- Welcome back to another segment of "Ask Judy"
in this "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons".
A question from Holly.
"Everyone here frequently comments
how youthful looking you are, for sure."
Thank you, I appreciate that.
"Our culture is obsessed.
'The Waltons' allowed Grandma and Grandpa
to be and look like people who have lived long enough
to be the grand generation.
Not so much these days.
What are your thoughts about plastic surgery?"
Kind of scares me.
I haven't had any plastic surgery.
You know, my face, no.
So I'm gonna do my best to age gracefully.
So that's my stand right at this minute.
maybe check with me in 10, 20, 30 years.
But, hey, you know, you hit a certain age where,
you know, it's just you're happy to be healthy.
So I think that's the most important thing.
Another question.
"Would you ever share a peek
into your beauty and skincare routine for us ladies?"
You know, I really don't do a lot.
I don't sleep with my makeup on.
But I just, you know, I use makeup remover
and a lot of times just soap and water.
I do use moisturizer at night
and a sunscreen during the day, but that's kind of it.
I'm pretty low maintenance that way. (laughs)
I don't know why, I just am.
Because it's like a lot of work to not be.
Okay, "You're obviously" -
oh, "Do you follow any particular exercise regimes?
You're obviously athletic."
I don't follow a specific exercise regime.
I do try to stretch regularly, I'm bad about that,
I don't do as much as I should.
But sports have always been sort of my exercise.
I still ride and jump horses,
so I usually ride four or five times a week.
And then I try to get out, and I used to call it running,
now I happily call it jogging because I'm so slow,
but I try and get out at least once a week,
sometimes a couple times a week.
And it's usually three to four miles.
I hate doing it, but I feel like it's good for my cardio,
and I find it easier to maintain
than to stop for long periods and then try and start again.
So just trying to stay active and healthy.
I feel better.
A lot of those aches and pains seem to be less
if I'm moving a lot.
I also, I'm big on maintenance,
so I see a chiropractor and get massages.
I mean, so I do those as often as I can
just for maintenance and preventative things.
So that's kind of my routine.
And then, "Do I have a favorite fashion designer?"
No, not really, I've never been big on labels.
I just, I like clothes that are, that work for me.
So I think people tend to find certain stores where,
"Oh, or this brand or something, you know, fits me,
fits my body type."
So I think it's been more about that
but I wouldn't even say that there's a particular store.
I find things I like in a lot of different places.
So no specific fashion designer.
Don't have a favorite graphic artist
and really don't have a favorite composer.
So that's it.
And then you had some music questions, yes.
About, you mentioned the theme song
that Jerry Goldsmith wrote,
which is just brilliant, you know?
And then we had wonderful Alexander Courage
who did the music for a lot of seasons of "The Waltons"
wrote some beautiful music.
I can't answer a lot of the questions that people ask me
about the music, because it didn't happen on set
and I wasn't around when compositions were done.
So I don't really know why the music changed,
some people have said the music seemed different
in later seasons.
I don't know why, they probably changed composers,
don't know why.
I'm gonna try and see if I can get maybe John Dayton
to come on again, he might know more about
behind the scenes with the music
or maybe one of the other production people
that worked more in post-production.
If I can, I will.
So I haven't forgotten that a lot of you
had those music questions but I haven't taken it up
because I can't answer.
Question here from Kim Glass.
All right.
"What were your work hours and did the studio pick you up
and take you home every night
or was that left up to your parents to get you there?"
We did not get picked up by the studio.
Sometimes like early on, Richard, because he didn't drive,
somebody would go and pick him up and take him home.
So that would happen sometimes.
But for us children, because we had to have
a parent or guardian there anyway, they would just drive us.
And then when we were old enough to have cars and drive,
we drove ourselves.
So, in terms of hours, when we were under 18
they could only have us there for eight hours.
And then there was an hour for lunch,
so we could be there nine hours altogether.
Once you turned 18, then that
that wasn't restricted in that way.
The restriction was that actors are supposed to have
12 hours between, what we call a 12 hour turnaround.
So if you finished working at eight o'clock in the evening
they couldn't call you in
before eight o'clock the next morning.
Sometimes on a Friday night,
because we didn't shoot on Saturday,
I had some days where I worked like 16 or more hours
because they didn't have to worry,
they had plenty of turnaround time.
So those were kind of the way it ran.
In terms of what time we arrived,
if we were working on the sound stage
we might have an eight o'clock shooting call
maybe 8:30, usually 8 o'clock,
which meant that for the actors,
if you were in the first scene,
hair and makeup might be an hour before,
maybe 45 minutes before.
For the boys, not so much,
for the girls more because the hair took more,
the makeup took more and if we were outside
and it was, you know, in the fall or the winter
and we didn't have a lot of sun,
our shoot call would be as soon after the sun was up
and able to be used as possible.
So a lot of times we might have, you know, 7:00 AM, 7:15,
maybe 7:30 shooting calls, and then we'd lose the light,
so then we'd try and do scenes where it could be darker.
So we did a lot of like 8:00 to 6:00 kind of work
but I had a lot of calls where I'd be like
"why do I have to have the 6:00 AM or 6:15
hair and makeup call?"
Especially once you turned 18 because the children
they try and give them short makeup and hair
because they didn't want to eat into
the time they could have them there
'cause that was part of the overall time
that they could be there.
So that's, I think that's kind of what you wanted to know.
So hopefully that answered it.
A question from James Jackson.
"Would you talk about your relationship
with the girl who played Martha Rose Coverdale,
seems like you had a genuine connection with that actress,
judging from the scenes you share, which left me wondering
if you were friends off set."
Cindy Eilbacher and I knew each other before "The Waltons,"
because she was an actress who I saw
at auditions all the time.
And frequently she got roles that I went up for
and wanted but didn't get.
So as actors, sometimes you are more right
for one role than for another.
So I believe she might have even auditioned
for the role of Mary Ellen, I don't totally recall,
but seems likely that she did,
so I'm very grateful that this was one of the roles
that I got, potentially, instead of her.
But Cindy, really talented actress.
Sometimes I was a little jealous of her
because she got parts that I wanted, but we did get along
but I wouldn't say we were ever close friends
and we never really got together away from the set
but it was fun that sort of on-camera rivalry
and it didn't exist off-camera.
We, you know, we didn't have any kind of rivalry off-camera,
so from that perspective, yes, we did get along well.
You had another question.
"Do you know where the name John-Boy came from?
I know in "Spencer's mountain,"
the character's name was Clay-Boy.
was Earl's childhood nickname actually Earl-Boy,
or was that just something Earl made up
for the book or the show?"
I don't think think he was called Earl-Boy,
so I think it was something that he created
for the movie and the show.
Although, I'd have to go back and look now
and if I have a chance to ask one of his family members
maybe I can get a more definite answer for you.
So that thanks for asking.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of Behind the scenes of at The Waltons",
"Ask Judy".
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I'll be back with more
"Behind the scenes at the Waltons"
and more "Ask Judy".
Thanks for watching.