Ep.19 - The Shivaree

The family is decorating their home for Young Olivia’s wedding. She is the daughter of Olivia’s childhood friend Marnie and is named after Olivia. Young Olivia’s family is deceased and The Walton’s are the closest family she has. Olivia and Esther are making paper flowers at the kitchen table and Zeb arrives with some fresh flowers for the bouquet. Young Olivia is very excited about her fiancé Bob Hill. John-Boy picks Bob up at the bus station in Rockfish. They stop at Ike’s and find that Ike and Yancy are preparing to go hunting but they are also very excited about the Shivaree planned for the wedding night. Bob isn’t familiar with the back woods custom and is very uncomfortable with the planned events. Living his whole life in Richmond Bob feels out of place with the customs of the country folk. The wedding servic  goes as planned but is clear that Bob wants nothing to do with the Shivaree custom. The family tries to put a stop to it but when John-Boy can't find Yancy or Ike and he leaves a note at the store in the hopes that they will get the message.

The family has fixed up the garden shed for their honeymoon but as Bob is “hanging his socks” that evening a loud group of men including Ike and Yancy arrive banging pots and causing a ruckus. They drag Bob off for his Shivaree.  They leave him handcuffed and blindfolded in the woods.  Bob stumbled into Hyder Snow and his dog Rooster who are out hunting coons. He is very amused that Bob has been “Shivareed” and not an escaped convict.  John-Boy and Young Olivia find them walking along the road.

Young Olivia tells her namesake that she saw Bob flying his exotic kite collection on Saturdays at the park. She bought a kite and purposeful got it tangled in his in an attempt to meet him.

The next day Bob is still furious and tries to call a cab to take him back to Richmond.  The family in the mean time has fixed up the old cabin on the mountain so that the new couple can spend the rest of their honeymoon alone. They convince Bob to stay and as the couple settle down for a quiet evening that night more cars arrive outside.  Bob fears another attempt at disruption but the custom on the second night is to serenade the couple. The large group including the Walton family sings “Let Me Call You Sweetheart”. The couple retires back into the cabin to finally begin their life together.

• Young Olivia returns in "The Loss" (s4-ep10)
• An uncharateristic handheld shot follows behind the Waltons truck as they arrive back at the house. The camera then follows the family handheld towards the front porch.
• Guest Star Bruce Davison is has made a busy career as a character actor and was Oscar nominated and a Golden Globe winner for his role in Longtime Companion (1989)
• Bruce Davison co-starred with Richard Thomas in the 1969 film Last Summer. Actress Catherine Burns who guest stars in The Substitute (s2-ep11) was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance and Ralph Waite played Richard Thomas' father in this film.