Looking back on the 1970s, it amazes me how many different TV shows and TV personalities had board games, record albums, lunch boxes, and bubblegum cards. Wasn’t our economy a bit shaky then? If so, you would never know it judging on the consumption of the aforementioned pop cultures artifacts. Charlie’s Angels, The Partridge Family, Welcome Back, Kotter, The Bionic Woman, Good Times and many other shows are well-represented on bubblegum cards but other shows didn’t get that privilege.
One of the decade’s bigger TV drama hits was the Waltons, a depression-era and World War II family that lived in rural Virginia on Walton’s Mountain. A top-20 show in its first six seasons, The Waltons got the usual 1970s pop culture treatment with a lunchbox, board game, record album, and was the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting. A bubblegum card set was piloted and proofs of the 55-card set were released but it never got past that stage. Those cards today cost in the hundreds of dollars per card and are highly sought after. The attractive pink-bordered cards are reminiscent of the designs of the time and features the Walton’s large cast.
RetroCards has created their own set based on the original design, changing the hot pink borders to light blue. This 18-card set features characters and episodes from the first two seasons as well as a wrapper card of the original test set. Poor collectors will now be able to afford to get the John-Boy rookie card in this attractive new set. Familiar faces include the Walton family, Baldwin Sisters, Ike Godsey, a young John Ritter as the Reverend, a wrapper card (from the original test set) and more! Get it here.
