- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons".
Today, I'm going to be talking
to you about the episode from Season 1, "The Actress".
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So "The Actress" was written by William Bast,
and directed by Vincent Sherman.
Vincent Sherman had been a director in Hollywood
since about the 1940s,
had worked numerous times with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis.
He was good friends with Errol Flynn.
And in later years,
I actually became good friends with his son, Eric Sherman.
And Eric actually did some mentoring
for me when I was first starting to do some writing,
some script writing,
and then some directing - looking into that.
So I have a long history with the Sherman family.
Vincent Sherman passed away just shy of his 100th birthday.
He did a number of episodes
over the course of the series.
So this was an early one of his, "The Actress".
And there's wonderful little touches
in this episode from Season 1
that were very sweet and definitely showed
his creativity as a director.
Some of the things that he -
little touches that he put in there
that made it really come to life
and gave the audience a real sense of the era,
of the family, the dynamics within the family.
This episode guest starred Pippa Scott,
an actress who had had quite a career in Hollywood.
And at the time that she guest starred in "The Actress",
she was married to our executive producer, Lee Rich.
Lee Rich and Merv Adelson were the two founders
of Lorimar Productions who produced "The Waltons",
and later went on to produce "Eight is Enough"
and "Dallas" and "Knots Landing".
So they had quite a successful run
in producing television series.
"The Homecoming" was one of the very first things
they ever produced.
So Pippa Scott was married to Lee Rich,
and although, perhaps, nepotism got her the audition,
there's no question that her talent landed her the role,
because she was just terrific in this role.
Playing an actress is a very interesting thing.
And she was a very flamboyant,
and big personality, as an actress.
Very dramatic, had a lot of flare to her.
But I loved the dimension of the character,
because you saw her make all these flips
within her choices, and her evaluation of the situation.
When she first meets John Boy, she dismisses him.
But then when he expresses how much he admires her
as an actress, you see her turn on the charm,
and she does indeed charm John Boy.
And John Boy was also pretty impressed by that, as she said,
custom-built Cadillac car.
I know a lot of you have asked about the cars at times.
And when I did an episode about the vehicles,
some of them we couldn't identify
what the makes and models were.
So I was really hoping that this one I could find,
and they literally say it in the show.
So there you go.
It is a Custom Cadillac.
In this episode, Grandma and Mama are not really thrilled
with the idea of this actress staying at the house,
or even being at the house initially.
Grandma in particular is very disapproving.
Olivia is a bit more compassionate about her
until she crosses the line and gets drunk in the house.
But even still, both Grandma and Olivia
show their compassion, their humanity,
when they realize
that she really doesn't have anywhere else to go,
and they do indeed want to find a way to help her.
It was not uncommon for a long time
for actors to be really looked down upon in society.
They were not looked up at
in the way that we look up and admire and revere
some of the big celebrities and big stars
in today's Hollywood.
At times, it would say "Actors and animals not allowed".
So that's pretty tough when you are,
sort of classified, with animals.
But I think there was,
there was just a stigma for some time
about what show people were like.
And that perhaps that they had loose morals.
And once again, this is a character who smokes,
and Alvira is informed that mama doesn't like ladies
smoking in the house, and no, she does not. (laughing)
But Alvira took all of the rebukes in good stride.
Early in the episode when Alvira is waiting outside
in the truck to find out if she is going to be invited
inside the house, a number of the children,
and Grandpa, are all peeking out the window at her.
So, you see the inside of the house
from the living room as they're peeking out.
Then it would cut to Alvira sitting in the truck.
That would have been shot on the back lot.
And then when she looks at the window,
she's not seeing, she can look towards the window perhaps,
but she's not seeing all those children in the window.
So when she sticks her tongue out at them,
she would have just been doing that at a particular eyeline
that she was given by the director.
You know, okay, we want your eyeline here for camera.
So this is just kind of some of the ways
that the editing went back and forth
all the time in episodes,
to get all the pieces that were needed.
So they'd shoot part of it.
And then they go, okay, later on,
we gotta pick up this piece over here,
because they're not gonna jump
from inside the house, run outside to the back lot,
get the shot out there and then run back inside.
There's the point when the kids are walking
to Godsey's store with Alvira.
And Jason is carrying Erin and Ben is carrying Elizabeth.
And I don't remember that being something
that was done very much, of the brothers and sisters.
I mean, we carried Elizabeth a lot
'cause she was the youngest,
but it was the only time I remember seeing
Jason carrying Erin and Ben carrying Elizabeth
all at the same time.
So I was struck by that.
And from a directing standpoint,
thought how clever Vincent Sherman was
to put little moments like that in
that just so built character.
Here we are in Godsey's store,
and this particular shot that Vincent Sherman crafted,
looks over the candy section.
And then over to see everyone standing around the phone.
That would have been a case
where they had stocked all that candy
in that candy case for the scenes in Godsey's store.
There were a few scenes in Godsey's store in this episode.
So they would have all been shot, probably on the same day.
And the angled section of that,
you actually could reach right through that.
I don't know if there would normally be glass there,
but in this case there was not.
Some of that may have been to avoid reflections
off of the glass.
So, we were really able to just reach right in
and snag that candy when no one was looking.
In a number of episodes in early seasons,
Mary Ellen really struggled with feeling confident
about herself and her looks,
despite the fact that she was a very confident person,
a very confident character.
But in "The Minstrel", when Jamie draws her picture
and she doesn't think she's pretty, you know,
there's times when, in "The Homecoming" when she asked mama,
"Do you think I'm pretty?"
And mama said, "No, I think you're beautiful."
So these moments of insecurity
as she went through the growing pains,
and in this case Alvira says,
"Oh, you're really a rather pretty girl."
And she's like, "Ah, I don't feel pretty.
I just feel like I'm a mess."
And I understand having gone through those phases,
because I went back and forth a lot during those times.
And sometimes doing "The Waltons"
made it even more difficult,
because an episode like this would be done.
And you know, I was having to explore
my own personal feelings about myself
to understand the character.
And then of course, she dresses me up in this,
like this dress.
I liked the dress,
but I hated all the extra makeup, personally.
I just thought I, I did look really gaudy
and really tacky, and I was,
I was really uncomfortable in that.
And so it was kind of an embarrassing scene
to have to shoot and have everybody looking at me
and laughing at me and feeling like, yeah, I do.
I would like to look pretty. And I don't.
There was a real tradition in, particularly MGM musicals,
where the concept of, my dad's got a barn,
and we're gonna put on a show.
A lot of Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland shows
were kind of like that.
And in this case there's the scene where they decide
that Alvira can put on a show at Godsey's store.
So it's a little of that, Mr. Godsey's got a space,
let's put on a show,
you know, which I thought was kind of fun.
And then when we get into the actual performance,
again, the director in me watched some of what was done
here, where in the frame,
where she's first getting ready to perform,
you see this man cross in to a seat.
So, often directors will do things like that
so that it does something interesting
in the frame.
To put something in the foreground affects the overall
depth perception of the shot and things like that.
So, then it keeps the frame, the shot,
interesting and active.
So that caught my attention in this.
It also caught my attention that,
and I expect this was Richard Thomas,
that as he starts speaking, introducing Alvira,
that he stumbles a little bit over a couple of his words.
And I believe that was probably a choice
of Richard's because John Boy
would not have been comfortable in front of an audience
in the same way that Alvira was.
She performed in front of people all the time.
John Boy did not.
So for him to get out and be introducing her, you know,
he chose to be a little uncomfortable with that,
and fumble with his words: actor's choices.
When Alvira first comes out,
she gives a wonderful explanation of an actor
that I'm going to read to you, because it really moved me.
"It is said that actors are very special people.
They are born between the acts, cradled in dresser drawers,
and nurtured on grease paint.
They come alive at 8:30 every night,
but only in the presence of an audience.
And when they die, they go not to heaven,
but to the theater."
As someone who started my career on the stage
at a very early age.
You know, probably like five, four, doing little recitals.
The theater's always meant a lot to me.
And from an early age, I knew I wanted to be an actor.
I've always admired the creativity of the acting community.
I mean, some actors are a little weird.
Some are a little quirky.
But we share an inner desire to take people on a journey,
to create magic.
And so having this little tribute
to a piece of what can make an actor tick (chuckling)
just spoke to me.
So that's what I have for you here
on the episode "The Actress".
Thank you so much for watching.
And I hope I will see you next time
on another "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons"
or a future "Ask Judy".
So keep putting those questions to me
through Facebook, here in the comments and stuff like that.
There's a lot of them.
I don't always get to everything,
but I really appreciate all of your interest
in "The Waltons".
I'll see you next time.