- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
Today I'm going to be talking
about the final episode from Season 4, The Collision.
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This episode is the second appearance
of actress Kathleen Quinlan in the role of Selena Linville.
She has been away at school and she has returned
and she's inspired and fired up
about what's going on in Spain with the war over there,
and how she feels that is really going to be important
to the freedom of the free world.
And really wants and is demanding
that John Boy share her passion for this
and that as a writer, he needs to be over there.
They should go over there together
and she will take pictures and he will write stories
because people like Hemingway, great authors,
are over there, and that's where the action is,
and he can't possibly just stay
in this little back woods area and make his mark.
She had been his love interest
in the episode The Thoroughbred,
so she is playing on that relationship to try to inspire him
to join in with her plans.
Salina's grandfather, Colonel Linville,
is played in this episode by Eduord France.
We saw him before in the episode "The Courtship"
as Olivia's uncle, Uncle Cody,
and here we have him playing Colonel Linville
who was originally played
in "The Thoroughbred" by actor Frank Janson.
So lots of switching around of characters and actors.
What we start finding out is something's going on
with the colonel because they hear - the Waltons,
John hears about there being some auction of things,
but he just figures they're getting rid
of some older things.
John Boy is invited to dinner
and Selena has come to dinner wearing a,
basically a uniform,
in representation of what's going on in Spain
and continues to try and push her grandfather as well.
But he's kind of having none of it
and is just used to Salina's passionate feelings
about various different things.
They have dinner and, and John Boy takes a bit of teasing
because she has ordered lobster
and John Boy has no clue what to do with hard shell lobster.
So it's an uncomfortable evening for John Boy.
Ultimately, we find out that Colonel Linville
has basically lost all of his money.
Times have been tough and he has had to sell everything,
the house, the land, except for this sort
of caretaker's cottage where
he plans to move with their housekeeper.
This is devastating news to Selena.
She doesn't want to hear about it.
She doesn't understand what's going on
and realizing that they've lost everything.
She runs off and John Boy goes after her.
She hasn't been speaking to John Boy
because he won't fall in with her plans.
But now all of a sudden she is embarrassed
by her circumstances and ultimately John Boy catches up
with her and they sort of have it out.
And he basically tells her he knows she's not going
to Spain, she's not going anywhere,
and that she should stay and transfer to Boatwright,
that she can be closer and help care for her grandfather.
And so in the end, that is what she ends up doing.
The subplot in this episode revolves around Elizabeth
who has a new friend who has recently moved to the area
and is going to school, Ariel.
And it's a common circumstance
of no matter what Elizabeth does, Ariel has a better story.
Ariel's parents buy her more things.
They've taken her on more trips.
So here's poor little Elizabeth just trying to feel
like she can enjoy some little triumph,
something that she has,
and is constantly being overshadowed by Ariel.
And because of that, she starts losing,
Elizabeth starts losing interest in some of the things
that she was excited about like a pencil box
that Ben gives her, but Ariel has a better one.
- It's almost like the one I have home.
- [Elizabeth] Same kind?
- [Ariel] Mine was imported from Switzerland.
My father gave it to me for my birthday.
- So that's, that's a tough little pill
for Elizabeth to swallow there.
I did find it odd in this scene at Ike Godsey's store
when Elizabeth comes to get a pencil for her pencil box
that she's wearing a very sort of ruffled dress,
and it's never the type of dress that we saw Elizabeth wear
and I don't think we ever saw it again.
So I think this was a one and done
where I may not have been the only one who thought
that this wasn't typical clothing for Elizabeth.
Elizabeth decides to go and share this fairy stone
that she has, to show it to Ariel.
And when she gets to her house,
she finds out that all is not how Ariel projected it,
that she, actually, her real name is Effie
and she lives with her aunt because her parents both died
and they live in a very simple little cottage.
And she doesn't have all these things.
Elizabeth finds her in her room, making up stories,
looking through a wish book,
and I think with Elizabeth realizing
what the real circumstance is
it changes her whole perspective.
Effie, Ariel, shares that, you know, she just makes
up these stories and Elizabeth shows her this fairy stone
and gives it to her, and they have a pretend tea party.
Some details of the episode.
This scene where a number of them are on the front porch.
This would've been shot on the sound stage
because you can see through those windows
into the living room, you can see the living room's lit.
We aren't trying to disguise everything,
but you notice that we never see off of the porch.
We are close enough that you do not identify the ends
of the porch where the stairs would've been,
or we don't get a view of where the barn would've been.
We aren't far enough back to see the whole front
of the yard.
So this is the clever way in which they utilize
these sets and this replica of the front porch
that was on our sound stage.
This was a fun episode for me
because of all the the horse work involved in it.
Not that I got to do any riding, but this was,
I was already riding by this point
because of a costumer on our show.
And in fact, the stunt double for Kathleen Quinlan was one
of the assistant trainers where I was riding
and I'm not sure if this was a horse from that barn
or someplace else, but Loria,
who was the assistant trainer,
did the stunt riding for this.
So all the jumps and anytime you don't -
aren't seeing a closeup of Kathleen,
this was the stunt double.
And so there's a number of times here
where you see her taking fences back and forth,
and John Boy, I love John Boy scrambling
to get out of the way, the log that he is on.
And watching this just now, it was reminiscent.
I recently, because I'm working with a new trainer,
have started to learn a bit about cross-country jumping
which is a whole new style for me
because I always worked just in an arena
so to be out in the open, jumping, natural sort of fences.
And just a few weeks ago I went to do some
of my first training, you know, learning this.
And so here is a shot of me with my horse Miya
as we are taking one of these sort of natural obstacles
and as you see on the landing
she's a little excited and it's like, "I wanna go."
So I am just at the beginnings of this kind of jumping
but it was an adventure for me as well.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons"
about the episode, The Collision.
I will be back with more "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons,"
about various episodes, more of your questions,
and an Ask Judy and some more future guests.
Thanks for watching.