- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons.
Today, I'm talking about another episode from Season One,
The Courtship, written by Jeb Rosebrook
and directed by Harry Harris.
In The Courtship, Olivia's uncle, Cody Nelson,
comes to visit.
He has been living in Cincinnati,
although he was originally from Virginia.
Now, it has been made note of that, most of the time,
we talk about Walton relatives
from John's side of the family
and I have been asked about relatives of Olivia's.
We have come across a few now and, in this case,
this is once again, a relative of Olivia's.
And the character of Cody is played
by wonderful actor, Eduard Franz.
It soon becomes evident that Uncle Cody is not very happy.
He has been sort of temporarily laid off
from his job at the bank in Cincinnati.
He seems obsessed with catching the news every night
to see if there's any change in the status
of banks being closed during the Depression years.
So he's a little bit lost.
He comes back to Virginia.
He's just not very happy.
And so, all of a sudden, plans are put into play
to perhaps find him some company,
something that might brighten him up.
At one point, Zeb takes Cody fishing
and they have a wonderful time out fishing at the lake.
This was our very own Druscilla's Pond
on the back lot of the studio.
They have taken Reckless along and Reckless keeps barking
at things and looking off in different directions,
which was clearly where his trainer was giving him commands.
They are after this big fish that Grandpa talks about.
At one point, they seem to have caught this big fish
and in trying to reel it in,
they both end up soaking wet in the lake.
This would have been a case of a scene,
a take that had to be done in one,
because once they're all wet,
you have to dry them all off and start over again.
So these are the types of scenes
that are rehearsed carefully,
they make sure the camera focus is all happening
and then they do not move forward
if they think there's a problem early in the take,
and then we'll go back and reset.
And then when they get it, they've got it.
And I mean, of course, if they had to,
absolutely had to do it again,
they could go and dry everybody off.
Sometimes they will have more than one,
one pair of whatever the costume is.
But, for the most part, we didn't have that very often.
So chances are, they would have to clean it up
and take the time to dry everybody off and do it again.
So not something they wanted to do.
John Boy gets the idea that the widow, Cordelia Honeycutt,
might be a good partner for Uncle Cody.
So John Boy matchmaking, interesting.
Olivia and Grandma are not in favor of this
because Cordelia has a past.
She has been married four times.
So they feel like Uncle Cody would be in way over his head
with Cordelia.
They do not consider her an appropriate match.
But John Boy convinces Grandma and Olivia
to go and have tea with Cordelia
and to invite her for dinner to meet Uncle Cody.
And they think they've gotten off - that she's not available
and then she says, yes, so now they're stuck.
It turns out we are also celebrating Cody's birthday.
So I bring over a cake and then he gets
to blow out the candles.
We never do get to eat the birthday cake,
which I'm sure I was very disappointed about.
I was all about those cakes. (laughs)
But Elizabeth says, because Uncle Cody
hasn't celebrated a birthday in a lot of years,
that he has a lot of wishes.
Cordelia says he should make many, many wishes.
Cody and Cordelia do indeed start spending
a lot of time together.
They have a lot of outings and she drives this fabulous car,
which hopefully we can figure out the make and model of,
'cause I know that's always of interest to you.
At one point they get home and they are talking loudly
outside in the car.
John and Olivia are awake.
Olivia thinks it's terrible and she doesn't approve at all
and John's like, "Oh, let it be."
And then the three girls, three Walton girls,
are up in the window, also looking out and watching.
I would pretty much guarantee that this shot
was taken on the soundstage through the window
on the sound stage.
It would've been easier to control the light
and to get the shot as opposed to having
to get up on the first level of the roof
of the house or work with a crane.
They could have done it, I guess,
a little easier with a crane shot
as opposed to trying to get a camera safely up
outside the window on the roof.
That's why I'm guessing it was inside the sound stage.
They go out dancing one night and I thought it
was fascinating that the instruments
for this dance are a violin and a banjo.
Probably very keeping of the era,
but just an interesting musical combination.
They also then, in terms of editing and transitions
between scenes, you see some of the dancing,
then we see the band, then we go up to this mirror ball,
and then we come back down into - lighting has gone dimmer,
it is later in the evening.
So this would have been sort of a way for them
to edit and do a whole transition of time
in a really smooth fashion.
There must've been a day spent at Franklin Canyon,
one of our local locations, to shoot some of these.
I thought that it was a location opening the show
when John Boy is waiting for the bus,
because he's leaning up against a fence
where there's a horse in there and I was like,
"I'm not sure where that is."
So I think that might've been Franklin Canyon,
but it could have been on the back lot.
Then, but definitely for these picnics,
beautiful shot over the water from the reservoir out there
and across to where they're having this beautiful picnic.
Then in a sequence a little bit later,
they are back there, having another picnic.
And this is when Cordelia confesses
to having had four husbands and it does shock Cody a bit.
He is taken aback by that.
There's an absolutely beautiful shot here of Danna Hansen,
the actress playing Cordelia,
when she is explaining about one of her husbands
and just the lighting and the colors
and the trees and everything.
Just a absolutely stunning shot by our cinematographer,
Academy Award-winning cinematographer, Russell Metty.
I love how we see all the kids out working in that garden.
It's funny how you can end up as an actor,
you think of it is not a particularly physical job
in normal circumstances,
but you get certain sorts of scenes that you're doing
that can be very physical.
And the thing is you have to do them over
and over and over again.
I mean, we, weren't doing heavy physical work here,
you know, a little hoeing, a little weeding, whatever,
but it just reminded me that, sometimes,
it can get sorta grueling and you need to do
as many takes as necessary to get the scene.
In this case, we're out doing this
and then Uncle Cody decides he's made a commitment.
Even though he was taken aback by Cordelia's four husbands,
he's in love and he wants to go propose to her.
John Boy hoops and hollers when he tells him this
and there's this great shot of all the kids
at the garden, kind of like,
"What do you think's going on there?"
And then I absolutely adore when it comes onto the porch
and you see Olivia and Grandma
and they share this little interchange,
which I just think is so funny.
(excitable music)
- Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
- I'm thinking exactly what you're thinking. Huh.
- I thought Harry Harris created a lot
of really very real things in this episode.
It's a very simple episode and, at times,
seems to move slowly.
And it made me wonder whether,
in today's fast-paced television era,
whether a show like this, if you tried to do it,
whether it would even get done,
because it might be like, oh, it's too slow,
it doesn't move, not enough happening,
but I think it's a beautiful, slow-moving story
with a fabulous, heartfelt message.
But within Harry creating these moments of realism,
there's a point where John Boy's driving the car,
Daddy's truck, and Cody says he would like John Boy
to be his best man and John Boy is distracted
and he's looking at Cody in the truck
and hits a bump in the road.
And then, you know, swerves and has to get back on the road.
I loved that because, quite often,
when there are driving scenes in shows,
it feels to me like people spend,
especially if the driver spends a lot of time looking
at the person that they're talking to.
And I keep thinking, "Watch the road, watch the road!"
So it seems to me like they know they're
in a protected situation.
They're either being towed by a camera truck
or they are doing process shots., so they are stationary.
So you lose that sense of realism that a driver
who's actually having to stay on the road,
the attention they would have to give to the road.
So, in this case, I felt that that was very realistic,
that that would happen if you really
weren't paying attention.
I loved the way Harry Harris crafted
sort of the wedding proposal,
where he has a lot of distance between Cordelia and Cody
throughout. At first, Cody's talking,
you see Cordelia looking in the mirror
'cause she felt like she was caught looking a little frumpy
and she's trying to, you know, spruce herself up.
And Cody's in the background,
you see that through the mirror.
Then they sort of switch positions and then she moves
and Cody's, there's still distance.
And she, you feel her vulnerability
that she's not sure, she thinks he's going to leave her,
that he's calling off this, that he has been,
that it was too much for him to hear that she was married
four times and actually divorced twice,
two of those four times.
Pretty shocking in those days.
So when he finally says that he loves her
and he wants to marry her, I just feel
like there's this absolutely beautiful moment
of her reaction, but we don't quite know
what she's going to say.
But it just, there's so much truth
and honesty in this moment.
And we, as an audience, I felt myself going,
"Well, is she gonna say yes?"
And I was like, "I'm pretty sure she actually said yes,"
but I was very caught up in the moment.
And then we get into the wedding sequence.
The Baldwin sisters, who Cordelia mentions
are good friends of hers, are bridesmaids,
Elizabeth is the flower girl, and Grandma plays the piano.
I loved how Ellen did play piano,
but in this case it was almost like she chose
to not play it really well.
I don't remember how well she played,
but it was like there were intentional mistakes,
another thing that felt like it was real
because she wasn't a professional piano player.
Who knows how well Grandma was supposed to play,
so it just seemed real.
And she had this fabulous reaction at the end
when she's kind of finished and well, you take a look.
(piano flubs "Here Comes the Bride")
- [Reverend] Please be seated.
- It's sort of capped off as Miss Mamie, Miss Emily,
they arranged to take a picture of all the family
and the wedding party and then there's this lovely,
frozen frame, moment, of seeing the wedding party.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons,
about the episode, The Courtship.
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Thanks for watching.