Robert Wightman

[missyou123]

Hello All!

I am so happy and excited to be here. I am fan of The Waltons. I love them so much until if I go for a day and don’t see at least one episode I feel like something is missing!  I’m new so please bare with me. The first thing I want to discuss is Robert Wightman (replaced Richard Thomas as John-Boy). I thought he did a fantastic job in replacing Thomas. In some ways I actually liked him better but I think it’s because I never liked the way John-Boy yelled at his parents (lol). 

Anyway, it seems that Wightman never really received his due credit for his participation. When I looked him up I see that he did a couple movies after that and then just dropped out of sight. Anyone have any info on him?  Would love to know if he has a site where people can post their comments. 

In the meantime, again, I am so happy that I found this forum. I am so ready to get involved with the posts and episode comments. 

Peace & Blessing to my extended Walton Family!

[whisper]

Hi, welcome to the forum

I agree, he took on a difficult role. I think he did a pretty good job of it too. 

[Heather]

Hi missyou123,

I agree that Robert did a good job with an impossible task, and he took a LOT of crap (like Hayden Christensen did as Anakin on Star Wars), and much of it was totally unfair.

I went to a reunion on the Mountain just after we lost our dear Earl and the president of the Waltons International Fan Club (Carolyn) told me that she had located Robert and invited him to a reunion, and his wife's reaction was apparently not positive. Maybe someone here has more details. If some fans were ugly to him, or if he wound up typecast, I guess I can understand him not wanting to go back.

[taj27]

Welcome! I thought Robert Wightman did an excellent job too.

[ellaroo]

As everyone has said, he did the best he could to emulate John-Boy. Some people might think his performances are stiff but I'd like to think of it as John-Boy maturing up a bit in mannerisms. He may have been the oldest but he certainly had his brash moments especially in the early seasons

[sdw]

I also thought Robert Wightman did a good job portraying John Boy.I like the scenes where he is eating lunch with Erin at her work after she got that letter from Ashley and after he comes home from France after Ben was reported missing,and Elizabeth was outside and came running to John Boy.

[Brenda]

I think Robert Wightman did the best he could in a nearly impossible situation. I’m of the opinion that they never should have tried to replace Richard Thomas with a new actor. I would have preferred they kept John Boy as an absent member of the family by mentioning him in every episode, reading letters from him, receiving phone calls, etc. But since they chose to replace him, I think Robert Wightman was a good choice. I know a couple of people who actually prefer him to Richard Thomas and wish he had been John Boy from the beginning.

Anyway, welcome to the forum. Looking forward to reading more of your posts.

[goodnight]

I had no problem with him. He made the best of the situation.

[patriciaanne]

I believe I mentioned this on another thread, but I saw an interview with Earl where he said he thought Wightman's portrayal was closer to how he really was as a young man. In the same interview, he also acknowledged what a difficult position Wightman was in. Richard Thomas has also acknowledged that in an interview I saw.

I agree with Brenda that it would have made more sense to leave the role uncast and treat him as an absent member, much like how they handled Olivia's absence.

Welcome to the forum!

[Easton]

May 27, 2022 21:46:56 GMT -5 goodnight said:

I had no problem with him. He made the best of the situation.

The writers didn't help.

[missyou123]

Thanks everyone for the responses. So good to know he has some positive reviews from you all. In my opinion he had the harder part then Richard Thomas because he had to tie it all together. I definitely agree that he was the right person in terms of persona. He was more mature and somewhat softer than Thomas. He maybe a private person because I haven’t seen any sites that contain info about him, his family, etc. I did see that he played in a few movies but that’s it. 

Thanks again and if you ever hear anything about The Waltons in which he will be participating please post it. Hopefully at some point he will get some recognition. I loved Yancey too but he has passed on. I think he deserved more credit as well. He didn’t play in all the episodes but he really brought to life the ones he played in specially when he was stealing chickens to give to the poor. 

Have a great holiday weekend!

[pinkbaker07]

I liked his portrayal of Johnboy. Thomas was too high strong most of the time as John boy.

[isumpin]

Welcome! I had no issues with Robert Wightman's John Boy. He took an impossible part and did well. He apparently is very private I don't see a lot about him. But taking a role that everyone associates with another actor must be hard. Maybe he will come to a 50th reunion if we get one.

[carol]

I've always thought of Richard Thomas as the young naive John Boy who didn't know much of the world beyond the mountain other than what he read in books. Robert Wightman was the more mature John Boy who lived through, (and nearly died in), a war and struggled to make ends meet in a major city while trying to get his writing career off the ground. He was toughened and even at times a bit jaded from being out in the real world.