- Welcome back to another segment
of behind the scenes of "The Waltons."
Today in honor of Mother's Day,
I was going to talk about the TV reunion movie,
"Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain."
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"The Walton" series ran for nine years,
nine seasons from 1972 to 1981.
In 1982, we were approached by NBC,
CBS had carried "The Waltons" up until then,
and then NBC was interested in doing
three TV reunion movies,
One of them was Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain."
The year is 1947 and Mary Ellen is going to marry Jonesy.
Our mother, Olivia is in Arizona for her health.
She contracted TB, tuberculosis,
and it was recommended that she go to a warmer drier climate
to recuperate, so she has been there.
In actual fact, Michael Learned had left the series
after about the seventh or eighth season,
I think maybe the eighth season,
and she had gone on to do the series "Nurse."
So Michael was actually in New York filming that series.
I'll get to how that comes into play in a minute.
We've talked a lot about the recipe
over these videos and during the seasons of "The Waltons."
Here at Mary Ellen and Jonesy's wedding reception,
people are drinking the recipe,
we are post-prohibition
and there is less attention put on people,
especially grownups having a sip of alcohol here and there.
So, the boys and I expect some of the women
are also sharing a sip of the recipe in celebration.
Mary Ellen and Jonesy choose a rather unusual honeymoon,
they decide to go camping.
The spot where we went camping
was actually right near Druscilla's Pond
on the back lot of Warner Bros Studios.
So as usual, we were kind of faking those locations.
And all while I am driving around in that Jeep,
again, all in the backlot through the jungle area
of Warner Bros, up and down and around
and I'm not going terribly fast, which is good. (laughs)
And they would have done an intercut
between the actual deer and me seeing the deer,
so you never see the deer and the Jeep in the same shot.
So I never was anywhere near a deer,
and I did not in fact, hit deer,
I'm happy to say.
Of course Mary Ellen's accident
results in her having have some surgery
and being told that it would be dangerous for her
to have children of her own in the future,
this is the whole premise of this episode.
And as many of you have pointed out there then becomes a discrepancy
in later reunion movies where suddenly,
I have two more children
that we speak of as if they were mine and Jonesy's
natural children,
although I don't know that that's ever specifically said,
so perhaps we did indeed ultimately adopt,
it's a very gray area,
and still does not account for where John Curtis got to -
who we've decided did not go 'poof'. (laughs)
Anyway, in this particular case,
I have had an injury and I am afraid to tell Jonesy,
so I struggle with that throughout the episode,
and it ultimately inspires me to go
and visit my mother to talk over with her
how she dealt with coming to terms with finding out
that she couldn't have children anymore.
The theme of mothers and their children is very prominent
in this episode,
for me, for Mary Ellen,
there is her relationship with Olivia, her own mother
and her emotional distress over finding out
that she will only have the one child
and her dreams to have more children
with Jonesy and her recognition
that Jonesy wanted a large family of his own.
And then there is the relationship between Ben and Cindy
and Cindy's mother, plus Cindy has just had a child.
So Cindy's being a mother for both Ginny and Charlie,
two other children that there was questions
about in the reunions.
Yeah, we had nothing to do with that,
again, sorry to say.
And then there's also the relationship between Aimee,
Aimee Godsey reappears,
this time played by actress DeAnna Robbins.
And she is struggling with her relationship
predominantly with her mother Corabeth,
feeling that because she was adopted,
she just wants to feel like she has a home
and she feels like she keeps getting sent away,
that Corabeth doesn't really want her there
which is not the case at all.
But that relationship is a focus of the episode as well.
So very much exploring the whole relationship
between mothers and daughters and even sons and moms.
So a fitting tribute for Mother's Day.
In the whole continuity issue,
it's interesting that at one point in this episode,
Jonesy makes reference when we're talking about maybe
you know, twins, things like that.
And, it said something about, oh,
I don't think any twins run in The Walton family,
of course completely forgetting about the episode
where we found out that Jim Bob had a twin
who died at birth,
but Jonesy says that twins run in his family.
And personally, twins run in areas of my family.
Although neither me, my brother or sister had twins.
So perhaps it skipped a generation,
keep warning my son that perhaps twins
will come up in his generation.
When I do ultimately go to visit Olivia,
I supposedly go to see her in Arizona,
what in fact really happened was that,
I was sent to New York.
And there, where Michael was filming her series "Nurse,"
our company was able to make arrangements
with their company,
and we actually shot in the sets
that were used as the hospital for the "Nurse."
And I don't remember if we used their crew
or they hired another crew, but we shot there.
So that was kind of fun for me to have a trip to New York
and spend a couple days there
and film those scenes with Michael
in a completely different location
with a completely different crew.
But as I watched the episode,
I think they did a wonderful job
of it seamlessly intercutting with the style
and the look and the lighting and everything else
in the rest of the episode of "The Waltons."
I think I'm more aware
in terms of differences in this episode
that because this was an NBC production
rather than a CBS production, although both by Lorimar,
the opening credits and the music is different.
So, must've been something relative to licensing
and rights and stuff like that.
But, always very odd to watch the opening of "The Waltons"
without our iconic theme song written by Jerry Goldsmith.
The other subplot in this story
revolves around Elizabeth and Drew
her long time boyfriend who comes back to visit.
Elizabeth is busy writing an essay for school
and doesn't immediately have time for Drew.
And Aimee feeling at a loss and wanting to feel important
and have attention,
flirts with Drew and spends time with him
and decides to sketch him,
and that comes into a misunderstanding.
And then she flirts with Jim Bob, who's very harsh with her.
We do have an opportunity to see the garage location
right across from Godsey store,
where Jim Bob and Jodie Foster teamed up to run a garage.
So in this case,
Aimee keeps trying to get everyone's attention and fails.
And ultimately, Jim Bob says he's gonna be the one
to walk Aimee to church for the final Mother's Day service
where Elizabeth reads her essay
about wanting to be like her mother,
and speaks beautifully about Olivia
and all of her wonderful qualities as a mother.
Which I think to a great extent, many of us,
myself included, have worked to emulate.
I think it's such a wonderful example
of a loving caring mother.
And there certainly are far few better examples
of how one might pattern themselves as a mother.
So that's what I have for you for this segment
of behind the scenes of "The Waltons,"
my tribute to Mother's Day. To all of the mothers out there,
I wish you a very happy Mother's Day,
I hope you get to spend it with your own children.
And I hope that for all the children out there
that you let your mothers know how much they mean to you.
And here's to family for all of us.
Thank you so much for watching,
I'll see you next time.