Editing The Waltons (section)

===Setting===
The main story is set in Walton's Mountain, a fictional mountain community in the fictitious Jefferson County, [[Virginia]]. The stories are based upon events in Hamner's childhood home in [[Schuyler, Virginia|Schuyler]] in [[Nelson County, Virginia]].

The time period is from 1933 to 1946, during the [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]], during the presidencies of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Harry S. Truman]] (who are occasionally mentioned); FDR's picture hangs in the Walton homestead and neighboring Ike Godsey's General Mercantile store. The deepest Depression year of 1933 is suggested by a mentioned reference to the opening of the [[Century of Progress]] exposition ([[World's Fair]]) held in [[Chicago]], a brief shot of an antique automobile registration license plate, and when it is divulged in episode 5 that the date is in the spring of 1933.<ref>"The Typewriter", Season one, episode 5</ref> The last episode of season one, "An Easter Story," is set in February–April 1934. The year 1934 is covered over two seasons, while some successive years are covered over the course of a few months.<ref>A significant [[anachronism]] occurs in the first episode, when the Waltons listen to [[Edgar Bergen|Edgar Bergen and dummy Charlie McCarthy's]] radio program (in tribute to Bergen, who played Grandpa Walton in the December 1971 pilot film); however, Bergen's radio show did not actually begin airing until four years later in 1937.</ref>

The series finale, "The Revel," revolves around a party and the invitation date is given as June 4, 1946. A span of 13 years is therefore covered in nine seasons. There are some chronological inconsistencies, most of which do not hinder the storyline.  The episode depicting the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] was actually broadcast on December 7, 1978, (a Thursday that year), which coordinated the memorable month and date on which the attack occurred, but not the day of the week  (which was in reality a Sunday early morning), but on which day the series was broadcast.

The first three reunion movies (''A Wedding on Walton's Mountain'', ''Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain'', and ''A Day for Thanks on Walton's Mountain''), all produced in 1982, and aired several weeks apart are set in the later post-war year of 1947. Of the later reunions TV films, ''A Walton Thanksgiving Reunion'', filmed in 1993, is set in 1963, and revolves around President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s November 22 assassination. ''A Walton Wedding'', made two years later in 1995, is set in 1964, and ''A Walton Easter'', filmed another two years following in 1997, is set in  fictional 1969, with the social / political themes of the turbulent late [[1960s]] intertwined in the updated story of the later generations of the Walton family.

The series began relating stories that occurred 39 years in the past and ended with its last reunion show set 28 years in the past.

A [[continuity (fiction)|continuity]] error exists in the final reunion movie about how many years John and wife / mother Olivia are said to be married, counting back to the first episode. In this reunion movie, John and Olivia are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in 1969, which dates their wedding to 1929. However, in the first episode of the series aired in September 1972, it is supposedly set in 1933 ("The Foundling"), John Boy is 17 years old and he already  has six brothers and sisters.