John-Boy Walton was a hit TV character of the 70's. A household name of a fictional character. But some booed the legendary character by Richard Thomas and said he was uneven as a character. They found greater happiness in the later, far less iconic but steadier characterization of John- Boy by Robert Wightman. In another very recent posting of mine ( see my postings) I mentioned Larry Linville ( Frank Burns on left-wing Mash) had a special way of playing a character hundreds of ways but still recognizable. The Waltons was made the same moment Mash was . Same network. Slight possibility that Richard Thomas was trying to copy Larry Linville's amazing characterization of Frank but for John-Boy! By God's grace it flopped a little. John-Boy just came out a youngster of too many moods.
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Reply by Benton12
on January 30, 2021 at 2:07 AM
Nothing far-fetched or ridiculous about this theory. Linville and Thomas could have mutually met at a CBS party. Or maybe Thomas never actually met Linville but being on the same network at the same time as him he was impressed with Linville's amazing performance and tried to copy it!