[The] famous opening sentence of Anna Karenina suggests that happy families aren't particularly interesting. Why, then, has The Waltons done quite well…. The reason usually given is that its characters are real! But to tell the truth, they are not all that real. Of course, they are immeasurably more human than the flat cutouts in most TV shows. (p. 549)

Nevertheless, no actual families are this uniformly good-looking and sweet-tempered…. And even in happy families, as Willa Cather once said, there's an unavoidable tension, for each one "is clinging passionately to his individual soul, is in terror of losing it in the general family flavor." The Waltons doesn't peer into depths of that sort, though it hints at them when John-Boy, the oldest of the children, feels himself divided between his hope of becoming a writer and his family affections and responsibilities.

But lack of realism is beside the...