Why did Michael Learned leave 'The Waltons' after 6 successful years? (2024)

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Why did Michael learn it leave The Waltons? ›

After the end of the sixth season, she agreed to appear for one more season on the condition that she would not have to work the full nine months. After the seventh season she left the show. Her character's abrupt disappearance was explained by Olivia developing tuberculosis and entering a sanatorium in Arizona.

Learned previously admitted that their on-screen chemistry was the real deal. In 2019, it was reported that Learned and Waite “were in love” off-screen. However, the pair did not pursue a romance. “I loved him very much,” she explained.

The final episode, titled “The Revel,” aired on June 4, 1981. In the episode, John-Boy goes to New York to pursue his writing career but arrives to find that his manuscript has been rejected.

Learned reportedly decided to quit thinking she had enough money to sustain herself and her children but it proved otherwise in the future as she herself confessed. Michael Learned's exit from The Waltons was announced through tuberculosis of her character, Olivia Walton and her subsequent stay at the sanatorium.

Then Curt was killed at Pearl Harbor in the 1978 season, and Mary Ellen found new love with Arlington Wescott "Jonesy" Jones (Richard Gililand) while taking premed courses. The romance was threatened when Curt was discovered not to have died after all, but the two decided their marriage had ended and divorced.

During the end voice over , John boy states that Erin's marriage is as strong today as it was when they got married , but in A Walton Thanksgiving reunion , she is divorced and states that it was because she found out Paul was cheating on her .

As she explained to Fox News in 2017, Michael left The Waltons in 1979 because the show had changed and she had grown bored. “There's been times when I've regretted it only in that it probably would have been better to complete the whole show,” she revealed at the time.

Ralph Waite was fired from his role due to budgetary issues. The show had become more expensive as Waite aged, and at the same time the ratings started to decline. Originally, season 8 was supposed to be the final one.

Typically an Orange Squeeze is made with rum, ice, and fresh squeezed oranges in a blender. First acknowledgement of Grandma's "illness," which was introduced into the storyline after Ellen Corby suffered a major stroke in November 1976.

“Good night, John-Boy.”

What is the best episode of The Waltons? ›

1. Season 6, Episode 22: “Grandma Comes Home”

The love stories carried over behind the scenes. Ma and Pa Walton — Ralph Waite and Michael Learned — quietly fell on love on set. And remember Jason and Toni, who we just mentioned in the prior paragraph? Well, actors Jon Walmsley and Lisa Harrison tied the knot in real life in 1979!

Olivia is leaving Walton's Mountain, hustled off with tuberculosis to an Arizona sanatorium while her family somehow forges a path between unbearable grief and unbearable stoicism.

Olivia “Livie” Walton (Mom)

Learned says her husband, three sons and five grandchildren are currently keeping her busy.

She was 89. The cause was complications of heart failure, Kimmie Burks, a friend, said. Ms. Rea played Rose Burton, Olivia Walton's cousin, on “The Waltons”; Lulu Hogg, Boss Hogg's wife, on “The Dukes of Hazzard”; and Jean Kelly, the mother-in-law of Brett Butler's character, on “Grace Under Fire.” Ms.

Mary Ellen marries Dr. Curtis Willard and they have 1 child, John Curtis, before he is lost and presumed dead after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eventually she remarries Arlington Westcott Jones "Jonesy" and together they have 2 children, Clay and Katie.

It is known that she displayed budding artistic talent in high school and considered going to college on a scholarship but instead chose to marry John Walton when she was 16 and settle down as a homemaker. It is implied she had John-Boy within a year or so of her marriage, setting her birth year around 1897-98.

In real life, John-Boy was indeed Hamner, creator and narrator of the show as well as author of Spencer's Mountain. Now he is gone. He was 92, a veteran of World War II, one of America's best-loved writers and, as the narrator of The Waltons, a much-loved voice.

The actors playing Ben and Cindy Walton both happily married but still became inseparable. One of the earliest appearances of Cindy Brunson Walton comes in one of the most emotional episodes of The Waltons, an episode called "Founders' Day."

All of the Waltons were based on real people — Hamner's family, his grandfather and grandmother, his father and mother, and his brothers and sisters, of whom there were seven in the show but eight in real life.

Does Erin marry the preacher on The Waltons? ›

Erin maintained a very flirtatious personality, and often hinted at wanting to pursue a relationship with Walton Mountain's Minister, Reverend Henry (Hank) Buchanan. As this didn't work out, She continued to date others before finding her last love interest of the Series.

Michael Learned

She agrees and they are married in front of family and friends at the Baptist Church by the Reverend Tom Marshall.

Michael Learned

In the foothills of the lovely old Blue Ridge Mountains… … Lies the small town of Schulyer, Virginia, home of the Hamner family – the real-life family on which the Waltons were based.

“Many of the places mentioned on the series actually do exist in Schuyler.” While filmed on location in California, the fictional Walton family would have been at home in the tiny town of about 300 residents 40 minutes southwest of Charlottesville, Va., in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

On The Waltons, he dealt with his real injury by walking with a cane. In The Waltons fifth season episode "The First Edition," John-Boy walks with a cane, and what many fans may not realize is that the actor Richard Thomas was acting through a real injury while filming.

Elizabeth breaks both legs in a fall from a log pile. When she comes home from the hospital, the family must adjust to her injuries and devise ways to help her walk again, something the Doctors aren't sure she'll be able to do.

Daisy had given birth to the little girl, Melissa, three years ago, and had put her up for adoption. Daisy and her mother had argued because Daisy had refused to marry the man she did not love. Melissa, however, had been raised by Daisy's mother.

What happened to the Baldwin sisters mother? ›

Two years later, Mary Jackson died shortly after her 95^th birthday in December of 2005.

14 April 1999

Ellen Corby / Date of death

The Parting - The Waltons (Season 7, Episode 15) | Apple TV. S7 E15: Olivia and John take a vacation together, but after the vacation, Olivia learns that she has tuberculosis and must go away to a sanitarium.

Richard Earl Thomas (born June 13, 1951) is an American actor. He is best known for his leading role as budding author John-Boy Walton in the CBS drama series The Waltons for which he won an Emmy Award. He also received another Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe Award nominations, for that role.

A fire breaks out and burns most of the house. John-Boy loses his completed novel in order to save Erin.

In short, The Waltons: Season 3 was one of the best seasons of the show as the lead character, John-Boy Walton, essentially grew up, spread his wings, and ventured off to college.

In The Waltons episode "The Revelation," John-Boy proposes to his girlfriend Daisy, and when she said yes, it was a real moment on the show. But by the episode's end, Daisy has called off the wedding, and the next time we see her, Daisy is just an old flame to John-Boy, never to be rekindled.

People have been asking for more than four decades if "the family is real" and "is there a 'real' Walton's Mountain?" The answer is yes. Though the names might be different Earl Hamner based the show on his memories of growing up in rural Virginia with his family during the depression.

By law 25% of the money went into a protected trust, accessible at 18. We each had agents, so they received 10% and taxes were withheld. The SAG contract included residuals, though things like cable, streaming and video tapes didn't exist then.

When Olivia is stricken with polio, John-Boy refuses to accept the doctor's prognosis that she may never walk again. When Olivia is stricken with polio, John-Boy refuses to accept the doctor's prognosis that she may never walk again.

Why was The Waltons Cancelled? ›

The announcement shocked fans, but the network's decision came after The Waltons had spent years on a gradual descent from the top of the TV ratings. The show had dipped from No. 2 in its second season, down to the nation's No. 42 show by its ninth.

Then Curt was killed at Pearl Harbor in the 1978 season, and Mary Ellen found new love with Arlington Wescott "Jonesy" Jones (Richard Gililand) while taking premed courses. The romance was threatened when Curt was discovered not to have died after all, but the two decided their marriage had ended and divorced.

The character Jim Bob had one ambition: to learn to fly an airplane. While he was medically unfit for the Air Corps, in the final movies he had indeed become a pilot, flying crop dusting and charter flights. The only sibling on the series who had his own room in the house was John-Boy.

Her character's abrupt disappearance was explained by Olivia developing tuberculosis and entering a sanatorium in Arizona. She made occasional guest appearances until the show's cancelation and later appeared in four of the six Waltons reunion movies made during the 1980s and 1990s.

Walton plays Chloe, the daughter of Dean, the detective investigating the case. Like Walton, Chloe is blind. Walton learned of the opportunity to audition for the show through her school, the W. Ross Macdonald School in Brantford, Ontario, in Canada.

Rose finally admits to them that her son, the children's father, would hit Jeffrey when he became drunk, and she took them away before he could do any further harm to them. Naturally, being The Waltons, there was no question that either Rose or the children would be sent away, and the family moved in permanently.

She also won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actress in a TV series for The Waltons, and was nominated another three times. She left the show November 10, 1976, owing to a massive stroke she had suffered at home, which impaired her speech and severely limited her mobility and function.

"I hope that you'll remember this house as I do," Earl Hamner narrates in the closing moments of the final episode of The Waltons.

At the end of almost every episode, as the night descended on Walton's Mountain, the camera panned over the Walton's house to show the lights going out room by room. And the lights dimmed, the family said goodnight to one another and drifted off to sleep. “Good night, John-Boy. Good night, Elizabeth.

Grandpa Zeb (Will Greer) has died and everyone is mourning. Neighbor Flossie Brimmer has also died. Mary Ellen and Erin move to Charlottesville into an apartment to be on their own.

Does Jane and Michael have a baby together? ›

Jane ends up having a baby boy named Mateo Gloriano Rogelio Solano Villanueva. She marries Michael Cordero in the season two finale. In the tenth episode of season three, she becomes widowed when Michael dies from complications associated with his previous gunshot wound.

Olivia is leaving Walton's Mountain, hustled off with tuberculosis to an Arizona sanatorium while her family somehow forges a path between unbearable grief and unbearable stoicism.

Good night, John-Boy. Good night, Elizabeth. Good night, Daddy. Good night, Son.

In The Waltons episode "The Revelation," John-Boy proposes to his girlfriend Daisy, and when she said yes, it was a real moment on the show. But by the episode's end, Daisy has called off the wedding, and the next time we see her, Daisy is just an old flame to John-Boy, never to be rekindled.

The location of the Walton's house, barn and mill was filmed on the backlot at The Burbank studios. Visible from certain angles Walton's Mountain could be see through the trees. Drucilla's pond was part of the Jungle set.

All of the Waltons were based on real people — Hamner's family, his grandfather and grandmother, his father and mother, and his brothers and sisters, of whom there were seven in the show but eight in real life.