The Waltons is an American television series created by Earl Hamner, Jr., based on his book Spencer's Mountain, and a 1963 film of the same name, starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. The series pilot was a TV movie entitled The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, broadcast in 1971. The show originally aired in the United States on CBS from 1972 to 1981. After the series left the air, three TV movie sequels were broadcast in 1982, with three more following in the 1990s.

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, during the Great Depression, the Walton family makes its small income from its saw mill on Walton's Mountain. The story is told through the eyes of John Boy, who wants to be a novelist, goes to college, and eventually fulfills his dream. The saga follows the family through depression and war, and through growing up, school, courtship, marriage, employment, birth, aging, illness and death. Written by Ed Stephan