As iconic as The Waltons were (who doesn’t quote “Goodnight, John Boy” in moments of pure silliness?), I never was much of a fan of the series. That however is due more to non-exposure than not liking the show, which I remember more as ‘background noise’ when I was growing up. There were times when it was on, but I was seldom tuned into it. Still lately I’ve been going through a phase of wanting to re-visit some of these old hour-long TV series, and this is certainly one I would pick up if they offered a complete series box set at a decent price. But watching The Waltons and meeting the Waltons are two different things.
Whereas my enthusiasm about watching the series is lukewarm at best, I’ve kept an eager eye out for any opportunities to meet the members of the cast. And once they started rolling in 2014, I had nearly completed the cast of kids within two years. Out of the seven kids, I’m currently only missing photos with… well, let’s say one and a half.
Judy Norton
The first encounter was incredibly simple as there were four of them in one place: Mary Ellen, Erin, Ben, and Elizabeth. That is to say Judy Norton, Mary Elizabeth McDonough, Eric Scott, and Kami Cotler were all appearing at the Chiller Theatre show in New Jersey on October 25, 2014. And from there, it was just a matter of buying the photo op tickets from the handler I can’t stand who charged $25 per photo op. For an additional $15 I could have gotten the autographs, but $40 per person was just too much to shell out.
Mary Elizabeth McDonough
They were however nice enough to do individual photo ops, and then a group photo op, and a second group photo op that they allowed Carolyn to jump into.
Eric Scott
In all four cases The Waltons series was what they were primarily known for, although Mary McDonough went on to appear in Will & Grace, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, and a pair of The Love Boat episodes, while Judy Norton did a single episode of The Love Boat. Eric Scott on the other hand had done his other most interesting work prior to The Waltons when he appeared in an episode of Bewitched. Kami Cotler didn’t do anything outside The Waltons, but damn, her freckles were cute.
Kami Cotler
I had brought along the photo seen at the top of this posting, which was originally sent to me by Ellen Corby, who was the first to sign it. My friend Bob later had Eric Scott and Jon Walmsley sign it. I initially didn’t get it signed by any of the cast members at Chiller, but later that day had a change of heart. The handler let me go ahead and exercise the combo deal so I just gave him $15 and had Judy Norton sign it. Later I realized that the photo had been cropped, so unfortunately even though Mary and Kami appeared in the original copy, they didn’t show up in mine.
I had long hoped to meet Richard Thomas. He of course played the most iconic Walton family member, John Boy. I had thought it unlikely that I would ever get him since he hadn’t appeared at any of the other reunions of cast members as far as I was aware. Only die-hard Walton fans probably realize that Thomas didn’t play the role for entire duration of the series, as in seasons 8 and 9, another actor named Robert Wightman took his place. Which is how I come up with still needing to meet one ‘and a half’. Although he never surpassed the fame of doing The Waltons, he was certainly the most lucrative of actors in terms of other appearances, notable in the TV movie It, as well as the film Wonder Boys and a litany of mostly-forgotten TV movies. He also popped up in numerous TV series including The Defenders, Marcus Welby M.D., Night Gallery, The Practice, Touched by an Angel, and Law & Order.
It was at another Chiller Theatre event a year later when I finally met Richard Thomas and had him add his signature as well. He had just done a Hollywood Show that I missed, so I breathed a huge sigh or relief when he was scheduled to come to Chiller on October 24, 2015, as well. Although a bit pricey, he actually was no more than his other Walton co-stars, with a $40 price tag on the autograph/photo op combo. From my perspective, it was a no-brainer however. He was nice and friendly, and pretty soft-spoke as you would imagine. In fact, he really didn’t appear to have aged much at all. It was kind of like having access to the real John Boy, who I could’ve said ‘good night’ to… but didn’t.
Richard Thomas
Finally, for the purposes of this posting, I got to meet my most recent Walton kid Jon Walmsley at the Hollywood Show in Chicago on September 10, 2016. Somehow I was hoping to get off a bit cheaper with him than the others, but I’m not sure why. However he too was $25 for the photo op, and I didn’t ask about the autograph since he had already signed the photo at the top of the posting. He had also once signed a photo from Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day at an autograph show that I didn’t attend in the late 1990’s.
Because this show was much more relaxed than the others, I had quite a bit of time to chat with Walmsley, and I picked a strange topic to bring up: his unsung appearance playing guitar at a lupus charity event in an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. No lines, no fanfare, no nothing. But as he explained, playing music is mostly what he does now. Outside of a few voice-overs, it’s pretty much all he’s done in his post-Waltons days. Incidentally, he had a couple of interesting roles in his pre–Waltons days, appearing in The Bill Cosby Show, My Three Sons, Daniel Boone, and Adam-12.
Jon Walmsley
So that brings you up to speed on my mountain of Waltons encounters. In case you weren’t keeping track, the one in the ‘one-and-a-half’ actors I still need to meet is David W. Harper, who played Jim-Bob in the series. I know he gets out now and then since I saw that he recently attended a Waltons reunion in Virginia, but I’ve yet to see him. And of course Michael Learned who played the mother Olivia, has remained elusive to me, although she’s been to both a Hollywood Show and a Chiller Theatre Show in the past few years, both of which I unfortunately missed.
I’ll keep you posted. For now, signing off… goodnight John-Boy.
Celebrities of the Fall 2014 Chiller Theatre will continue…
Celebrities of the Fall 2015 Chiller Theatre will continue…
Celebrities of the Fall 2016 Hollywood Show in Chicago will continue…
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