Correction: he was Daddy, not Poppa.
(I watch The Waltons nearly every weeknight on INSP. Just Tuesday night was an episode from the war years that I never had seen.)
This. I’ve been watching some of the episodes lately (and they’re not nearly as saccharine as I remember). But even now, when I’m older than John Walton was then, the character still holds up as a model for not just fathers, but men.
R.I.P., Daddy.
R.I.P.
We’re now as in distant in time from the original airing of The Waltons, as the show itself was from the Depression era it depicted.
I remember when I was a child how shocking it was to see Daddy Walton as the evil slave trader in Roots. RIP
Didn’t one of the girls or the younger boys call him “Poppa”? Maybe that’s a different show. I know there was Pa Ingalls so that’s not what I was thinking of.
This article calls him “Papa”. They may have been used interchangeably.
It was the Baldwin sisters who had ‘Papa’s recipe’ that I may be remembering.
I loved the Waltons and watched regularly when I was a kid. The Secret Life of John Chapman is one of Ralph Waite’s best films. True story about a college president that goes out and works blue collar jobs for a couple years. He wanted to reconnect with and better understand his dads life. Waite did a great job in that role.
He seemed to be a very well respected actor. Never any paparazzi or scandals that I remember. He was a solid professional that always delivered a memorable role in any movie or tv series.
R.I.P.
Watching the show now, I really don’t understand why it has the reputation of being so goody-goody and sickeningly wholesome. The family was functional and they love each other, but they weren’t perfect by any means. The kids bickered among themselves, there were family fights, and they had some real problems: money, sickness, miscarriage, fire, the Depression of course. There was no Astroturf, and compared to the Brady Bunch or Mayberry RFD or other non Norman Lear family shows it was downright gritty realism and the characters were a lot deeper and more believable/less saintly than House Ingalls. A great and believable show about a family that happened to care about each other.
Waite gave a lot of his own money to community theaters, Alcoholics Anonymous chapters, and programs to pay for alcohol rehab. He was very frank about his alcoholism having destroyed his first marriage and made him not a good father to his children during their early years.
tv news said he ranked 3rd in a TV Guide poll on best tv dad.
I’ve defended The Waltons here previously as substantially better than most people remember.
I will note that the series ran on longer than it probably should have, and by the time they get into the war years—with Grandpa and Mama gone, Grandma post-stroke and rarely seen, a replacement John-Boy, and Cousin Rose beaming from the kitchen—Ralph Waite’s acting talent is about the only thing keeping the whole mess from sliding down the mountain into the Rockfish River.
Ralph Waite was a middle-of-the road to liberal Democrat. He ran three times for the US Congress, but lost every time.
I used to watch Trouble Man and Cliffhanger all the time, back in the day. So sad to see Ralph Waite gone.
R.I.P.
He’s joined Paul Newman in that great work farm in the sky.
We watched The Homecoming over Christmas (the original pilot), with Andrew Duggan as John Walton. Although he wasn’t on screen much, it was shocking to see a totally different actor in the role; Duggan had a very strong Irish accent for one thing. I much preferred Ralph Waite’s portrayal.