Television series

The Waltons

Name: The Waltons
Genre: Drama, Family
Released: 1972
Cast: Eric Scott, Jon Walmsley, Mary Beth McDonough, David W. Harper, Kami Cotler

The Waltons follows a large, loving family scraping through the Depression and into World War II on a Virginia mountain, narrated in warm hindsight by eldest son John-Boy. Each episode turns on a small moral test — honesty, forgiveness, sacrifice — resolved gently by supper. Slow, sincere television built for settling in, not bingeing. For anyone craving comfort without cynicism.

TVMaze rating

7.7

If you liked this

Little House on the Prairie1974

Same rural hardship, same enormous warm family, same narrated-by-a-child sincerity — if Walton's Mountain calls to you, the Ingalls' Minnesota prairie will feel like coming home.

But Even more saccharine in places, with moral lessons delivered with a much bigger, blunter hammer than the Waltons ever swing.

The Wonder Years1988

Swap Depression-era Virginia for Nixon-era suburbia and you get the same trick — an adult narrator looking back fondly on a childhood that felt enormous at the time.

But Sharper and funnier, with wry irony replacing sincerity — less gentle warmth, more awkward comedy and hindsight regret.

This Is Us2016

The modern heir to the formula: a big family, a sprawling timeline, and every episode aiming a tearjerker straight at your chest with real skill.

But Twistier and far more emotionally engineered — it wants you crying by design, on a weekly schedule.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I Remember Mama1948no page yet

This is essentially the film that invented the warm-hindsight family memoir decades before The Waltons — same adult-narrator-remembers-childhood structure, same small daily mercies as the plot.

A hardscrabble immigrant family in early-1900s San Francisco, narrated by a daughter looking back with the same soft, grateful nostalgia John-Boy brings to his own family's story.

But Black and white, stage-bound and unmistakably of its era — you'll need patience for old Hollywood sentimentality.

Anne of Green Gables1985

Same rural pastoral warmth and clear-eyed decency running through hard times, anchored by a similarly beloved, morally serious child at its center.

But No war, no Depression — the stakes are smaller and gentler, with less of the Waltons' hard-won grit.

Downton Abbey2010

A different class entirely, but the same appetite for family saga across changing decades, with servants and gentry standing in for the Waltons and their neighbours.

But Glossier and soapier, far more interested in scandal and inheritance than quiet rural virtue.

Road to Avonlea1990

Another rural ensemble family drama built on small-town decency and gentle life lessons, from the people who made Anne of Green Gables.

But Even more old-fashioned and less internationally known — harder to find, and just as unhurried.

Christy1994no page yet

An Appalachian mission-school setting, a hardscrabble mountain community, and the same faith-inflected warmth that runs through the Walton household every week.

But Shorter-lived and more overtly religious in its messaging than The Waltons ever allowed itself to be.

Little Women2019

Sisters growing up poor but proud during wartime, holding a family together through sacrifice and small joys — the DNA is nearly identical.

But Civil War New England, not Depression Virginia, and two hours instead of a slow-built ensemble world.

7th Heaven1996no page yet

A big, loving, values-first family show for a later generation — seven kids instead of eight, but the same wholesome engine underneath.

But Contemporary suburban setting loses all the period texture that makes Walton's Mountain feel distinct and lived-in.

Only Yesterday1991

Same nostalgic engine as The Waltons, an adult remembering rural childhood with aching fondness, just rendered in a wholly different medium, language and culture.

A Studio Ghibli film about a grown woman recalling her childhood summers in rural Japan — tender, plain-spoken, and startlingly close in spirit to Walton's Mountain.

But Animated, Japanese, subtitled, and nearly plotless — a mood piece rather than a drama with clear stakes.

Winter's Bone2010

Same structural core as The Waltons — rural poverty, an eldest child forced into responsibility, family survival as the whole plot — but drained of nostalgia and lit by real menace instead.

A teenage girl in the rural Ozarks holds her family together against poverty and threat — the eldest-sibling-as-parent role John-Boy plays, pushed to its hardest possible edge.

But Bleak, tense and largely joyless — it strips out every ounce of the warmth and comfort Walton's Mountain offers.