- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons.
Today, I'm speaking about an episode from Season 4,
The Fighter,
guest starring the incredible Clevon Little.
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This episode covers the journey of James,
played by Clevon Little,
who is a fighter,
who has aspirations to be a minister, a preacher,
and go back to his people
in the tenements of Richmond, Virginia,
and help lift them up out of that poverty
and out of the struggles and challenges
that they are facing.
And, he wants that opportunity to help uplift his people.
So, along his journey, he ends up on Waltons' Mountain
and he gets a job working for the Waltons.
Meanwhile, he's taken the opportunity
to use it as a place to train
where there's clear fresh air
and perhaps where he can find someone to help.
He needs a manager.
He needs a corner man.
He needs someone to help him
with this fight that he is going to be taking on.
And, his hope is that he will win this fight
and, with that prize money,
it'll give him this chance to start in his new...
In his new life.
It creates some conflict
along the way for the Waltons,
but, ultimately,
it's a very inspiring journey that James takes
and I think only fitting that it was directed by Ivan Dixon.
Baseball plays a bit of a minor subplot within this story.
Early on, you see Erin, and Jim Bob,
and Jody Foster playing catch
and I kept thinking, where's Mary Ellen?
I guess Mary Ellen didn't need the practice,
but there is a point later on where James is helping teach.
He gives...
He...
Early on,
he gives Erin some advice on how to catch,
he gives Elizabeth some advice on how to hit,
and we have a little makeshift baseball game there
in the front yard of the house once again.
James is a hard worker.
He prefers in exchange for the work,
rather than being paid,
he asks for a room and board,
and he says the barn will be just adequate for him,
and he'd like to take his meals by himself.
They find him one day skipping rope,
and John Boy starts putting two and two together,
because he sees the shoes he is wearing,
which are really boxer shoes,
and some things that he says,
and that he's clearly in training.
So, John Boy realizes that he's actually there in training.
Grandma and Olivia are very upset about this,
Olivia, in particular,
because she feels that they have been misled
by his intentions,
and both Grandma and Olivia are vehemently opposed
to fist fighting, to fighting,
and feel that it's not a good example for the children.
And, Olivia finally has a little bit of a meltdown one night
when the children are all being…
she feels a little outta control,
and she feels this is the influence of James.
She insists that John tell him that he has to go.
John says, okay.
They go outside, and as they go to the barn,
they hear James,
and James is practicing a sermon to the animals,
which I think is so sweet.
And, also, I suddenly went, right,
Clevon Little also played Reverend Hawthorne Dooley
in The Homecoming.
So, how apropos that they brought him back for this episode
of a young man with aspirations to be a preacher.
Well, of course, when Olivia realizes why he wants to fight
and what his purpose for it is,
then she is completely in his camp
and even tells John that he needs a manager
and thinks that John should help him.
So, Olivia really gets on his side
and Olivia's quite upset when Verdie comes to meet him,
because Jody's been around,
and Jody's talking about James all the time.
And, then Verdie walks in finding Jody
getting a little...
A few tips about fighting from James.
And, so she just lays into James
and doesn't want Jody around him,
and Olivia even tries to speak up for him.
But, VerdIe more or less accuses Olivia
of not understanding their journey, their struggle,
the Black people's struggle in that
how can she presume to know what that's about
and what's needed?
So, of course, she's right,
and it made me wonder if that was why
they asked Ivan Dixon to direct this.
And, particularly, I thought it was appropriate,
because he had so much experience in his personal life
with the Civil Rights movement,
and was a real leader and outspoken advocate
on behalf of the Civil Rights Movement.
So, another case where I was so proud
to have been part of a show
that addressed these issues for that time period,
not only that time period in history,
but in the 70s doing a TV show.
And, I thought, from my perspective,
that it was really well addressed, and well handled,
and put things into a really good light,
and, of course,
had a very positive message and a positive outcome.
When they go to try and get a manager for James,
it becomes evident that the organizer of the fight,
his whole intention is strictly for James to lose the fight
to the local hero.
And, of course, that is not what James has in mind.
And, the organizer lets them know
that the last time a manager didn't go along
that both the manager and the fighter were badly beaten
and tossed on a train,
a box car out of town.
So, this creates some potential danger there
for the path forward.
The manager who was going to sign him backs out,
because he...
The threat is very real to him.
John Boy feels he can't back away from it.
And, so John Boy says that he will be his manager
which of course then he doesn't wanna tell mom and daddy,
because of the potential consequences.
But, based on that, John and Grandpa,
and they say they'll take Zach and Ike.
So, they want people to be there in James' corner
to help protect and be a presence,
and I think make sure that nothing happens there.
When it comes to the fight,
it always impresses me when things like this are staged,
how realistic it was,
how they managed on a quick time schedule,
and not a lot of budget,
and to create something like this,
and make it look believable, build tension,
all of that.
And, of course, we intercut between the actual fight
where they have brought in a ringer
to try and make sure that James doesn't win.
And, then, back home,
where the children all kind of gather around,
gradually inch forward around the radio,
and Olivia comes and finds Elizabeth,
and is upset that Elizabeth is there listening to the fight.
And, Elizabeth pats sort of,
says, well, I was saving a seat for you, Mama.
And, Olivia ends up sitting on the stairs next to Elizabeth
and then Grandma comes out at one point
and spouts about how inappropriate all this is
and how she's not going to listen.
And, then you see her standing in the door
listening anyway,
so they have all been drawn into this story,
and the stakes there for James, and wanting him to win.
And, James does everything he can,
but I love that he doesn't win,
that it isn't sort of an obvious happy ending,
that he doesn't triumph in that sense.
And, he thinks he's...
He thinks he's lost.
He thinks his dream is gone,
and they take him home,
and he's in and out of a...
Of consciousness.
And, Verdie comes over.
She and Jody listened to the fight
and she wants to help care for him.
And, as she is beginning to care for him,
there - a number of members of the Black community arrive,
and they have brought...
They've taken up a collection to start and build a church,
and they give that money to John,
and say, as much lumber as this will buy,
and we will help.
And, so you see all of the community pulling together,
all of the Black community pulling together
with the Waltons,
and cutting wood,
and starting to try to put together the frame
and the foundation of a church.
And, then you see the Waltons take James
out to that very first service at their unfinished church.
And, you see the sign with his name ‘presiding’.
And, once again, we get to see Clevon Little
there at the pulpit
and begin to tell a story.
And, ultimately, he doesn't preach from the Bible.
He has read these children's versions of Bible stories
that John Boy wrote.
And, so he starts there
and he addresses the children as well.
And, Elizabeth at one point says
she doesn't like going to church,
she doesn't like sitting in the front,
because the preacher talks over her head,
that he doesn't look at the children.
In this case, you see that,
that James actually speaks to the children.
He doesn't just look over their heads
and he wants...
He wants the message to reach
and be understandable by everyone.
And, I thought that was...
I thought that was really quite lovely.
And, I just, I adore Clevon Little.
He was a lovely, lovely man.
It was heartbreaking when he was gone so early.
Loved working with him on The Homecoming.
Some of my favorite scenes in that are him
with the Baldwin sisters
singing and dancing.
And, he was just...
He was such a presence in person and he lit up a scene.
He just had such light to him, such inner light.
So, it was such a joy to get to work with him
on those two occasions.
That's what I have for you
for this segment of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons
about the episode, The Fighter.
I'll be back with more Behind the Scenes of the Waltons
and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.