- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons".
Today, I'm going to take more of your questions
in a segment of Ask Judy.
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Next question is from someone who goes by Ravens Dawn.
I've got a question.
Having been born in 1965,
my two childhood role models were
both Marys, Mary Ellen Walton and Mary Ingalls.
My child's mind accepted both show's differences
and similarities as I did my family.
Grandma and Grandpa on mom's side,
Mamaw and Papaw on dad's,
two different worlds yet the same family.
How was it on your end though?
Both shows must have been competing at some time
along the way.
Did any of the cast from either show ever meet?
"The Waltons" was on first
so I always like to say
that "Little House on the Prairie" was kind of a copycat,
that we paved the way and then shows,
when other companies other networks,
when they found out
that family programming did have a place
that people were interested in watching it,
that other people looked to jump on the bandwagon
and create their own family programming
that would speak to the audience
and clearly with "Little House on the Prairie"
that was the case.
We did not specifically cross paths like
in any way in the filming as regular cast members.
We did, I have met most of that cast at some point
over the years at different sorts of publicity,
celebrity functions, different things like that.
They've all seemed perfectly lovely.
I never got to know any of them really well,
but have enjoyed my interactions with them.
You went on to say, let's see,
did any of the cast from either the show ever meet? Yes.
Did Little House ever come across The Walton's radar
in any way?
Yes, of course.
Was there ever any behind the scenes competition,
even if something was said in jest?
You know, I think yeah, in a good natured way,
there's a little, just the kind of competitiveness
that makes you stay at the top of your game.
It's like, "Oh wow, they're doing good things
and so we need to not rest on our laurels
and we need to do good things too."
And so it was nothing more than that.
There was certainly no animosity that I was ever aware of
between the two shows.
People continually get them mixed up.
Can't tell you how many times people have said,
"Oh yeah, I loved you on that show.
What was it like working with Michael Landon?"
And it's like, "Oh, well, no, that was a different show."
Or people say, "Now, were you the one that went blind?"
It's like, "No, no different show."
And one time I remember talking very briefly
with Melissa Gilbert and I said,
"Oh, this happens to us all the time.
Does it happen to you?"
And she said, "Yes, all the time."
So they are two shows, as you said,
they were in different time periods,
different sort of circumstances,
but because they were both family shows
and I think a lot of people, if they loved one show,
they loved the other show as well
so I understand how they could be confused.
I actually wrote a skit one time for a benefit
that I was doing where these young people were kind
of talking about me and having been on "The Waltons"
and they were confused about,
"Oh, was that the one with the blind girl?"
And it's like, "No and what about the one..."
Anyway, so I had some fun with that at my own expense.
I think you had, let's see, what else did you have here?
I don't think this is something Rona Barrett ever covered
and if she did, I missed it.
Wow, yeah.
I remember those columns.
There were certain people yeah that,
and I don't know if it was Rona Barrett,
but that things would get printed in columns
and you go, "Where did that come from?"
It was completely not true.
Things were, seemed completely invented.
So yeah, I expect there was stuff in those columns
that I didn't read, probably saying
that there was some big rivalry going on
and that we hated each other and stuff,
but none of that was true.
I have the greatest respect for all of them and the show,
the lovely show that they created as well.
This is from Joe and he's talking about
some of the driving sequences and how some of them,
when the actors aren't really driving,
there's hardly any semblance of realism
because they're over steering and things like that
that would be unbelievable
so he says, "On another note, I've often wondered how sound
especially dialogue is kept in sync
when multiple camera angles are used.
For example, you may get an over the shoulder shot
of an actor as he begins his lines,
but then switched to a closeup midway through.
Since I believe the soundtrack was recorded on the film,
I'd imagine there would be two different tracks
of the actors lines, and yet it doesn't sound like it.
I'd love to know how that's handled."
Although I'm not a sound editor with some of the little bit
of editing I've been involved in or seen happen
or tried myself,
I'm aware of some of the issues
and the sound would be recorded separately
for each take that was done,
whether it was a longer shot or a close-up or whatever
so which take of the sound was used might vary.
I mean, they might take the sound from, you know,
obviously it needs to sync with the mouth,
so they would need to use the sound that was there
with the shot they were using
so just levels you know, they will splice between words
where they can.
They will make choices about where they change that shot
based on that.
And then there's a way to just level all that sound out so
that it all is consistent in terms of volume.
If a person is further away,
they may want that dialogue to sound like it's coming
from further away.
So all those types of things are techniques that they can do
in the sound editing and someone with far more expertise
than I would have to get into the intricacies of that.
I hope that helps.
This one, the moniker is Hi.
Okay, here we go.
Do you think, or would any of you consider
doing a reunion show?
You know, that's hard to say.
I think we would.
I think it would really depend on what it was.
It would be different.
The older ones having grandkids of their own.
To me that should have been the remake of "The Waltons".
You know, I may be wrong,
but wouldn't that put the new one time set about the time
this one was made in the seventies.
For me, I think putting the Walton characters
in the seventies,
I don't know.
I don't know that that would work.
I think the charm of the show to me was the era we were in,
the thirties and forties and those simple struggles
at that time, not that they were simple,
but the times were simple and there was no technology.
There was, it was just,
the focus could be on the family and those relationships
and the family needing to pull together through those times.
And by the time you get to the seventies,
I think people are more scattered.
I think, you know, if you were trying
to introduce younger members of the family,
the audience doesn't know them.
I don't know that they would gravitate to them quickly.
So I think there's challenges in doing all of that,
which very well may be why someone hasn't jumped
on doing that, but, you know,
I think if a really clever idea were presented,
who knows it could still happen
and I really appreciate that there's still
so much interest in that and in wishing
that the remaining cast could get together
and do that. It would be fun for us just
because we so love working together and being together.
So thank you so much to all of you who've continued
to keep "The Waltons" alive and are watching it all
these 50 years later.
Question from Teresa who said,
"Thank you for answering my question about extras."
You're very welcome.
"But now I have another extras question.
There's a woman who was in several scenes in some episodes
in Season 1 through 5 and was usually seen
in the church or the church yard,
most notably in The Rebellion scene, Season 5,
when Reverend Fordwick decided
that Grandma shared church organ duties.
She walked by when Grandpa, Mrs. Brimmer were on the porch
and Grandma had seen them.
And then again, at the end of the episode."
I looked back to see who that actress was
that you were referring to and although, unfortunately,
I don't remember her name.
She was one of our regular background extras
who quite frequently did episodes of "The Waltons"
so when we had scenes where we needed people
in the church, people in the community,
she was on a shortlist of people that they would call to see
if she was available and if she was,
she would come work for us.
So it was great to see a lot of the same faces
and we did in the church, in the school,
in the community, at county fairs,
at different functions like that.
A question from Randy who asks,
"Was it more fun to go to work at the studio
or out on location?"
It kind of depended.
I enjoyed the locations because it was different, you know,
at the studio, you kind of just like,
sometimes it felt like same old, same old,
but it was more work to go on location.
I think I enjoyed the locations
when periodically we stayed over
so again, it was just fun.
It was a new experience.
Since "The Waltons",
I've worked on a lot of other things and done a lot of work
on location and there's new things to explore and new areas
and people are always fascinated when you come
into their area to film
so you get to experience that and interact with people
who maybe aren't around filming very much.
So that gives it a new energy,
but it can be really convenient to just show up
and know the routine.
So, you know, it depends on the circumstances.
Your other question was what were the dressing rooms
like on both?
Typically when you were away on location,
they were much smaller because they couldn't take
as many big trailers out, not that we had big trailers,
it changed over the years for us, for the kids.
Initially we had just small dressing rooms
on the soundstage, which was good and bad.
It was good cause it was right there.
It was bad because you always had to be quiet
in your dressing room, if they were filming,
if you had a dressing room that was some sort
of a little trailer outside,
then you go to your dressing room
and talk and make noise and stuff.
And so then there was a point
where we did all have trailers.
We didn't have really big trailers for the kids.
We didn't have trailers with bathrooms or kitchens
or anything like that.
So just, but you know, someplace you could go
and sit and relax a bit, read a book,
whatever, take some time away from set.
On location they had these big long trailers
and you had tended to have these small little spaces
where you pretty much just went in and changed
and yeah, you could sit and maybe there actually was,
you know, a toilet in there or a sink or something,
but you know, not much room at all.
I have worked on other shows
where I did have rather nice large trailers
and it was, I used to joke
that those were usually the shows
where I only worked for a day or two.
It was like,
"I wanna stick around here
cause I have this lovely, big dressing room."
But I found the same thing in theater.
You know, I've worked in some lovely theaters
where I had a wonderful dressing room
and people to help me with my hair
and my wardrobe.
And then other times I'm like changing in a closet
because that's all the room we have
so I'm pretty adaptable.
I, you know, I go with what I have there
and try to make the best of it.
I just, I love the work.
So to me, it's not necessarily about all the bells
and whistles, but it's nice to have them
if they're there.
A question from Paige who said,
"I was wondering if you had any advice
on taking acting classes."
Oh gosh, it kind of depends on where you live.
Obviously, if you were in Los Angeles,
there's all kinds of great acting teachers out here,
same thing in New York and probably most
of the more prominent casting centers.
I do know these days with Zoom,
that more teachers have moved their classes to online
so I think you could probably do some hunting around.
So in terms of acting classes, it really kind of depends
on what you're looking to do.
You know, ideally you want someone
who helps you give your most natural performance,
that's not a caricature, that's not over the top,
that's really built from the inside
and really what's going on with that character
so that what comes forth seems
just like someone's talking.
I mean, we hear that about the work
on "The Waltons" all the time
that we just seem like a real family
and we really were just having conversations
with each other, so you're always looking for that.
So if you feel that someone is encouraging you to,
you know, be bigger and bolder
and you know, I mean,
you can make bold choices without having to do work
that then becomes unreal.
So I think that's the biggest advice I'd have for it
and whether you do scene study or whether you do on-camera
or audition technique, things like that, they're all good
and it'll really just depend on what helps you grow best
as an actor.
That's what I have for you for this segment of
Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons" Ask Judy.
I will be back with more
Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons" episodes
and more Ask Judy.
Thank you so much for watching.