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Post by e knight on Dec 18, 2021 1:53:15 GMT -5
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Post by greenpeeps5 on Feb 11, 2022 23:52:41 GMT -5
He was just so different from the original John-Boy, it just seemed impossible. He was a good-looking guy, seemed nice, good actor, but he just wasn't John-Boy in the least. It seemed he didn't even try to take on John-Boy's personality. On the episode about John-Boy's first day of college, he made some comment to John like, "You can't take the country out of the man." He certainly wasn't "country" and he didn't try to be.
I didn't watch The Waltons when it was first on. I remember my grandmother talking about it and loving it because she was born in 1912 and lived in the south, so it just felt so good and familiar to her. When my daughter was in her early teens, she started watching the reruns and I watched it with her. There were two on each day. Somehow, we didn't make it to the time of the replacement John-Boy, but we did know that it happened. Then when the COVID quarantine first started, I started watching it again since it's such a feel-good show and it was comforting. My daughter started watching it then too, although she no longer lives at home.
I think bringing in Rose with the two kids was more upsetting to us. Jeffrey was just so irritating and Rose, although nice, had such a high-pitched voice. When episodes started revolving around her and Stanley, that really made us lose interest.
The funniest thing was the episode where John-Boy is coming home and falls asleep on the bus and starts shouting, "Katie Ann." That's my daughter's name. I called her and said, "John-Boy's calling for you," lol.
We have fun watching how different characters pop up again and again in different roles. Like the woman who ended up marrying Ep went to high school with John and was in the 25th high school reunion episode, or Rose was Mary Ellen and Erin's landlady when they briefly moved out. And John-Boy's friend whose legs were paralyzed during the war was a mean kid on his first day of college, but then the next year was head of the student council. And Selena's grandpa was Olivia's uncle in another episode.
It's also fun to see props end up everywhere. The crocheted blanket on the back of the couch seemed to be in everyone's house. They had the same suitcase and Olivia and Grandma redid it for Mary Ellen, but then it reappeared in original form with John-Boy in later episodes. I saw one that looked just like it in another show and mentioned, "I wonder if that was the same prop they used in The Waltons." And clothes were passed around everywhere, not just among the Waltons.
As far as Bewitched, I think I'm the only one on Earth who liked the second Darrin better. The first one just seems too whiny and irritating to me. But the show was funnier the first few years before they started bringing in all the different characters, like Uncle Arthur and Aunt Clara, et al.
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Post by flossieskid on Feb 12, 2022 4:23:33 GMT -5
greenpeeps5 - so glad you had the chance to watch the Waltons with your daughter. Earl would have loved to hear you thought it was “feel good TV” and you shared it with your family. It meant the world to him that so many viewers welcomed “his family” into their homes.
I thought I saw every possible scene my Mom was in, but the eagle-eyed Forum participants keep surprising me with new ones all the time. So, I feel, (with my terrible memory) I may, one day, watch each episode all over again, but I will enjoy them just as much as the first time! I hope you do too!
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Post by Easton on Feb 12, 2022 9:25:00 GMT -5
With this thread being resurrected, I delighted in reading through it, but them I began to see it through different eyes. Most of the responses were from today's TV audience and not, as Tracey had asked, from original audiences. Back then, people may have had responses to the new John-Boy, but who could they talk to about it? A neighbour? A family member who was who was also a fan? Perhaps a letter sent to the network?
In these days of the internet and social media in which people can literally be a part of groups of hundreds or even thousands of people. Fans in the 70s didn't have that luxury, so their reactions to the new John-Boy would have remained with themselves and a few acquaintances.
Replacements happen quite regularly these days. People adapt. But people adapted to replacements as well back in the 70s, and there were many. They just didn't have the means to express their feelings about it the way we do today.
And 'yes', Brenda. I loved Corabeth's reaction to the photo in the newspaper. It was almost prophetic, wasn't it?
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Post by JessicaGirlSpy on Feb 12, 2022 11:03:15 GMT -5
In my opinion Robert Wightman was fine as John Boy. But to me Richard Thomas is John Boy. ( or vice versa) and Robert Wightman was an actor playing the part of John Boy.
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Post by carol on Feb 16, 2022 14:38:42 GMT -5
I watched during the original run and the change in actors playing John Boy never bothered me. I thought Robert Wightman played the part well. He had big shoes to fill but he made the part his own rather than try to copy Richard Thomas which would not have worked.
I look at Richard Thomas' version as the young naive John Boy who didn't know much of life beyond the shelter of the mountain and Robert Wightman as the more mature John Boy who was changed by the harsh realities of life away from the mountain and especially the war. No one who has gone off to war comes back the same person they were when they left.
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Post by Kyle on Feb 16, 2022 21:14:20 GMT -5
They should have explained his change in appearance. Perhaps he got too close to the Hindenburg and his face got burned. Or maybe Blue stepped on his face. Then Dr. Vance had to do plastic surgery. The Waltons paid for it with a side of bacon and some apples.
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Post by carol on Feb 16, 2022 23:17:17 GMT -5
They should have explained his change in appearance. Perhaps he got too close to the Hindenburg and his face got burned. Or maybe Blue stepped on his face. Then Dr. Vance had to do plastic surgery. The Waltons paid for it with a side of bacon and some apples. Then what would they have done in the last three reunion movies when John Boy was back to looking like Richard Thomas?
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Post by e knight on Feb 16, 2022 23:26:36 GMT -5
They should have explained his change in appearance. Perhaps he got too close to the Hindenburg and his face got burned. Or maybe Blue stepped on his face. Then Dr. Vance had to do plastic surgery. The Waltons paid for it with a side of bacon and some apples. Then what would they have done in the last three reunion movies when John Boy was back to looking like Richard Thomas? Of course, the scriptwriters woulkd reverse themselves and claim that JB_2.0 was indeed an imposter, and that JB_1.0 had rightly deposed him. Or, they'd have just pretended that his face had finally healed back to what it was. (Someone posted here that The Doctor (a/k/a "Doctor Who") had intervened and supervised JB's regeneration into a new body, with a "perception filter" applied to distract others from his facial changes until the face resumed its original configuration. That makes as much sense as anything else I've read.) Crossovers between 1970s shows are permitted, I suppose!
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Post by csh2088 on Feb 17, 2022 4:00:04 GMT -5
I noticed that they had changed actors but at that age I really didn't care. Looking back they should have just cancelled show because Will Geer was dead, Michael Learned and Richard Thomas was gone, and Ellen Corby was not in any shape to continue. That is the heart and soul of the show gone.
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Post by Kyle on Feb 17, 2022 7:52:54 GMT -5
They should have explained his change in appearance. Perhaps he got too close to the Hindenburg and his face got burned. Or maybe Blue stepped on his face. Then Dr. Vance had to do plastic surgery. The Waltons paid for it with a side of bacon and some apples. Then what would they have done in the last three reunion movies when John Boy was back to looking like Richard Thomas? The plastic surgery didn’t take!
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Post by Easton on Feb 17, 2022 21:03:10 GMT -5
I think that the biggest problem had nothing to do with Robert Wightman. The biggest problem was the material. I mean, neither the Muses scene or the Puppet in the Park scene would never have been written for Richard Thomas. To me, it was like Robert had been served a 14-ounce steak and given a plastic picnic knife and spoon (Yes, a spoon!) to eat it.
For the shoes he had to fill and with the material he was given, he did an admirable job in the end.
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Post by carol on Feb 17, 2022 21:07:22 GMT -5
I noticed that they had changed actors but at that age I really didn't care. Looking back they should have just cancelled show because Will Geer was dead, Michael Learned and Richard Thomas was gone, and Ellen Corby was not in any shape to continue. That is the heart and soul of the show gone. I think it made the show more realistic to write in Will Geer's death and Ellen's stroke rather than just replace them with other actors and pretend like nothing happened or just end the show altogether. Death is a part of life and at some point family members die and those left behind have to say goodbye and find a way to go on without them. Sometimes a family member, due to illness or accident ,becomes permanently disabled and the family must find a new normal..Sometimes a family member becomes ill and must spend time away from the family in order to heal, and children eventually leave the nest and strike out on their own. The Waltons showed all of this and showed that the family stood strong and supported each other through all the adversity.
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Post by missyou123 on Jun 8, 2022 8:39:36 GMT -5
I agree that Wightman did a great job. In all honesty, I think once Thomas left, that should have been the end of him and any other movies/reunions that showed John-Boy should have used Wightman. This way Wightman would have had a chance to get better known and more recognition. To let Thomas waltz in and out whenever he chose was a slap in the face and in some ways disrespectful. I’m a Waltons fan but sometimes I wish Wightman had always been John-Boy. He had a softer and more humble persona. I used to go crazy during the Walton episodes where John-Boy played by Thomas would yell at his parents and siblings. Like temper tantrums. Thomas did a good job but he changed midway and his personality just didn’t fit the humble Walton family. Ben Walton had a temper but it was mostly shown when he became business partners with his dad. John-Boy would start screaming and yelling at any time. I find comfort in Earl Hamner saying that in a lot of ways Wightman was more like him. I can sincerely believe that. Oh well. That’s show biz!
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Post by patriciaanne on Jun 15, 2023 15:52:12 GMT -5
I agree that Wightman did a great job. In all honesty, I think once Thomas left, that should have been the end of him and any other movies/reunions that showed John-Boy should have used Wightman. This way Wightman would have had a chance to get better known and more recognition. To let Thomas waltz in and out whenever he chose was a slap in the face and in some ways disrespectful. I’m a Waltons fan but sometimes I wish Wightman had always been John-Boy. He had a softer and more humble persona. I used to go crazy during the Walton episodes where John-Boy played by Thomas would yell at his parents and siblings. Like temper tantrums. Thomas did a good job but he changed midway and his personality just didn’t fit the humble Walton family. Ben Walton had a temper but it was mostly shown when he became business partners with his dad. John-Boy would start screaming and yelling at any time. I find comfort in Earl Hamner saying that in a lot of ways Wightman was more like him. I can sincerely believe that. Oh well. That’s show biz! He didn't return to the series after Wightman. As for the movies, he was in the last two movies, which were at least ten years after the first couple of movies. I was thrilled he returned for those two. I generally don't watch the first couple of movies.
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