The timeless appeal of The Waltons is attributed to many reasons. Firstly, each episode was as a little movie, with a beginning, middle and an end, unlike contemporary television shows that feature convoluted arc storylines or guest-characters that linger throughout the entire season.
“Today,” Eric explains, “there is more a soap-opera mentality. But on The Waltons, we’d introduce a character and in 48 minutes of production, you got to know that character, and there would be resolution with that character.”
Upon recently viewing a few episodes, Eric was “amazed,” especially with performances by Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite and Michael Learned. “They were so strong, with regard to character development,” he says. In their inter-acting with fellow cast members, Eric assesses, “Michael and Ralph listenedso well,” which is one of the most respectful gestures an actor could convey while working in a scene. “And Richard, of course,” who played John-Boy, “was always a stunning person to be around.”
As Eric recalls, Thomas took great strides to “care for us.” If any of the younger Waltons cast members felt a particular line of dialogue was incongruent with their TV counterparts, Thomas would make certain the scripts were altered to maintain the integrity of each performance and the show in general. “If he felt there was a character flaw,” Eric relays, “or if something wasn’t progressing smoothly or was inconsistent with any character, he’d address it. He made sure that John-Boy and all the other characters were covered. I would talk with him, make suggestions about my character, and the script would be changed. In many ways, Richard really was our big brother,” on and off-camera.
Thomas, as did Waite, had directed a few episodes and, according to Eric, “had that energy. He’d walk on the set and he’d have all these different ideas that he wanted to do. He was amazing. He would usually get a script a few days before the rest of us and when I say he worked on it, I mean he worked on it.”
As Eric saw it, Thomas was “an actor’s director, just like Ralph. He allowed the technical side to just flow, organically. And I cherished his insight. He was the driving force on our show, and he had an incredible influence on it. And when he had the opportunity to direct, he brought along the same kind of gusto. He had ideas and knew our characters as well as we did. Our characters were very much like each of our personalities, and he knew those personalities well. Because we had such a large cast, the producers recognized early who we were as individuals, and set out to incorporate traits from our real lives into our characters.”