Esther's character too nasty

I always thought Esther was nasty in most episodes. I never understood why the writers made her come across this way. Grandmothers are capable of being a matriarch without being so nasty. Sure, she had some kind moments and it was obvious the family loved and respected her but ohhhhh..... she was too miserable. I don't remember the grandmother in Spencer's Mountain being nasty, but I haven't seen the movie in a long time.

Closet to the same age and I can see your point. I'd honesty hate to be around someone like that, other than in small doses. I used to work at this lab near my home and the HR person, ironically, was a post menopausal nightmare. I always wondered why her husband married such a shrill B***. Same way with Zeb. I mean, I'm not in a good mood *every* day, but people have said I'm fun to work with.

I watched an interview with Earl Hamner and he said he wrote the part to be a sweet old grandma. When Ellen Corby started filming he told her that he wanted to see someone more like his grandmother. She told him that he had too many sugary sweet characters and she was giving Grandma an edge. Grandma is not my favorite character and I do agree that she can come across as nasty but I think it really helped balance out the family.

I think people are missing the point that Ellen Corby was trying to make. Esther had to be hard nosed as a counter to Zeb. Zeb was easy going to the point of not being the best bread winner for the family. It was implied that John was the one who pushed the mill to be an everyday business versus cutting firewood to be swapped for basics such as ammunition and coffee. It says something for Ralph Waite and the writers to incorporate qualities of both parents into John Walton. When things did not need doing John had no problem slipping off into the woods to hunt or down by the stream to fish even if it were not necessary for that day. When work needed doing John stuck right at it and pushed on the others to do the same until it was done. Many was the time that Zeb balked at John for doing what Zeb considered "production" work when John was trying to produce income to keep the family fed and the taxes paid.

I hated Grandma! Up until her stroke anyway, bless Ellen Corby, it's not her fault the writers made her so unlikeable. I get that Esther was supposed to be an acerbic old woman, a product of her era, the foil to Grandpa's happy-go-lucky, liberal hippy approach to life and people, the matriarch who is tough in order to keep all the kids in line. But they took it too far to make a believable, well-rounded character. She was rude and stand-offish and nasty ALL the time, to everyone, even her own grandchildren and the minister! Too busy quoting the Bible and bleaching the whole house and disapproving of everyone and everything that crossed her eyeline to ever crack a smile or give a hug or show any softness or warmth at all. Nobody is THAT sour.

I remember one scene late on, I can't remember it well because I watched it a long time ago, but I think it's when John Boy is first moving out of the house and Grandma gives him a blanket or something that she'd made specially for him or been saving for him? That was the first time I felt affinity for her at all, and that must've been past the midway point of the show. As someone else has commented, it's hard to believe that the whole Walton family would have adored her and treated her as loveable, when all she ever did was bark at and criticise them. A character needs balance or it becomes a caricature. It became a case of: 'oh look, Esther's cranky and disagreeable again, what else is new' every other episode.

After Ellen Corby's stroke I suppose the writers were forced to make her a softer character, and the change most likely would not have been written in were it not for their hand being pushed, but it did Grandma credit. She became so smiley and sweet and caring, wanting to help and advise everybody in need. A little syrupy sometimes, but some of her scenes were heartbreaking and would have had a place in the older episodes if they'd been given a chance. I guess we're supposed to think that she was like that inside the whole time, but it's hard to swallow that notion when we never, ever saw that side of her in all the time prior.



The mirror... it's broken.
Yes, I know. I like it that way. Makes me look the way I feel.

She was a cranky woman, that is for sure. She does remind me of my own grandmother at times. My grandmother was poor and didn't like when she had too much company because it cost her money with the food to feed them and everything.

I know Grandma Walton didn't like it when the Genius was told he could stay over to help Johnboy.

Yeah, yeah, the character was written that way - a great mistake in my view. Oh! a sour Grandma! Better watch your step cuz you can only degrade her usual citrusy mood into cat-fight nastiness. It's not Corby's fault. In a few - a very few - episodes she is soft, humorous and overtly loving and even sentimental, as when she promises to tell John-Boy about her dating experience (in private, away from the dinner table where the subject comes up). Really a waste of Corby's acting talent (remember her as the cute little lady who asks George Bailey for a very small, reasonable loan in It's a Wonderful Life?) and an unnecessarily unpleasant dark shadow haunting the Walton home. Who, even in the fictional Walton's family, would want to put up with this persnickety old woman every damn day? When you get up, there she is already in the kitchen with Livey. Grandpa doesn't get a break unless he's out helping John with the mill. School would be a welcome break from her heavy and usually disapproving presence!

As a kid in the 70s, a family called Walton lived in our road. The Grandmother lived with them and would get your attention by poking you with her walking stick. Maybe it was Corby's portrayal that gave this an added edge.


Mr Frampton, vis-a-vis your rump