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	“The Waltons: The Complete Third Season”
	Reviewer:	Wayne A. Klein	Studio:	Warner
	Genre:	TV-Series	Release:	4/25/06
	Special Features:	None
Review:	Warner rolls out another season of “The Waltons” at a leisurely pace. At this stage most of the show’s audience will be dead or the DVD format will be out of date by the time the entire run comes out. Perhaps Warner has decided that fans of the show live their lives at a pace similar to those on Walton Mountain; they would be mistaken. The third season had a number of gems including the two hour episode “The Conflict” which features Richard Hatch who later appeared in “The Streets of San Francisco”, the original and remake of “Battlestar Galatica”. In “The Co nflict” Aunt Martha’s home is threatened by the building of the Blue Ridge Parkway. John Boy is shot in a altercation with the contractor and the family try and convince the officials to bypass Aunt Martha’s home. “The First Day” highlights John-Boy’s first day at Boatwright and being separated from the family. Jason suddenly feels the pressures of stepping into John-Boy’s shoes as the oldest child and the other children don’t appreciate him taking on John-Boy’s role. Other conflicts throughout the season will keep fans involved but the conclusion of season three “The Venture” was a highlight with John deciding to build a new mill the pressure is on to meet larger orders and their deadlines. He ends up contracting pneumonia threatening the big contract he has and all the business at the mill. * “During its run it ranked second only to “All in the Family” on CBS and continued to carry Thursday nights for much of its run. The contents of the third season are as tasty as grandma’s pecan pie with lots of conflict, some terrific writing, acting and direction. The third season caught the show beginning to peak with some truly memorable guest stars and performances as a highlight of the third season. Image & Sound:** Looking as clear as the water from the river that runs on the outskirts of town, “The Waltons” looks surprisingly spry and quite good considering the age of the show. Warner has done another outstanding job with the transfer although there are occasional hints of damage to some of the prints used they are minimal and shouldn’t be a distraction. The mono sound comes across with nice crisp clear presence.
Special Features:	Nothing worth noting in this set beyond the usual trailers, etc. While I appreciate Warner spending the money and time to make these episodes as pristine looking as possible I also would love (in an ideal world) commentary tracks from creator/writer/producer Earl Hamner, Jr., Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite and other cast members. It might be too much to ask for them to go to the expense of a featurette on the changes for each season but, perhaps, they could provide a brief featurette highlighting either important guest stars, one particularly cast member or a discussion on the staff writers and how they plotted out each season. Understand I’m asking for these in an ideal world. Heck, I’d be happy if they release all of these befo re I’m sixty-five. I realize that Warner has a very full release schedule and they want to give each series its due but it seems to me that this is a historically important show that should be given more priority. ---
Final Words:	Another stellar season with the folks on Walton Mountain the third season catches the series starting to peak. Some terrific performances and guest stars appeared during the third season of “The Waltons”. My biggest concern is the amount of time it is taking for these shows to come to DVD. It seems that Warner would have better sales momentum if they released these one boxed set every three months or at the very least two a year.