- Welcome back to Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons."
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Today, I'm going to be talking about my youngest sister,
Elizabeth, played by the adorable Kami Cotler.
When we first met Kami, when we were doing "The Homecoming,"
she was this just adorable little five-year-old
with this head of amazing red hair,
and this smile and brightness.
She was just so much fun.
She was like everybody's little sister
that we all wanted to pick up and carry around.
We all had such fun working with her.
And, of course, she had, I think,
one of the most iconic lines from "The Homecoming,"
when she looked so innocent to our mother and said:
- I don't feel like a pissant.
- I think that is a line I get quoted back to me
as much as "Good night, Mary Ellen,"
or "Good night, John Boy."
So that was the beginning of a lifelong friendship
and love with Kami.
It's often said in Hollywood,
"Don't work with kids or animals."
And I understand why that is
because they're such scene stealers
and Kami was such a scene stealer
without even trying.
And she was pretty precocious.
I think she clued into some of that after a bit
that how she could get extra attention from cast and crew
and everybody by being as cute as she was.
And she was very intelligent.
She had no trouble knowing her lines, learning them,
remembering them, saying them on cue.
And that was like right from the beginning
as a five-year-old.
So she was perfectly cast as Elizabeth.
Kami had quite a few allergies when she was young.
And I'm sure being on the back lot
with a lot of the smells and the dust,
and on the soundstage, you know,
the dust and whatnot, really aggravated it.
So she was on antihistamines a lot of the time.
And so sometimes if you listen,
she sounds a little plugged up
because that was just allergies.
And she would sometimes very much sound like
she had a cold or something.
The other thing that I noticed a lot
when she was young was that
she couldn't get a big enough breath
to say a whole line.
So she would start a line
and part way through the line,
she would just have to stop (breathes deeply)
and take another breath to continue the line.
And it was the sweetest little thing.
I just, I thought it was so adorable whenever I saw that.
And when I happen to see an episode where she does that,
it just always brings a smile to my face.
I was already 14,
so I didn't spend as much time
just hanging around with Kami because I just didn't have
as much in common with her.
Of course we were in the school room together,
but in the school room, the three older children,
which was me and Eric, who played Ben,
and Jon, who played Jason,
the three of us had a teacher
who, you know, taught the high school level.
And then there was another teacher
who taught Mary and David and Kami in the younger grades.
At that point in time, even in school,
we weren't doing the same subjects
or necessarily dealing with the same teacher
although we shared a schoolroom together, all six of us.
As we got older,
Kami, of course, once she was into her teens,
there didn't seem to be as much age difference.
And so often all of the girls,
me and Mary and Leslie Winston who played Cindy, Ben's wife,
we would hang out together, you know,
in one of our dressing rooms
and share stories and, you know,
and tell a little secrets to each other.
And particularly when we were on the back lot,
for sound purposes,
we were often wearing body mics.
And so we'd often forget we had them on
and we didn't necessarily have,
although there was a switch, it was like in your back
and so you couldn't really reach it,
and it wasn't good to turn them on and off.
But the sound person would turn them,
turn the volume off on it and stuff.
But sometimes when we were in the trailer
we were sharing what we thought were like real secrets
and probably weren't anything,
suddenly we'd go, "Are you wearing a mic?"
It's like, oh my goodness, we didn't want people overhearing
our little secrets.
And I swear, you know,
sound people people must hear all kinds of things
when people are wearing body mics.
And they have to be very trustworthy too
and loyal to, you know, to their job,
to not be sharing some of the things
that they probably hear actors reveal
when they're wearing body mics.
But we had a wonderful sound man.
And I think he was entirely trustworthy,
so we appreciated that (laughs).
Kami has a younger brother, Jeffrey.
And Jeffrey did a couple of episodes of "The Waltons,"
including the episode
where the two English children come to Walton's Mountain.
And like Kami, he's just cute as a button.
So we enjoyed having Jeffrey on the set.
And sometimes our siblings would be on set
and would do background work in scenes,
so I think most of us at some point
had our siblings on set to be in the background
of scenes that we were doing.
So that was always fun.
After "The Waltons," Kami was very interested in education
and she spent quite a few years in school
and studying abroad,
and on the East Coast,
and up in the Bay area of California.
And ultimately, decided she wanted to be a teacher.
And when she first started teaching,
she actually taught
in Virginia right near
the home of Earl Hamner,
who created "The Waltons."
So I think that must've been quite a kick for her students
to come into a classroom
and be taught by Elizabeth Walton.
I think after a bit, the parents and the families
got very used to Kami's presence there,
and I'm sure that it got to be just routine for them.
But what a kick for those families.
Kami has continued in the education field
and now works with an environmental charter school.
And we're very proud of everything that she is doing
to help educate our next generation.
So those are a few behind the scenes
pieces of information about Kami Cotler,
who played Elizabeth.
And she's very active on social media,
so you can interact with her on her Facebook page.
And she quite often shares information
about her recollections of our time together
on "The Waltons."
So I'll see you next time on more
Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons."