- Welcome back to "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
Today I'm talking about an episode from Season 4,
"The House," where we first see the stained glass window
from the Whitley house.
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At the beginning of this episode,
we see Jason (John Boy) is up on the second story of the house,
and he is up there placing a lightning rod.
So once again, the Waltons doing their own stunts.
(laughs) I'm glad it wasn't me up there yet again.
John Boy is driving Grandma into town
so that she can do some shopping.
And it's been a while since she's been into town.
And as he is entering the town,
this would've been shot on the back lot of Warner Bros.
in the area that we called Western Street
where we saw the sheriff's office
and the bus depot and things like that.
As she talks about the street that they're on,
and John Boy theoretically turns a corner,
we are now into the Midwest area of the studio.
And this is part of a continuation of the street
where Curt and Mary Ellen's house was
and where Mrs. Brimmer's house was
and where we saw the house that Jenny Pendleton was in.
So this section of houses was used quite a lot
during the show to represent different people's houses.
In this case, we see the Whitley house.
And the Whitley house has a sign being posted
that it is being condemned.
This gets Grandma's attention.
She has John Boy stop right away.
The Baldwin sisters are also there.
They stop and talk with them,
and they talk with the gentleman who's posting the sign.
Basically, because of the deterioration of the building,
it's been deemed that it is unsafe
and is going to be torn down.
Grandma is livid, as are the Baldwin sisters,
because they talk about the amount of history
that occurred for them when they were young in this house.
And Grandma looks up at this stained glass window
and she says she has special memories of this
that she won't share because she says they're private.
But they get this idea that they want to do what they can
to help save this house.
While Grandma and the Baldwin sisters have decided
that they're going to initiate a petition and get
all kinds of signatures to save the house,
they return home to find out
that Grandpa is very exuberant because he's got a job.
And this job, although it doesn't pay, it pays in wood
and lumber, that he has gotten a contract
to tear down the Whitley house,
and he plans to save all this amazing wood
that is in the house that can be repurposed
for other jobs and things like that.
So now we have this conflict between Grandma and Grandpa
because they are on opposite sides of the demolition
of this house that means so much to Grandma.
Adding another layer to this drama,
John Boy's asked by the paper's editor to write an editorial
about what's happening with the Whitley house.
And when John Boy tells him about his grandparents
being on the opposite sides of this story,
the editor thinks that's great because it means
that he will write from a point of conflict and trauma
and personal connection to it,
and that those make the best editorials.
Grandma shares with Olivia that the significance
of the Whitley house is that she went dancing with Zeb there
and it's the first place where he kissed her.
And so she has all these special memories,
and she is heartbroken that Grandpa doesn't seem to remember
any of this, and to him it's just an old house,
and you know, it's history, and move on.
As John Boy is having a conversation with Grandpa
about the Whitley house and about the fact
that he has heard Grandma and Grandpa arguing
a number of times now, I like how Harvey Laidman,
the director, set up this shot, this crane shot,
as we are high up looking through this upper window
of the mill, and then we kind of push in so that,
and tilt down, and we watch them from above for some time.
Just a clever sort of a shot. I really enjoyed that.
And you also see within this scene between Grandpa
and John Boy, that initially John Boy is cutting wood
or sanding wood or something,
then he goes on to be measuring and marking wood
while Grandpa is sanding a spindle.
So it's always great when there is activity
and a sense of life in a scene
that just makes it seem more real.
People rarely just do nothing while they're talking,
especially in a situation like this
where they have work to do.
So the conversation continues as the work gets done.
But they also chose activities that didn't make noise.
If John Boy had been running the actual saw blade
the whole time, it would've made the sound very difficult.
So in this case he's doing something
quieter and a little safer.
John Boy comes out of the house to find Jim Bob
up in the tree house with a shotgun
or a pretend shotgun or something.
He's standing guard because he's hearing these stories
about how people are tearing down houses,
and he's protecting his territory.
I'm not sure if he thinks he's protecting the tree house
from being torn down or the Walton house.
But John Boy talks him into going
over to the Whitley house with him.
So John Boy and Jim Bob go to the Whitley house
and walk through it.
Jim Bob isn't sure he wants to go into this derelict house.
He thinks it's kind of spooky and scary.
But John Boy goes in and walks around
and sees all the history within the house.
He finds a place where, on the wall
where it's marked different heights,
as we often do when our children are growing.
We have a place where we mark the increase
in their height as they grow.
So as John Boy looks around here, he comes
to the realization of what his editorial is going to be.
So it's a very productive trip
inside the Whitley house for John Boy.
The subplot in this episode revolves
around Jason at the Kleinberg Conservatory.
They're studying Haydn and his classical music.
Jason is listening to the radio at home
to listen to this music, and then he's trying to practice
for this recital that he has been asked to do
or told he's going to do with another student.
It's gonna be piano and violin.
However, the family isn't really on board
with listening to this classical music.
They think it's kind of snoozy.
Grandma feels that she likes music that has a beat to it
that you can tap your toes to and you can dance to
as opposed to the classical music.
So Jason is feeling like he just isn't getting
support for his music.
At one point in class, he is practicing
with his duet partner, and it doesn't go well,
and he is criticized for having changed some of the chords
and improvising, and the professor sort of says
this is not like some hoedown, country hoedown
where you can just improvise the chords.
You have to basically play what's written on the page.
And so he and his partner
are in a bit of conflict about this.
Grandma has brought out a piece of sheet music for Jason,
asked him to play it because she's found it
and it is part of her memories
connected to the Whitley house.
But Jason, he's busy, and he really doesn't want
to take time away from practice to play this other song.
But Grandma leaves it with him and says,
"Well, it always makes me feel better, so keep it,
and when you're ready and you need that, then you play it."
So when it comes time for the actual recital,
and Grandma is very discouraged
because the petition has failed,
they are going to tear down the Whitley house.
But Olivia insists that Grandma come with her
to Jason's recital because it would mean a lot to Jason
and he would want her there.
So she does. She does attend the recital.
And as Jason and his duet partner are getting ready
to go out, neither one of them has brought the music.
The music was missing when they went to get it,
so each thought that the other brought it.
Turns out one of the other students took it
to try and sabotage their duet, because she felt
that she should've been asked to do the duet
and she knows the duet by heart.
His partner says that he can't play anything
without the actual sheet music.
So the only sheet music Jason has with him
is this piece of music that Grandma gave him.
So he says, "All right, we're doing this."
So they go out, and rather than doing a Haydn
classical piece they do a Virginia classical piece,
which is "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny."
Jason plays his guitar and his duet partner plays the violin
and it goes really well, and Grandma is very moved
by getting to hear this music played.
And even the professor comes on board and says,
"Okay, we will get back to the classical music.
But in the meantime, perhaps the two of you
will play another classical Virginia piece."
And so they do.
John Boy reads his editorial out loud to the family
and it's really, it's a very good editorial,
and it shows both sides of the story.
But Grandma's not happy with it
because it just doesn't totally support her side of it.
And so John Boy's left with a sense
of being underwhelmed by the response to his editorial.
At the end of the episode, Grandpa has been working
on some secret project in the grandparents' bedroom,
and he says when Esther comes home to send her in there.
He wants to talk to her.
So she gets home, John Boy sends her in there,
and this is when we find out that Grandpa
has brought the stained glass window from the Whitley house
and he has put it into the front window
of the grandparents' room, and that he does indeed remember
everything about their time there.
He remembers dancing with Esther. He remembers the kiss.
And so Grandma is very moved to find out
that indeed he hasn't forgotten any of it,
and the two of them do dance together.
It's a beautiful moment, and he talks about how
all of these pieces of wood
are going to become part of the community.
The doors, the spindles from the staircase,
all of that will live on through new buildings
and parts of new buildings that will emerge.
So the future will be part of this Whitley house.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons."
I will be back with more "Behind the Scenes of the Waltons"
and more of your questions in a segment of Ask Judy,
and you know, probably some more special guests.
Thanks for watching.