The final show of "The Waltons" goes out with a whimper and not a bang! The final season of this once fine show descended into terrible writing, bad acting, and wandered aimlessly from one bad story to another. After Will Geer died and Ellen Corby had her stroke, the show fell into a terrible funk. The writing was no longer sharp, the stories were lame, annoying characters were introduced like Rose's grandchildren, the new John-Boy, Rose herself. Olivia left, John left the show so that it lost more of its juice. Plots were recycled. The Walton kids were left to bravely carry on and given nothing to do.
This episode is a great example of all the problems to beset this show and its aimlessness. Only a few episodes ago, the new John-Boy needed a job. In the The Threshold.he was shown getting that job as the head of his Universities new TV media program. Instead of following up on this storyline, he is shown needing a new job again. What happened to his University job? We will never know. Instead, we are shown a John-Boy as a failed writer, a near drunken loot and bum, sleeping on park benches, behaving boorishly It is all such pathetic tommyrot. By the end, the former fans of the show, if any are left, are cheering for the end of the series. It is a shame that this series ended on the constant soar notes that that it did without any thought to direction or what the the creators wanted this show to be after the great lost that the show suffered throughout its long run. Well at least there will not be another aimless, poorly written, depressing episode to follow this travesty.