Why I Vote for Mary Ellen as the Main Character
I’d like to begin by acknowledging Judy Norton, who played Mary Ellen on The Waltons. Through her YouTube Series “Behind the Scenes of the Waltons,” <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFmdAT3ke2B_-KxMpDHjJAg/featured>.
I’ve reignited my passion for the series. Every Monday and Thursday, I refresh my YouTube page waiting for a new episode of Judy’s video. I’m further impressed that she takes time to read and respond to each comment, including the million questions I send her.
Judy’s release of the YouTube series meets serendipity. Not only has it encouraged me to write this blog series, but it gives me a chance to applaud the show’s most dynamic character. So in this blog, I’ll reflect upon my query: why isn’t Mary Ellen the main character?
Even though John Boy (Earl Hamner) narrates the show, he pales in comparison to Mary Ellen’s character dimensions. Placed side-by-side to his sister, John Boy depicts a two-dimensional character to Mary Ellen’s five dimensions. Like Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills 90210, Mary Ellen’s character cultivates layers as the show progresses through nine seasons. As a Writing/English teacher myself, I tell students that a story holds weight when a character transforms from the beginning to the end. Unlike John Boy or any other Walton, Mary Ellen illustrates this metamorphosis more than any other character. She surprises viewers with every step she takes. You never know what to expect with Mary Ellen which keeps you at the edge of your seat.
In the first season, the sassy teen focuses on adventure and fame. She voices her intention to escape the mountain and the family. Impatient, she seizes opportunities herself. Within the first few episodes, she mimics a trapeze artist and runs away with a minstrel. It’s paradoxical, how in the “The Easter Story,” (Season 1) Erin, not Mary Ellen, expresses her desire to take up nursing. Though I’ve never worked for a television show, I assume that characters evolve as the show matures. Is it possible the producers experimented with foreshadowing Erin as a nurse but then reworked Mary Ellen into that role?
At the show’s inception, it’s difficult to imagine the baseball-loving tomboy, who beats up boys in school, later take on a nurturing role. But the producers chisel these traits by the third season. Slowly, viewers see Mary Ellen loving “girly” things. Examples include “The Ring” (where she goes to a college formal and finds a ring in her secondhand purse) and “The Spoilers,” (where the family from New York come and entice many Waltons, including Mary Ellen, to big city glamour).
Then, in “The Job,” we first witness Mary Ellen’s empathy. In this episode, John Boy tutors a blind woman and invites her to a family picnic. During this outing, Mary Ellen sits alone at the pond, closes her eyes, and role plays what blindness feels like. I applaud the producers for illuminating this side of Mary Ellen. It seamlessly transcends later as she prepares for a nursing career.
After Richard Thomas leaves, Mary Ellen gets a major storyline in most episodes. Since I’m writing this for fans, we know that by this time, Mary Ellen has married Curt and given birth to John Curtis. Earlier, you wouldn’t have expected Mary Ellen to start a family so soon as during the first few seasons, she touts her desire to live as a “bachelor girl.”
Shows often struggle after the main character leaves. For The Waltons, John Boy’s exit coincided with Grandma’s (Ellen Corby) stroke, sending producers scrambling. This might have led producers to pepper the show with soap opera themes without ripping the show’s “traditional family” fabric. So, from Season 6 onwards, Mary Ellen never gets a break. Battling one setback after another, the show departs from the trite closures we see in earlier seasons. This might have been what kept the Waltons on the air after John Boy left.
By this juncture, the show is ripe for the romantic interludes of several Walton children, now young adults. While Erin, Ben and Jason contend with major love plots, we would expect Mary Ellen to follow a stable trajectory. Yet, she’s the one who faces the most tribulations. The eldest Walton sister grapples with:
1. Giving up shared parenting with Curt as he goes off to war in the episode immediately following John Curtis’s birth. She then deals with loneliness, uncertainty, and effective single parenting.
2. Drug addition while finishing nursing school.
3. Widowhood after Curt is “killed” in Pearl Harbor
4. Playing matriarch after mother Olivia gets ill and leaves.
5. Taking the role of crisis manager and social worker while serving as the county nurse of the rural mountain residents.
6. Defending against racist threats as she briefly dates a Mexican American soldier.
7. Facing a surreal “back from the dead” Curt, who barely acknowledges her.
8. Overcoming gender barriers to enter medical school.
9. Coping with infertility after a car accident.
Mary Ellen rarely sees a happy ending, or at least an ending she expected. Nevertheless, she perseveres and develops resilience. In the last scenes of the 1982 reunion episode “Mother’s Day on Walton’s Mountain,” Mary Ellen’s grace shines through. Dressed in a suit and hat which strike a resemblance of Jacqueline Kennedy, Mary Ellen walks elegantly toward new husband, Jonesy. Embracing him and her son John Curtis, she vows to live life with full zest. What contrast from the defiant tomboy we see in Season 1. Through Mary Ellen, a caterpillar grows into a butterfly, engraving The Waltons into television history.
