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Before he became a Walton, Jon Walmsley got schooled on Adam-12
Eddie Munster stole the spotlight, but Jason Walton snuck in the scene!
We’re used to learning valuable life lessons when we tune into The Waltons, but before that classic show premiered, one of the kids we watched grow up could be spotted in a classroom on an earlier hit show.
For the second season premiere of Adam-12, the action quiets down a little as we watch officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed train for the police Olympics, while also making the rounds and doing some outreach to local schools. So instead of taking us on police chases, we went and visited a fifth-grade class where there were a couple of familiar faces for classic TV fans.
The episode centers on one student Tony Niccola, played by Butch Patrick, the famous child star who played Eddie Munster on The Munsters. Here, he’s cast as a kid whose cagey silence masks his very short fuse. But pay close attention when Reed is demonstrating how his radio works, and you’ll notice another child star who too often gets overlooked in this early Adam-12 episode.
Jon Walmsley is best known as Jason Walton on The Waltons, the second oldest boy who was friends with just about everybody he ever met. His character so clearly taken with music throughout The Waltons, most fans know that Walmsley got his start composing music for the beloved series and eventually grew up to become a world-class guitarist, multi-instrumentalist songwriter and singer.
But they might not remember seeing him on Adam-12, which is a shame because the cast of kids chosen for “Log 15: Exactly 100 Yards” were all magnificent. In the episode, Malloy and Reed discover their tires have been slashed, and their only suspect is Butch Patrick’s character Tony. Denying the crime for most of the episode, Tony’s troubles take the spotlight, for sure, but when you catch this episode next time, try to pay attention to every time Jason Walton sneaks into the scene!
Jon Walmsley joined The Waltons when the show premiered in 1971, and for those keeping count, he’s one of the few Waltons to appear in every single episode. Before that, the actor was best known for voicing Christopher Robin in the second-ever Winnie the Pooh short.
Who’d have suspected that between those two iconic roles, the young star would turn up in this one Adam-12 episode in 1969? Officers you can depend on like Reed and Malloy, that’s who.
See "Log 15: Exactly 100 Yards" tomorrow, Tuesday, May 19, on MeTV at 5:30PM | 4:30C.
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