- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons.
Today, I'm going to be taking more of your questions
in a segment of Ask Judy.
So if you are enjoying these
or you have questions
or any of the above,
hit like, subscribe,
and put your questions into the comment section below.
I have a question here asking,
"When not shooting,
did Jon Walmsley speak with a British or American accent?"
He spoke with an American accent,
even though he can drop into a British accent
very, very easily.
He actually grew up from a fairly young age in the US
although he was born in the UK.
So he has pretty much had more of an American accent
ever since he was young.
Here I was asked,
"What was it like filming the little story
for the opening credits of Season 1 and 2?"
And Kami didn't recall much except direction
on her speed running
and the playsuit being a wardrobe favorite.
It was pretty much like shooting any other scene.
You know, it was "Okay, the truck is going to pull in.
You're all gonna gather around.
You're gonna be excited because daddy has this new radio.
You're gonna go up onto the porch.
Assume these positions,
Elizabeth is going to reach over
like she's gonna turn it on.
We're all gonna laugh."
And that was pretty much it.
So we just shot it like any other scene.
In one of the episodes,
I think it was The Anniversary.
I'm gonna go back and check,
but there's a scene where John
has built a gazebo up on the mountain
and he takes Olivia up there to celebrate
and takes champaign and a little picnic basket.
And I looked at this,
and I thought that really looks like it was shot
on a soundstage as opposed to up
actually on the mountain.
And John Dayton verified that for me.
He said,
"It's been years since I've seen the episode,
but didn't they slow dance?"
(Judy) Yes. (John) " And the gazebo set was shot on a stage." (Judy)
So correct. (John)
"I think we shot it next door on stage 25A.
Of course, after 50 years,
I could be wrong
in those stage, stage 25A,
as well as many of the other Warner Brothers stages
could be split in half for efficiency,
each half being a stage A or stage B.
It might've been on 26,
but I don't think so." (Judy)
I don't think so either.
I don't know that we had room there to build that.
So there you go.
That was what I thought was happening there
in terms of that gazebo being shot on a soundstage
is now being confirmed.
Thank you, John.
And then I also got some help on this one.
Is there a story or information on who came up
with using the last name Walton for the family?
And our Director Ralph Senensky weighed in on this one,
"I can sort of answer that
Earl Hamner's first book "Spencer's Mountain"
about the family had been purchased
and filmed by Warner Brothers.
When Earl wrote the short novel, "The Homecoming,"
and it was filmed by Lorimar,
a CBS television movie.
The family had no name.
When CBS decided to turn the project into a series,
Warner Brothers would not let them use Spencer
as the family name.
I've read that Walton was a name in Earl's family history."
So there we go on why the name Walton
and where it came from.
Director Ralph Senensky,
also added information relative
to directors contractual agreements.
I have been asked about that.
How and why directors didn't direct every episode,
why we had so many?
It was mainly because we had 26 episodes to film
and they overlapped.
So here he says,
"I will add information regarding
the contractual arrangement between the company
and the director.
For a one hour show,
the director was contracted for 13 days,
six days to prepare it,
seven days to film.
The director worked with the film editor
on his or her own time.
Very seldom was the director involved
in other post production activity."
So thank you very much for that information, Ralph.
Anne Smith asked, I'm not sure who Ellen Geer played.
Does anyone know?
Well in the episode, The Ceremony,
from I believe that was Season 1.
She played the mother of the young Jewish boy in the family
that came from Germany to Walton's Mountain
in hope of getting away from the persecution
they were experiencing in Germany.
So that was Ellen Geer's first appearance.
And then later on in a later season,
she played the sister of Sweet Billy,
when Mary Ellen is making nursing rounds
up in the back hills.
She is that sister that has the brother.
So we were very fortunate to have Ellen Geer
do a couple of episodes of "The Waltons,"
and always a treat.
She's such an incredibly talented actress,
and I'm hoping to perhaps get her to come speak
and share a little bit about her experiences
and about her wonderful father at some point.
So hopefully, I'll have that to share with you soon.
Gary asked, "How many minutes of film are shot
for those 45 minute episodes
and was much film left on the cutting room floor?
Yes.
I mean, we shot for six and a half days,
and would have many, many feet of film.
However, we did not print everything that was shot.
So if we had three takes,
they might only print one of those takes
because it was expensive to print the film.
So they would try to use
only the film that they needed
not do multiple takes just for the heck of it
because it costs film and it costs time,
and time is money in filming.
So we would have quite a lot of footage
that would then be edited down.
So a lot of work landed on the cutting room floor,
not to mention that if you shot all of say, my closeup,
you wouldn't use all of my closeup
because I'm speaking with somebody.
So you would have all of their take as well.
So you would lose pieces of when the camera was on me
when I was talking or listening,
depending on when they wanted to intercut
with the other person
or people in the scene.
So there might be five, six, seven, eight pieces
that would go into that one scene.
So everything that was shot
that wasn't used from my take,
or from someone else's take,
or from the master would end up on the editing room floor.
I had another question here asking me,
about our life now as grownups
and how everyone's doing
and what everybody's into?
So thank you very much for asking about that.
Everyone's doing very well.
So as you know,
we have lost a number of members of the family,
unfortunately,
and they are missed all the time
from Will Geer to Ellen Corby
to Ralph Waite,
Earl Hamner.
Michael Learned is still acting,
she does a lot of theater work.
I have had the opportunity to catch her up on stage live
a number of times,
and she's always fabulous.
She's also in the process of shooting
a mini series right now,
which I'm sure you'll hear more about soon.
And then Richard Thomas keeps very busy,
doing a lot of stage
and film and television.
He is getting ready to go into rehearsals
for a production of, "To Kill a Mockingbird,"
which he'll be touring for the next couple of years,
as well as doing episodes of different series,
mini series, things like that.
He does a lot of work in New York on stage.
Then Jon Wamsley,
Jon Wamsley has relocated to Cornwall in the UK.
He and his lovely wife have moved over there,
and he's still very much involved in music,
producing, playing, performing,
and enjoying life.
Mary McDonough who played Erin
is currently based out of Texas
and is working on another novel
as well as being involved in various different
sorts of activities and activism
and speaking
and things like that,
and she's taking classes,
which she is really enjoying,
taking some college classes.
Eric Scott.
Eric Scott chose to step out of acting
and owns his own business
and is that's been very successful for him.
And so he works in that company
and then spends a lot of time with his lovely family.
David Harper.
David Harper, lives up pretty quiet life.
He prefers to not be in the spotlight these days,
which is why he doesn't attend a lot of Walton reunions,
but he knows how much you all love "The Waltons,"
and he really appreciates all the support
and the love sent his way.
So yes, he's doing well.
And then Kami,
Kami Cotler has been involved in the education field
for a lot of years
after she graduated with a teaching credential.
She spent a number of years teaching,
then she started working with private charter schools.
She was a principal for a number of years,
and now is I believe in the administrative side
of the work with the charter schools.
So she keeps very busy also.
And the same person asked how many kids everybody has now
and any grandmas and grandpas and that sort of thing.
So Michael Learned has three sons and many grandchildren.
Jon Walmsley has one daughter, no grandchildren.
I have one son and one stepdaughter and stepson.
I have no grandchildren yet.
Mary has a daughter and two stepdaughters,
and I don't believe any grandchildren there yet either.
Eric has two daughters and a son,
no grandchildren yet.
Kami has a son and a daughter,
no grandchildren yet.
So none of us have grandchildren yet,
but our kids,
a couple of them are getting married this year.
And so they're all doing very well,
the next generation of the Walton offspring.
David,
David Harper is not married and does not have children.
So that's the update on all of us.
Thank you so much for asking.
And that's what I have for you for this segment of Ask Judy.
I hope you'll join me again for another segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.