- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons.'"
Today, I have a special guest Rachel Longaker
who played Aimee Godsey.
If you're enjoying these,
please do hit and like, and subscribe.
Rachel, thank you so much for agreeing to come
and talk to me and all of our wonderful viewers
who were so loyal to the show
then and now still 50 years later.
So nice to have you here.
- It's so great to be here.
I was so excited when you wrote and reached out.
So I'm so happy to be here
and I've watched a few of the episodes,
which I think are great.
Love them.
- Thank you.
Tell us about the process of being cast as Aimee.
- Well, I actually was up for another role.
I was up for another role
and I think I'd been called back at least twice.
And I was so excited
because I'd done a couple of commercials
and I think I might have done a small role,
some small role in some television show,
but to have an interview and then to be called back
for "The Waltons," I was just beyond excited.
'Cause of course, I watched the show.
I watched the show with my family every Thursday night.
So I didn't get the role.
And I was so disappointed.
I was so disappointed and it turns out,
I would say a month or two later,
I'm not sure.
I got a call for another role for the Aimee Godsey role.
And I didn't know it was recurring role.
I just...
And I remember being really excited
and I was called back once, I was called back twice.
And then I think on the third callback,
I (laughs) remember the best
is being with Earl on the golf cart.
(both laughing)
And being on the lot and getting in the golf cart with him
and I don't know if he was driving,
but getting in the golf cart with him
and I was like, "So excited."
And we went obviously to somebody's bungalow
and I read again,
and I think I read for Richard
because Richard directed that episode.
- Oh, right.
- And I was just over the moon.
I was so excited.
And then I got the job and I remember
that once I was on the show I think
that Claire and Rod and-
- Who were our producers and had been writers
and then came on in later seasons.
Rod was a producer and Claire was our story editor.
- Right! - Yes.
- And I think that they had explained
that they had loved me in the role that I didn't get.
But when they saw me in that they thought,
"Oh my gosh, she would be right
for this recurring role that we're writing."
- Oh, yay.(laughs)
- So that was what I remember.
And I remember, my first day on the set.
Again, 'cause I'd watched the show.
I just couldn't believe just seeing the house.
Being by the tree with the tire and the rope
and seeing the house and seeing Will and Ellen.
And it was just so exciting.
And the two things I remembered also when I was cast.
We're going for wardrobe and also meeting Edie for my hair.
And Edie, just saying, "Your hair is so fine.
Like what can we do with your hair?"
They didn't know what to do.
And I remember this isn't - thing I remember about Earl.
It wasn't really a meeting,
but they were kind of trying to figure out
my wardrobe, what my hair - 'cause this was a new character.
And Earl, which had never happened.
Earl said to me, "May I touch your hair?"
Because they were trying to - and as a kid actor,
you were so used to people just handling you like,
"Go here, stand there, move here.
How about if her hair's in pigtails?"
And this you were just used to just like-
- Yeah. A mannequin.(laughs)
- A mannequin. Exactly.
And I remember Earl just, "May I touch your hair?"
And I was like, "Yes."(laughs)
So when I saw the episode,
I saw that Edie had had come up with this idea
of these two little ribbons,
these two little ribbons on the side with my hair pulled up.
- So many of your scenes over the seasons were
with Kami of course,
because Aimee and Elizabeth were besties.
So how was it with Kami? I mean...
- Well again, I had watched her as a little girl and again
because everyone you, Mary, Eric, Kami, Will,
Michael, Ralph, everyone.
Not only was it your physical presence,
but it was also your voices.
Like I knew your voices.
I knew like you were...
So then to just be in a room with you
and be working together or working on a scene
and then of course, cutting up and cracking up
and seeing also the real person in there.
I would say my impression of Kami was she was just,
which is how she is.
She was just so warm.
She was so smart.
And she took me under her wing
and you showed me the ropes.
And I think also when I started, she and I and David
and I think Mary had maybe one year of school,
but basically she and David and I were the ones
who still had to put in school hours.
So that was another bond that we had.
We would help each other with our homework.
And I would say, "What are you doing
or what is this?"
And I think we were actually in the same grade,
but she was just a pal and she was warm, very warm.
- That's good. - Yeah.
- I think she loved having you there
because the rest of us, most of us were older and so-
- Right.
- We didn't always let her come hang out with us.(laughs)
- Totally. Yeah.
I just remember having lots of fun
and everyone was welcoming and warm.
I mean, sure there were some days
where someone would have a temper
or someone would get upset about something,
but the feeling on the set was so...
It was very welcoming and- - Good.
- Yeah. Yeah.
That's how I remember it.
- What stood out for you of the episodes that you did?
- I think the two episodes
that I really enjoyed I really enjoyed the ones
with Kami and The Ordeal
and because, I mean I had a really big role,
I think at that episode. - Yeah.
- And I would say too
that there was the episode, I don't remember the title,
but with Ronnie when she has a drinking problem. (The Captive)
And that was actually a beautiful script too with Ralph,
her scenes with Ralph.
- Yeah. - And his trying to help her.
And yeah.
I really enjoyed, I loved working with Ronnie.
I mean, she was such a character.
- She was such a character
- She was such a character.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, I mean she was...
It's hard to describe Ronnie
because she was bigger than life in real life.
- Yes.
- And yet, not in the way that Corabeth was.
- No! No!
- I mean, she was- - No
- She was just always entertaining.
I mean, there was a certain drama to her all the time,
but she knew it.
- Yes, she did. Yes!
- She played it up,
but she do it. - Yes.
- And it wasn't like Corabeth
who was trying to be something
that she desperately wanted to be,
but wasn't. - Sure.
- It was, and didn't seem to be out of insecurity
in the way that Corabeth were,
but I just thought she was so brilliant
in what she did and- - Yeah.
- God loved Joe, he had his own brilliant comic sense
and yet- - Right.
- The balance between the two of them.
And then when they would play those just sweet real moments,
it just melted my heart.
- Yeah. No, it's true.
He was like the straight man with her
and yet he was such a character.
So but with her, he was the straight man.(laughs)
But you're right that is such a good description of her.
That's a great description of her
because she was self-conscious about how dramatic
and she was just so funny.
She was so funny.
And I remember too,
being on the set and again it was like,
I'd been on for a few seasons
and I forget what was going on,
but often people would swear on the set or whatever.
And so I, something happened
and I thought I was just being so funny and so whatever.
And I swore something and Ronnie was just like,
"Don't swear."
She says, "It's not cute.
And it's not funny."(laughs)
And she said it to me again
with that Ronnie Claire kind of flare,
but it was also she was kinda leveling with me again.
I was of an age to kind of understand.
I was probably about 14, 15.
She was like, "It's not funny and it's not cute" -
word to the wise.
- Yeah. - She was great.
- How did it seem to you both on-screen
and off-screen in terms of working with them
and thinking of them as parents?
- That's such a good question.
That's such a good question.
I mean, again, as a child actor like the great thing
is you haven't had many acting lessons,
but you've got all this imagination
and you just know instinctively how to use your imagination.
And so I would just kind of drop in
to coming into this family, this couple
and being a part of their family.
And primarily I remember it in terms of Ronnie Claire
because of what...
I mean our relationship probably like mothers
and daughters do had more,
probably was closer and also had more static to it.
I think the way I would just,
I don't wanna say play those scenes,
but I would just, I would think of her as my mom
and as someone I loved and yet
who came with all this big personality
that had to be navigated.
I did think about how lucky we were
that we were working with people, the kind of directors,
the kind of writers and then Earl guiding it.
- Yeah.
- Who really set so much of the tone,
but working with Will and Michael and Richard and Ralph
and all of that...
And Ronnie and Joe I mean I would just take my cue.
It's almost like that I would just kind of queue into
what they were doing and just absorb that.
- So smart. - Yeah. Yeah.
Well and when you're a kid,
that's all you know how to do, right?
- Yeah, but some-
- That's kinda all you know how to do.
- Aren't successful because they are busy trying to be cute.
- Totally. Yeah.
- Like playing an idea of something.
- Sure, sure. - Or not really.
They're all about, oh, well,
I need to do this as opposed to what you were doing,
which was so smart
and if I'm gonna say right or wrong,
the right way to do it of paying attention,
what's going on around you. - Right.
- And letting that influence the choices that you make
and how you respond to what's happening
and how you then continue the scene and contribute to it
and add to it without trying to steal it
and without trying to disappear in it.
- Right.
- So life, since "The Waltons."
- Yes.
- What would you like to share with everybody
about since "The Waltons" in your life?
- Sure.
I went to college.
We moved to Baltimore when I was about 12.
That's one thing that's kind of,
I remember this kind of had to be sorted out
because we moved to Baltimore when I was 12.
We would come back, my mom and I would come back
in the summer so that I could stay on the show.
And I would like, I would film however many episodes.
And sometimes I would come back during the school year,
but moving back east, obviously had a big impact.
And then I went to college and I stayed back east
and very briefly I was acting and auditioning.
I had done a little bit when I was in college.
I think I did a couple of episodes of a couple of shows.
But it really, I just, it wasn't easy anymore.
People were like, "Oh, 'The Waltons,' that's so nice."
And then, but they're obviously
'cause I'd been away.
There was this gap.
So I kind of knew that my acting a lot of it sprang from,
I was so comfortable as a kid.
I was comfortable being in front of the camera.
And I just knew that in terms of like an adult career
that it just, it wasn't gonna develop.
I worked for a while in the film industry, behind the scenes
and then I just didn't wanna be in the business anymore.
I felt like I had done it since I was like a little kid
and I decided to get a library degree.
I went back to school
and that was a great decision
and a really good kind of a good way to tap
into the different parts of me.
So I love it.
So that's what I've been doing.
- Oh, wonderful. - Yeah!
- That's good.
- Yeah! - I'm so happy.
Well, it's been brief, but it's been lovely.
- Well, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for reaching out.
It was so powerful really to kind of realize
that I had been part of this amazing show
and have these relationships with you all.
- Well, thank you so much.
- Thanks, Judy.
- I wanna thank Rachel for joining me
for this segment of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons.'"
I'll be back with more "Behind the Scenes
of 'The Waltons'" and more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching!