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All right, Menja asked,
why Olivia's parents weren't brought
into the episodes
and rarely mentioned.
That's a really good question,
and one I didn't particularly
ever think about.
I know we spoke obviously about John's family,
because his mother and father lived with us
and we spoke about the brother, Ben,
that he lost when during World War One,
but I don't recall,
Olivia's parents ever being spoken about,
or if she had siblings or anything.
So if you've heard something about,
anything on her family,
put it in the comments below,
I'd be interested
and I expect everyone else will be too.
This next question is from Eric.
Eric says,
"I wanna know why John-Boy
got the shed,
when he already had his own room?"
You know, that's a really good question.
I'd like to know that too.
I know at one point in "The Awakening" episode,
I did convince our parents,
that I should get the shed
and they gave it to me
for a period of time
and then I decided,
it was too lonely out there
and I ended up wanting
to move back into the house.
So, I was part of it,
but yeah,
the shed obviously got used
in a lot of ways,
at a lot of different times,
John-Boy had it for a while
and then he turned it
into his printing press
and then when Ben got married to Cindy,
they lived in the shed.
Then there were times
where we had guests,
like the young man
who was in a wheelchair,
he stayed in the shed.
Someone else raised a good question about,
there was no bathroom there.
I don't know, you know,
magic of television,
all these things are good questions,
that I don't really have answers to
and I'm not even sure,
some of them that we thought about at the time.
So thank you for your insights and your questions.
They are, they raise good issues.
I have another question here,
this one is from Rena,
wanting to know
if everyone's parents were onset
and how did that work?
It's true,
when we were young,
up until the age you're 18,
you are required to have a parent or guardian,
on the set with you.
Those are just California labor laws,
for working in the film industry.
So in my case,
my mother loved to be around the studio
and on the set.
So she came with me until I was 18,
but at some point she also started
acting as a guardian for Kami Cotler
and because Kami was the youngest,
even by the time we ended the series,
Kami was still not 18,
So my mom was there every day,
that I or Kami was working,
throughout the nine years of the series.
For others it was a mixed bag,
whether their mother or a guardian
was there with them,
but those were the rules
that was kind of how it worked.
Rose asks, "I would be interested in "The Walton" menus,
I noticed that when there was corn on the cob,
there wasn't much else."
Interesting, I don't specifically recall that,
but there wasn't so much a plan for the menus,
unless something was specifically mentioned in the script,
otherwise it was kind of
up to the prop department,
who took care of all the food,
that needed to be used
in breakfast, dinner, lunch, whatever scenes.
So depending on whether some meals
were at the beginning of a meal,
where we were putting things on the table
and grace was being said,
and then whatever conversation was happening
as the meal began,
other times we were well into a meal,
and other times we were at the end of a meal.
So depending on that,
might determine what the food was,
how much of it there was,
things like that.
And I'm sure a lot of it
had to do with what would keep,
what was easy to prepare.
Obviously, if you were doing scrambled eggs,
they get cold very fast,
so they tried to avoid too much of that,
because otherwise we were eating cold eggs,
or they had to keep making new eggs
and that was, you know,
hard to deal with,
for an extended period of time.
So that's pretty much the story
on on the meals
and as to how much there was,
I'm not sure what determined that.
This from Michelle,
"What was it like when the show ended relief? sadness?
And did you feel like a part of you was missing?"
Wow, we found out that the show
was not being renewed,
after season nine
and before we would have started season 10,
I think a lot of us
sort of felt like
the show was coming to an end.
There was just that feel about it,
so I wasn't entirely surprised,
but expecting something
and then actually hearing it,
are two different things.
I heard about it through the grapevine.
Nobody called and said
the show hasn't been picked up.
I think somebody said they heard it on the news.
So yeah, sad, bittersweet,
because as long as the series was running,
there was a predictability
to my life that I loved.
I knew where I was going to work,
that I was gonna be working for,
you know, nine months out of the year,
and that with people
that I loved working with
in a situation I was very familiar with,
but I also knew at some point,
the show would end
and that I would have to determine,
what my next steps were,
what I did.
Did I continue in acting?
Did I, where would my career go?
So there was a little bit
of a sitting in limbo waiting,
to determine what the next phase
of my life would be.
So, there was a certain amount of anticipation
and, you know,
I think uncertainty then about,
"Alright, that's done,
now, I need to figure out what's next."
So all of that was there,
but something missing, yeah.
I think oddly ever since then,
there's a sense of something missing.
Even though these people are still in my life,
it was one of the most significant periods of my life,
it lasted a long time
and so changed my life,
that it's always there
and I would,
I always love any opportunity,
to reconnect with that.
When we've done specials,
it's been wonderful.
People ask if we're gonna do another one.
I don't know.
I know, I wish we would,
it would be nice,
I don't know what it would be,
what would make it a wonderful experience,
not only for us as a cast
to be together again,
but also for you,
the audience and the fans,
you know, what would be,
what would be right?
What would you feel satisfied by
as a reunion beyond,
"Oh, gee, what do they all look like now?
Oh gosh, they've gotten old."
Yeah, well we all have,
you know, all of that.
So a story that made sense
and all of that,
but we'll see,
maybe it'll happen,
maybe it won't,
it's not up to me.
Next question is from Fe.
Fi says,
"I'd like to know more
about your singing career."
Thank you Fi..
"Who's been your favorite person to sing for?"
That's a difficult one.
A couple of two, three years ago,
we as a Walton cast,
a number of us did an episode
of Home and Family
and I was asked to sing
and the cast was there
and I got to sing for them.
I sang "Times of Your Life" by request.
So to sing that,
which reflected on the times of a person's life,
the things they remember
and to sing that,
to my brothers and sisters,
my mother, you know,
in the audience really touched me.
So that one really stands out.
The other that really stands out for me,
was having the honor and privilege
to do a couple of USO tours,
and to perform for our troops.
That I think meant more to me than anything,
to have a way to give back
and to entertain our troops,
who were away from their family,
These were at Christmas time.
So to go out to remote areas,
where these troops
had not seen their families for months,
and to be able to share something from home
and to entertain them at the holidays,
was incredibly rewarding
and I would have done many more of them,
had I had the opportunity,
so I appreciated that.
The other questions Fi asks,
who are the biggest audience I've sung for?
And that was probably around 3000, 3000 plus.
I've done a fair bit of musical theater
and in some cases,
I had the opportunity
to perform in really large theaters,
so 3000, 3500 seats,
two balconies, yea,
and such a thrill
to stand on a stage,
with an orchestra,
in a beautiful theater full of people
and sing as part of the show,
that's really,
it doesn't get any better than that.
So that was,
that was amazing
and my favorite genre of songs to sing,
I trained as a singer in musical theater,
so, musical theater
and so much musical theater,
also became standards of the day.
It's amazing how many songs,
that were hits on the radio
were actually from musicals.
So, I would say,
that's probably my favorite genre,
is sort of The Great American Songbook, Broadway,
those standards that I grew up listening to
because my mother sang,
and that was what she played on the radio.
So that would be my favorite genre,
and the CDs that I've done,
have been in that genre.
Thanks for your question Fe.
Thanks so much for your questions.
I'll be doing more of these
and more videos about episodes and cast members,
on Behind The Scenes of The Waltons.