenplay: Juliet Packer
Director: Lawrence Dobkin
It looks like Erin’s old friend Laurie has married the man of her dreams, Kenny Ellis, a returning veteran, but in private Kenny is short-tempered and hates taking orders, even from Laurie. In fact when he finds out Laurie used to be a friend of John-Boy’s, he beats up Laurie as well as cutting John-Boy dead when he meets him. Laurie won’t tell what’s happening, but Mary Ellen suspects what Kenny is doing. Rose remembers how her son was when he was drunk. Afterwards, Kenny is always solicitous and contrite. Jim-Bob cons Ike into investing $50 in Army surplus, but when he comes home with helmets and gas masks, Ike asks for his money back. Unable to contact Laurie after learning Kenny was fired, John-Boy and Erin discover her beaten up and unconscious in the house. Cared for at the Waltons, Laurie admits she’s afraid of Kenny, but won’t call the sheriff, while a drunken Kenny wreaks havoc at the Dew Drop Inn, prompting Jason to call in the law. Laurie, who is pregnant, refuses to press charges and is ready to go home with him when a seemingly contrite Kenny suddenly becomes paranoid right before Rose’s eyes; she refuses to allow Laurie to go with him and he threatens to come back with a gun. Jim-Bob sells his hot rod to pay off a snitty Corabeth, then makes a killing selling the surplus and is able to buy a new jalopy to fix up. Instead of returning for Laurie, Kenny barricades himself in the house, taking potshots at passers-by and calling them Nazis, not even recognizing Laurie. When John-Boy and Jason sneak inside, they must use their own war experience to cope with his flashbacks. Once they convince him that he’s home and safe, he drops the gun and can be taken to a hospital for help.
John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Kenny Ellis: Ben Andrews. Laurie Ellis: Carol James. Buck Vernon: Archie Lang. Deputy Sheriff Walt Hendrix: John Carter. Deputy Ernie Allen: Michael Joseph McDonough.
Note
Cindy does not appear in this episode.

“The Threshold”
Original airdate: 04/02/1981
Screenplay: Scott Hamner
Director: Herbert Hirschmann
When he is short of money, John-Boy talks Dean Beck into letting him speak with the board of trustees about opening a department devoted to the new medium, television, at Boatwright University. So they can see John-Boy’s television program, Jim-Bob begins building his own set. Meanwhile, Rose sees red and goes on a diet when she finds out Zuleika Dunbar has been playing up to Stanley. The family and Dean Beck all give John-Boy different idea of what to do with his first television broadcast and confuse him, so he finally writes a classically-themed drama to please the straight-laced trustees, but it’s so stilted it makes everyone laugh. Jim-Bob’s television set suffers a “set” back when it blows the fuses in the house, and Dean Beck vetoes John-Boy’s Muse idea in favor of a plain, persuasive speech read by John-Boy on camera. He is petrified by the idea. Rose’s fasting leads her first to being snappish and then to weakness and a frightening faint. She is put to bed and forced to eat a good meal. To improve the reception of the now-working television, Jason and Jim-Bob put an antenna up on the mountain and attract a Pied Piper following while stringing the wire. To cheer Rose, the girls make her a dress like the one she loved at Ike’s and when she’s done trying it on, she emerges to find Stanley waiting with compliments and flowers. The whole neighborhood is on hand when John-Boy says it was John Curtis and his picture book that suggested his final presentation: that television would help children see the world outside of their neighborhood and that it should be a celebration of life.
John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Stanley Perkins: William Schallert. Zuleika Dunbar: Pearl Shear. Dean Beck: Ivor Francis. “Urania”: Mindy Dow. Young Boy: Jonathan Woodward. “Erato”: Karey Louis Scott. “Melpomene”: Colleen Casey.

“The Indiscretion”
Original airdate: 05/07/1981
Screenplay: E.F. Wallengren
Director: James Sheldon
Corabeth walks out on Ike, giving him no reason but asking him for a divorce, and takes refuge at the Walton house. His effort to make up is met with disdain, and later she tells Rose and Mary Ellen that she discovered that Ike cheated on her back in 1941 with someone named Pamela. Their separation causes a family rift. For the anniversary of their first meeting, Drew wants to spend a night alone with Elizabeth at the Baldwin house and give in to what they’ve been feeling about each other. Elizabeth panics. When Corabeth turns down roses from Ike, Ben suggests he make her jealous, but Jason thinks he ought to change his image, saying Ben’s suggestion never works. Ike does both after Corabeth calls the store a hodgepodge: he grows a moustache, gets snazzy clothing, and phones an escort service. Seeing Ike with Nina Sue, the typical dumb blonde, only confirms Corabeth’s suspicions and she simply tells him off, then tries to discourage the children from romances of their own. Next day, Ike is served a subpoena and the adultery charge puzzles him. After talking to Erin, Elizabeth turns Drew down on the night alone and next morning tells him she just wasn’t ready. Having thought it over, he tells her he’s glad they didn’t do anything either. When Corabeth comes back for her clothing, Ike tells her off, then demands to know why she’s using the blonde against him. When he finds out she knows about Pamela Morris, he contritely helps her pack and is hurt when she begins throwing their memorabilia out. He tells her Pamela made him realize why Corabeth loved him by breaking up their relationship; she was a receptionist at an art gallery Corabeth frequented. When Ike says if she had strayed he would have forgiven her, Corabeth realizes she does love him and decides to stay.
Drew Cutler: Tony Becker. Nina Sue: Victoria Carroll. Deputy Sheriff Bull: Dana Craig. Frank Sims: Alvy Moore.

“The Heartache”
Original airdate: 05/14/1981
Screenplay: Kathleen Hite
Director: Herbert Hirschmann
While taking something for her “indigestion,” Rose loses track of John Curtis, who’s rescued by Stanley, who has told Jim-Bob he’s planning a trip. It’s a honeymoon trip for himself and Rose to Niagara Falls. The family gives the pair their blessing and starts to plan the wedding. At her doctor for a blood test, Rose finds she has angina and tries to take it easy. She’s relieved when Cindy gets a job to fulfill herself and finds a nursery in town to care for Ginny. Stanley is puzzled at Rose’s reluctance to accept the Baldwin home as a location for the wedding reception, and then she later tells him she doesn’t want to marry him, astonishing the family. She’s embarrassed when the children present her with a camera, and doesn’t even (outwardly) protest when a hurt Stanley leaves town. In frustration, she does more spring cleaning, but even Reverend Marshall sees through her while Mary Ellen discovers her angina medication; both of them demand she tell Stanley. So he won’t think she hates him, Rose does tell Stanley about her heart condition and when he says he still loves her, she tells him she won’t sentence him to life on the sidelines and walks out. Cindy loves her job, but her upcoming promotion will take too much time away from Ginny and Ben, so she gives up the position and joins the family in proving they don’t need her to take care of them. While talking with Ike, Stanley finds out Ike had a heart attack and has Ike talk to Rose, who is afraid of dying. Stanley then tells her that her illness isn’t what’s important to him. On Rose and Stanley’s wedding day, John-Boy gives her away and her new life begins.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Stanley Perkins: William Schallert. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Reverend Tom Marshall: Kip Niven. Dr. Cole: Ken Sansom. Mrs. Bassett: Corinne Michaels.
Note
Corabeth does not appear in this episode.

“The Lumberjack”
Original airdate: 05/21/1981
Screenplay: Carol Zeitz
Director: Harvey S. Laidman
It is the spring of 1946 and Ike has invested in a Geiger counter to hunt uranium, while Erin bumps into handsome lumberjack Paul Mathews and his partners Tom and Joe Hurley and is immediately attracted to him. When she rides up to Paul’s camp to deliver his favorite tobacco, it looks like the feeling is mutual. Paul makes Erin feel giddy and she also likes the fact that he respects the land, but Ben doesn’t want to pay Paul’s prices for lumber. Jason reminds Ben that if he doesn’t buy quality lumber, their customers will go to Northridge Lumber, a company Paul despises because they do not cut timber wisely. On a uranium expedition, a disgusted Ike and Jim-Bob are about to give up and concede to Corabeth’s disdain for the expedition when the Geiger counter suddenly chatters; they take a sample to have it assayed. Ben gets the lumber co-op to accept Paul’s prices, but John-Boy recognizes him and demands he tell Erin his true identity. So Paul invites Erin, who is becoming afraid she may end up like Emily Baldwin, to meet his father, who is none other than Wesley Northridge! Awed by the house and appalled by the hostility between Paul and his father, who keeps trying to run his life, Erin calls Northridge domineering and loud—and then condemns Paul for just trying to out-do him, walking out on both men. Corabeth bullies the assayer, Howard Franklin, into action, but their discovery turns out to be chemical waste and the two are commended for finding it. Shamefaced, Paul and his father arrive at the house to apologize and Erin accepts.
Paul Mathews Northridge: Morgan Stevens. Wesley Northridge: Richard Eastham. Harold B. Franklin: Lew Horn. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Roxie: Vivian Brown. Tom Hurley: Robert Dryer. Joe Hurley: Chuck Lindsly.

“The Hostage”
Original airdate: 05/28/1981
Screenplay: Marjorie Fowler
Director: Herbert Hirschmann
When mountain man Rance Crooks dies, he wills his house as well as his 14-year-old niece Sissie to Job Mooney, a neighbor, angering Mary Ellen, who takes young Sissie home. Sissie considers the Waltons rich and envies Elizabeth for knowing how to read; they tell her they will teach her to read and much more. But Job, who really is fond of Sissie, kidnaps Elizabeth and says he will return her only if they let him have Sissie. He takes Elizabeth high up on the mountain. Meanwhile, the Baldwin sisters’ madcap cousin Octavia persuades the women to make her executrix of their will and from then on a mysterious series of accidents start happening as Octavia fixes up the house. Job hides Elizabeth at his mother’s home, where the dog and the woman block her escape, and Elizabeth finds out Job partially raised Sissie and loves her. Next morning the family ignores Job’s note and the boys and Sheriff Bridges get tracking dogs to search for Elizabeth after Job holds off the sheriff with a gun and injures Ben. Elizabeth escapes from Mrs. Mooney and the dog, but Job tracks her down and then leads her further into the wilderness. After hearing about the wills and the accidents, Ike suspects Octavia of trying to murder the Baldwin sisters. Octavia catches him following them while they are bird watching and pretends to save them instead. Sissie leads the search party to Mrs. Mooney’s home, where the dogs catch the scent of Elizabeth, while Elizabeth discovers how much Job loves Sissie as he binds her injured foot and tells her how he cared for Sissie. Ike discovers Octavia is only a kleptomaniac and she tells him she would never hurt her cousins, but tells him she will leave if he says nothing. Elizabeth tries to persuade Job to give up by telling him he’ll only be jailed and taken away from Sissie and it’s her words to him and to the searchers, and the sight of Sissie, that makes him release her.
John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Sheriff Ep Bridges: John Crawford. Octavia: Mary Wickes. Job Mooney: Gary Grubb. Eula Mae Mooney: Fran Ryan. Sissie Crooks: Debbie Lytton. Rance Crooks: Al Hopson.

“The Revel”
Original airdate: 06/04/1981
Screenplay: Scott Hamner
Director: Harry Harris
The children see John-Boy off to New York, but he’s floored when his third novel is rejected; there are too many war novels already on the market. At home, the Baldwin sisters are planning one last revel, a party to celebrate life, for their old school friends, and the Walton family is roped into helping with it. In despair, John-Boy and Mike, a playwright friend, get drunk, causing a bar fracas. They later agree to share Mike’s scruffy apartment, and Mike fills his head with get-rich-quick schemes while the latter desperately searches for a job. While helping prepare for the revel, Erin, Elizabeth, and Jim-Bob quarrel over who gets to use John and Olivia’s empty bedroom. John-Boy returns from job hunting to find Mike gone—he’s off to Hollywood—and the landlady demanding the rent. Turned down for newspaper jobs because “artists are too unstable,” John-Boy is reduced to hunting up blue collar work. Sent to New York in J.D. Pickett’s stead, Erin looks up her brother, discovers he’s been evicted, and realizes his cheery letters have been a lie. Participating in a straw-pull, Elizabeth wins the use of John and Olivia’s room, but finds she can’t dislodge the memories living there still. Mary Ellen and Cindy help the Baldwin ladies finish their new gowns, while Ike and Corabeth hide the fact as long as possible that most of the invitations were returned. Ike urges the depressed sisters to celebrate nevertheless, while Elizabeth tells Jim-Bob about the “ghosts” of her parents still occupying the room. Hungry, his typewriter stolen and clothing sold, John-Boy goes back to Belle Becker for help. She tells him never to give up, to go home, and start fresh. To cheer up the Baldwin sisters, the children recruit all the neighbors to attend; Emily and Mamie offer a grateful salute to friendship and life that makes John-Boy, just arrived, realize why Belle sent him home.
Miss Mamie Baldwin: Helen Kleeb. Miss Emily Baldwin: Mary Jackson. Belle Becker: Bettye Ackerman. Mike O’Brien: James Ingersoll. John-Boy: Robert Wightman. Clayton Anderson: Robert Rockwell. Landlady: Treva Frazee. Personnel: Lew Palter. Man at Bar: Ted Jordan. Bartender: Robert Ackerman.
Note
Last show of the series. Those “neighbors” you see milling around in the Baldwin yard are Earl Hamner and other members of the crew.