- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons.'"
Today, we're doing an Ask Judy.
I'm going to cover a few questions of yours
and also some things that have come up lately
that I figured you probably had questions about.
So if you're enjoying these, please do like and subscribe
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You may have heard recently that there is going to be
some sort of reboot of "The Waltons."
The network CW has announced that they will be doing
a Christmas "Walton" movie ala "The Homecoming"
that Richard Thomas has been asked to do the narration,
to basically be the voice of the adult John-Boy
as Earl Hamner did throughout the series.
I heard about this through Richard.
Richard said he'd been approached about doing the narration,
and he had agreed,
but he didn't know a whole lot else,
but that he wanted all of the rest
of his original "Walton" cast
to hear about it first from him.
So, that's about all I know.
None of the rest of the original cast at this point
is involved in it as far as I know.
So, I guess we will all wait and see what it is
that they are going to do,
whether it's a full-on redoing of "The Homecoming" script,
or a new sort of "Walton" Christmas movie.
I don't know.
I wonder who will be playing me.
It's interesting to me that any number of times
I have remembered incorrectly things that are happening
with the series, and you have been kind enough to remind me.
With the show having filmed all these episodes
between 40 and 50 years ago,
sometimes it's a little vague for me.
I was a teenager when we started.
So, many of these episodes
I have not watched for years and years and years,
so it's been fun for me to go back and watch them again,
remember different things about them,
and I'm starting to put the puzzle pieces together
once again as well.
I catch some inconsistencies in shows,
timelines, characters, things that are said
that later on are contradicted in another episode.
So it is fascinating to me.
When the series was originally done,
it aired once, and then it would air again in a rerun
during the summer.
And that was it until the show has come into reruns.
And so many of you have been able to watch episodes
over and over and over.
So for you, you catch it right away
when I make one of these errors.
So, I apologize.
And the more episodes I watch, once again,
hopefully the fewer of these errors I will make. (laughs)
I have been asked about how the writers and directors
were determined for the series.
At the beginning of each season,
we, the cast, would get a list for the entire season
of the episodes, the writers, and directors.
Many of these at the time we got that list were TBD,
to be determined.
Often the writers were listed, but not always the directors.
There might be a number of the directors listed,
and some cases with directors that worked for us regularly
like Harry Harris who you've heard me talk about.
He might be slotted into several episodes during the season.
Then there might be a few other people
that we had worked with and some new names
that we didn't know.
I've asked around a bit,
and my understanding of this is that
they sometimes had a list of writers or directors
that were recommended that had track records,
but it also came into play in terms of the directors
where budget was always an issue.
So not only did they want the best directors they could get,
but also directors that were able to work
on a tight timeframe and economically.
The two generally came hand in hand.
So, they needed directors that could bring the show in
on schedule and on budget.
So those became factors.
And I think some of the directors
that were particularly good at that
were probably some of the ones
that worked with us regularly.
As for the writers,
evidently Earl did guide the storylines
and often the subjects of the episodes.
There might've been some ideas pitched by writers
who had done multiple episodes,
written multiple episodes for us.
So they perhaps were then able to work
with Earl on a concept.
Most of the time, these were writers who were experienced
and had done a fair bit of writing for film and television.
One exception, I was told recently,
was the episode "The Ferris Wheel,
which was the first television script written
by writing team Rod Peterson and Claire Whitaker.
They were also married in real life and also served
as part of our production team for a number of years.
Claire was a story editor, and Rod was one of our producers.
Rachel asked about the ages of the Walton kids
and about them changing.
When we first did "The Homecoming,"
the sequence was John-Boy was the oldest,
then Jason, then Mary Ellen.
I was the oldest daughter, then Ben, Erin,
Jim-Bob, and Elizabeth.
Now, as the series went on, there was a point
where it was always John-Boy, Jason, Mary Ellen,
but then Erin and Ben sort of flipped in terms of age.
Eric is like nine months younger than I am.
So, originally I think the age difference
between him and Erin, Mary, was more evident.
Mary's about three years younger than us.
So it was, I think, flowed that way, because it made sense.
Then Mary went through a growth spurt,
and Eric will say he did not. (laughs)
But because of that, I think sometimes they started thinking
that Erin was older,
and some of those storylines for her became more mature.
And so someplace along the line, it kind of seemed to change
that Erin then seemed older than Ben,
but I'm not really sure exactly why that happened
other than, perhaps, because Mary grew taller.
Who knows.
Rachel also asked about the quilts.
We obviously used quilts in a few different episodes.
You saw the ladies quilting in the episode "The Quilting"
when they made one for Mary Ellen.
And then I believe there were other episodes
when quilts were also being made.
I do not know specifically where they came from.
They may have come
from the Warner Brothers property department.
Warner Brothers had all kinds of stock of different sorts,
whether it was wardrobe or props or furniture or vehicles.
They had a lot of different resources through the studio.
And because we were shooting on that lot,
I believe our company had access
to renting a lot of those things.
So, the quilts very well may have come
from the Warner Brothers prop department.
That's my best guess.
And then Julie asked, "Was it ever hard not to look directly
"at the camera when filming?"
That tends to be something that happens
when a person is fairly new at acting,
or for younger children that'll happen more.
You just aren't used to avoiding that camera,
and it is like right there in front of you,
especially in closeups,
but there is a whole lot going on on the other side
of the camera that actors have to get very comfortable
and used to just blocking out.
And that's a little of what happens
is we just block it all out,
because directly behind the camera
will be the camera operators.
So you can see him, his body, his shoulders.
You can see the person who is adjusting the focus
on the camera,
'cause he is standing right at the side of the camera.
And then there will be other crew members
that might be manning lights or doing different things.
Sometimes if you're doing something where maybe a branch
like leaves need to pass by, the reflection of something,
somebody might be like waving something in front of a light.
So there's all kinds of things,
plus the other actors that you are doing the scene with.
So the person usually, if you're doing a close-up,
if it's two people, the person you're talking to the most
will be like right next to the camera.
So you're like looking at that person,
but the camera's like right there,
so it's a very slight difference in eye line.
So you just really have to focus
on the people you're talking to.
Sometimes it will be other people,
so your eyesight might shift a bit
depending on what's going on the scene.
So it's just a skill like anything else that a person,
an actor, develops through doing it.
It's kind of cute with younger or new actors
to occasionally catch them.
And it's very funny, because although you might think,
"Oh, I just glanced at the camera,"
but the camera sees everything.
So it wasn't just like something you could sneak by
and nobody would notice.
The camera sees that.
And I believe there was a moment in "The Homecoming"
when sweet little Kami just glanced right towards the camera
for a second, but it sort of stayed in.
I believe it's at a point where she's saying,
"Stop laughing at me, stop laughing at me"
in the barn when we were cracking walnuts,
and we'd laugh at her about thinking
that she could have puppies when she grows up.
So, thank you for that question, Julie,
and that's kind of a fun one.
That's what I have for you on this segment
of "Behind the scenes of 'The Waltons:' Ask Judy."
Please do continue to send those questions along,
and I will take up more next time.
So, I'll see you again
for more "Behind the scenes of 'The Waltons'"
and more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching.