- Welcome back to another segment
of behind-the-scenes of "The Waltons."
Today I'm going to be talking about
the episode from Season 5, "The Inferno,"
about the explosion of the Hindenburg.
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"The Inferno" episode was quite an undertaking
for a show like "The Waltons,"
which shot in six and a half days,
which sounds like a lotta time,
but it's really not
when you break down everything that had to happen.
Our production assistant John Dayton
has been kind enough
to share some video commentary with you today as well.
- Hi everybody, hi Judy.
Thank you for asking me to share with you guys.
I took a look at the episode,
and, oh my gosh, there's so many memories.
It was really special.
John Boy has submitted
a sample of his writing for a contest,
which he finds he has won,
and his prize is an opportunity
to go and cover the arrival of the Hindenburg
and to cover that story
in terms of the passengers,
interviewing them, the experience.
So he is very excited to head off to New Jersey
to cover this big, international event.
The subplot of this episode
really involves Curt and Mary Ellen.
Curt is struggling with never having time alone
with his new wife,
as members of the Walton family
keep dropping by unannounced,
and Mary Ellen can't quite find a way
to say no to any of her siblings or family,
feeling that nothing has really changed for her.
They're still her family, she loves them,
but Curt is not from a big family,
so he doesn't know what to do with all these people
and how to manage it.
He even finds himself
having to doctor Jim Bob's peacock Rover,
who has a splinter (laughs).
So we eventually find ourselves
asking for advice from Olivia,
who has some wonderful advice.
Olivia sends us off to have this conversation on our own,
and there's this wonderful moment
where she rolls here eyes,
because in all her years of marriage,
she's seen it all, she's experienced it all,
and hearing Mary Ellen carry on,
I think it just is a reminder of earlier days
and things that she has found a way to weather,
that she knows Mary Ellen will eventually.
But right now, there's an awful lotta drama going on
in Mary Ellen's life.
As John Dayton will share with you,
there was a lot of technical aspects
of shooting the Hindenburg's arrival
and intercutting actual news footage from the time
with process shots. So staged shots,
plus special effects involving the flames
and everything that was happening there
with the explosion.
They moved around to locations,
and then they were also, at times,
on the studio lot creating different areas
where John Boy was supposed to be on his trip.
And John Dayton himself
gets an opportunity to make a little cameo appearance.
So I now give you John Dayton.
- The whole thing started
with a beautiful script by Rod and Claire
and direction by Harry Harris,
but the script posed a real challenge
to shoot on our schedule.
I mean, there were multiple sets.
As I recall, there were over twenty.
The hangar for the Hindenburg,
which was down in Tustin,
drive-by shots there at the Marine Air Corps Station
of John Boy and the reporter arriving, nothing close.
The close stuff we did of the arrival
was at the mill, I think.
The actual arrival of the Hindenburg with Richard,
that was done with life-size process.
In other words, the projection on the screen
was gonna be the real size of the Hindenburg.
So we shot that on Stage 7 at Warner Bros.
And at that time,
it was the largest sound stage on the planet.
And I think it still is today, not positive.
And last but certainly not least,
we had to have a special effects team
to produce the scattering of flaming fabric
as the Hindenburg exploded.
As we set up on the stage, or Stage 7,
I was surprised to see
that the special effects team
planned to stand on ladders,
dip pieces of torn blue jeans in kerosene,
light them, and toss them down on Richard
as the Hindenburg exploded.
Well, that troubled me, but not Richard.
Like the consummate pro he was, he soldiered on.
I mean, watch that scene,
that's real fire landing on Richard,
that's real soot on his face (laughs).
The news reel footage of the Hindenburg
had long ago passed into public domain,
so there were no issues regarding licensing.
Again, watching the episode last night,
I could clearly see the scratches and dirt
embedded on the footage,
but in the mid-70s, television was still analog
and screens were measured in inches, not feet,
so we got away with it.
I was also struck by the brilliant editing
of Bill Mosher and Gene Fowler,
especially in the scene
where John Boy is chopping down the tree
and flashes back
to the horrific conflagration
of the explosion of the Hindenburg.
When we got to blocking the bar scene,
it was written that John Boy would enter on his own.
While we're doing that,
Harry thought about this,
John Boy wouldn't know where the bar was.
So he pointed at me and said,
"Get a bellboy suit on, and put it on fast.
You're gonna show John Boy to the bar."
And so I did (laughs), fun.
There's so much to say about this episode,
we had lots of fun.
In order to
keep this from becoming "Gone with the Wind,"
I am going to take my exit now.
And thank you all, thank you Judy,
and all of you who continue to watch
44 years and 6 months
after (laughs) we put "The Inferno" on film.
I was lucky to have been a small part of "The Waltons,"
and that work is, to me,
the most cherished of all the work
I have ever done in the industry,
and I'm proud of it.
- John Dayton also made his own little cameo
as he makes reference to.
Here he is, guiding John Boy into the bar.
John referenced what amazing editing
was done on this episode,
between intercutting the real stock footage
of the Hindenburg
with what we were shooting with the process shots,
it was quite an undertaking.
I particularly love this moment
when they're intercutting John Boy
and all of his memories
with that flashback of the flames
and everything that he was experiencing at the time
that the Hindenburg exploded right in front of him.
I wanna thank John so much
for sharing all of this behind-the-scenes information
that I wasn't there for.
I didn't get to go to see the Hindenburg,
so when they were filming this on location
and on Stage 7, I wasn't there.
So it was wonderful for me
to get to hear more about what really went on
and how they shot it.
Thank you for joining me
for this look at the episode "The Inferno."
I'll be back for more behind-the-scenes of "The Waltons"
and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.