Richard Thomas as Narrator?

[Easton]

When it was announced that Richard Thomas would be narrating the new Waltons reboot, it reminded me of a discussion here somewhere in which a member thought that Richard, portraying Earl Hamner as a young man, should have been the one to narrate the opening and closing of the original series. A few people were for it, but many were against it since the episodes were about Earl Hamner's family growing up during the Depression.

I don't know how well Richard's narration would have gone over, but I had a disturbing thought if he had been the narrator. What would the producers have done when Richard left the show after Season 5?

With Richard having signed only a 5-year contract, there was no guarantee that he would come back to the show with a renewed contract. The producers would have been in double jeopardy, losing not only the star of the show, but the narrator as well if the show was a success and worthy of renewal for a sixth season.

Still, something could have happened to Earl during production and they would have been left without a narrator and be faced with the problem of replacing him.

What would you have wished for either or both scenarios had occurred?

[Johnny]

If something had happened to Earl, I wouldn't mind hearing Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite or even Will Geer fill in as narrator.