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For many, Thanksgiving is a time for family. That includes one of TV’s most famous fictional families. Over nearly 10 years on CBS, the characters in The Waltons came together for a handful of Turkey Day meals. But the show only aired one official Thanksgiving special during its nine-season run: 1973’s two-part episode The Thanksgiving Story.
‘The Waltons: The Thanksgiving Story’ aired in season 2
The Walton family made their TV debut with The Homecoming: A Christmas Story. The 1971 holiday-focused made-for-TV movie about a family celebrating Christmas during the Great Depression was such a hit with audiences that CBS quickly ordered a TV series featuring the same characters.
The Waltons premiered in September 1972. One of its first episodes was “The Hunt.” While not specifically centered around Thanksgiving, the episode does deal with John-Boy Walton’s (Richard Thomas) desire to help his father John (Ralph Waite) provide for the family. At the same, John-Boy struggles with his reluctance to kill a wild turkey.
The show tackled the Thanksgiving holiday directly in season 2 with “The Thanksgiving Story.”
“Next to Christmas, I suppose you’d have to say that Thanksgiving was our favorite time of the year,” a grown-up John-Boy (Earl Hamner Jr.) says in the episode’s voiceover. “We may have been poor in worldly possessions but, at Thanksgiving, more than any other time, I think we knew, we really knew, how great was our abundance.”
The two-hour episode centers on John-Boy, whose dreams of going to college are nearly derailed when he suffers a life-threatening head injury. Meanwhile, his sister Mary Ellen auditions for the Thanksgiving play, Jason (Jon Walmsley) gets a job helping the Baldwin sisters make their moonshine, and Ben (Eric Scott) helps Grandpa (Will Geer) hunt for the Thanksgiving turkey.
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There were two ‘Waltons’ Thanksgiving reunion movies
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The Waltons continued to air on CBS until 1981. After it was canceled, the original cast came together for several reunion movies. Two of those focused on Thanksgiving. In 1982, A Day for Thanks on Walton Mountain aired. It’s set in 1947 and sees the youngest Walton sibling Elizabeth (Kami Cotler) worrying that the day just won’t feel special if the whole family can’t come together to celebrate.
In 1993, the Waltons cast reunited one more time for A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion. This TV movie is set in 1963 and sees the clan celebrating the holiday in the wake of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
This year, the Waltons again came together to give thanks. The CW’s A Waltons Thanksgiving aired Nov. 20 and featured a new cast of actors in the roles of John, Olivia, John-Boy, and the rest of the family.
Where to stream ‘The Thanksgiving Story’ and ‘The Waltons’ Thanksgiving movies
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Want to spend your Thanksgiving with The Waltons? You can stream The Waltons: The Thanksgiving Story for free on Amazon’s Freevee. Freevee also has every other episode in the series.
A Day for Thanks on Walton’s Mountain and A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion are both available for purchase on Prime Video.
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