Michael Learned never slept with Ralph Waite

Ralph Waite was determined to make an unforgettable impression on his TV wife, Michael Learned.

50 years ago, The Waltons, a series about a family in rural Virginia during the Great Depression and World War II, premiered in 1972. The surviving cast will reunite at the Hollywood Museum on November 17 to meet with fans and help present an exhibit celebrating the show’s legacy.

Waite played the beloved but no-nonsense family patriarch, John Walton Sr. On set, however, he was a prankster who wasn’t afraid to let his hair — or pants — down.

“Ralph and Will Geer [‘The Grandfather’] loved to bare their butts,” Learned told Fox News Digital of the actors’ eagerness to sing the praises of the cast.

“I would run screaming into the night,” she giggled.

Waite died in 2014 at the age of 85. Learned previously admitted their on-screen chemistry was the real deal. In 2019, it was reported that Learned and Waite were “in love” off-screen. However, the couple did not pursue a romance.

“I loved him very much,” she explained. “And we loved each other as much as one can love anyone. We never slept together. But our love was so deep and spiritual. And you know, Ralph put me in my place when he thought I was an asshole. He made no bones about telling me to get in shape. And it was the same for me.”

“But I just couldn’t take it when we had disagreements,” she shared. “If we didn’t get along, I couldn’t take it. I remember we once argued about something stupid. I just had to knock on his dressing room door. I cried. only in tears I told him, ‘We need to make up because I can’t shoot this scene if we’re still mad at each other.’ And of course he just opened his arms and hugged me. We really were a family, with all the ups and downs that come with that, except there was no prior baggage.”

When The Waltons debuted on CBS, it competed against Flip Wilson’s variety show and Mod Squad. In its second season, however, The Waltons drove its competitors off the air. It lasted nine seasons and produced six TV movie sequels. In 1992, years after The Waltons ended in 1981, President George HW Bush said he wanted “to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.”

Despite its popularity, Learned left the series in 1979.

“I used to complain about my character Olivia,” Learned explained of playing the show’s matriarch. “I used to say, ‘Can’t you give me something to do other than pour coffee and say, ‘Sit up straight, John-Boy?’ I don’t need lines. I just have to have an attitude. I needed a reason to be on the scene. I was told [by the director]”We don’t really need a reason. We just want to know that Mom is there.’ I said, ‘But this is going to kill me as an actor.’ Looking back, they really made an effort to give me something to do, a reason to be in the scene. And now I think they’ve done a remarkable job. Everyone was just wonderful to me. But… I think it was the right decision for me [to leave] back then.”

It wasn’t easy for Learned to leave her TV family behind.

“I was just crying,” she mused. “I remember just staring at a photo of the cast, crew and all the kids just standing there smiling. I just got undone. I cried. I used to wake up because I had a dream that we were doing that cast photo again. Every year, at the beginning of the season, we all took a cast photo. And I dreamed that they wouldn’t let me do it. I would wake up and start crying. It was a very emotional time for me.”

Learned said she’s met countless fans across the country over the years who have found solace in the series.

“I remember visiting a lot of hospitals when the show aired,” she said. “There was a Veterans Hospital and a lot of these little kids had come back from Vietnam. I remember talking to a really unresponsive guy. He was almost rude. And I didn’t blame him. After everything he’s been through, he was probably thinking, ‘Who is this blonde chick and why is she talking to me like a five year old?’ I remember leaving his room because I felt like an intruder. A nurse ran after me and said to me, “Please come back. He had no idea you were the mother of ‘The Waltons’.” I walked back and he just sobbed in his bed. He looked at me and said, ‘You were the mother I never had.’”

“Looking back, I think of the people who watched the show, the ones who also went through financial difficulties,” Learned continued. “Those who had an unhappy childhood. They tuned in because it made them feel good. And when we started, none of us thought we were going to stick with it. We always joked that we would only be staying here for a week or two. And then it would all be over… But then we were part of the Thanksgiving Day parade. Ralph and I just looked at each other. He said, “You know what? This show is a hit.” People were just screaming at us. And it was exciting.”

The cast has remained tight over the years. Learned described them as “my second family”.

“We spent more time filming the show than we did with our own families,” she said. “Of course we got closer. I love her. And it gives us a good feeling that the show keeps coming home. Even now, so many people come up to me and say, ‘Seeing the Waltons was the only time I felt safe for an hour.’ Others tell me it reminds them of their childhood when life was sweeter and more innocent. We are proud of our work.”

Today, Learned is as busy as ever. Most recently, she starred in Ryan Murphy’s Dahmer: Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story about the serial killer for Netflix.

“I feel privileged to still be working at 83,” she said. “I am much more grateful today than I was then. I think as you get older you get a little wiser and a lot more humble.”