- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'".
Today, I have a special surprise for you.
Recently, I had a chance to have a brief Zoom chat
with Marshall and Michael Reed,
the twins who split time playing my son John Curtis
from Season 7 in the Episode, "Spring Fever",
when they took over the role of John Curtis
until the end of Season 9.
So it was my pleasure to sit down with my boys,
now all grown up,
and have a chance to just reflect with them
about their time on the show.
What it meant to them, what they even remember about it.
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please do hit like and subscribe.
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And now, Marshall and Michael Reed.
So first of all, I really wanna thank both of you
for being willing to come on and talk with me,
and talk with all of the viewers.
I get asked so many questions about the two of you,
and about the character and what it was like.
And so, I thought it would be fun
if they could actually meet you in person.
So just for everybody, let's clarify who's who here,
so everybody knows which one of you is which.
- I'm Marshall. - Okay.
- That's Michael - I'm Michael.
- Okay; when are you aware that you first knew
that this was something that you had done?
- I would say around fifth grade or so.
So probably 12, 13. Something like that.
But I do remember being aware of it
and then people finding out about it and you know,
it was a big deal back then.
- Was it on then?
Were you able to watch reruns or did you have it recorded?
- Not at the time
- Mom had all the tapes, though.
- [Marshall] Yeah.
- I think I remember watching it a few times,
and then we saw a lot of the magazine covers from People
and stuff with our little sister on it, but yeah.
It'd be early elementary school.
- And what did your friends at school think about it?
- Joking at first, mostly.
Nobody really believed it
'cause it was over their time, you know.
Nowadays people bring it up all the time,
but I never bring it up.
But friends always bring it up and they always introduce me
to other people as being a Waltons baby,
and they want autographs.
And it's funny.
That show, it really was a big, big, big deal back then.
And I was told that I did more on screen time than he did
'cause he was camera shy, and he cried a lot.
- Yeah. - Really?
- So I ended up doing a lot more.
- Who told you that?
- My mom. - [Michael] My Mom.
- Yep.
- And Patsy was my mom's friend.
She took care of us.
- She was like our sitter.
- Sitter, yeah. So she took us to a lot of the shows.
Or a lot of the tapings and stuff.
And she told us that. That I was the crier.
- Interesting, I don't remember that
because your time was limited, so.
If Marshall's time was up,
it's not like they could sneak him back in there.
But I thought you too were both remarkable
the way that you were really remarkably easy to work with.
I know if your mom was on set, it was always much tougher.
- [Marshall] Oh really?
- Yeah. She told us that, yeah.
- Yeah, we had to, if she was there,
we had to keep her hidden,
because if you saw her, of course,
you wanted to be with her instead of this person
that you didn't really know.
I used to talk about
how I spent a lot of time babysitting with you,
with both of you,
because then you were more familiar with me.
- [Marshall] More familiar. Yeah.
- And so then you were okay to go to me.
And I think most of the women on the show,
'cause I know Mary McDonough and Kami Cotler,
Kami had a lot of scenes with you both as well.
And so I think you were really comfortable
with her and so you would pretty well go
to just about anybody.
Sometimes there was a little bit of crying
that went on, a little bit of negotiation,
and then we'd get on with it.
It's pretty amazing
'cause I think you were about nine months old
when we started working with you.
- [Marshall] Yeah. - [Michael] Yeah.
- Yeah. Til you were about four or so?
You actually started getting dialogue.
- [Marshall] Yep. I remember
- My dad.
Daddy.
- I remember reading into that first.
Somebody told us a story or my mom told me a story
about that where, yeah, we had a dialogue
at the end of one show,
and they ended up keeping it on.
So, our agent was like,
oh they're actors now, they're actors.
They're no longer extras.
And they have lines now.
- I get asked a lot about,
because there was an episode where Ralph
was interacting with you.
I'm not sure which one of you it was
and he said something about your pants.
And he said, oh, you know,
- [Marshall] Patsy.
- And you said they were from Pat.
- I got new pants.
- I see that. Who got you those? Your mommy?
- No. From Pat. From Pat.
- From Pat? Where does she live?
On the next farm? - Yeah.
- Okay, good.
- And so I get asked, who's Pat?
And I said, well I'm pretty sure that was,
I thought she was your aunt or you know.
I said, I'm pretty sure that that's who Pat was,
because we had a wardrobe person named Pat.
And so somebody thought that it was that person
that you were referring to,
but I was pretty sure it was
your sort of onset guardian.
Did either of you continue?
Did you do any other acting after that?
- [Marshall] No. - No.
- A few times, like L.A. would call us,
or somebody would call us
to come and and do like a skit or something.
And it was just bad timing,
the few times that we ever got called
to do any type of extra work
or come just to be seen.
So, few opportunities, but we never took 'em.
He had a broken collarbone at one point
where we couldn't do anything.
And then I think at one point he wouldn't even cut his hair.
So, nope. That was another reason.
But yeah, no, never got into anything after that.
- So, looking back, is it something
that you're glad you did or it's just so far removed?
- I'm glad I did it.
It's definitely history.
You know, it's something to break the ice at a party,
and kind of an idea.
So, yeah. I mean, it's who you are.
So, I'm happy that we were a part of it for sure.
I feel strong about it. Absolutely.
- And our kids.
Our kids love hearing about it.
- We changed over babies a few times
and then there was something
about the two of you that just really worked.
And so, it was a pleasure for me
to get to work with both of you.
- [Marshall] Absolutely.
- For those years.
I thank you for letting me
sort of be your surrogate mom for a few years.
- [Marshall] Absolutely.
- Well, is there anything in particular
that you would like to say to everyone?
You know, all the fans who've watched it
and so enjoyed your performances over the years?
- I don't know. Thanks for watching and.
- Yeah, I mean for pretty much same thing.
It's a great, wholehearted show
and I'm glad people still to this day enjoy it.
I'm very glad to have been a part of it.
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, you know.
You just kind of lucked out into it.
So, it's a great story that we have
and we'll always have it with us.
- Well, I want to thank you both
for being a part of my YouTube channel
and for speaking with the fans,
and I wish you all the best going forward
and we'll keep in touch.
- [Marshall] Have a good weekend. Happy Easter.
- That's what I have for you
for this segment of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
with my special guests, Marshall and Michael Reed.
I'll see you next time for more
"Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'" and more "Ask Judy".
Thanks for watching.