Time jumps?

[jeffersoncntycutie]

I was curious if anyone has ever made a list of all the time jumps in the series? I know in "The Career Girl" Erin graduates in season 5 and the narrator mentions Spring of a particular year- either 37 or 38. Around one or two episodes later, within the same season, the year is said to be Spring of either 1938 or 1939. They jumped forward a whole year within a matter of weeks within season 5. I was curious if that happened several other times and if anyone knew what this was done? Thanks!

[dfnmeows44]

I thnk the scripwriters got a lot of episodes prepared that coincided with historical events----The Spanish Civil War,The
Abdication, The Hindenberg, The King George VICoronation, the Anschlusss(I think this Hiding Place
episode was shown at one of the times The Sound of Music was shown),but then the scheduling of the
particular episodes did not come about in the exact order. Therefore they scheduled The Battle of
Drucillas' Pond to coincide with the Fall of France and then purposely delayed The Day of Infamy until the
following season to make sure that these two events almost a year and a half apart would come in proper order.

[davidm]

An interesting point, in season 3 in "The Runaway" Jim Bob's birthday is given as June 13, 1924. In season 4 in "The Secret" his birthday is January 13, 1923. This is when he discovered he had a twin that died at birth. With that said, in real life, the real Jim Bob (James Hamner) was born in 1938. The show has everyone born considerably earlier than their real counterparts. I imagine it was so that they would be old enough to remember the Great Depression.

[dfnmeows44]

It is possible that in trying to reconcile what was said in The Runaway with The Secret there were
different scriptwriters who did not expect we would be able to check later and find out that there were
diescepencies in the episodes!

[ncwaltonsfan]

Jan 23, 2011 14:21:00 GMT -5 dfnmeows44 said:

I thnk the scripwriters got a lot of episodes prepared that coincided with historical events----The Spanish Civil War,The
Abdication, The Hindenberg, The King George VICoronation, the Anschlusss(I think this Hiding Place
episode was shown at one of the times The Sound of Music was shown),but then the scheduling of the
particular episodes did not come about in the exact order. Therefore they scheduled The Battle of
Drucillas' Pond to coincide with the Fall of France and then purposely delayed The Day of Infamy until the
following season to make sure that these two events almost a year and a half apart would come in proper order.

The writers also did this with the '90s reunions,timing the Thanksgiving reunion to coincide with President Kennedy's assassination and the Easter reunion not long before the first humans walked on the moon.

[Rhonda]

This isn't exactly what you are looking for but there is alot of facts here at this site ~ users.galesburg.net/atkins/wfamily.html

The last episode of season 8 is titled A Decade Of The Waltons ~ cause the 8 seasons covers alittle more than 10 years. I love the time jumps and the way everything is not exactly in order ~ it's like listening to the stories my Grandparents used to tell. Oh, I would love to hear them told again, but they have been gone for many years.

[sambda]

Feb 5, 2011 13:46:14 GMT -5 Rhonda said:

This isn't exactly what you are looking for but there is alot of facts here at this site ~ users.galesburg.net/atkins/wfamily.html

The last episode of season 8 is titled A Decade Of The Waltons ~ cause the 8 seasons covers alittle more than 10 years.

I think they roughly got things to work out by dating it from the *start of production* of "The Homecoming"! Hamner says something to that effect in his rubrik.

Interestingly, that episode is almost exactly the 200th episode (if you count the double ones as 2) of "The Waltons" and I notice some of the original newspaper TV listings used that as a "selling point".

[dfnmeows44]

One of the early episodes mentioned that the year was 1934. We can tell from notes that were found
that the last part of the season 9 episodes took place in the spring of 1946---the writing on the box in The
Carousel episode was May 1,1946 and the date of the invitation to the party for the Baldwins that took place on The Revel--the last episode ----was June 4,1946.
This last episode was telecast initially June 4,1981.

[davidm]

Taking the dates they give on the show, and calculating their real life counterparts I've come up with the following birth dates:
John Boy born 1917---------Earl Hamner, Jr. born 1923
Jason born 1918-------------Cliff born 1928, died 1990
Mary Ellen born 1919--------Marion born 1930, died 2004
Erin born 1920---------------Audrey born 1932
Ben born 1921----------------Paul born 1934-------Willard born 1936, died 1989
Jim Bob born 1923-----------James born 1937, died 2004
Elizabeth born 1925----------Nancy born 1940

[Deleted]

Them is some busy people birthing all them childrens

[bullgator]

Thanks DavidM for the comparison of birth dates of Walton family members with Hamner family members. Add to that list the birth dates of the actors who played the Walton children:
Richard Thomas born 6.13.51 ----John Boy born 1917---------Earl Hamner, Jr. born 1923
Jon Walmsley born 2.6.56 ------Jason born 1918-------------Cliff born 1928, died 1990
Judy Taylor born 1.29.58 -------Mary Ellen born 1919--------Marion born 1930, died 2004
Mary McDonough born 5.4.61 ---Erin born 1920---------------Audrey born 1932
Eric Scott born 10.20.58 -------Ben born 1921----------------Paul born 1934
Willard born 1936, died 1989
David Harper born 10.4.61 ------Jim Bob born 1923-----------James born 1937, died 2004
Kami Cotler born 6.17.65 --------Elizabeth born 1925---------Nancy born 1940

[davidm]

My mom grew up during the depression, she was #6 of 8 children. My mom was born in 1921, Earl Jr was born in 1923. I enjoyed listening to the way things were back then. One story was; a neighbor with a big house had a cow that they allowed my mom to milk. One day the cow got out and charged through the area while everyone went running into their houses. One of my mom's older sisters wrote about certain areas of the town and I went through the town and a few of the things mentioned were still there. I remember the trolley cars and the tracks all over the roads. They made for a bumpy car ride.