By the early 1970s, his career as an actor was in limbo. After twenty years of small parts in mainly television shows, he had only been in two bit parts in as many years before he was cast as storekeeper Ike Godsey in The Waltons. Conley was paired with Ronnie Claire Edwards, who portrayed his bossy wife Corabeth Walton Godsey; their characters married in the show during 1975. In 2009, Conley published his autobiography, Ike Godsey of Walton's Mountain.