Whatever Happened To Jon Walmsley, Jason Walton From ‘The Waltons?’
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The Waltons provided Americans an inspiring, intriguing view of a traditional family during turbulent times. Turbulence follows a lot of people, so even though the hardships changed, people still felt inspired. This could only be possible with a dynamic cast. Everyone had to bring something to the table. In the case of Jon Walmsley, he brought unique talents to an older sibling in this big family.
But where is he now? Each sibling had at least some trait that stood out. For Jason, that was music. That, ultimately, followed him before and after the show. Born on February 6, 1956, Walmsley called Blackburn, Lancashire, England his home early in life. IMDb writes that he became an acting protégé of Ralph Waite. However, it partially parallel with his presence on The Waltons.
Jon Walmsley gets his musical television start
Life moved Jon Walmsley about early on. He and his parents emigrated to the U.S., where his musical career kicked off quickly. By the age of eight, he was singing and playing guitar. Thanks to persistent performances at various venues, he put his talent out there for others to notice.
RELATED: ‘The Waltons’ Cast Then And Now 2020
And notice they did. Hollywood producers noticed his easy and early skills as a musician while he performed on a local TV talent show. After that, his TV (and musical) career kicked off in earnest, first through commercials and appearances on some shows. Those early show appearances included Combat, Adam – 12, and The Bill Cosby Show. In 1968, he also voiced Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh.
Never limiting his options
Jon Walmsley nurtured his acting and musical careers in equal measure. By just the age of 19, he made it into the Grand Ole Opry. When he found his way onto The Waltons, he was responsible for composing and performing a lot of original songs.
That worked out well since second-oldest-son Jason Walton was also musically inclined. While his filmography extends before and after The Waltons, his music career as a famous icon stretches very far after the show. He lent his talents to other TV shows, finding a good niche. He provided music for 8 Simple Rules, The Secret Life of an American Teenager, Seventh Heaven, and more.
Where does Jon Walmsley live?
Now in his sixties, Jon Walmsley moved to Cornwall, back in Britain, according to The Sun. The outlet claims he lives there with his wife Marion, and feels quite glad for some privacy. “I don’t really get recognized as I changed my look a few years ago and now look quite different than on The Waltons,” he elaborated. Together, they can enjoy privacy and the area’s quaint benefits. Walmsley elaborated, “We love the sea, the coastal path, the moors, the woods, the farms, the sheep, cows and wild ponies – and the good food.”
However, as recently as 2017, he worked in earnest on a new project, the CD Goin’ To Clarksdale. The blues album, he told Billboard, reflected his earliest and most fundamental passions. “I would say that [the sound of the album] is new to my audience – The Waltons fans – but it’s actually the music that inspired me to play when I was a kid.” His work even allowed him to meet Merle Haggard and the experience was unlike any other. “What a nice guy Merle was,” he recalled. “We all know how talented he was, but he was really a sweet, genuine, and down to earth man. He came onto the lot, on his bus, with his tour manager and those people. It was interesting, because he seemed so humble and shy. He wasn’t a real showbiz personality. He struck me as being a little bit like Elvis – where he had his guys who were around him all the time. I think he felt most comfortable at home on the stage. I would have loved to have gotten to know him away from Hollywood, and hung out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be, but what a great memory.”
The post Whatever Happened To Jon Walmsley, Jason Walton From ‘The Waltons?’ appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Dana Daly
Here’s Why An Episode Of ‘Cheers’ Was Actually Requested By The U.S. Government
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In the ’80s, Cheers was a very popular sitcom. It was so popular that a Government agency asked the show to do a special episode to promote savings bonds. The U.S. Treasury requested a special mini-episode of Cheers that ran about 12 minutes long. The episode was titled “Uncle Sam Malone” and was made in 1983.
In hopes that the beloved characters would influence Americans, the U.S. Treasury wanted to use Cheers to promote savings bonds. In the mini-episode, Cliff starts talking about his incredible trip to Tahiti with everyone. He tells them that he paid for it using his savings bonds and they all discuss how they want to get some.
‘Cheers’ did an episode for the U.S. Treasury on savings bonds
The short episode was written by Ralph Phillips, who also wrote an episode of Benson to promote savings bonds. The government has routinely used celebrities and shows to promote certain things or spread important news to Americans.
RELATED: Boston’s ‘Cheers’ Bar Will Close Permanently Due To The Pandemic
Not only did Cheers inspire Americans and apparently the Government, but other popular sitcoms. It truly paved the way for its spinoff Frasier, as well as more recent shows with ensemble casts like The Office. The show took a diverse group of people and made everything cohesive.
The mini-episode is not readily available but it has been posted on Vimeo. In conclusion, watch it below:
The post Here’s Why An Episode Of ‘Cheers’ Was Actually Requested By The U.S. Government appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Lauren Novak
The Secret, Wild Sex Life Of ‘Batman’s Adam West We Never Knew About
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The original Batman TV series starring Adam West ran from 1966-’68, alongside his sidekick Robin a.k.a. Burt Ward. While many fans may have perceived him as the caped crusader who took care of evil and all of its demons, many may have not known the truth of West’s sex life behind closed doors. Turns out ladies loved men in tights, even back then!
The ’60s was no doubt a time of free-spiritedness and free love. And, of course, West was reaping the benefits of being a Hollywood star and engaging in that exact thing. Women were literally lining up to be with him. According to a story published in Page Six, West slept with as many as eight women a night and even ‘quickies’ between scenes on the set of Batman. Shocked? Just wait until you read the rest…
The secrets behind Adam West’s wild sex life
Not only were women lining up to have their ways with West, but they were also lining up to get some action with Ward as well. Groovy History reports that allegedly they would engage in these activities while sometimes still wearing their iconic Batman and Robin costumes! West actually once told a story about how he was kicked out of an erotic party. But, it didn’t go as you’re thinking it did.
RELATED: Los Angeles Honored Adam West With A Ceremonial Bat-Signal Lighting
“We walked in and it was an orgy,” West recalls at the time. “So I immediately went into the Batman character, and Frank went into the Riddler character because we were getting the big giggles. It was so funny to us, what we walked into. And we were kicked out. We were expelled from the orgy.”
He helped introduce Burt Ward to the lifestyle as well
Posted by Burt Ward as Robin on Friday, October 14, 2011
However, Ward wasn’t always a sex-crazed ladies man. He was just 20 years old and had only been on a few dates when West introduced him to the new lifestyle. According to Groovy History, West went on to introduce him to the “wildest sexual debauchery that you can imagine.” One thing leads to another, and soon both West and Ward were using their dressing rooms as ‘quickie’ areas between filming scenes.
While West slept with a lot of random groupies during his time, he also had some well-known Hollywood stars on his arm. These women included Jill St. John, Linda Cristal, and Laura Ward. He also dated sisters Natalie Wood and Lana Wood.
By the time West was cast as Batman, he had already been married and divorced twice. He did eventually settle down, though, and left the Swinging Sixties behind him. West married his third wife Marcelle Tagand Lear and remained married up until West’s death in 2017. What a wild life!
The post The Secret, Wild Sex Life Of ‘Batman’s Adam West We Never Knew About appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Jane Kenney
What Happened When Bob Dylan Got The Beatles High
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Turns out that Bob Dylan was the one to give The Beatles their first mind-blowing high. They admitted that they tried smoking marijuana before but just weren’t that into it. Apparently, Bob had some way better stuff. The meeting in question happened in New York City at the Delmonico Hotel in 1964.
At first, Bob was reportedly confused when the group said they didn’t really dabble in drugs. He thought their song “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” had the lyrics, “When I touch you, I get high…” but the words are actually, “I can’t hide.” Oops.
Bob Dylan gave The Beatles their first amazing high
When talking about getting high with Bob, John Lennon said, “I don’t remember much what we talked about. We were smoking dope, drinking wine and generally being rock ‘n’ rollers and having a laugh, you know, and surrealism. It was party time.”
RELATED: Remembering The Time Elvis Presley Called The Beatles ‘Anti-American’ To President Nixon
Paul McCartney, however, said, “I’d been going through this thing of levels, during the evening. And at each level I’d meet all these people again. ‘Ha ha ha! It’s you!’ And then I’d metamorphose on to another level.”
After having that crazy experience with Bob, they began to smoke weed more and more. As the years went on, many of their popular hits were influenced by drugs. Paul once admitted, “Sgt. Pepper was a drug album.”
The Beatles soon became advocates for weed, which may have never happened without Bob Dylan. Once they even took out an ad calling the government to put more research into marijuana and make it more legal!
The post What Happened When Bob Dylan Got The Beatles High appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Lauren Novak
This Is Why ‘The Brady Bunch’ Almost Never Happened
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Here’s the story of a lovely lady and a man named Brady, who almost never happened. The Brady Bunch is one of the most beloved and recognizable shows ever to be aired on television, but The Brady Bunch’s success was not a given by any means. In fact, the show seemed doomed for failure before it even began. The pilot was trashed by critics and so was the unlikely first season that followed it. The ratings were nothing to write home about either. When the crew wrapped up shooting the pilot episode, almost everyone on set doubted anything would ever come of it.
The Brady Bunch depicted a reality so perfect many adults found it to be boring, unrealistic, and hokey but behind the scenes, it was anything but. Fighting would take place on set openly and routinely, and secret sex lives threatened the life of the show numerous times. In the isolated universe of the Brady family, there was no Vietnam, there was no JFK, there was no civil rights movement, political assassinations, or protests. Parents never even raised their voices let alone cursed. There were no explosions, there was no violence, there was no sex. The Bradys were the perfect family in a perfect world and this idealized version of family life proved to be a blessing and a curse.
Why ‘The Brady Bunch’ almost never happened
If The Brady Bunch seems hokey and old fashioned to you today, you’d probably just chalk it up to changing values of the times. That’s not really the whole truth though because even back in the early ’70s when the show originally aired, The Brady Brunch seemed dated. Critics trashed it for its Leave It to Beaver ’50s style version of family life. Compared to other prime time sitcoms of the early ’70s like All in the Family, The Brady Bunch seemed to be from a different era. Mr. Brady and Archie Bunker couldn’t be further apart. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that audiences wanted TV to be more real and the Brady’s just weren’t. For this reason, many people including some of the Brady cast themselves thought the show was doomed from the jump.
RELATED: Susan Olsen Remembers Florence Henderson On What Would Have Been Her 86th Birthday
However, there was one aspect of the show that was not squeaky clean and in the late ’60s, still taboo. As the strict social values of the ’50s loosened, divorce was on the rise, but television wasn’t fully on board with this changing social phenomenon quite yet. One day in 1966, Brady Brunch creator, Sherwood Schwartz, came across a little bit of inspiration in the Los Angeles Times. Schwartz read an article that claimed 30 percent of marriages involved children from a previous relationship. Schwartz explained, “In 1966 this was a new phenomenon, Television was loaded with happily married couples, and single widows and widowers, but there wasn’t any show that revolved around the marital amalgamation of two families.” Thus, The Brady Bunch was born… kind of.
Clashing with Lucille Ball’s ‘Yours, Mine, and Ours’ film
The show was originally titled Yours and Mine, and although the major networks showed some interest in the show, they all demanded major changes mostly revolving around the structure of this new kind of family. ABC actually didn’t want Carol and Mike to be married at all. Schwartz held his ground, refused, and the script was shelved. That was until there just happened to be a movie with a similar name and concept that proved to be a massive commercial success.
Yours, Mine, and Ours starred Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda, and like The Brady Brunch, was about a man and woman coming together with children from previous marriages to form a new family. Except in Yours, Mine, and Ours, the mother has 8 children and the father has 10! They tried this out for The Brady Bunch, but there were just too many squares in the intro. Just kidding! Even though the proto-Brady Crunch script Yours and Mine had a similar name, the movie and the future legendary sitcom were completely unrelated. In fact, they both threatened to sue each other. The producers of the movie realized the similarities and threatened a lawsuit. Schwartz threatened to counter-sue because his script was actually first. Facing mutually assured destruction, they all decided to let it be.
The issues with Robert Reed
But there were other problems facing The Brady Bunch. Robert Reed, the famous father of the Brady boys, didn’t even want to be part of the pilot. He was somehow forced to do it out of contractual obligations. Originally, he was told that it would be a realistic show, but when he got the script he was surprised it was as he described “gag after gag.” It was said that he was actually disappointed the show was picked up. According to his co-stars, Robert Reed was a serious classically trained actor and seemed to feel the role of the Brady Bunch patriarch was beneath his artistic prowess.
Barry Williams a.k.a. Greg Brady said that Robert Reed threatened to quit three times the first season and frequently openly argued with the creator of the show, Sherwood Schwarz. Reed thought the writing on the show was terrible and didn’t keep it to himself. He often complained the scripts were juvenile, unrealistic, and full of factual errors. He once walked off the set because the script contained a mistake about the population of the city of Poughkeepsie.
Pushback from Reed forces episode changes
PHOTO: SUPPLIED BY GLOBE PHOTOS INC/IMAGECOLLECT
This feud would last throughout the lifespan of the show. In one episode, Carol Brady and Alice, the family’s housekeeper, hold a competition to see who can make the best strawberry preserves. During the scene, Papa Brady arrives home and is supposed to say that the house smelled like strawberry heaven. But Reed, who researched and meticulously fact-checked every script, discovered that according to Encyclopedia Britannica, strawberries give off no discernable scent when cooked. So naturally, he refused to say the line.
Schwartz, the shows creator, and executive producer took Reed to the kitchen where the strawberries were actually being cooked to prove that cooking strawberries did indeed have a smell but Robert refused to budge. They eventually compromised and in the episode, Mike Brady arrives home and says, “I do believe I’ve died and gone to strawberry heaven.”
Written out of the finale as a result
What’s more, Robert Reed was actually written out of the finale. This episode centered around Bobby selling miracle hair tonic. Robert thought this episode was so stupid that, again, he refused to say his lines. This time Shwartz was not so accommodating. He responded by writing him out of the episode entirely but Robert Reed refused to leave the set. He was almost escorted off the set by security, but Schwartz didn’t want the kids to be subjected to such a traumatic scene, so apparently Robert just sat there angrily, the whole time, just stewing. What a way to end a season.
Another issue that threatened the show, again revolving mostly around Robert Reed, was the chemistry between the lead roles, Mike and Carol Brady. There was none, and it was obvious. Florence Henderson aka The Brady Bunch mother realized her co-star was very nervous about the affectionate scenes between them the very first time they worked together in the pilot episode. Unlike other sitcoms, the Brady’s actually openly showed affection towards each other. Their love life was actually the most sexual part of the show. But before the show was even picked up Florence realized that Reed was… as she put it… “not straight.”
The exposure of Reed’s sexuality could have been extremely bad for the show, and his career
Although he never spoke to anybody on set, ever, about his sexuality, Florence’s intuition was spot on. She asked Schwartz not to press him on the love scenes and to let her handle it, but on-screen chemistry was not the only problem with this … situation. Although being different is always a struggle, even today, in the early ’70s, even in Hollywood, this was not to be spoken of at all. If Reeds’ sexuality was found out about by the press, the show most certainly would never have been picked up and Reed’s impressive career would have likely ended there as well.
The show’s producers were justifiably nervous about how advertisers would react if they found out about Reed’s secret lifestyle. Having a gay man as the dad on a family sitcom was no bueno in the early ’70s. But the show’s producers didn’t think it would be too much of a problem because they didn’t think the show would be picked up at all. Even to the show’s producers, the pilot seemed stale and just not quite all the way there.
Despite all of it, ‘The Brady Bunch’ was a massive hit
Well, despite all of this, the show took off. By the third season, it was an undeniable phenomenon. And even though the show was canceled in its fifth season, the show made an impact on America and the world, few other shows can compete with. The Brady Bunch spawned TV spinoffs, musical albums, movies, merchandise, and generations of fans. And it almost never even happened. I don’t know about you but we’re thankful ABC picked up the pilot and the show went on for as long as it did. Who was your favorite Brady, or are you more of a Partridge Family person? Let us know in the comments!
The post This Is Why ‘The Brady Bunch’ Almost Never Happened appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Jane Kenney
How The Quarantine Changed Brooke Shields’ Outlook On Life
This article is from Do You Remember. Click the title to hop over there.
For all of us, spending more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic has really shifted our outlook on life. Many of us are realizing how important family, friends, connection, and our health truly is. For some celebrities, they are learning how to slow down and enjoy life again. Many celebs, including actress Brooke Shields, have been “go go go” for decades.
Brooke also admitted that she hopes to spend more time with her teenage daughters. She wanted to teach them some important life lessons, including the tricky balance between humility and confidence. For women especially, it can be difficult to be seen as confident and humble.
Teaching teens the balance between humility and confidence is difficult, says Brooke
View this post on InstagramSunny selfie with my baby girl 💗
A post shared by Brooke Shields (@brookeshields) on Aug 17, 2020 at 1:45pm PDT
Brooke admitted, “Humility can be a little bit of a dangerous thing, only because it makes you smaller. Walk into a room humble, it means you’re smaller. But if you can walk into a room confident as to who you are, but not to be arrogant, meaning to being higher than or better than anybody else, so that’s the kind of conversation I try to have. … Be polite, be kind, but arrogance — we have no room for that.”
RELATED: Brooke Shields Says She Will Never Wear Those Iconic Calvin Klein Jeans Again
During the quarantine, Brooke also realized how she needs less. She explained, “I need fewer social engagements, I need fewer people around, I need less. I really want to stop the noise that I’ve allowed in my life for decades. And the revving up and the constant motion and (even) just getting ready, it’s like doing the hair and the make-up and the thing and the production and the stuff and it’s all just anxiety. It’s unnecessary. There’s so many unnecessary things that, as people, I don’t want to spend my time doing for this next part of my life.”
Her dream life? She said it would be sipping some tequila on the beach with a good book. Perhaps when traveling is easier, she will be able to do just that. It sounds pretty nice right about now, I must admit!
The post How The Quarantine Changed Brooke Shields’ Outlook On Life appeared first on DoYouRemember? – The Home of Nostalgia. Author, Lauren Novak