How ‘The Waltons’ Sparked a Lifelong Friendship Between John Ritter and Richard Thomas

Lori Acken 41 seconds ago

THE WALTONS, Will Geer, John Ritter(1973-1976), 1972-81. — Lorimar Television/ Courtesy: Everett Collection.

What To Know

John Ritter joined The Waltons in 1972 as Reverend Matthew Fordwick.
Ritter’s character initially clashed with the Walton family and townsfolk due to his rigid beliefs.
His role on The Waltons showcased his softer side and comedic timing.

Hard to imagine Three’s Company‘s Jack Tripper and The Waltons‘ John-Boy Walton as pals. But when actor John Ritter, then a character actor in his early 20s, joined the beloved family drama in 1972, he found a lifelong kindred spirit in his costar Richard Thomas, who’d just turned 21.

Ritter entered the series in an episode of its first season, playing fresh-from-divinity-school Baptist preacher Rev. Matthew Fordwick, whose hellfire ‘n brimstone ways don’t exactly mesh with Walton’s Mountain’s more kindly and sensible approach to life, the Lord and — most of all — each other. Of course, Thomas’s sensitive and introspective character, John-Boy, doesn’t know what to make of the new arrival who is his own age and so assured in his convictions, if less so in what his proclamations mean. And it doesn’t take long for Fordwick to face a reckoning.

The new reverend pays a visit to his distant relatives Miss Mamie and Miss Emily Baldwin (Helen Kleeb, Mary Jackson), Walton’s Mountains’ eccentric, outwardly genteel spinster sisters revered for their sheltered lifestyle, sociable ways, fashionable headwear and potent homemade libation called “The Recipe.” The sisters genuinely believe that their homebrewed cordial boasts healthful properties — and it certainly does make folks feel better. At least for a bit.

THE WALTONS, 1972-81, Helen Kleeb, Mary Jackson

Everett Collection

Despite Grandpa Walton’s (perhaps too subtle) warnings that there’s more to The Recipe than finely combined herbs, Fordwick thrills his hosts with his enjoyment of their offering. And pretty soon he and Grandpa (Will Geer) are too soused to set up for the all-day sermon Fordwick’s tapped to lead.

The uptight missionary who brought the young preacher to the town proclaims him irredeemable. John-Boy, on the other hand, just finds him an insufferable hypocrite. One whose Bible and prescription of cold showers and calisthenics for impure actions couldn’t even save him from downfall courtesy of a social visit to two elderly ladies.

Pa (Ralph Waite, himself a licensed minister) sets John-Boy straight, assuring him that Fordwick may be school smart, but, like John-Boy, just “not too experienced at the job of livin’.” The pair gets dressed up and accompanies Fordwick to the sermon, where the boy owns his sin, assures the congregation that the Lord loves all sinners who sincerely repent (perhaps the first sincere words out of his mouth since he got to town), and the townsfolk gather ’round to welcome their new preacher to the fold.

Ritter would play Fordwick in 18 episodes between 1926 and 1976, becoming a treasured resident of Walton’s Mountain and a great friend to, and student of, the Walton family — deep thinker John-Boy especially — and finds love and fatherhood with schoolteacher Rosemary Hunter (Mariclare Costello).

Ritter’s Fordwick gave added dimension to the town, to the show’s overall exploration of faith, morality and forgiveness and to the Walton kids’ triumphs and struggles as they edged toward true adulthood alongside him. And, from his very first episode, The Waltons gave TV viewers an early glimpse of the boyish charm and inimitable comic timing that would earn his next major role, Lothario with a heart of gold, Jack Tripper, on the much more mod ’70s sitcom, which would earn him an Emmy amid multiple nominations.

But he made his mark on his Waltons costars, and they made theirs on him. Even though Three’s Company would make him a household name, Ritter famously said it was bittersweet to leave behind Walton’s Mountain for Janet and Chrissie’s apartment.

Jon Walmsley, who played Jason Walton, named Rev. Fordwick as one of his all-time favorite Walton characters, adding that, despite their morally upright characters, Ritter and Thomas loved regaling each other with gross-out jokes. And keeping the rest of the cast in stitches, too.

“You have to understand about this relationship,” Thomas said during a 2021 Waltons reunion on YouTube to raise money for The Actors Fund. “I know it was very serious on camera and the scenes were very sobering. It was very important, but we would put makeup sponges in our mouths and try to get enough foam to make the other one gag. If I could make John gag I won, and if he could make me gag, he won.”

Added Eric Scott, who played John-Boy’s brother Ben, makeup sponges played a major role in the shenanigans. As Thomas explained, if you chewed the living daylights out of the sponges, it produced the effect of foaming at the mouth.

“John would go up there, and he’d be on the pulpit,” Scott said. “He would give a wonderful speech or whatever, and the entire time in the audience, you’re drooling out of the side of your mouth.”

STEPHEN KING'S IT, Richard Thomas, Harry Anderson, John Ritter, 1990 TV Movie

Everett Collection

Years after, the pair’s comic chemistry found another playground on the set of the Emmy-winning 1990 miniseries It, culled from horror master Stephen King‘s novel. The pair played the now grown-up Bill Denbrough (Thomas) and Ben Hanscom (Ritter), former members of the Losers’ Club who battled shapeshifting demon Pennywise and reunite 30 years later to take the clown down once and for all.

Before his shocking and untimely death from thoracic aortic dissection in Sept. 2003, at age 53, Ritter was asked how he’d like to be remembered. His answer was telling and true.

“Just as a guy who was interested in the golden thread that intertwines all of us together. You know that golden thread that goes through me and you, and the cameraman, and all the people out there and back through [his then wife ] Nancy [Morgan],” Ritter said. “That’s what an artist can do, that someone — anyone — could do, if they’re willing to pluck that. Whether it makes you laugh or it makes you cry; it’s that golden thread of humanity, and I’d like to be remembered as maybe a guy who plucked a few of those.”