- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons".
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode
from Season 6, Episode 19, "The Ordeal".
Where Elizabeth has an accident
and loses the use of her legs.
I'll also be joined by a very special guest, Kami Cotler.
Hi, Kami, and welcome.
And thank you for agreeing to
talk with me about "The Ordeal".
- No, it's my pleasure,
and it's exciting to get to talk about it
- Early in the episode you see
Mary Ellen out feeding the chickens,
just one of those regular chores around the house,
and Grandpa and John are working to brace a pile of logs,
so that they will be secure.
Sequentially, early in the episode,
the whole way that this starts
is because you and Aimee see this baby bird.
- It's funny, 'cause I didn't really remember anything
except for that I'd fallen off of the wood pile.
And then I think maybe somebody on my Facebook page
had seen the episode and asked me about it.
So I...
I think I got to watch that segment over again,
to try to like trigger whatever memories I have.
I mean, in the storyline the boys were supposed to have
finished the pile of logs, like putting,
like wedges or something under it to stabilize it,
and they got distracted, I guess maybe
it's Ben's character who's most at fault, he wanders off.
And then, Elizabeth and Aimee see
a bird who's fallen out of a nest,
climb up the wood pile and the wood pile collapses.
And I know that the log pile didn't collapse.
So, what they would've done,
I do kind of remember having to do a fall.
And I think we've all, at some point in time
on "The Waltons" had to fall off of something,
and they just put a big, like kind of mattress,
or netting full of bits of foam,
like a gymnastics pad kind of thing,
and then you just fall out of camera, right?
And then you land on the pad and it's easy.
And I think what they would've done is they
shot me theoretically on top of the wood pile,
probably just standing on a platform,
and then I fell out of frame onto this mattress,
and then they would've put me on the ground,
and kind of strategically put logs over and around me,
so it looked like I was buried in logs,
but really, nothing was even touching me.
- Was that scary at all?
Did you feel trapped in any way or?
- No, I mean, I'm not really, what is it?
Claustrophobic or anything. - Okay.
- I always liked when we had to do stunty things.
It was a change of pace, and in fact,
those are the things I tend to remember the the most.
And Elizabeth did fall off of a lot of things.
(Judy laughs)
I fell off a bridge, I fell -
there was a tree-house that I dangled out of,
there was the Ferris wheel,
but also I fell down a mine shaft.
There was a fair amount of falling.
- After Elizabeth is injured, she is taken
to the hospital via Ep Bridge's car.
And once at the hospital, you see me,
all geared up in my official surgical outfit here.
And I'm pretty tough on Jim-Bob and Ben
who were responsible, in my opinion,
for Elizabeth's injuries.
With Mama and Daddy, and Mary Ellen,
all being at the hospital,
Erin is running things around the house by herself.
The Baldwin sisters think that they can be of help.
They wanna do something.
So they say they can come and help Erin,
only thing is I don't think they're very much help.
They can't figure out how to properly fold a diaper.
They aren't all that much help
around the kitchen trying to make food.
So, it's very sweet of them, but not very helpful.
Elizabeth finds herself in two casts in traction.
And I spoke with Kami about shooting these scenes.
So, clearly not real casts that you wore 24/7.
- They were real casts, like they...
What I remember is some funny little man
from the prop department who had expertise
in this somehow coming down to the set,
maybe the week before or two weeks before we started filming
to measure me, and then to to make the casts.
So he totally put me in casts.
Like he wrapped my legs and put the plaster
and I had to sit and wait for it to dry.
And then I had to lie on my belly
while he cut up the back of them.
So, I remember that being a little scary,
'cause he had like big, heavy clippers, and I'm like,
and you could feel the cold metal on the back of your legs,
and that was a bit like, okay.
And I don't remember, something about him
did not inspire confidence.
(Judy laughs)
I'm like, God, I hope he doesn't hurt me.
And then when he was done with that,
he had to measure me for the braces.
Which as I recall, involved lying
on a big piece of butcher paper,
while he drew around my legs with a bit of pencil.
And I wasn't crazy about that either.
When we filmed the scenes in the hospital it was such a
hassle to get in and out of the
casts, that I just sat there.
So, whereas normally, you know,
when they're lighting, you go do something else
and the stand-in will sit in your place, I just sat.
So, I spent most of the day sitting in that bed
in those casts.
And I do remember by the end of the day, like,
my legs were sore just from not moving.
So, that was new and different.
- Would they lower the traction at all when in between shots
or when there was a bit of a break?
- I don't really rem... I don't really remember.
I mean, I assume they would've done
whatever they could to make me comfortable,
and no one like made me stay there, I just did.
When you grow up on a set, you know,
you're part of a team and you wanna get it done
as quickly and efficiently and well as possible,
and if you look around and go, if I leave set every time,
I could theoretically have a break.
It's gonna take 20 minutes to get me back in these casts,
and that's just doesn't seem responsible.
You know, people will be late for lunch,
or something important like that, so...
- Now, I did notice that this hospital
was a different building
than what we often used for the hospitals.
And I believe this particular set was on the Columbia Ranch,
another lot that we used sometimes,
it was very close to Warner Brothers,
and where the exterior of the Baldwin's house was,
and where we ultimately filmed
the exterior of the Walton house,
for our very last reunion TV movie.
The Baldwin sisters want to do something for Elizabeth,
get her some sort of a gift.
They decide to get her a pony.
When it's delivered, Aimee is all excited,
and Aimee rides it around, but,
Elizabeth of course can't ride the pony.
- I don't remember having a pony.
Like, people would, people said
"What did you think about that whole horribly sad scene
"where Aimee rides your pony?"
I'm like, "I had a pony."
And then I watched the clip,
I'm like, "There's a whole pony."
- Yeah, and where did the pony go after?
The Baldwin ladies, Baldwin sisters gave you a pony.
- Gave me a pony, and that was the last we saw it.
- I loved when you got on it towards the end,
because you were a lot taller than Rachel was at that point,
and your feet were practically on the ground. (laughs)
- It was a recurring problem, because I'm not a tall person.
I've never been tall, I've typically,
like all through school, I was the smallest kid in my class,
but they managed to cast as my best friend,
somebody who's so tiny.
Like Rachel is such a just a
petite human being. - [Judy] Yeah. Yeah.
- And so I just look like a massive giant through my entire
like preadolescence standing next to Aimee.
I'm like, I'm a small person. Why did they do that to me?
And you're right.
Now that you mentioned my legs dragging on the ground,
now that rings a bell.
One of those moments with me going, they don't know how,
they don't know what size I am.
I can't convince them that I've gotten taller.
- The whole family finds themselves
taking on different activities.
Ben wants to be able to help and buy things for Elizabeth,
trying to, in a way, buy her forgiveness.
He would like to have an important job,
or something that, he can brag about,
but, the only job available is being a janitor,
basically at the Dew Drop.
So, he sucks it up and agrees to take that job.
Meanwhile, Grandpa is seen feeding John Curtis,
which is just so cute.
Once Elizabeth is sent home from the hospital
she's out of the casts, but she has braces,
which she wears for most of the rest of the episode.
- The braces were hard, because I was on crutches,
and then with my legs fully braced, and
it was just super hard to get around,
I didn't really have the muscles to do that.
And I know by the end of every day my legs were super achy
from just being immobilized and then
trying to - ways to get from point A to point B
with these braces on.
And again, it was a hassle to take them on and off.
So, and then if they're filming a lot
you sort of leave them on and just wait till the next scene.
So, that was hard.
I do have one really clear memory of a scene
where I guess I was lying in the grandparents bed,
and maybe, Olivia was washing my legs or something.
There was some sort of quiet scene between the two of us
where she had to roll me over,
and I remember the director, Larry Dobkin,
when we did the first rehearsal,
we rehearsed it, then he came back, and he says,
"There's something really specific that should happen,
"when she rolls you over, your legs should end up crossed."
Which was a detail, I guess, he knew about
people who don't have use of their legs,
which I, as a little kid, didn't know.
And just unconsciously, you move your legs, right?
You use the muscle as you're used to using, and so,
he's like, "There's something specific that should happen
"here if you really don't use your leg muscles."
And he sort of rolled me over
and he showed me how the cross would occur.
And I remember being like, "Oh, wow, okay."
So, for some reason that's why I love Larry Dobkin,
so, that kind of into the detail.
- Yeah. He was always great to work with. Yeah.
And because he was an actor, he really,
I always felt like he gave us extra things,
extra actor direction, as opposed to just
staging and, you know, go do it.
- Yeah.
So, I appreciated that,
with what little time there was for that to happen. (laughs)
- Yeah, He tended to find some time
and he was also super direct, you know, like he didn't...
'Cause I know there were at least a couple occasions
where he hurt my feelings, 'cause I was very sensitive,
but, I also learned through working with Larry
that he cared enormously about me and my performance.
And that it was feedback, it was useful feedback,
and he wasn't hurting my feelings,
it was me being too sensitive.
And through that kind of actor-director relationship,
I think I really learned how to appreciate his directness
as something just efficient and true,
and you could count on him,
you'd know, he'd tell you, right?
- Yeah, no, that's a good point.
Yeah, 'cause sometimes we never heard anything,
and you just go, well, did we print that
because it was good, or because
we're out of time and that's good enough,
and I'm not gonna be able to get anything better.
There is a visit to the Hot Springs. Was it warm?
Was it cold with dry ice in there to create,
you know, the sense of steam?
- What I remember for sure is like air hoses
that went into the water to make it bubble.
I also remember being in the...
'Cause, there were two ponds on the back lot.
- Yeah. There was Druscilla's pond.
Yeah. - Right.
The big pond Druscilla is that we used for,
you know, if we were swimming,
or I was falling off the bridge,
you know, that was all Druscilla's pond.
But there was a littler pond,
which I think was the pond that
someone at some point in time told me
it was the Camelot pond that they'd used it in Camelot,
and this, it was a smaller pond
and it had like a little sort of rocky bed that fed into it.
It had like shallower pools. - Right.
- And I remember being in one of those
with it being full of water and then they put like
air hoses to make it bubble,
and then I would put money that would've been
dry ice somewhere to make steam.
There was no hot water involved.
- Okay. Was it cold? Cold?
I mean, were you in there freezing
and trying to pretend like it was nice and warm? (chuckles)
- Probably, I don't actually,
I don't remember that part of it.
I just remember like, being like,
oh, okay, so, hoses with air and bubbles.
All right. Fine then.
- In order to just take little trips around the area,
they arranged to bring the pony cart in
and they hitch up the pony named Judy.
I wonder where they got that name from,
and whether I should take that personally.
Anyway, it's kind of sweet, because this is something
that then Ben decides he can do for Elizabeth,
that doesn't involve just trying to buy her favor
and her forgiveness.
So, it was kind of sweet.
And of course then, Aimee and Elizabeth
take the pony cart in the dead of night
to Ada Corley's place.
Ada Corley was played by Virginia Gregg.
And they are going to try and get her
to heal Elizabeth's legs, because she uses all these
natural herbs and things to heal people.
- I remember that when we got, when Aimee takes me up
to see the old scary kind of medicine woman.
- Ada Corley. Yeah. - Right.
Played by Virginia, I think her name--
- Gregg. - Gregg, right?
- Gregg. Yeah.
- So if I'd known who she was while she was there
I might have talked to her about like,
working with Cary Grant, or something like that, but,
I missed it. - I know.
Me too. (chuckles)
- I do remember that the herbs that she put on my legs
were like a green cold cream.
- In the end, Jim-Bob is the one who encourages Elizabeth
to finally take a couple of steps to him.
And it is a happy ending for the Waltons.
I really appreciate you
filling everybody in on all the things that
I didn't know about the episode. (laughs)
- Well, I appreciate the information exchange,
'cause, like I get the same thing.
I have people ask me questions, and I'm like,
I wasn't there that day, I don't know.
- I wanna thank Kami very much
for joining me for this segment.
I'm gonna speak with Kami a bit more soon.
So, watch out for that video.
In the meantime, thank you so much for joining us,
and I will be back with more
Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons"
and more of your questions in a segment of Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.