- Welcome back to another segment of Behind the Scenes
of "The Waltons."
Today, I am talking about the episode from Season 2,
"The Braggart."
"The Braggart" introduces the character of Hobie Shanks,
who was a young man, a boy actually at one point
that the Waltons fostered for a period of time
from the County Boys Home.
He's now all grown up and he's coming back to the mountain
because he has an opportunity to be seen
by a baseball scout,
to potentially get a contract pitching
for the major leagues.
I'm very happy to have Michael McGreevey,
joining me today to talk about,
what it was like doing "The Waltons"
and playing the character of Hobie.
Now, Michael McGreevey is the son of John McGreevey
who wrote numerous episodes of "The Waltons."
And Michael also went on to write some episodes
of "The Waltons."
- "The Braggart", Hobie Shanks, Hobart Hobie Shanks,
probably one of my favorite characters that I ever got to,
to play because on the surface is just a braggart,
but underneath there's a much more complex person.
And actors love to have a three-dimensional character
to play.
I think the, the writer,
Richard Fielder probably modeled
Hobie Shanks after a famous baseball player
for the St. Louis Cardinals in the depression era,
named Dizzy Dean.
Dizzy was a great pitcher,
but he was also a bit of a braggart.
The other thing is I had a close friend
who was a bit of a braggart,
and I think I incorporated quite a bit of,
of my friend into the character
because I knew the other side of my friend
that he was probably insecure,
and really not that sure about himself.
And that's why he was such a braggart.
My memories of the shoot are all very positive.
Jack Shea, the director, who I sat down with early on
and said, "I'm worried I'm gonna be too big over the top."
And he said, "I'll tell you when you are."
And that's basically what he did for the whole week.
The welcoming cast,
sometimes when you guest star on these series,
especially a series that had just won all these Emmys,
and was this huge hit cause this was the second season.
You don't feel welcome,
but I was welcomed immediately
by Ralph Waite and by Richard,
and by the rest of the cast because that's my other memory.
The first scene we shot was the dinner table scene.
- Dealing with these eating scenes,
in this case Hobie is referred to
as the world's greatest eater,
Mary Ellen, who of course is completely enamored
of baseball having had her catcher's mitt
and playing baseball with GW Haines.
And she's also quite fascinated by Hobie himself,
who she considers the cutest thing ever.
- I had all this dialogue and I didn't know anybody,
and I was terrified.
And um,
the cast, you know,
the dinner table scenes had become chaotic already for them,
because they all had to sit there,
and they were not being very polite I must say at one point,
and Ralph sort of, I guess he did that a lot,
Ralph Waite said, "hey, this kid's doing good stuff here."
Let him do it, you know, and from that moment on,
I sort of relaxed into the role
and the rest of the week was really fun.
And I made some good friends who I still see,
like Judy and,
the whole experience was a very positive one for me.
I will share one funny story,
that first morning when I arrived, I came out of makeup and,
as I walked towards the set I was greeted by Richard Thomas
and, and welcoming me to the show and blah, blah, blah,
followed by Ralph Waite saying basically the same thing.
And then Ellen Corby, Grandma, approached me
and introduced herself,
and I said, "Gee, I've been such an admirer of your work."
And she said, "yes"
and she said, "this is a hell of a role you've got here."
(laughs)
And I said, "Yeah, yeah."
And she said, "yeah, well, I hope you're up to it."
(laughs)
And I sort of said, "well, I'll do the best I can."
And as I turned, there was Will Geer standing there,
who I had worked with before, actually I knew Will,
and um,
Will just smiled that grin,
that little sly grin that he had
and said "welcome to the family Mike."
(laughs)
- Because Hobie has given the scout the address
of the Waltons as to where they can find him.
He announces to the family,
he's going to be one of the family again.
This elicits various reactions from members of the family
and John Boy finds himself jealous of Hobie
because he feels that Hobie just manipulates and,
and consumes everyone's attention,
and John Boy, I think feels a little left out, and a little
put out by all this attention to Hobie,
and his braggadocio that he is always displaying.
The scout does indeed show up and they arrange
for a little pitching trial to see Hobie's arm.
And I believe we shot the sequence out in Franklin Canyon,
where John refers to there being a baseball field,
"just up the road."
It's the only time I ever remember that being referred to,
but here we are.
- The tryout sequence where I had to pitch,
I was a pretty good baseball player, but I didn't,
I was not a pitcher.
I never had much of an arm as they say.
And um,
but I had,
watched some old footage of the old time pitchers
where they would do that silly windup.
And so I said to Jack Shea, the director,
"can I do this windup?"
He said, "well, let me see it."
And he said, "yeah, that's cool."
And then I, we figured out a way,
I said, "I can't throw very fast"
and you know, Hobie's supposed to be this great pitcher.
And he said, "well, are you accurate?"
I said, "oh yeah, I can put it right there."
And Ralph was my catcher in that sequence, Ralph Waite.
And, so I said to Ralph, I said, "I'm just going to wind up,
throw it right, right down the middle strikes," and
supposedly in post, post-production,
they can speed it up.
And if you watch the show, they did a great job.
It really looks like I'm firing bullets.
- Hobie asks John to negotiate his contract,
and John does a wonderful job and gets him triple
what the scout was originally willing to pay.
John and John Boy go with Hobie back to the County Home
for boys, He is,
Hobie does not want to go there,
but he is eventually convinced to.
Clearly he has mixed memories about his time there.
But the boys are all very excited to see him.
- My fear about the character of, of Hobie,
was that he was so big.
And that it would be overdone,
and wouldn't feel real or honest or truthful
to the audience.
The advantage I had was the beautiful writing,
that was always a part of The Walton's scheme.
The character had numerous scenes where I was able
to play him very vulnerable, and quiet.
There was a lovely scene with, with Olivia,
with Michael Learned, by a fireplace,
again, a warm quiet scene with the father figure
with John Walton, with,
with Ralph where Hobie sort of admitted
that life had been tough for him.
So those scenes and then some of the scenes
after he's injured,
I was able to, I think,
convey a vulnerability,
and a likeableness
and an understanding to the audience that this,
this young man was not just this jerk.
(laughs)
- Showing off for the girls is something Hobie spends a lot
of time doing and in this case,
as he is showing off,
he is going to do something with this tree,
swing off a branch or something.
And instead the branch collapses, he falls,
he injures his elbow,
which ends his opportunity for a pitching career.
- The other thing about playing the role,
was some of the dialogue was just fabulous, I mean,
"big as life and twice as handsome,"
I've used that the rest of my life.
There was just some lovely dialogue,
and I think the culmination scene
that I had with John Boy, Richard Thomas,
was some of the most exciting acting I've ever done,
because Richard was so good.
We rehearsed it sort of quietly at first
and first take boy he came at me (laughs)
and I, I came right back.
It was a, it was a good, good scene.
And I think it,
again, completed the Hobie Shanks journey
in terms of the pain this kid was feeling.
I mean, I could relate to the aspect of having a talent
and wanting to share it and bring it to complete fruition,
and having it taken away from you like that.
It's very,
very hard, you know,
and I think a lot of people can relate to that.
- Trying to get Hobie once again interested
in moving forward with his life,
the Waltons arrange to have a baseball game,
where the family will play against the boys
from the County Home.
Hobie doesn't want to have anything to do with it.
But ultimately the sheriff ends up bringing Hobie
by the game and Hobie sees the Waltons playing the boys,
and finds himself,
drawn into it and coaching the boys.
He decides to offer his services
to the woman who runs the County Home,
and she takes him on as a sports director.
So Hobie does indeed find a new path forward.
I found it fun, seeing us all playing baseball again,
it reminded me of the time when "The Waltons" as a cast,
the cast and crew had a baseball team
that would play against other TV shows like "Star Trek,"
or "Happy Days" and that was a lot of fun.
I see here for the purposes of the show,
I'm playing first base,
which is interesting because Mary Ellen
was supposed to be a catcher,
neither one were positions I ever played for real.
I usually pitched or played short field.
There's a little sequence where Grandma,
is attempting to explain the rules of baseball
to a few other members of the community.
Just priceless.
- If the orphanage hits another run home,
and, and they hit some more strikes,
then it's going to be all tied up.
Oh, and when they do this,
that means something.
- That's my, my overall feelings about the character
and the show.
You know, I went on to, to write for the,
the episodes.
That was the beginning of my writing career,
thanks to Earl Hamner,
and my father, John McGreevey.
I always loved "The Waltons".
I think the, "The Braggart" is a perfect example
of what the Waltons gives to its audience.
And that's, it's a moral dilemma and it usually gets
not resolved, but there, there are answers given,
and the characters grow,
and learn from the dilemma they faced in the hour episode.
And that's a wonderful thing.
- A big thank you to Michael McGreevey for joining me
and talking about his time on "The Waltons."
That's what I have for you
on 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.