A STAR of ‘The Waltons’ TV show was reflecting on her career in television during a recent visit to Dumfries,
Kami Cotler played the youngest of the Walton siblings, Elizabeth on the hit TV show between the ages of six and 16, and reprised her role in six television movies.
Now decades after the show ended, Kami attended her first Waltons fan event in the UK earlier this month in Airdrie. She and her cast mates regularly attend fan events in the American mid-west but have always wanted to make the trip to visit British fans. She said: “I’ve wanted to come to Scotland and this is my first visit so I’m really excited.
“The fun part about doing an event like this one is that I get to meet and talk to people from all different walks of life but they all share this love and appreciation for our show ‘The Waltons’ and it’ll be interesting for me to see how fans in Scotland are different to ones I’ve met in rural Missouri.
“We have fantasised about doing a Waltons tour of the UK, because we know we have a lot of fans out here. I knew I was going to be over here anyway, I thought why try and do an event to test the waters. And if it goes well I can invite more of my Waltons brothers and sisters to come with me, because it’s always more fun if there’s more of us.”
In total The Waltons ran for 212 episodes from 1972 to 1981 with Kami remembering a strong family feeling on set. She says she thinks of The Waltons as more of a bunch of ‘home movies’ with the earlier seasons having a special place in her heart, she continued: “We were together for ten years and I was part of that group from the age six to 16, so I really grew up with them and the set was such a friendly place to be and we treated each other like family and we cared for each other and that’s why we’re still all in each others lives.
“The episodes I like most are probably the ones where I’m like seven, because the things you’re in are always a little cringey. And then as you get older they get really cringey because you’re going through puberty and feel super awkward about yourself, I just so happend to have gone through the awkward phase on national television.”
Since her time on television Kami has gone on to have very successful teaching career, but still loves to catch up with her second family and fans of the show. She added: “Usually when actors do a play or a TV show they make a core group friends and when it’s done they move on to the next project, but there’s something about this group where we don’t move on and something clicks when we’re all together and almost immediately we’re back on the porch swing, re-telling the old stories and old jokes. It’s like a family reunion when we get together so I’m really lucky to have two families.”
