- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode
from Season 7, "Founders' Day."
It was the closing episode of Season 7
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"Founders' Day" was written by Kathleen Hite,
who wrote 24 episodes of "The Waltons"
and also 32 episodes of "Gunsmoke"
amongst a very extensive writing career.
It was directed by Ralph Waite.
One of the things about this particular episode
that I've been asked a lot is about the music,
"Appalachian Portrait," that is performed by Jason
as his final composition for his time
at Kleinberg Conservatory of Music,
and people have asked me who actually composed that.
I have done as much digging around as I can
and have not been able to get a specific composer,
which leads me to feel that it was composed
by Alexander Courage, who was our composer
for "The Waltons" for a number of years
and did all that music for many of those episodes.
So in lieu of seeing another name on there,
I'm gonna go with Alexander Courage.
People have asked me a lot about the music on "The Waltons."
There was not ever a soundtrack that was available
for people to purchase for music of "The Waltons,"
but there certainly was some beautiful music over the years.
Jerry Goldsmith composed our theme music,
which has become quite iconic,
and I think is known by people all over the world.
So we did have a fabulous music team
as part of "The Waltons."
Actor Dean Jagger played Professor Bowen,
Jason's professor at Kleinberg.
And I was very excited to have him as a guest star
because I remembered him from the Christmas classic,
"White Christmas" which I watch every year at Christmas.
My, probably one of my top three favorite Christmas movies.
So I was very excited to meet him and work with him.
And we had also had, over the nine seasons,
another member of the cast of "White Christmas,"
Mary Wickes, who played the housekeeper
in "White Christmas" did an episode as a cousin
of the Baldwin sisters, cousin Octavia.
So fun to have two of them as guests on the show.
Throughout the episode, Jason is struggling to figure out
what his composition is going to be.
His professor has very traditional ideas
about what these compositions should be,
but members of the family keep interrupting Jason
and also putting their 2 cents in.
Grandma says, no, she doesn't like the title.
Elizabeth asks what it means.
He finally, Ben and Cindy you're interrupting him.
So he goes over to the Baldwins
to see if he can practice there.
And they think, oh, they're gonna sit down
and listen to a concert.
And they keep thinking that they're going to get
a private concert, and Miss Emily keeps saying,
I like it better when he keeps playing.
'Cause he stops, he keeps stopping to write.
I did notice when the shot with the Baldwins
was being constructed, when you see the wider shot,
you see air, like room between their two shoulders.
When you come into the two shot, the tighter shot,
you can see their shoulders are kind of overlapped.
This was a common thing that was done
when we were shooting, you know, tighter shots like that
is so that the frame didn't have a lot
of excess room in the middle,
they would ask actors to tighten up
so that the shot could be tightened,
and the focus was more on the people
than the excess air around them.
The Baldwin sisters want to preserve their family heritage.
And so, an idea is formed to have this Founders' Day
that will celebrate all of the people
who originally settled on the mountain.
Along the way, the Baldwins find in their papers
something that leads them to believe that a relative
of theirs was the first to settle on the mountain.
So perhaps, it should have been called Baldwin's Mountain
rather than Walton's Mountain.
And then, Corabeth is going through things
of Ike's ancestry.
She comes across something that says a relative of Ike's
was perhaps the first person to settle on the mountain
and it should be called Godsey's Mountain.
All of this gets resolved when Grandma finds
a relative of ours, Rome Walton, his diary,
which refers to when he first settled on the mountain
and then later, like a year or two later,
meeting the Baldwins' relative,
and then later on meeting the other one.
So she puts an end to the question of who came first.
She doesn't wanna share the diary
because it makes reference to Rome Walton drinking,
and of course, Grandma's very, very down on that concept.
So she didn't want anyone knowing that that relative,
that Walton relative drank.
Sometimes happy adlibs and precious moments are captured
that make it to the final cut that are just spontaneous.
Like this moment when I'm feeding John Curtis
and Jason's playing the piano and you get this adorable
little spontaneous ad-lib from our John Curtis,
you know, enjoying a moment there.
And it's just so sweet that I am so glad that they kept it.
When we were all on the front porch,
when Grandma goes to get Rome Walton's diary,
I know I've talked sometimes about which times
was the front porch used as the interior set
when we were on Stage 26, which this would've been
because you can see through those windows
into the living room.
Other times, it was shot on the back lot
when you can't see through those windows,
and there was a point where I was talking about
through the front door, what you see, and in this case,
you clearly, as Grandma goes in and out, you see through
to the stairs that lead upstairs in the house.
Whereas, in the episode, "The Statue,"
when Grandpa is out there and Grandma comes to the door,
rather than seeing those stairs,
you see this table and lamp, which is what told me
that that scene was shot on the back lot front porch.
Our longtime production assistant John Dayton
has often shared information with me and with all of you
about "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
In this case, he got a cameo on-screen as a music student
that is taking a lesson from the professor.
And I asked him, since you see his back,
but you don't really see his hands playing,
if he did indeed play piano.
And he said, although he did, he had asked for the music
and had hoped to have playback,
and they said that was gonna not be in the budget.
So they wanted him to actually play.
But he said the music was a little tougher
than what he felt ready to play live there.
So he basically had to sort of fake it as best he could.
And later on, they did put playback in, in post-production,
but a lovely onscreen moment,
and because he had a couple of lines,
you actually see him credited here
as an actor for this episode.
Love this sequence that Ralph created,
As we begin the Founders' Day celebrations,
a beautiful use of movement to bring the camera around
to the different things.
Initially, you see the men gathered around a table
and one of the gentlemen shows that he has a flask of,
I'm sure recipe or something.
So that takes, as they move, that takes the camera
over towards the sawmill.
Then you see a woman carrying a musical instrument,
and that brings the camera back over past the barn
where you see a woman with two, a young man and woman
being clearly pulled from the barn
with hay in their clothing, a cute moment.
And then, the camera is drawn once again
by a man playing violin over to the larger area
of the front yard, where you see the larger gathering
for the Founders' Day celebration.
So just a lovely created shot that Ralph crafted there.
When we get into the front yard for the Founders' Day,
there was something that caught my attention
that I also confirmed with John Dayton.
You see Corabeth go up to the porch
to make an announcement, and then it cuts to a smaller,
tighter shot of a group of people by the punchbowl.
When I saw that, I went, that looks different to me.
I think that was done not on the back lot,
because that looks like a backdrop and that looks,
the lighting looked different enough to me.
So I went, I think that was done on the soundstage.
Then it goes back to Corabeth and Jason,
and then it goes back to her asking the people take a seat.
And in this case, again, a tighter shot of that group
of people that again, was done on the soundstage,
for some reason, whether they had trouble with,
some footage got damaged or they ran out of time
or something happened that they had to reshoot this.
And they just got a smaller group of people
and picked up that at some point
when we were on the sound stage.
But then you see a wider shot when the professor comes in.
And that is clearly, once again, on the back lot.
So some of those things that catch my eye
because, you know, I sort of knew what these things
really looked like.
Of course, it ends with the professor arriving
and listening to Jason's composition and really liking it.
And it is a beautiful piece of music.
And I thought it was a just lovely tribute at the end
that Earl narrates talking about where he grew up
and the mountain and the area and families,
and goes through and talks about each
of the members of his family.
And it very well could have been
the final episode of the series.
And perhaps, they did this, thinking that if the show
was not picked up, it would be a lovely final episode.
And then, we were fortunate enough to get to do
two more seasons.
So there you have it.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons,"
about the episode, "The Founders' Day."
I'll be back with more "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons"
and more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching.