- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons"".
Today I'm going back to the very beginning.
The episode from Season 1, The Foundling,
which was the very first episode that was aired.
It was not the first episode we shot,
but it was the first introduction
to the audience of "The Waltons as a TV series.
So although I didn't particularly wear pigtails,
like up high like this, but I did wear pigtails
when I went into audition for the role of Mary Ellen.
So I thought, "What the heck?"
In The Foundling, "The Waltons" have a little girl
left basically on their doorstep.
It takes a while to find out that she's deaf,
but they take her in and make her one of the family
for as long as they have her.
Erica Hunton was the little girl who played Holly,
and she was fabulous.
Her mother, Ruth, was played by Charlotte Stewart,
who you will remember then from
"Little House on the Prairie".
Again that mixing of "The Waltons" and "Little House"
there was a lot of that over the years.
Musically, I noticed that the theme song of "The Waltons"
was used quite a bit throughout this episode,
that recurring Walton theme.
That was not something that happened subsequently
in episodes on a regular basis,
but was noteworthy in this one.
Kami spoke about this episode
in much more detail in her YouTube channel.
One of the things she commented on,
which I also think is just adorable,
is when she asks her daddy, "Where did you find me?"
And he says, "Behind one of your mama's smiles."
What a wonderful sweet explanation.
With eating scenes, there were those times
when someone really had to shovel it in.
In this case, Holly is supposed to be practically starving,
and when Olivia offers her some food,
she digs into that biscuit and just starts chowing down.
Hopefully poor little Erica didn't have to do that scene
too many times and didn't have to scarf
that biscuit too many times.
In this episode, we meet Sheriff Ep Bridges
for the first time.
John Crawford was a staple on our show for numerous seasons,
and we loved having him around,
he was such a wonderful character.
In this case, John goes to take Holly
to the sheriff's office to make sure
she hasn't been reported as a missing child.
And in this case, the Jefferson County county offices
are in this building, which you might recognize
as being used in later seasons,
as Boatwright University.
In later episodes whenever we went to the sheriff's office,
it was on what we called Western Street,
and was just a single story,
it was not this big, imposing building that we see here
in this very early episode.
I love these little scenes
where we're trying to teach Holly sign language.
In this case, I am working with her,
and trying to put it together.
For all of us as cast members
because the doctor gave us instructions
on how to finger-sign, you know sign language.
We all learned it in order to do
what we needed to do in the episode.
So a case of a skill coming into being
because of something that we needed within the work,
and we all got relatively adept at this.
A beautiful moment when Holly finally puts it together,
and is able to associate the signs that John Boy
is making with the actual words.
And the reality and she- and this door is open for her
to finally be able to communicate,
and how wonderful that is.
Interesting to note, that at this period in time,
Holly's father considers her a 'throwback'
because he doesn't understand that deaf
does not mean ignorant, that it doesn't mean
that she's simple or backward in any way.
But he feels like that she is.
And that he had a brother who was backward,
and wants to send her to a home
because he doesn't want to deal with this in his life.
Also being established early on
was that we used to be barefoot a lot.
And this happened in numerous episodes over the first season
until somebody stepped on something,
and they determined it wasn't really safe for us all
to be running around barefoot on the backlot,
where there were nails and screws
and various different other things
that were just safety hazards.
So then they started making us wear shoes all the time.
Ike Godsey's Store was always a source of enjoyment,
particularly when they had the candy counters stocked.
In this case, so we have two cents to spend on candy,
and decide that we will get black licorice.
I was not always a big fan of black licorice,
but apparently at this point I was perfectly willing
to eat it, as was everyone else.
I also noticed in Ike's store
that you see this Ouija board.
And there was, of course, an episode later on
where we make use of a Ouija board.
So an interesting thing to have there
on full display in Ike's store.
The question's also been raised about
how far was Ike's store from the Waltons?
and in this particular episode, Ike mentions
to Holly's father that the Waltons
are about half a mile down the road.
Holly is intrigued by this little snow globe,
and ultimately, in a lovely gesture,
Jim Bob buys it for her, which creates all kinds
of jealousy for Elizabeth, who is used to being
the center of attention, the youngest,
and now all of a sudden she's not.
And that leads to her running away,
and getting trapped in the trunk and all of that.
So, can be tough, being a child.
John Boy has a lovely little subplot,
establishing Marcia Woolery as his as his crush at school.
And he is reading her poetry and she is just so confused.
Tammi Bula did such a wonderful job of just being like,
"What is with this guy," and "What's going on here?"
The relationship between Mary Ellen and John Boy
started in The Homecoming, and just continued on here.
The teasing, and the ribbing,
and the just all the attitude between the two of them.
And I always had such fun playing those scenes
with Richard and giving him a hard time,
and we did have fun with the dynamic
between these two characters.
Frequently throughout the series,
we did listen to the radio,
something we did in The Homecoming.
And in this case, we're talking about listening
to Charlie McCarthy.
So a lovely tribute to Edgar Bergen, who of course,
played our grandfather in The Homecoming, and in this case,
we are listening to his radio broadcast.
When we did these radio things,
sometimes we really didn't-
weren't listening to an actual radio show.
And in this case, we are laughing a lot,
and you can't even hear what's being said.
So we are, I think, laughing too frequently.
But it is really meant to set up the fact
that Holly sees us all laughing,
and that she can't hear what it is that's happening
that is evoking all of our laughter.
This is John Boy's first kiss in the series.
When he kisses Marcia Woolery,
and decides that perhaps action will have more impact
on Marsha than writing her poetry.
And that's what I have for you for this segment of
"Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'",
back to the very beginning with The Foundling.
I'll be back with more "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'",
and more "Ask Judy", thanks for watching.