- Awards
- 19
The TV movie reunions mostly didn't work -- but then they rarely do.
- Awards
- 8
Never cared for the show.
I did think that Ralph Waite and Michael Learned were terrific in their roles.
Richard Thomas is a superb actor, but I always found his character to be overbearing, unpleasant and self-righteous.
I did think that Ralph Waite and Michael Learned were terrific in their roles.
Richard Thomas is a superb actor, but I always found his character to be overbearing, unpleasant and self-righteous.
- Awards
- 11
THE WALTONS is definitely a quality TV show, especially in the earlier years, say, the first five seasons. It starts to suffer when Richard Thomas leaves, and then takes further blows due to the death and ailments of Will Geer and Ellen Corby, respectively, and the eventually disappearances of Ralph Waite and Michael Learned. The kids that were left behind just couldn't cut it to carry the show, and poor Peggy Rea, as much as I like her, was stuck with a mother-filler role that didn't match that which had left.
My dad and little brother just binged the entirety of THE WALTONS, and they both enjoyed it. They're already talking about doing it again, or at the very least, re-watching some of their favorite episodes.
- Awards
- 39
From FB
Lovely tribute from Mary McDonough to actress Lynn Hamilton who played Verdie who passed away
Lynn Hamilton was a wonderful woman and actress. So sorry to hear of her passing. While she did many shows in her career, I met her as Verdie. I loved working with her and Joan Pringle as her daughter Esther. She added so much to The Waltons. She had such grace and charm. RIP Lynn.
and from Kami Cotler
The remarkable Lynn Hamilton has passed. She was wildly talented and always a pleasure, whether we were just chatting or working together.
Lovely tribute from Mary McDonough to actress Lynn Hamilton who played Verdie who passed away
Lynn Hamilton was a wonderful woman and actress. So sorry to hear of her passing. While she did many shows in her career, I met her as Verdie. I loved working with her and Joan Pringle as her daughter Esther. She added so much to The Waltons. She had such grace and charm. RIP Lynn.
and from Kami Cotler
The remarkable Lynn Hamilton has passed. She was wildly talented and always a pleasure, whether we were just chatting or working together.
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- 39
Lynn Hamilton, Actress on ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘The Waltons,’ Dies at 95
She also appeared four times on Broadway and on the soap operas 'Generations' and 'Dangerous Women.'
Lynn Hamilton, the theater-trained actress who portrayed the girlfriend of Redd Foxx’s character on Sanford and Son and the neighborly Miss Verdie on The Waltons, has died. She was 95.
Hamilton died Thursday of natural causes at her home in Chicago, her former manager and publicist, Rev. Calvin Carson, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Hamilton also starred as the matriarch Vivian Potter on the 1989-91 NBC daytime drama Generations — which had the unfortunate task of running up against CBS ratings juggernaut The Young and the Restless — and as Cissie Johnson, one of the ex-cons featured on the 1991-92 syndicated nighttime soap Dangerous Women.
She also played Cousin Georgia Anderson on the 1979 miniseries Roots: The Next Generations and had recurring roles as the snippy Emma Johnson on NBC’s 227 and as a judge on ABC’s The Practice.
The Chicago-raised actress made her big-screen debut in John Cassavetes’ Shadows (1959) and went on to appear in such other films as Brother John (1971), Buck and the Preacher (1972) — both starring Sidney Poitier — Lady Sings the Blues (1972), Leadbelly (1976) and Legal Eagles (1986).
Hamilton first appeared on NBC’s Sanford and Son on its seventh episode in February 1972, playing a landlady who gives Demond Wilson’s Lamont Sanford a hard time after he gets his own bachelor pad following an argument with his dad, Fred (Foxx).
The producers were “so impressed with that one scene that a month or two later they decided to give Fred Sanford a girlfriend,” Hamilton said in a 2009 interview. Hired to play registered nurse Donna Harris, she was told by the bawdy Foxx that his show “needed somebody dignified opposite him; he was aware of his earthliness, shall we say.”
She worked on the sitcom through 1977, and while Donna and Fred got engaged, they never tied the knot. That was just fine with Lamont, who derisively called her “The Barracuda.”
While she was recurring on Sanford and Son, Hamilton made her Waltons debut in February 1973 on the 21st episode of the CBS drama when John-Boy (Richard Thomas) gives Verdie reading and writing lessons with her daughter about to graduate from college. (The episode, “The Scholar,” won a screenwriting Emmy for John McGreevey.)
She appeared on 16 other installments of the series through 1981 — Verdie winds up marrying Harley Foster, played by Hal Williams, also from Sanford and Son and 227 — and on Waltons holiday telefilms in 1993 and ’97.
Alzenia Lynn Hamilton was born on April 25, 1930, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Her parents, Nancy and Louis, moved the family to Chicago when she was 4, and she attended Bloom High School in Chicago Heights.
Hamilton did some modeling and graduated from the Goodman School of Drama Theater, but she “was the only Black [actor] in my class, and so there weren’t any roles for me,” she said.
However, she gained acting experience with a South Side theater company, and after moving to New York in 1956, she appeared in Shadows and on Broadway in four short-lived plays: 1959’s Only in America, 1960’s The Cool World and Face of a Hero and 1963’s Tambourines to Glory.
Hamilton did Shakespeare for producer Joseph Papp and toured around the world in The Miracle Worker and The Skin of Our Teeth as a member of President Kennedy’s cultural exchange program, then joined the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1966.
She auditioned for a part in Funny Girl (1968) and didn’t get it but decided to remain in Los Angeles, and she would land gigs on TV shows including Room 222, Mannix, Gunsmoke, The Rockford Files, Quincy M.E., The Golden Girls, NYPD Blue, Judging Amy and Cold Case.
Hamilton was married to poet and playwright Frank Jenkins (Driving While Black in Beverly Hills) from 1964 until his death at age 89 in 2014 — she moved back to Chicago that year — and they collaborated on several stage productions.
She worked on the sitcom through 1977, and while Donna and Fred got engaged, they never tied the knot. That was just fine with Lamont, who derisively called her “The Barracuda.”
While she was recurring on Sanford and Son, Hamilton made her Waltons debut in February 1973 on the 21st episode of the CBS drama when John-Boy (Richard Thomas) gives Verdie reading and writing lessons with her daughter about to graduate from college. (The episode, “The Scholar,” won a screenwriting Emmy for John McGreevey.)
She appeared on 16 other installments of the series through 1981 — Verdie winds up marrying Harley Foster, played by Hal Williams, also from Sanford and Son and 227 — and on Waltons holiday telefilms in 1993 and ’97.
Alzenia Lynn Hamilton was born on April 25, 1930, in Yazoo City, Mississippi. Her parents, Nancy and Louis, moved the family to Chicago when she was 4, and she attended Bloom High School in Chicago Heights.
Hamilton did some modeling and graduated from the Goodman School of Drama Theater, but she “was the only Black [actor] in my class, and so there weren’t any roles for me,” she said.
However, she gained acting experience with a South Side theater company, and after moving to New York in 1956, she appeared in Shadows and on Broadway in four short-lived plays: 1959’s Only in America, 1960’s The Cool World and Face of a Hero and 1963’s Tambourines to Glory.
Hamilton did Shakespeare for producer Joseph Papp and toured around the world in The Miracle Worker and The Skin of Our Teeth as a member of President Kennedy’s cultural exchange program, then joined the Seattle Repertory Theatre in 1966.
Lynn Hamilton, Actress on ‘Sanford and Son’ and ‘The Waltons,’ Dies at 95
She also appeared four times on Broadway and on the soap operas 'Generations' and 'Dangerous Women.'
www.hollywoodreporter.com
That is something that they tend to do with some characters overtime. That makes them less pleasant to watch.
- Awards
- 19
Olivia and John-Boy were both a little overbearing and self-righteous. At least, that's how they felt at the time. It seems much less obvious today, for some reason.
- Awards
- 39
I stumbled across these 2 pages on FB a while back and they are great especially Kami Cotler, who gives a lot of insight and info re filming the Waltons, being on location, fav Lorimar off set locations and being a kid on a film set. Its really interesting
This is her talking about trailers on location (from her FB page)
I'm sure the union contract required actors have dressing rooms while on location. On The Waltons, we had a tradition of old and rickety dressing rooms, and on location I suspect they rented the less expensive honeywagons. The interiors were narrow, 4 to 6 dressing rooms in each truck, accessed via metal steps that concertina-ed out. Colors were faded mustard yellows, burnt orange and olive green. It wasn't a place you wanted to hang out for long periods of time. It was more likely that you'd find a shady spot under a tree and sit on a rock or stump. The makeup and hair trailer was also minimal. Food was provided by Lorimar, and came from a food truck, where cast and crew would line up for breakfast and lunch, eaten on long folding tables set out in nature.
www.facebook.com
www.facebook.com
This is her talking about trailers on location (from her FB page)
I'm sure the union contract required actors have dressing rooms while on location. On The Waltons, we had a tradition of old and rickety dressing rooms, and on location I suspect they rented the less expensive honeywagons. The interiors were narrow, 4 to 6 dressing rooms in each truck, accessed via metal steps that concertina-ed out. Colors were faded mustard yellows, burnt orange and olive green. It wasn't a place you wanted to hang out for long periods of time. It was more likely that you'd find a shady spot under a tree and sit on a rock or stump. The makeup and hair trailer was also minimal. Food was provided by Lorimar, and came from a food truck, where cast and crew would line up for breakfast and lunch, eaten on long folding tables set out in nature.
Kami Cotler
Kami Cotler. ١٨٩٬٥٥٤ تسجيل إعجاب · يتحدث ٤٬٠٢٧ عن هذا. I played Elizabeth Walton. Grew up to be an educator, now mostly retired. Join us May 15 & 16 in Pigeon Forge, TN for a Walton Fan...
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Mary McDonough
Mary McDonough. ١٥١٬٩٠٧ تسجيلات إعجاب · يتحدث ١١٬٩٤٥ عن هذا. Author, actress, Speaker. Lessons From the Mountain, What I Learned from Erin Walton. Thanks to all who have joined this page...
www.facebook.com
- Awards
- 9
I just listened to a nice podcast with Judy Norton as a guest (on the Love Boat podcast).
Actually, I know absolutely nothing about Judy Norton, so it was very interesting for me to learn more about her life. Judy Norton is very friendly, and she talks a little about her Love Boat episode in the podcast, but it's mostly about The Waltons and her career. Although I've watched The Waltons (only the series and not the movies before or after), there's a lot I don't know about the show, such as the reasons for the parents being recast after the original TV movies, or that there was a twenty-year age difference between Judy Norton and her husband on the show.
Actually, I know absolutely nothing about Judy Norton, so it was very interesting for me to learn more about her life. Judy Norton is very friendly, and she talks a little about her Love Boat episode in the podcast, but it's mostly about The Waltons and her career. Although I've watched The Waltons (only the series and not the movies before or after), there's a lot I don't know about the show, such as the reasons for the parents being recast after the original TV movies, or that there was a twenty-year age difference between Judy Norton and her husband on the show.