The running joke was that Lorimar was so cheap that their idea of a party was one can of beer and 13 straws!

Judy Norton

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That’s why I was grateful to go back into theater because… you’re typecast, it’s just an unfortunate fact of this business. So I went back to my roots, which was theater, where I got a lot of roles that were different than what I might be playing on television. So, once I figured out that I shouldn’t be worried about the doors that were closed, I looked for the doors that would open. It made my path easier and I was always looking to find ways to reinvent myself.

My character Tara is a painter, a longer, an introvert, and then she starts experiencing concerning and disturbing phenomenon in her world… And she doesn’t know if she’s literally going crazy because her mother has, or if someone is stalking or manipulating her for some unknown, sinister reason… There was a lot of acting and emotional demands to it. And she’s also different from other characters I typically played. But I wanted that challenge to stretch myself outside of my comfort zone.

I guess at my core, I’m an artist, and so the opportunity to utilize my imagination, create things and share stories is what makes me happy and fulfills me… It wasn’t until many years after ‘The Waltons’ when I had gone back to theater that I had the opportunity to take on a role within a theater company as a writer and director. I found to my surprise that I really enjoyed it as well. And as you get older as a woman, there are fewer roles. So it can be a bit challenging to stay satisfied as an actor. As a writer, [my] age, sex, how I looked – it didn’t matter…. It was a great training route to hone my storytelling skills.

They are my family, i love them. We’re super close. It was a very special bond that we still share, even though it’s been 40 years since the show went off the air… But we just thought it was normal to love each other this much. And that was really the best part of all those years. The people that I got to work with.

It was really the producers who went out and created a grassroots campaign, like taking out ads and doing interviews in the heartland, in Middle America, where we really found our audience, just really kind of pleading with people to watch the show and embrace it, she added. And that was really the audience that formed the core… Those are our really loyal fans that continue to watch the show in reruns.

I always wanted to try harder because I knew people were looking up to me, and that meant something to me. I’m still always learning how to grow and improve myself because I want to be the best possible role model.

[Learned] went to the producers and said, ‘These kids have given you years of their lives and you can’t get them something? we ended up getting a little muffin basket with, like, three muffins in it.

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We were both single, so I drove out to Malibu, but we just looked at each other and said, ‘Nah, I don’t think so.’ So all of our lovemaking was on-screen!

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He credited the show for being the reason he got sober, he said, ‘I sat there one day at the kitchen table with all you kids and I felt like such a fake.’ He took himself to AA and got sober.

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