- Welcome to another segment of behind the scenes
of the Waltons.
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode
from Season 4, The Competition.
If you're enjoying these, you know, the routine,
please like, subscribe, share
with your friends and hit the notification bell
if you wanna know when I'm posting another one.
The episode, The Competition was directed by Alf Kjellin.
Alf started his career in Sweden as an actor
and had had quite an extensive career in his home country
and then did some acting also in the states.
One of the things he was most known for
was playing the Russian paratrooper
in the film Ice Station Zebra.
And then he went on to quite an extensive career
as a director.
I remember early on Kjellin is a tough name to pronounce
and certainly from looking at the spelling of it,
you would not intuitively know how to pronounce it.
And Eric Scott early on,
he wanted to ask him a question, the director,
and so we were usually rather polite
when we were youngsters.
So Eric was trying to get his attention.
He was like, ah Mr. Mr, Ka-jell-
Mr. Mr. (mumbles) and finally went "Alf!",
'cause he just couldn't figure out how to say his name.
So I've always remembered
that cute little incident with Eric.
Mary Ellen and Erin did occasionally both have an interest
in a good-looking young man who came to the mountain.
I remember in The Abdication, we both giggled
over the attractive English assistant director
that came to town with the movie studio.
When one of the Reverends,
I believe the one when Peter Fox was playing the Reverend,
we both thought he was cute, you know, the characters.
This is the first time,
and I think the only episode when there's actually conflict
between Erin and Mary Ellen over a young man
that they both find attractive.
And so that was a different sort of dynamic
between the two involving a young man
where Mary Ellen thinks, 'I saw him first and you're a child',
so Erin should just back off,
and Erin is truly having her first serious young love.
So that was a fun storyline
and an interesting one to have between the two sisters.
The character of Chad was played by actor, Michael O'Keefe,
who went on to star in films like Caddy Shack
and Michael Clayton.
The character of Chad reappears in a later season,
The Elopement episode, when he comes back
and does indeed ask Erin to run off and marry him.
Erin is still under age at that point
and ultimately decides that she's young and wants to wait.
And Chad isn't ready to wait
so he leaves, says he might be back
but we never saw Chad again.
Another case of Erin's love life
not quite being in sync, Mary would laugh about,
she would always say that the character
of Erin was a sequence of kiss and cry.
A lot of boys came into Erin's life,
many of them she kissed, most of them left
and she would generally find herself crying
over these various different boys
and young men who went through her character's life.
Mary Ellen and Erin's rivalry
turns a little bit physical here where the two of them get
into a little bit of a cat fight.
I'm sure Mary and I had a lot
of fun creating this little spat
and a little pushing and shoving and hair-pulling.
I used to do that with my sister.
Erin and Chad had a moment at Druscilla's pond.
In this case, he makes a comment about marrying her
and she says, "I wouldn't marry you for all the tea in China",
which was reminiscent to me of Mary Ellen saying to Curt,
"I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth."
Then Erin pushes Chad into the pond
and Chad pulls Erin into the pond with him
and they share a bit of a kiss in the pond.
Which also reminded me of Mary Ellen's first kiss,
also while standing in Druscilla's pond
in the episode, The Awakening.
The other main plot in this episode
is that Olivia would like to have another baby.
She misses cuddling and holding a young baby.
So they decide that they will foster a child
because Olivia goes to see the doctor
and because of having lost a child the year before,
the doctor advises against her having another pregnancy.
In this case that doctor is Rance Howard
once again reprising his role of Dr. McIvers.
Rance of course is the father
of famed actor director, Ron Howard,
always a pleasure to have him back on episodes with us.
John and Olivia ultimately agree
that they will foster a baby who is waiting
for adoption papers to be finalized.
So here you have Olivia once more holding a baby
and she just looks perfect with it.
In this case, another circumstance
where the Waltons were using young infants.
So probably twins once again.
In this scene, the director has chosen
to make the overhead light a prominent piece
of the set - of the frame of the camera.
And in this case, that light is practical,
which means that it is on and functioning
and we actually see it.
We typically saw the light over the kitchen table
but it wasn't always on which begs the question
of where was the source
of light supposed to be coming from in that kitchen.
But in this case, they actually turned it on.
Because there was no ceiling,
this light would have been suspended
from rigging up above the set of the kitchen
and it would have been wired,
but in this case they would have actually turned it on
so that you saw it.
This moment where you see an exterior shot
of the storm coming through,
this would have been a piece of stock footage
because we would not have had an actual storm out there
and because of seeing the mountains
and everything in the distance,
we would not have created that rainstorm at that moment.
So it would have been stock footage.
By the end of the episode, Mary Ellen and Erin do make up.
And Mary Ellen realizes that Erin really did
and is in love with Chad and feels badly for her.
I think for Mary Ellen, although she was interested in Chad,
it was easier for her to let it go.
And she loves her sister more than she needed to win Chad.
You know they make up and they have a very nice moment
where Mary Ellen comforts Erin, who is suffering
from this first crush and the loss of this young man.
That's what I have for you on this segment
of behind the scenes of the Waltons,
the episode The Competition.
I'll see you for more behind the scenes
of the Waltons and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.