The Waltons is an American historical drama television series about a family in rural mountainous Western Virginia of the Appalachian Mountains / Allegheny Mountains / Blue Ridge Mountains chain, during the economic hardships and mass unemployment of the era of the Great Depression of the 1930s and subsequent wartime homefront of World War II of the early 1940s. It was created by screenwriter / author Earl Hamner Jr., based on his 1961 book Spencer's Mountain. The Waltons aired from 1972 to 1981, but relocated to the fictional Walton's Mountain, Virginia, in the Depression era '30s and wartime '40s.

The TV film special The Homecoming: A Christmas Story was broadcast on December 19, 1971. Based on its high ratings and critical responses success, the CBS network ordered the first season of episodes (to be based on the same characters, with some changes in the casting) which became known as the television series The Waltons. Beginning in September 1972, the series was broadcast on the CBS network for nine seasons. After the series was canceled in 1981, three television film reunion sequels aired in 1982 on NBC (National Broadcasting Company), with three more in the 1990s back on CBS. The Waltons was produced by Lorimar Productions and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution in later syndication after 1981.

Each episode's end sequence featured the voices of the family's saying goodnight to one another before going to sleep for the night. According to the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) which broadcast the series in the United Kingdom, "Goodnight, John-Boy" was one of the most common catchphrases of the 1970s.