My family watched this show back in the ‘70s, and I kinda hated it. I was a boring, preachy show. Even as a kid, I could see what they were doing. Though ostensibly set in the ‘30s, it seemed to me that they were always tackling some social issue du jour of the ‘70s, e.,g racism, poverty, single parenthood, antisemitism, whatever. Refugees from Nazi Germany just happened to move in up the road from the Waltons in rural Virginia. Go figure.
That is the difference between what endures and what doesn’t. Whether the author can overcome their own era or not.