Richard Thomas Leaving the Waltons

[flossieskid]

Recently, I happened to see a rerun of Richard on Law and Order SVU playing a very sympathetic father. I am sure there has been much discussion, on The Forum, about his leaving The Waltons series. But, since I only joined The Forum 7 months ago, I haven’t really done a lot of research on prior posts, from years ago, perhaps discussing his exit and was wondering if the current participants on The Forum, might be able to enlighten me on 2 questions;
1. Did Richard leave the show to just seek out new acting opportunities or was there a problem with contract negotiations?
2. Why does it seem he has distanced himself from the reunions and/or appeared uninterested in participating in fan interactions?

I know he is taking on Earl’s narration part for the new movie with Bellamy Young coming up, but I am just surprised that he, and Michael Learned to some degree, have not embraced memories from the show that made them both household names. Or am I off base here? I would be very interested in the responses of those who have been involved in The Forum so much longer than I have and their take on my 2 questions.

[Easton]

Yes, Tracey, it's been discussed, but the discussions could be anywhere in this forum.

After The Homecoming: A Christmas Story, the children were all brought back to appear in the new series. Of course, Ellen Corby was the only 'elder' cast member to be brought on board. I don't know of the lengths of the contracts for the other cast members, but Richard would only sign a 5-year contract. When it came to renewal, he refused. He feared being typecast. He did, however, agree to return for 2 episodes and did so in Season 6: The Return (Ep 20) when he tries to reopen Guthrie's mine and The Revelation (Ep 21) when he intends to be married to Daisy and discovers that she has a daughter out of wedlock who was adopted by Daisy's mother.

I believe his only returns to the show after that were in the form of letters or voiceless phone calls.

He had a good career after The Waltons, but he could never escape John-Boy. He has admitted publicly and light-heartedly that he expects "Goodnight, John-Boy" will be engraved on his headstone.

EDIT: I don't know if he ever attends the public (fan) reunions, but I've seen him in many television reunions with other cast members.

[cinlou]

He came back for two reunion movies where he got married then had twins. Richard did go to the Walton Mountaim Museum for an appearance, photos and autographs.

[Brenda]

I heard a Richard Thomas interview one time where he said his plan all along was to do The Waltons for five seasons, then move on to other things. That’s why he signed a five year contract. I think he wants people to understand that he didn’t leave for any negative reason such as a salary dispute or a disagreement with the crew or other actors. The reason he usually gives for not attending Waltons reunions is that he is very busy. As Cinlou mentioned, he did appear at the Waltons Mountain Museum a few years ago. That’s where my profile photo was taken.

Michael Learned says she left the series because she was bored. I’ve heard her say that she probably would not have left had she known the show would be canceled after one more season. She did return for the reunion movies, and she does occasionally attend Waltons fans events. I have met her several times.

[patriciaanne]

I've never gotten the impression that Richard distances himself from the show and he has participated in some fan events. But as a working actor, he's usually very busy, as Brenda pointed out. I've only gone to two reunions so far and Michael was at both. She embraces her connection with the show and says she will be forever grateful to Earl for the opportunity he gave her.

[flossieskid]

Thanks to everyone for letting me know about the reason behind Richard’s departure. I met him the first time when I went to see my Mom on the set. He was very cordial. Then, maybe 2 years later, my Mom and I went to see “A Chorus Line “ at the Ahmanson Theater in LA and he was with his first wife. We were 2 rows ahead of him in the orchestra - tickets were a special birthday gift from my Mom as I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE musicals!

At intermission we stood up to stretch our legs and my Mom and Richard caught each other’s eye and we left our aisles and mingled a bit while raving about “A Chorus Line”. I think his wife had their identical triplet daughters just a few months before and I remember thinking how could his wife look so skinny after 3 kids at one time?!?!! I was so amazed.

But, it is a comment on celebrities attended live theater in LA. Not one person came up and asked for his autograph or to talk about The Waltons. One time, I went with my folks to some musical and Burt Reynolds walked in with Dinah Shore, Jane Fonda was there with Tom Hayden and Merv Griffin was there, I think, with Eva Gabor. Nobody bothered any of them at intermission. It is usually the code of “celebritydom” if that is even a word. They give other celebrities their space . Either that - or every other celebrity has to go stand in the huge line to the bathroom!!

[Easton]

Nov 5, 2021 4:40:26 GMT -5 flossieskid said:

It is usually the code of “celebritydom” if that is even a word.

It's a word in lexicon dictionaries. It means 'In the realm of celebrities'.

In proper dictionaries, the word is 'celebrityhood'.

For the record, neither 'celebritydom' nor 'celebrityhood' are in my Firefox spell-check dictionary.

[kazk]

There has been a lot of discussion on this but if I'm to put myself into a young Richard Thomas's shoes then I certainly understand his decision. I have admired Richard Thomas's work for a very long time and love that he chooses such different characters to play. His nice guy roles are there but he certainly can play the sinister and the mentally ill characters very well too. I love that he's had a mix of TV, stage, film and miniseries to work on. I love the work he does. Perhaps if he did stay on The Waltons for longer he may not have had some of these opportunities.

Although I haven't seen him at the reunions I've gone to it seems to me that although it did seem that he wanted to distance himself from the series initially, as he has got older he has embraced it more. I know that there have been events that he has attended to the delight of fans, and he slso attended events that honoured Earl Hamner. He is a very busy actor though and has been working at times when reunions have taken place.

On an aside Flossieskid, I also adore musicals. Each time we have visited the US we have gone to New York for my fix of Broadway shows. I was lucky enough to see Richard onstage once there doing a play. The one time we went to the US and didn't go across to New York we saw a musical at the Pantages theatre in LA instead. Here in Melbourne, Australia, theatre hasn't been open at all, except for a few performances here and there and I've missed it enormously. We had all our booked plays from last year cancelled and most this year too. One musical we were meant to see during July was cancelled and rescheduled for early November. Come November and our performance was cancelled again. The good news though is that most big budget musicals here are reopening at the end of next week so perhaps I'll get to see something again soon. We also have a Shakespearean play booked coming up in December which should be fine too. Thankfully it's coming into summer here and many theatre groups will take their performances outdoors! Alway fun to troop around the park following the fairies from A Midsummer Nights Dream of the animals from Wind in the Willows. :-)

[Easton]

Nov 5, 2021 18:52:29 GMT -5 kazk said:

On an aside Flossieskid, I also adore musicals. Each time we have visited the US we have gone to New York for my fix of Broadway shows.

Have you seen or even heard of 'Come from Away'? It's a Canadian musical about the events following 9/11 when a number of planes were rerouted from various American airports which had been closed due to the events going on in New York City. The airspace over America had been shut down. No planes were allowed to fly.

Almost 7,000 passengers on 38 planes found themselves stranded in a small Newfoundland town of Gander, population about 10,000 people. Doors were opened. Passengers bound for the United States were fed and given places to sleep until American borders were reopened and they could continue on their way.

This story was turned into a musical to be performed by a handful of actors, each portraying dozens of characters.

Here is a short performance of 'Welcome to the Rock' from that musical. 'The Rock' refers to Newfoundland. 'Come from Away' is the term Newfoundlanders give to visitors of the island, including the stranded passengers.

I checked Google and 'Come from Away' is playing in Sydney at the Capital Theatre and will open in Canberra in the Canberra Theatre in February 2022: comefromaway.com.au/

[kazk]

Easton I have indeed seen Come From Away! It was on before Covid arrived here and we went off to see it during its first run here in Melbourne. Such a moving and wonderful piece of theatre and a story that I had no idea about. I loved how the different characters and their stories all intertwined and the music is fabulous.

Like all of our theatre here it was shut down during our Covid lockdowns so no performances for quite some time but it is so good to see that it is coming back to life again here. I think theatre is opening far more quickly in Sydney than it is here. I think that Hamilton has already resumed up there. Their restrictions have not been quite as rigid as ours.

[Easton]

^ Come from Away is playing in Toronto right now. I live only one and a half hours away from the theatre, but my health won't allow the trip let alone the theatre and show.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, though.