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John Ritter was the opposite of his Waltons character on set
Judy Norton liked the actor playing Matthew Fordwick so much pretending to be scared of the stern reverend took a lot of acting.
Many actors, especially early in their careers, do their best work when playing characters with personalities similar to their own. When a performer can put huge parts of themselves into a character, it always makes things more believable and fun for the audience.
Will Geer, for example, essentially was Grandpa Walton. His playful personality, his affection for the cast and even his love of plants were all ways actor and character blended together.
But sometimes, particularly when it comes to characters who aren’t very nice, the person behind the scenes is very different from the one on camera. And speaking of The Waltons, the show’s first preacher, Matthew Fordwick, was one of those characters played by an actor with a totally opposite personality.
A young actor named John Ritter was cast as Reverend Fordwick. Of course, he went on to TV stardom in Three’s Company and other favorites, but The Waltons gave Ritter his first major recurring role on television, something Earl Hamner Jr. was very proud of.
Reverend Fordwick is introduced in the episode "The Sinner" as a devout student of God fresh out of school. He comes to Walton’s Mountain ready to whip the congregation into shape and cast out any sin, but a taste of the Baldwin sisters’ family recipe puts his plans in jeopardy.
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In one scene, before the good preacher samples some authentic Appalachian moonshine, Reverend Fordwick scolds Mary Ellen for cursing. Judy Norton, who played the oldest Walton daughter for all nine seasons, remembers really having to act intimidated by Fordwick because she liked John Ritter so much off camera.
In a YouTube video as part of her series revealing behind-the-scenes memories from the show, Norton recalled John Ritter as a "fun-loving" and "lovely person." She continued, "He is incredibly believable as this intense and earnest young reverend in training and when he goes off on us, we’re supposed to be a little intimidated by it." She noted that it was important to be in character during this scene so her personal feelings about John wouldn’t show.
"To me, that was personally definitely acting because knowing John, I was not intimidated or scared by him as a person." She had to say to herself, "Okay, as a character, I’m intimidated."
Norton also remembered that John Ritter and John-Boy actor Richard Thomas were "two peas in a pod" joking together and pulling pranks on set. Ritter got to bring more of his delightful nature and comedic abilities toward the end of his first episode (after his visit to the Baldwin sisters) and Reverend Fordwick had a more relaxed approach in future episodes.
48 Comments
funny sitcom Jack Tripper is a great TV character
John Ritter was a great actor and the WORST THING OF ALL IS THAT
3s Company Is NOT on METV but I wish that it was. Threes Company and
Green Acres are A LAUGH
A MINUTE!!
The BELVIN BROTHERS
With Eugene Belvin Denis Mandel and Melvin Belvin Scott Bernstein might have
A good spin off show for Happy Days.
Also appeared in the 1972
Movie called Get To Know
Your Rabbit with Tom
Smothers John Astin and
Orson Welles.
Levy the TV repairman in
a guest appearance on All
In The Family and Levy had a Good Comeback to one of Archie Bunker's comments :You'll never know but I got even!".
Neil J Schwartz also made
Guest appearances on
Barney Miller What's Happening! And Love American Style (Love And
The Heavy Set).
He had quite a few rolkes, single shot, before the Waltons. Even a MASH appearance.
But in 1971, he played a hippie on Hawaii Five-O, and he kills someone. Quite a change from Rev Fordwick.
The first episode with Rev Fordwick is much different from lanter. It's like they introduce the character, and then decide he shoukd be tamed down. Actually three months elapsed between The Sinner and his next appearance. So was it a single appearance, but they brought him back?
Some guests reappear, but long enough later that it seems like they decided to bring them back, rather than planned from the beginning. Sometimes they even have to use another actor.
Ritter appeared on a number of crime shows. He was one of the bad guys in the final episode of Mannix. He went on trial for killing the hard-ass boss who fired him on Petrocelli. He was an armored car guard forced into helping a gang of robbers on Starsky & Hutch. He returned to Hawaii Five-O in 1977, shortly before Three's Company, as the witness to a cop killing who tries to blackmail the killer. Aside from those, all of his appearances on crime shows, he played pretty normal characters (his debut was on Dan August, and yes, he did have a scene with Norman Fell!)...but he never killed anyone.
From looking at his bio it appears a number of his roles leading up to the time he appeared on
The Walton's were serious roles. JMO: If Threes Company had aired before then, there might have been a believability aspect, but still their just characcter roles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ritter
Also in Mannix, MASH and Bob Newhart, I'll have to look for him.
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