Michael Learned Left ‘The Waltons’ Because ‘It Was Just Boring’
Michael Learned left The Waltons in 1979 after eight seasons, but the choice wasn’t as simple as stepping away from a job; it meant walking away from a family she had built on set and a role that had already earned her three Emmy Awards. Like her castmate Richard Thomas, who left after five seasons to pursue other opportunities, Learned’s exit left a noticeable hole in the series. But a combination of exhaustion and desire for new challenges made Learned decide it was time to leave the mountain.
Creator Earl Hamner said of Learned’s exit, according to MeTV, “Each time we lose a person, we lose very special qualities. With Richard Thomas, it was that young, inquiring, intellectual feeling. With Will Geer, it was the patriarch, the link with the past, and sort of the heartbeat of the show. Without Michael — which we hope is only temporary — we lose the mother figure. She was Mother Earth, Mother Courage.”
Everett Collection
Yet as Learned explained later, the decision came down to growth, exhaustion and the reality of being an actor in a long-running series. Television schedules were grueling, and by season eight, she felt the show had run out of meaningful material for Olivia Walton. In a recent interview with Still Here Hollywood podcast, she recalled how Hamner would insist on keeping her in scenes by having her ironing or pouring coffee while the children told their stories: “So they’d have me ironing and going, ‘And then what happened, kids? And then where did you go? John-Boy, more coffee?’ And things, just to have me in the scene. But as an actor, it was just boring.”
Learned was candid that money played a part too. After The Waltons, she said she was ready to leave TV altogether, but just two years later she signed on for the dramatic series Nurse. She admitted, “One [reason] is greed, which I’m ashamed of, but it’s true.” She added, according to MeTV, “I wanted to do something about a woman from many angles. And that appealed to me more than greed, really. I really didn’t want to do another series. I’ve nothing against television, but a series is a grind. I really wanted to grow and explore.”
Monty Sherman/TV Guide/Everett Collection
Still, she has never dismissed what the show gave her. She admitted to PEOPLE, “It put my kids through private school . . But at the time I complained a lot, you know, ‘I want to be home with my kids,’ and here I was with these lovely kids, but they weren’t mine.”
For fans, her presence on The Waltons remains unforgettable. Even after leaving, she returned in guest appearances and later reunions and never lost the love she had for her character Olivia Walton. While she has admitted that sometimes she questions whether or not she should have taken the role in the first place, it is clear that fans would not have it any other way.
Remind 
1970s Fall TV
September 2023
Take a trip back to the ’70s by looking at the TV Guide Magazine Fall Preview primetime lineups.
Buy This Issue