- Welcome back to another segment
of behind the scenes of The Waltons.
Today, I'm taking more
of your questions in a segment of Ask Judy.
If you have a question you'd like me to answer,
please, just put it in the comments below.
And I grab different questions from there to use here.
And if you're enjoying all of these,
I do appreciate if you like and subscribe
and please, share it with other people
you think would enjoy.
I have a question here from Roger who said,
did you ever use your acting skills in any personal,
real-life situations?
Ooh, ooh, I could get in trouble answering that, couldn't I?
One of the things that came to mind when asked that question
was the type of stuff I did as a child,
because early on,
I had a lot of natural skill in the area.
I think children as actors are often just instinctive.
And so it starts off as just being natural.
And we've talked about Kami.
She was such a brilliant little natural actress.
And I think that was true
with pretty much all the kids on the Waltons.
So I could cry from an early age
and it got used a lot in theater.
When people would find out I could do that.
And then on the Waltons.
But I was really good.
"I don't wanna go to school and I have an earache."
That was my go-to, an earache, or a stomach ache.
You know, if I just wanted to stay home,
play hooky, watch TV.
So that was some of my early use
of acting skills in real life.
W Hewitt asked,
I would be interested in an episode
where you go through the romantic relationships
that occurred in each character's life.
Where they met and why they broke up.
Wow, That would be interesting to do.
I don't have all of that,
but I can talk a bit about Mary Ellen's.
My first boyfriend was GW Haines.
We met at school,
he was my boyfriend for a few seasons
and then I sort of moved on from him.
So we kind of broke up
because I think I got interested in new boys.
And then of course he became Erin's boyfriend.
From there, there was the Minstrel who I had a crush on,
but that was not reciprocated.
So that one didn't happen.
Then there was the crush I had on
the assistant director in The Abdication.
So that was not really,
we walked to Ike's store and we,
yeah, that was about the extent of that relationship.
Erin had a lot more of the relationships than I did.
And then there was David Spencer,
who I met as a nurse and because he was a doctor.
Then we were engaged and we broke up because I met Curt
and decided I was gonna marry Curt.
Then of course it was Curt who I met as a,
when he moved to the mountain to be a doctor,
we were married until he was killed at Pearl Harbor,
and then, I know, came back from the dead.
We won't go into that right now. (laughs)
I do not know why they wrote that episode.
So I get asked that a lot.
I don't have an answer to that.
I'm gonna try and get and to see if Tom Bower
would come on one of my segments
and maybe talk a bit about his experiences as Curt.
After Curt there wasn't much,
there were not really any romantic episodes until Eddie.
Eddie Ramirez in The Medal, when he brought Curt's medal
and we had a little bit of a romance,
but he didn't stay on the mountain so that ended quickly.
And then there was Jonesy who arrived when he was,
his car broke down and he crashed with Jim Bob
and we brought him home.
I nursed him back to health
and we ended up getting engaged and then we got married.
So those, Mary Ellen didn't have a lot of romances
during the nine seasons.
So I'll try and get back to you
with somebody else like Erin,
which would be a full-time job, working out hers. (laughs)
I'd have to maybe get her input on her love life.
Kate asked, was Ike's General Store a real general store
that people went in, or was it just used for the show,
or like a prop?
So the exterior of Ike's store was on the backlot
of Warner Brothers Studios.
And it really was just a facade.
There was barely even sides to it
and really kind of virtually nothing inside.
And then the interior
was on the Soundstage 26 at Warner Brothers,
where we also had all the interiors for the house set.
Gully R, who was also an equestrian and a rider
and a trainer of horses
was asking me about my riding..
And then she said, were are you learning
to ride during the Waltons?
Yes, I did learn during that time.
There was a wardrobe mistress on the show who had a horse
and rode and had competed a lot,
and she introduced me to riding and took me out
to the stables where she rode,
introduced me to her trainers.
And that's when I started taking riding and jumping lessons.
And she asked if anyone else from the show
had any formal riding experience
and not that I know of in terms of the actual cast.
Everybody else just was kind of winging it.
Simon asked, he said,
the house interior sets looked so authentic
with dirty paintwork everywhere.
Yeah, that was kinda cool.
They always kinda age things down
and made them look really authentic.
And then he said, there are a few episodes with you
walking on the roof of the house.
Were there any safety precautions put in place?
It looks like you were just up there on your own.
I was just up there on my own.
So, (chuckles) no safety precautions there
and being a two stories side,
it was a little intimidating.
I think I've mentioned in the episode, The Carnival,
when I was supposed to be tight rope walking on the roof
of the barn, that was not me.
That was a stunt double.
So those were the safety precautions there.
But for the most part, if you saw people up and around,
it was really us doing it.
Malcolm asked a couple of questions.
So this was about the,
these making the behind the scenes of the making of,
you know, my behind the scenes. (chuckles)
So he said being a two-segment a week schedule,
as I do two segments for these each week,
is it still challenging to fit in pre-production, collation,
shooting, editing, post-production,
and release with a constant three-day deadline?
Yeah, and it's particularly challenging when I'm traveling.
So then I have to get ahead
so that things can kind of stay on schedule.
So I will try to shoot a number of segments
kind of like with talk shows or game shows
where you shoot like five segments in a day.
So I might shoot, you know, three or four in a day
and then try to get a little bit ahead
so that things can roll out even while I'm out of town.
There's still things I have to do.
But the hardest thing to do while I'm away
is the actual shooting.
So I can still do some of the preparation
and some of the post stuff.
And then once it's kind of in my editor's hands,
you know, whether I'm around or not is less of an issue.
Then he had another question,
as someone who has been both in front
and behind the cameras,
do you miss the mechanical reality of yesteryear versus
the virtual and compactness of today's filmmaking?
You know, there's pros and cons to both.
I mean, when you look at something like the Waltons
that was so beautifully shot and lit
and on 35-millimeter film, you just,
it's so hard to get the quality of that
with the whole digital age.
And you can look at things like The Waltons
where fortunately we didn't have a lot of special effects,
but things that might qualify as that
didn't always look as realistic.
You can look at shows from earlier eras and recognize,
maybe cheesy special effects.
So those types of things, we're so much more advanced now
with computer-generated images
and things like that that they can do.
So I think there's pros and cons to both.
I mean I wouldn't be able to do these segments
if it weren't for all of the new digital,
and simple aspects of being able to do filming.
'Cause I certainly am not adept enough to have a big camera
and then you need a crew and somebody to run it.
And I kind of just shoot these on my own.
So, pros and cons to both
and I think it really just depends on
what you are trying to shoot.
All right, and one more.
I know I said a couple of questions.
No problem, but just curious
how much actual footage time-wise
do you roll per segment that gets edited out,
and do you feel your innate, intimate knowledge
of the subject matter limits run-ons?
I usually shoot, I'd say, ten to fifteen minutes.
So I usually have a pretty good sense of
how much time a segment's gonna be.
If things have run on a bit,
I will often send a note to my editor and say,
okay, I think this is a little long,
why don't you pick some things to edit down.
When I am actually shooting,
if I feel like I've gotten way off track,
a lot of times I'll just stop.
I'll delete that take and I will start over.
So it's less work for my editor.
And that's kind of it.
And sometimes, if a segment is way too long,
there's been times when I went, you know what,
I'm gonna make a two-parter
because there was just too much to talk about.
And sometimes I do that with these Ask Judy segments.
If there's been some set of questions
or a particular question that I had a lot to say about,
and I felt there was a lot of information
that might be interesting to you,
I might make it its own segment.
So, there you go.
That's more behind the scenes of the behind the scenes.
I'll be back with more Behind the Scenes of The Waltons
and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.