Actor Richard Thomas takes part in Wilder Days festivities

It was a sold-out crowd with lines out the door of Mansfield High School at this year’s Wilder Dinner. Now in its seventh year, the Wilder Days Dinner provides an opportunity for local Mansfield residents, fans of Laura Ingalls Wilder and everyone in between to come together and enjoy food, fellowship and an intimate evening with special guests associated with the famous Mansfield author.
In addition to a nice meal served by the Mansfield High School FFA, the event auctioned off several eight packs of tickets to experience the rarely-seen upstairs area of Laura’s Farmhouse, courtesy of The Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum, raising more than $1,000 for the home.
The highlight of the evening was, of course, the special celebrity guest. This year’s dinner featured actor Richard Thomas, perhaps best known for his portrayal of John Boy in “The Waltons.”
He also played Laura’s father, Charles “Pa” Ingalls, in a series of two TV movies called “Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder.”
During a question-and-answer segment, Thomas discussed how his relationship with his five daughters helped him invest in the character, the wide variety of topic matter “The Waltons” tackled, the responsibility that comes from portraying an already established character, changes in the television landscape over the years and advice he would give both to himself and to aspiring actors.
“Don’t work so hard. It’s ok. Relax,” he said. Also, “Don’t have a plan B.”
Naturally, the Thomas Q&A ended with an enthusiastic “Good night, John Boy!” from the audience.
One-on-One Interview
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the case of Richard Thomas. His parents were no strangers to the entertainment industry, performing as professional ballet dancers. Growing up around the stage gave it a level of familiarity and comfort for Thomas, who booked his first Broadway role before he was even 10 years old. “I’ve been working ever since,” he tells the Wright County Journal.
His breakout role was that of John Boy, an aspiring writer and eldest son of the titular family on “The Waltons.” He began playing the character at age 21 and would go on to portray him off and on throughout the 70s, and sporadically in the 80s and even early 90s.
It was only a few years after The Waltons premiered that Little House on the Prairie came onto the entertainment scene. Rather than view the two shows about wholesome rustic families as rivals, Thomas saw them as contemporaries. “It was clear that The Waltons’ success meant that the country wanted more shows like that, so when Little House came along, it was the perfect follow-up,” he says. “There were a lot of family shows too after that. That was the beginning of a whole bunch of family stories.”
Still, Thomas had to admit that people would often confuse just which of the two shows he was on. “All the time, people still come up to me and say, ‘I loved you on ‘Little House’ and then they realize that they got it wrong,” he says.
But “The Waltons” weren’t the only wholesome rustic family Thomas would find himself a part of. Around the turn of the century, he was cast as Laura Ingalls Wilder’s father, Charles, in “Beyond the Prairie,” a TV movie that showcased a more realistic and gritty retelling of Laura’s teen and adult years. “I would imagine that ‘The Waltons,’ being the show that it was and the flavor that it had, made (casting agents) think that I would be right for the part,” he says.
While Thomas was familiar with the character as portrayed on the Little House TV show, this role would require additional research for him. “I knew of the books,” he says. “I hadn’t read them at that point. I actually read them when I was getting ready to do the ‘Beyond the Prairie’ movie.”
For Thomas, the additional research was worth the effort. “I loved the idea and I loved the script,” he says. “I loved all the actors. It was a really good cast. And I loved my relationship with Meredith (Monroe), who played my daughter, You know how much (Charles) loves her. They had a father-daughter relationship that was very special to play.”
Thomas takes pleasure in seeing the legacy of characters he portrays, and worlds in which he’s played, continue to thrive thanks to the love of the fans. “It’s lovely to meet people,” he says, speaking of his visit to Mansfield. “I love seeing all the Wilder stuff. I think it’s wonderful that the community has preserved the memory of this wonderful woman and her family. It’s marvelous when communities pull together to maintain these homes and places that people can come visit so people can really get a taste of who those people were.”