- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
As we are just about at Easter, I thought I would do
an Easter focused segment here
and in this case I am addressing
our very last reunion special, "A Walton Easter."
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We filmed this episode in 1996 and it aired in 1997.
It was directed by Bill Corcoran
and written by Julie Sayers.
When we opened the episode, John-Boy is
in a broadcast studio like a news studio in New York
and he is speaking about the moon landing.
And then we cut back to Walton's mountain
where Mama and Daddy are getting ready
to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.
John-Boy and his wife Janet, played
by actress Kate McNeil are planning to come
to the mountain because of the anniversary coming up.
John-Boy's worried because he has a book deadline
and various different things like that
and Janet is very pregnant
but says that she still has a month left
so they are going to attend the anniversary.
We learned that Olivia is now working as a school teacher
at a school that Erin is the principal of,
so kind of getting a sense of where their lives have gone.
And Olivia is dealing with a new child, Jimmy Weeks,
who seems very shy and she is drawn to him,
of course wanting him to feel welcome and comfortable
in a new school setting, knowing how difficult that can be.
Erin advises that she just give him some time
and that not to go out and talk to the parents
because it might be awkward.
And of course Olivia feels like, come on, I've been doing
this a lot longer than you and I need to trust my instincts.
That's why you hired me.
With all of the cast reconnecting
for this special, everyone was back.
And so we get to see some of these relationships again.
John-Boy arrives, all of the family is there.
He does bring along a photographer, Sydnee Walsh
who plays photographer Aurora Jeffries
who's there to document all of this for John-Boy's new book.
So she creates a little extra drama
and conflict within the family, and we get to see some
of this from her perspective.
But we revisit Olivia and John in their relationship
where they're talking about maybe what they want to do
for their anniversary.
And just talking about how John says he still feels 20
and Olivia says she still feels 18.
And that just struck me about how as we get older we
often don't feel our age and we still have
that younger version of ourself very much alive inside.
We also see John-Boy and his relationship
with the various different members of the family
as we all come to visit and welcome them all back.
Speaking of people returning, Elizabeth returns
from I guess world travel.
She's been a number of places including Paris and Rhodesia
and when she arrives there's just this moment I've talked
sometimes about marks and things
and you see Michael come out to hit a mark
and you just have this moment
where you sort of see something on the ground.
As I said, sometimes they would remove the actual mark
and maybe put a stick or a rock or something.
So I can't quite identify what it is that's
on the ground there, but Michael went to her mark
and then Kami would know where she needed
to be to adjust to that.
And then of course, everybody else comes in
and they just adjust to where Michael is.
John-Boy's experiencing a real sense of nostalgia being back
on the mountain and how it just feels right to him.
And he's at a point in his life
where he's just recognizing the importance of the mountain
and the family and all of this and how it nurtures him.
And so he's a little torn about what he wants to do
and this creates conflict between him
and Janet who is very upset about him voicing
that maybe he doesn't love their life in New York.
What does he wanna do?
And it's very upsetting to her, particularly being pregnant
and Michael, Olivia keeps advising him
to don't upset your wife and how much more emotional
some women can be when they are expecting.
But John-Boy has a conversation with John just
about life and it's kind of nice to see that.
I love that Verde appears in this special
that she runs into John-Boy
in town and they have a lovely moment together.
And then she comes to visit Olivia later, brings her
an Easter lily and invites Olivia and the Waltons
to attend their Easter Sunrise service
with their congregation.
And just speaking about how her people
and the Waltons, they've known each other forever
but they haven't really shared some
of those types of experiences.
So it was great to have Lynn Hamilton back for this special.
Elizabeth's longtime boyfriend, Drew is now working
with John and Ben in the mill,
and when Elizabeth returns, Elizabeth comes back thinking
that she's just going to be able to pick up with Drew.
She's planning to stay and she is heartbroken
when Drew says he didn't know what was going on.
She was outta touch and he's met someone else.
So now Elizabeth needs to determine what to do with that.
And at one point she has a great conversation with Mama
about this and Olivia advises Elizabeth
that nobody likes a sad sag.
Nobody wants to feel like they're uncomfortable being
around someone who they feel that they have hurt
and that perhaps Elizabeth needs to change her tactics.
And she does.
So she goes out, she gets
all dressed up, looks absolutely stunning.
She has that amazing hair.
It's all real and it just grows like a weed
and I can't believe how thick it is.
At one point we see her with a braid where the bottom
of it is like just as thick as the top, so envious.
But she goes out to serve lemonade to Drew
when he is working in the mill and just says
that he's absolutely right and she wishes him well.
And maybe perhaps he could invite his girlfriend
to the house for dinner.
And this completely throws Drew
because she's being so understanding
and not making him feel bad about it.
So now he has no reason to really resist it
and it makes him start questioning what he really wants.
John-Boy and John go to visit the Baldwin sisters
who've asked to see them and they tell them
that now that they're reaching their older years
and starting to think about their mortality
that they feel that they need to get their affairs in order.
And one of their decisions is where are they going
to leave the recipe for the recipe?
And they say that they have decided in honor of Zeb
who always so loved the recipe that they want
to entrust this to the Waltons.
And that's a little bit of a surprise
for John and John-Boy who agree
that they're not going to tell Mama.
John-Boy talks about going to his old writing cabin.
I'm not sure, I guess it's just a place he used to go.
I don't remember ever on any
of the episodes him specifically talking
about having a writing cabin.
But in this case, he talks about that
and it seems to be right near Drucilla's Pond
and he's using that for his writing in all
of the many of the children arrive
to plan an anniversary party for Mama and Daddy.
So we get to see some of the family gathering in because
of some of these sorts of scenes, which is nice.
Why I'm not at this party planning, I don't know.
I guess they figured because I'm a doctor
that I was too busy at work.
But why isn't Erin working?
I dunno, I kind of felt a little left
out not having been invited to be part of this scene.
John-Boy and Elizabeth have a lovely scene in the tree house
and I recall other scenes that Elizabeth had
in the tree house at times when she was going
through emotional turmoil.
In this case she is very upset about the situation with Drew
and heartbroken and doesn't know what to do about that.
And John-Boy comforts her.
Olivia's subplot with Jimmy Weeks at school,
the school's having a spelling bee
and she's really trying to encourage Jimmy in his studies.
She goes out to see his parents
and his father thinks that he's just not smart enough
and that he's not worth the trouble
and maybe he shouldn't be in school.
Olivia of course, completely objects
and Jimmy's mother knows that he's bright and likes books.
Olivia has a conversation with John-Boy, gets his advice
and he says one of the things that made a big difference
to him was this dictionary that he had
and that it opened all these amazing doors
into new things for him.
And so Olivia thinks that's a great idea
and she takes it and she gives it to Jimmy as a gift.
His father at first is "that's ridiculous".
He doesn't wanna accept it, but he goes off
and Olivia puts it by the door
and then we see Jimmy come out
and pick it up and he's smiling.
And Olivia, takes a little moment of triumph there.
And then as he gets more engaged in things
in school he decides to enter that spelling bee
which is another moment of triumph for Olivia
but she's trying not to show that.
So I thought that's great.
And then the whole spelling bee happens
and it's so heartwarming because Jimmy does end
up winning the spelling bee and his father has arrived.
And so we have this sense of hope
for the future for Jimmy with his family and
that his father will recognize how bright Jimmy is
and that there is a lot of potential
for him and that Jimmy will feel that as well for himself.
The women get together and have a baby shower
for Janet and we just have one
of those sort of girls gab session about things.
While I'm there, I suggest to Janet
that I just check her vitals since I am an obstetrician.
And I did have to learn how
to put a blood pressure cuff on and how to sort
of look like I knew what I was doing
with it in order to do that scene.
I had someone, an advisor who showed me how to do that.
And then at that point I discovered
that there are two heartbeats.
So this becomes a big surprise
and excitement for the whole family.
Now of course, John-Boy and Janet are planning to go back
to New York because Janet is adamant
that she's having those babies in the hospital in New York.
And of course as they're leaving, Mama
and Daddy are going off for their anniversary and Janet
and John-Boy are leaving to go back to New York and Drew
and Elizabeth appear to have the house to themselves.
And next thing you know all the cars come back
because Janet is in labor.
Once Janet is in labor it's sort of organized chaos
with the family.
All the other members, Jason arrives
with all of his children and he and Drew
and the younger ones are all outside
in the yard keeping the children occupied.
They're not allowed to go into the house.
I am delivering the babies.
And a lot of this was ad-lib.
There was some dialogue and stuff like that
but in a lot of the sequences it was just ad-libbing.
And literally I had had my son about 10
to 12 weeks just before this.
So what went on during labor was all too near
and dear to my mind and my recollections.
So fortunately I felt very comfortable
with what would be going on there.
And so felt - and handling these infants
these two John-Boy supposed to have twins
and we had multiple babies that we worked with, the infants
and every time they were on set there was a stopwatch
because they literally couldn't be
under the lights, it's like everything would be dark,
they'd bring the baby in.
There was a nurse standing there
and there was someone with a stopwatch
and they would turn the lights on, turn the camera on,
and we could shoot with the infant
when you could actually see that it was the infant
for 30 seconds and then it would be like cut
and they'd shut the lights off
and they'd take the baby out from there.
So it's very restrictive
and very protective of the young ones.
But I felt very comfortable because I was every day dealing
with a baby not much bigger than these infants.
So a lot of fun for me to do all of that.
John-Boy is completely losing it having
to wait and all of this.
He doesn't know what to do.
And he goes, John takes him for a walk and he is at the pond
and he's ranting and raving and John just pushes him
into the pond and it sort
of snaps John-Boy back out of that.
They're back home and before we know it,
Mama is bringing John-Boy his baby girl.
And we have some beautiful moments of the baby
and John-Boy holding the baby.
And then we're back into the delivery of the second baby.
And then his son, John-Boy's son is delivered to him.
And another just beautiful moment of him with his son.
Then both babies are taken back upstairs
and we have a sweet, sweet moment of John-Boy
and Janet each holding one of their babies
as we see another part of the next generations
of the Waltons,
they're about to start.
The episode ends beautifully with a Easter sunrise service
and all of the Waltons are there.
And we shot this out on location very early in the morning
and I thought it was just a beautiful celebration
and a beautiful way to end the episode
and in a sense end the last
of the actual filmed scripted segments of the Waltons.
That's what I have for you for this part
of "A Walton Easter".
Next time I'm gonna go into a little more
of the background aspects of filming this.
What was different, what was different about sets
and locations and cast and choices and things like that.
So a lot of you have commented
about things within this and I noticed a lot of things
so I'm gonna dig into those next time.
In the meantime, have a very happy Easter
and I'll see you again.
Thanks for watching.