‘The Waltons’ Star Mary McDonough Remembers Which Costar Was ‘My Favorite Person to Kiss’
Mary Beth McDonough hasn’t changed a bit since she costarred as Erin Walton for nine seasons on The Waltons from 1972-81. OK, maybe a little — she now goes by Mary McDonough, but she’s even more beautiful today.
Mary took the stage for a crowded panel at the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival in Olive Branch, Mississippi, earlier this month, sharing memories from The Waltons and candidly dishing about herself. “I had ADHD as a kid,” she said. “I never stopped moving. My desperate parents put me in dance class. I never thought about acting.
Laurie Jacobson
“About then, producers of The Homecoming, the pilot for The Waltons, were looking for red-headed kids because creator Earl Hamner’s family was all redheads. It was my very first audition and after six callbacks, I got it. Less than a year later, I was one of six girls up for The Exorcist. But The Waltons started and the rest is history.”
While many of her former cast members were attending the Hollywood Show that same weekend, McDonough was committed to fans and the MidSouth Nostalgia Festival. Rest assured, she has maintained a special closeness to The Waltons cast. “After more than 50 years, we vacation together, our kids know each other, we go to each other’s weddings and bar mitzvahs, and now our kids are having kids.”
Judy Norton-Taylor, Mary Beth McDonough and (lying down) Kami Cotler. Everett Collection
Mary has also written several books, one of which, Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane, became a Hallmark holiday movie. “Alicia Witt starred in it. I got to play her mom in flashbacks. And Kami Cotler who played my sister, Elizabeth Walton, has a cameo in the party scene.”
Most recently, Mary costarred with Darby Hinton from TV’s Daniel Boone in an independent film, Sod and Stubble, based on a 1936 book. They portray German immigrants settling 1870s Kansas. The Ken Spurgeon film depicts the tough lives of these indomitable homesteaders. It was screened for a packed house at the festival.
On the set of ‘Sod and Stubble’ are Darby Hinton, Ken Spurgeon and Mary McDonough. Credit: Ken Spurgeon
An audience member at the panel asked Mary to name an actor she worked with who made her “weak in the knees.” She didn’t hesitate, eyes twinkling,
“Jonathan Frakes! We were doing a scene where we get caught kissing. The camera pans away from us to another actor and the director calls ‘Cut!’ But Jonathan and I were still kissing.
Screenshot, The Waltons, Season 7, Episode 19 “The Legacy”
“‘Hey, you two! Stop! Stop kissing!’ [the director yelled]. Very embarrassing. I still talk to him. He’s my favorite person to kiss — besides my husband, of course!”
Remind 
TV's Family Dinners
November 2023
Celebrate Family dinner traditions on your favorite feel good TV shows.
Buy This Issue