I'm back with more behind the scenes about The Homecoming. If you're enjoying
these videos please subscribe to my channel below - the little red button -
and please 'like', share your comments, share the video with other people who
you think might enjoy it. The Homecoming was filmed over five
weeks in October and November of 1971.
The first four weeks we spent at CBS Studios in Studio City
California. We filmed all of the interior scenes.
Inside the house, inside the barn. All of those scenes
were done right there at CBS Studios. The last week, which was, I believe
right at the end of October - first week of November, we went
up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming and we filmed in the Teton mountains.
It was such an amazing experience for me.
It was the very first time I had been out of California.
It was the very first time I'd been on an airplane.
The company chartered a plane to fly all of the cast and crew
up to Wyoming. That was very exciting for me
to have this sort of private plane - it was it was an older plane but
it was just so exciting for me to be on an airplane with all these people that I
had been working with already for four weeks.
Up in Wyoming we filmed all of the exterior scenes.
All the snow sequences as I refer to them because
we don't get snow in southern California. And of course in The Homecoming we
needed a lot of exterior snow! So the outside of the
house was a real house some place in Jackson Hole
Wyoming - and that's where you see us at the
opening sequence when we walk, we take the cow into the barn and then
load up with firewood and then make that long trek all the way to the
house. And then there was the sequence where
Olivia walked to the store and she came across Cleavon Little.
That was exciting working with Cleavon. He was such a talented actor and so fun
and full of life. That sequence when he was singing in the church...
and singing at the Baldwin sisters! So special. And of course William Windom
who played the turkey thief. He was - he was great fun
and again such a talented actor and such a pleasure and honor to get to work
with him as well.
I loved the Baldwin sisters from the beginning.
They were such fun, unique, witty, clever characters. They were based
on - on people that Earl Hamner - a couple of
ladies that Earl Hamner knew in his life growing up.
And I don't know if they actually made bootleg whiskey
but it sure was a fun thing that they just thought it was their papa's recipe
and had no idea that they were making bootleg whiskey!
That Christmas tree was incredible. I remember
when they were filming that scene and they had all those real candles
actually lit on the tree. I thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen
and I wished I could have a Christmas tree with real
candles on - but of course what a fire hazard. But I got to
at least view that one and will remember it forever.
At the Baldwin sisters, although they did not have gas -
they did loan their sled - their horse-drawn sled to John Boy and
Hawthorne and went with them in search of our daddy. Well
during the time we were filming in Wyoming
we got to go for a ride in that horse-drawn sled.
It's the only time in my life I've ever had a chance to do that and again
just an incredible memory that I carry with me forever.
Such fun for a kid who'd really never been to the snow
to spend a whole week - we had snowball fights and
and just enjoyed every moment of soaking up filming there in Wyoming.
The scene with the missionary when all the Walton children go to see her
outside Ike Godsey's store - we filmed that sequence
at night and it was freezing. Especially for a group of southern California
children who had not spent time in that kind of
cold weather. And although we had sort of winter
clothes and coats and boots, they weren't necessarily the kind of
clothes that were really designed to keep you warm
in that kind of weather, and to be outside for hours
filming in the cold... and I remember poor Mary McDonough who played Erin, didn't
even have boots! She just had some sort of
shoes that Erin wore, and so her poor little feet were just frozen.
I think we were all - were kind of frozen - but we were just having such an
incredible time that that made up for being freezing. I didn't
even care that I was freezing. But that was a fun scene for me with all
of those bible verses that I was handing off to
the children so they could get presents. And of course
John Boy disapproving of what I was doing and
the two of us having some of our banter back and forth just
through our looks. I always loved playing those scenes with Richard Thomas.
We had such fun together. The other thing iIremember
about that night filming the scene with the missionary lady
was that Earl Hamner's real life children were both in that scene -
and here they are - this is his son and his daughter.
They were up in Wyoming with us for the whole time we were filming and it was
great to get to know them too. One of my favorite scenes in The
Homecoming was when we decorated the Christmas tree
and Mary Ellen puts the bird's nest on the tree and gets into
the debate with the rest of her siblings about
the bird's nest - and Jason says there's poop on
it and Santa isn't going to come and Erin and Elizabeth get so upset and i
call them all a bunch of pissants and tell them to turn blue,
and Erin goes and tattles to our mother
and ultimately she says it looks nice and
says that it can stay. That is a scene that people tell me
constantly that they love and particularly me calling all my brothers
and sisters a bunch of pissants which was a word I had never heard
before and didn't realize that it was a word that one shouldn't call their
siblings. But we just had a lot of fun with it.
i hope you've enjoyed this behind the scenes look at the filming of The
Homecoming. If you have please subscribe to my
channel. I'll be doing more behind the scenes about The Waltons and
the cast. And hit the 'like' button for me -
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for me to touch on and I look forward to seeing you next time.