From 1972 to 1981, the Depression Era returned to America through the popular television series, The Waltons. For nearly a decade, American viewers embraced The Waltons into popular culture as a symbol of past family values that were largely absent in American television programs.

Earl Hamner, Jr., creator of The Waltons, grew up an aspiring writer in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Schuyler, Virginia. His early novel, The Homecoming, was a literary recollection of his own Depression Era childhood, of which he speaks fondly: "We were in a depression, but we weren't depressed. We were poor, but nobody ever bothered to tell us that. To a skinny, awkward, red headed kid who secretly yearned to be a writer … each of those days seemed filled with wonder." In 1970, Lorimar Productions approached Hamner to create a one-hour television special based on The Homecoming, and hence, the Walton family made its...