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Being a family man in ''The Waltons'' taught Richard Waite maturity
"It was the show that had a profound effect on me."
While the Waltons might portray the ideal family, that doesn't mean that the series was based entirely on fact. With today's television series taking on a much more pessimistic viewpoint, many viewers may chide a series like The Waltons for being overly positive and optimistic. However, while the stories told on The Waltons were fictional, they had a definite impact in the real world. The Waltons offered a viewpoint of a simpler time in life, and a happier time that some could still achieve in their own personal lives, provided they were just and kind.
It's a moral lesson that had ripple effects not just on viewers of The Waltons, but on cast members as well.
According to an article with The Bangor Daily News, Ralph Waite had hit a rough patch in his life when he won the role of John Walton in The Waltons.
Waite stated, "I was a wild man. I was an alcoholic." It was an addiction that continued during the beginning of Waite's time on The Waltons before he realized he'd have to make a change in his life.
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He said, "I suppose, as the saying goes, I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired." However, he also confessed that it was his environment that had an effect on his behavior. The actor said, "More than that, though, it was the show that had a profound effect on me."
By playing the role of John Walton Sr., Waite was able to follow the character's lead and clean up his own act. He explained, "It wasn't easy to have my role as a father figure be merely supportive to Richard Thomas' part of John-Boy. But that's the way the show was developed — and it was a situation I had to learn to live with. Managing that feat helped me grow, helped me mature. So did being thrown into a situation where I had to deal with a whole 'family' of people on such an intimate level for so long."
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