The Good

Regardless of how sentimental this may seem it really is a great show.

The Bad

No special features of any kind.

The Waltons: The Complete Third Season took some interesting yet necessary plot turns with the characters. First of all, John-Boy enters college which puts Jason in charge of following in his footsteps. The family as a whole doesn't change that much, rather it is John-Boy's change of place that seems to have the most effect on everyone. Coming from the home life and living conditions that John-Boy did, Boatwright University is a veritable culture shock and this show does a very fine job of showing how that transition effects everyone. From his parents, to his youngest siblings everyone must deal with these issues when the two world's collide.

It is easy to look at the predominately white Waltons TV show and laugh at it's big hearted handling of various situations, but I think the best way to judge it is during the time period in which it was made and the era it was covering. This show does it's best to show how things used to be. I don't see it as a call for the return to the "good ole days," so much as it is a reminder of how things were at one time and in many ways still are for the American family.

Features

No extras came with this DVD.

Video

Standard Version presented in a format preserving the aspect ratio of it's original television exhibition. I have always found that The Waltons, more than any other show from the 1970s, has a real washed out, almost portrait-like quality to all the images on screen. The way the DVDs in this 5 disc set have been compressed, they really managed to maintain that look while keeping the quality quite sturdy.

Audio

Dolby Digital - English: Mono. There is a quietness to this show but it isn't nearly pronounced as other shows that should be louder. This show is also documenting a quieter time. The area that is being shown on screen is mainly a home on Walton's mountain, so it makes sense that things might be a tad toned down. However, it doesn't make sense in today's shows, which take place at the highest levels of the Government, that characters would feel compelled to whisper every line.

Package

The entire Walton's Family is shown on this front cover photo, in which a pair of John-Boy's glasses and an open journal are displayed for added effect. The back features one shot of the younger members of the family, a description of what The Waltons: The Complete Third Season is about, a cast list and some technical specs. This digipack design houses five discs in three slim, blue and black cases. Various pictures line all the disc covers with episode listings and descriptions displayed over all of them.

Final Word

I recall seeing a show on TV Land in which Richard Thomas who played John-Boy talked about the network's reasons for doing the show. At the core of it, Thomas explained, was a desire to do something really good for television watchers and the world at large. He stated that the person in charge of the network realized that they had made a lot of money off of a lot of other projects, and they saw The Waltons as a way to give something back to the people of the world.

In many ways, this feeling oozes out of every frame in The Waltons: The Complete Third Season. The goal may have been lofty but you have to give them credit for trying.

The Waltons was released .