- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons".
Today, I'm going to take up more of your questions
in a segment of "Ask Judy".
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Recently, I've had a number of people ask me
if I had heard about the Warner Ranch
and a number of the sets that were used
on "The Waltons" and many other shows like "Bewitched"
and movies, and things like that,
that that studio lot, which is just a couple blocks
from Warner Brothers,
a lot of it was being, just demolished.
I'm not exactly sure what they're going
to be doing with that particular space,
but we did indeed shoot various different things there
for the very last reunion special, the house,
which had once been on the back lot
of the Warner Brothers studio
had been moved over to the Warner Ranch.
And that was the house we used
for our last reunion special, "A Walton Easter"
when John Boy and his wife, Janet have twins.
But when they were walking around,
I watched some of this video,
and when they were walking around that lot,
and then at some point they pointed out, they said,
"Oh, and here was the house from 'The Waltons.'"
And I looked at that house and I went,
"That wasn't the house we used.
It wasn't the house we used on the back lot
of the Warner Brothers lot."
And it doesn't even look like the one
that they sort of rebuilt
and moved over to the Warner Ranch.
This is what that house looked like.
And this is the house that they're talking about.
So I think somebody might have been a little confused
about what they think was the Walton house,
plus, as I recall, where it was situated on that lot,
it was not on what looked like a residential street.
We were kind of surrounded by just more trees
and things like that,
the way the Walton house was all the time.
There was also a point where they said,
"Oh, and there's this church down there.
And that was the church from 'The Waltons.'"
Also not accurate because the church that we used
on "The Waltons" was on the Warner Brothers lot also.
There were two churches we used.
This was not either one,
but there were other sets
that we definitely did use over there.
I believe the Baldwin Sister's house was over there.
At one point when Cindy goes to search for her mom,
I seem to recall that that house
where she lived was on the Warner Ranch.
So there were definitely things that were shot there
that I will be very sad to have gone.
I have a question here from Lee who asked,
"Were there any guests that you
were particularly overwhelmed with?
I mean that you met and thought,
'Oh my, I can't believe I'm working with him or her.'"
Yeah, there were definitely.
I think there would've been many more
if I actually knew more about their Hollywood credentials.
and their history, but certainly, Ron Howard
was one of those people because I was very familiar
with who he was and it was like,
"Oh my goodness, we're working with Ron Howard."
So that one I really remember.
And then, there were people that my mother
was familiar with that she would say,
"Oh, that's so and so,"
and I think that was the case,
like when Beulah Bondi guested on the show.
I wish I had known more of the history
of some of these actors
because now I look back and go,
"Oh my goodness, I worked with so and so." (laughs)
The list goes on and on and on,
all the amazing people we worked with.
So, very grateful for that opportunity.
There was another question there, it said,
"Early on, were you somewhat in awe of what you saw
from your angle while filming as
to what the final edited version on TV?"
I would say not, I had been around movie sets
from the time I was probably seven or eight,
so I just thought it was all really cool. (chuckles)
And knowing how something was put together,
most of the things that I worked on,
were pretty straight ahead.
So, I don't think I really thought as a child,
when I watched things that I did about the editing
and stuff like that.
I would probably watch it and think about,
like I did an episode of "Felony Squad"
and I had a stunt double.
And my stunt double had to go into the water
in the harbor as me.
And I remember in watching that going,
"Okay, well, that's not me because I know
I didn't go in the water."
And then, when they had shots of me being brought out
of the water and I was all wet,
I remember thinking, "Oh yes."
And they hosed me down, so that I was all wet for this.
So those types of things I would remember
as I would watch something, but not so much being,
"Oh, wow. You can't see all of the lights and the cameras."
That just became, sort of second nature to me.
And I think later on, I was a little more, not surprised,
but I had not realized how,
what seemed completely ordinary to me,
was not to everyone else
because that's what I grew up around.
So that, so many of you who asked questions
about how things were done or what went on,
or may not realize we shoot outta sequence,
all those sorts of things that were just ordinary to me,
I didn't stop to think that that would not
be something that the average person
who'd never been around film or television would know.
And same thing with theater, having grown up around that.
So it was just all my world.
Question is from Susie who said,
"Will you please do a video where you talk about
which Walton kid is playing which Hamner kid.
I know John Boy played Earl Hamner Jr."
There is an episode at the end of Season 8
called, "A Decade of the Waltons",
where Earl Hamner sort of recaps a lot of the series.
And then, we do sort of a split-screen
with our real-life counterparts.
And there was a little, it was scripted, back and forth.
We were at the studio and they did a split-screen
with Earl's siblings who were either in Virginia
or wherever it was that they happened to live.
So we didn't get to be in person to do those,
but you did have an opportunity to see his real siblings,
and to just hear little pieces about their lives,
and what was similar, and what was different.
So if you get a chance to catch that, I would recommend it.
But so, as you said, John Boy was Earl,
and Jason, the character of Jason was Earl's brother, Cliff.
Mary Ellen, my character was based on his sister, Marion,
who I did get a chance to meet in person
a number of times and she was lovely.
I really, really liked her.
The character of Erin was Earl's sister, Audrey.
Ben was a composite of two of his brothers
in Earl's real family.
There were eight siblings.
So the character of Ben,
he had been asked to condense a couple of characters.
So Earl's brother, Bill and Paul,
were combined into the character of Ben.
And then, Jim-Bob was his brother, James.
Interesting, Jim-Bob, James. James-Robert, James.
And Elizabeth was his sister, Nancy.
Question here from Terrace Lady who said,
"In Season 7, I think the episode is called,
'The Tail Spin.'
You find Erin has forgotten about her date
and is washing her hair, so you help her along.
Erin has so much shampoo in her hair,
so you help her rinse it out, but there's still some shampoo
in it when you squeeze her hair and put the towel on
and Erin is talking with all the water
and the shampoo running down.
And my question is, 'Did it take more than one take
to do that scene?
Or did they rush you along
and that's why she was left with a soapy head?'"
This is actually Suzanne.
So Suzanne's whose handle is Terrace Lady.
So I don't remember how many takes we had,
but because her hair was wet, it was less of an issue
because we just did the scene as many times as we needed to.
And I would probably just keep putting shampoo in.
We were more restricted by how long
the scene was in terms of dialogue.
Once we were out of dialogue,
it didn't really matter
whether all the soap was out or not.
So, I mean, it was a really cute scene
and we had a lot of fun filming it,
but it was all designed to be very rushed.
I'm trying to get her ready for this date.
And she's trying to say, "But I've forgotten.
Why do I have to do it?"
And then I get fed up with her
and so, just leave her with all the soap in her hair.
So probably a few takes, but not too many.
And we had to keep it short
because that's all there was to say.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons, Ask Judy".
If you have a question you'd like me to take up,
put it in the comments below.
That's where I pull all of these various different questions
from for my segments.
I will be back with more "Behind the Scenes
of the Waltons" and more of your questions
on another segment of "Ask Judy".
Thanks for watching.