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From Joey,
I have always been curious
of what a regular work week looked like
on a show such as "The Waltons."
For example, when the cast received a script?
How much time did you have to prepare
before shooting scenes?
Always loved the show.
Thank you, Joey.
We would get the script anywhere from maybe a week,
at the most, before we started filming an episode.
We would spend six and a half days filming an episode.
We did not shoot on weekends, so Monday through Friday.
So we were always kind of rolling shows over midweek.
And if we had a show where
we were on the half day,
so let's say on Wednesday at midday
we finished the first episode
and we would go right into -
the next director would step on set,
and we'd go right into scenes for the next episode.
So anywhere from maybe a week out
to a couple of days out.
There was, I think, one occasion even
when they asked us to start filming
when we hadn't even seen the script
because they were still doing rewrites on it.
So we were just given scene pages.
Fortunately, that only happened once
because that makes it incredibly difficult
because you don't even know what the whole story's about.
We'd get it when we got it.
I'd read it.
We'd have as many days as we had to prepare,
plus we were still filming
but the good news was with a show like "The Waltons"
is we didn't have to study the character.
We didn't have to do all the research
and background work that you do when
you are doing a character you've never done before.
We had lived the history of it.
So we knew the relationship between the brothers and sisters
and the family - and anybody who was a guest star,
that was going to be a new relationship
so we were going to discover that.
So that was kind of the prep we had.
We would get a shooting schedule
that would tell us, like on Monday, these are the scenes,
this is the location.
We're gonna be, you know, on the back lot,
at the house, you know,
this day we're gonna be on the set
and we're going to shoot these scenes.
So we'd have a rough idea
of the breakdown of when scenes were happening.
So, if I had a particularly heavy episode,
where my character had a lot to do,
I'd know which days were
particularly intensive either
because I had a lot of dialogue
or because I had a lot of emotional work to do,
so I would plan accordingly.
If I had a lot to do in a show
I would spend more time preparing
as far ahead as I could.
You know, a couple of days before,
I would do a lot of work the night before,
making sure I knew all of the dialogue.
But the fact is I wouldn't,
I wouldn't learn it much before the night before
because the next day I was filming things.
And if they weren't the things
that I'd been looking at the night before
then I might not remember the things
from the night before or two days later.
So it was kind of a day to day thing.
Each person would have had their own experience
of what they needed to do to be fully prepared.
So they might tell you something different
for their preparation.
This, from Gary,
I heard Earl Hamner speaking
about how his real life grandmother was sweet
but Ellen balked at that,
telling him he had an entire Walton family of sweethearts
and some crustiness would be needed.
She was right, Earl realized.
While "The Walton's," I'd say, is a perfectly written show,
true to character development.
Nevertheless, was there a plot turn for Mary Ellen
that you objected to or felt was not right for her?
And might you have had any small input
in redirecting her with a certain situation?
For the most part, no.
Most of the time I was perfectly fine
with everything that was, that was happening.
And, and I loved the writing of the show
and felt that what was happening
with my character made perfect sense.
Some things were more,
some storylines were more fun for me than others,
but in terms of the show I understood.
The only point when I went
to the producers and I think went to Earl
was after Curt was killed at Pearl Harbor.
And I had John Curtis and there was,
there was a point where I wasn't really doing anything.
And I kind of said to Earl,
I said, "You know, Mary Ellen was this great,
like, rebellious character who wasn't going to conform.
She wasn't going to lead a traditional life.
She wasn't gonna get married
and have a child and just be a mother.
You know, that was what she always professed."
I said, " Now, all of a sudden, I'm kind of,
that's what I'm doing.
And, you know, I feel like that's not really
true to the character."
And it was not too long after that
that I got the storyline where
Mary Ellen decided she was gonna become a doctor
and she fought to be admitted to medical school.
So I think that that was inspired by me, you know,
pointing that out and fortunately getting some agreement
and, and then redirecting where my character was going.
But I could be wrong.
They might've already had that in the works
and I'm taking credit for something
that had nothing to do with me.
But, either way,
I'm awfully glad that my storyline took that turn
and gave me something really to sink my teeth into.
Next question.
How did you cope with being recognized
by tons of people everywhere you went
back when the show was huge
and today are people surprised to see
Mary Ellen strolling down the street?
Well, back when "The Waltons" was at its most popular,
I did get recognized a fair bit
but in Los Angeles
it was a little different
because the show wasn't as popular
in Los Angeles as it was in other parts of the country.
And I think people are also more used to
seeing celebrities in the LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills area.
Although people might recognize me,
sometimes they didn't place it.
It was like, "Oh, you look familiar, you know
do I know you? Do you, you know,
work at such and such bank?
Or do you, do you have kids at such and such a school?"
So, it was a little, a little different then.
Rarely - it also wasn't the type of show
that elicited screaming, you know,
squealing fans, we weren't teenage heartthrobs
or, you know we weren't The Beatles.
You know, so we didn't elicit that kind of response.
Usually it was like,
"Oh, it's so cool that, you know, I love your show.
Can I have your autograph," or that type of thing.
Sometimes, like at school, people made fun of us.
Most of the cast,
'cause "The Waltons" just wasn't cool in the seventies
if you lived in LA.
And teenagers of course are nothing
if not trying to be cool.
So when I was in school, it was like,
"Oh, good night, John-Boy,"
you know, they, they'd make fun of me.
So I dealt with that when I would go other places.
Then, you know, there would be a lot more excitement
about "Oh, the cast is coming
to do some sort of publicity thing."
And that was, you know, that was kind of fun.
You know, you went like, "Oh my goodness.
You know, the show was really popular,"
because we didn't necessarily know
until we got out there
'cause we didn't interact,
we didn't have a live audience.
So we didn't get to interact with fans a lot
unless we went out and did publicity.
So if we did a parade and people were, like,
squealing and screaming, it was,
it was like, "Oh, wow, hey, this is kind of cool.
You know, I guess the show is popular."
As the years went by
and we were a little further removed from it,
you know, I got recognized less.
Some people think I look the same.
Some people think I look a lot older,
which of course I am.
I don't necessarily expect to get recognized a lot now
from "The Waltons,"
unless it's a Walton related function
but I do still occasionally
and people are usually very, very nice about it.
So,
you know, it's, it's quite lovely, in general.
A few people have asked this question,
do you or any other cast member,
that you're aware of, have a souvenir of the show?
If so, who and what?
Not really, for me.
The only thing that I ended up with,
accidentally really, was my sort of wedding ring,
Mary Ellen's wedding ring.
I think it ended up, like sometimes I'd be wearing it
and I'd end up taking it home.
And somehow at the end of the series,
it must've been in my bag or something.
And I ended up taking it.
For the most part, I mean, the props and the clothes
belonged to the company
or they were part of stock at Warner Brothers Studios,
the property department or the wardrobe department.
So, I didn't, it never occurred to me
that they were mine to ask for or to take.
I know Mary McDonough asked and,
and took a couple of pieces of clothing from Erin
and there might've been,
some of the others might have, have, you know,
taken something, you know, been given something to take.
I know that in the Walton Museum in Schuyler Virginia,
there are a number of articles
from the show and some of those are from the cast
and some of them, I'm not quite sure where they were,
where they were dug up for - or donated from.
So there, you know, there's stuff floating around.
I'm just not sure who has what.
Thank you for joining me
on this segment of Behind The Scenes of the Waltons
Ask Judy.
I'll see you next time.