MeTV

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll see if I can find that.

Today, the first episode of MeTV's "pleasant valley Sunday" of The Monkees was the penultimate episode, in which Peter has his mind taken over by a mentalist (by drugging).  His goal is to win a gig as a mentalist for 10 weeks (the Monkees were trying to get it as a rock group).  This finally leads to a performance with a varied audience including -- Burgess Meredith as the Penguin from the Batman series.  No doubt he was thinking about using the idea for a scheme of his own.

As Robert Frost observed, "Some say the world will end in fire.  Some say in ice."  I think the idea of getting their predictions right for shorter periods before we take them seriously with this one is excellent.

One the great episodic moments in TV was John Ritter’s role as the Reverend Mathew Fordwick in The Sinner. That was the first of his 18 appearances on The Waltons as the young reverend.

Had this fundamentalism been portrayed this way on the awful Father Brown series, I would know it was Leftist goons living out their stereotypical fantasies of Christians, painting them in the worst possible light.

Granted, this is TV so middle-toned shades-of-grat are not going to be as interesting as high contrasts. Still, I’m guessing we know fundamentalist types such as the young reverend and his dried-up companion, the Reverend Ethel Prissom, played marvelously by Collin Wilcox Paxton.



We are not rookies here. But for those looking over our shoulders (and we hope there are at least a couple), fictional tales can elucidate moral issues like nothing else. No wonder Jesus so often spoke in parables.

Our preachers in this episode are hurlers of fire-and-brimstone rhetoric. Everyone has one foot already in hellfire. They need to be double-scolded into good behavior.

Surely some do. But John Walton and his clan are not those people. When the Reverend Fordwick comes to town to preach some kind of revival meeting and stays at the Walton house, he and John Walton, Sr. (Ralph Waite) butt heads over Fordwick’s snarling condemnation of about anything and everything. The dried-up excuse for a human being he is traveling with (Reverend Ethel Prissom) amplifies the situation.

Unfortunately for John, his wife, Olivia — a devout religionist — is giving Reverend Fordwick and Reverend Prissom full deference. Things become chilly between John and Olivia.

Well, it just happens that the Baldwin Sisters are distant relatives of Reverend Fordwick and his mother had asked him to invite the sister personally to his revival meeting. The Walton clan nervously looks at each other trying to make excuses for why they can’t drive the reverend the relatively short distance to see the Baldwin Sisters.

Finally, Grandpa Walton acquiesces and drives Reverend Fordwick to their house where they are both furnished with plenty of “the recipe.” The young Reverend Fordwick takes the sisters at their word and believes it is merely an “herbal” concoction. But it’s bootleg liquor. And gauging by Grandpa’s reaction, it’s the good stuff.

The collision comes. The worst happens. Grandpa and the Reverend Fordwick drive up to the tent where the revival meeting is waiting for him to preach and both are rolling drunk. Fordwick opens the passenger door to the truck and promptly falls flat on his face. Oh, the shame.

It seems Olivia was right all along: That so-called human nature that she rubs into her husband’s face is not such a nice thing. The reverend is shunned by all, even John-Boy.

The Walton clan, led by Olivia (but minus her husband, as always) takes her family to the revival meeting where Reverend Ethell Prissom will now preside. Reverend Fordwick is crestfallen and decides the ministry is not for him. John Walton, who always knew that the yute’s problem was being too green and inexperienced, gives him a mild talking too (and more than a little insertion of backbone).

John looks at John-Boy (who is now old enough to decide whether or not to attend church) and say something like, “You know I’m not a church-going man. But there are times when something is the right thing to do.” He and John-Boy get dressed up and personally escort the young Reverend Fordwick to the revival meeting where he receives a cool reception.

John Walton then gives a speech about “those without sin throwing the first stone.” Clearly the young Fordwick has been humbled, the congregation of highly judgmental people a bit shamed, and Fordwick goes on to give a heartwarming speech of forgiveness and redemption.

It is impossible for stories like this to appear on television these day. Or at least as rare as diamonds. The clear moral lesson here is: Be moral, but don’t overdo it. Life is for living and it’s never going to be perfectly ordered and clean.

Another reason this could not be made today is that you’d never have a father portrayed as Ralph Waite portrays John Walton, Sr. He is the model American and Christian father. He is no Al Bundy. Oh, how far we have fallen.

But you can currently catch some reruns of this show at noon on MeTV. It's a temporary respite from the fall.

Yep, we’ll miss her. She seemed like a class act. Sort of in the same vein, I saw Eve Plumb in a Blue Bloods episode the other day. She still looks pretty good. And she did well in the role.