- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons.'"
Today continuing on with Season 4,
I'm speaking about the episode "The Estrangement,"
when Vera Walton comes to Walton's mountain
because she has left Wade.
Vera has been having trouble adjusting
to life in the city.
Of course, everyone had to leave the mountain
in The Conflict,
and now Vera finds that city life
just doesn't agree with her.
And she feels like she never sees Wade, that he's changed,
that he's not working, maybe he has other women.
And so she brings baby Floyd with her to the Walton house,
shows up in a taxi,
and basically asks if she can stay for a bit.
And naturally, the Waltons take her in.
Meanwhile, Ben is at Ike's
and has received all kinds of letters
that he is very mysterious about.
He won't tell Ike at all what these letters are.
So Ben has another business venture going on.
Vera is blaming John Boy for what's going on with Wade
cuz she feels that John Boy put ideas in Wade's head
about how he could take his wood carving
and turn it into a business,
and giving him big ideas about the city
and that they didn't work out.
And so because of that, Wade is now
sort of lost and is not the man she feels like she married.
John Boy and John decide they're going to go find Wade
and have a conversation with him, see what's going on.
We see Wade, he's working at like a wood factory or whatever
on a lathe, and he comes out of work.
And you know, he's not necessarily going home after.
He's going out maybe for drinks with his coworkers,
but he's also, he has a partner,
and the two of them are running moonshine
for his Grandpa Boone.
So this is like destined to be trouble.
In this scene where John and John Boy wait for Wade,
because there was so much light on the house,
I thought, "Oh, is this the daytime?"
And then Wade pulls up and he's coming through the shadows
and he says something about,
what are you doing out here in the dark?
- What are you doing standing out here in the dark?
- So another case of how difficult it is
to light for nighttime.
Whether you shoot in the day or you shoot at night,
you need enough light to be able to see what's going on.
But if you put too much light on,
then it looks like it's daytime.
And if you shoot in the day, it's hard to cover all the sun.
We've talked about this, but it really is
an incredible challenge.
This house set was on the back lot
of Warner Brothers Studios near, I think,
near sort of the Western Street area where the church was
and where we always saw the sheriff's office
and the bus depot.
As John and John Boy hear Wade's side of things,
he basically says that he's been very frustrated with Vera
because she won't leave the house.
When the neighbors come to visit, she won't answer,
she hides,
that she never goes out.
And anytime he suggests trying to do something,
all Vera says is "it cost too much."
- All the time we've lived here,
she's been saying, "So and so costs too much."
"How'd you like to take in a picture show?"
"Cost too much."
"How'd you like a Victrola?"
"Cost too much."
- He's incredibly frustrated that he's making money,
but she won't even consider spending any of it.
So we now have the two sides to the story.
A perfect scene for Will
as he takes Ben and Jim Bob and Elizabeth.
They're out in the woods on the mountain
and he's talking about the various different plants
and pointing them out in their Latin names.
And this would've really been Will.
This was who Will was in real life.
This could've been a conversation that happened
without the camera rolling.
So this might be one of those times
when Will sort of was ad-libbing
because he knew all of this stuff.
So we have that opportunity to hear Will,
and he is sharing nature facts.
And Zeb loved to share that with the family
and Will loved to share that in real life.
- Grandpa? - Hmm?
- Are you as old as that tree over there?
- That one, well, I'm not as old as that, no. (chuckles)
- And now we find out what Ben's new business venture is.
He has planted little seedlings, little trees.
And he is planning to sell those.
And that's what those letters were.
They were orders for these seedlings.
And so he has recruited Jim Bob and Elizabeth
to pack up these seedlings nice
and keep the roots wet and all of that
so that he can ship them off to these people
who have purchased them.
And he will share some of that money
with Jim Bob and Elizabeth.
Things are not going well for Wade.
He ends up getting arrested for transporting moonshine.
You know, Sheriff Bridges shows up and he is taken to jail.
So John Boy comes, you know, riding up and says,
you know, Wade's in jail,
and you know, they should get him out.
And John sends John Boy up the mountain to find Boone
and let him deal with it. (laughs)
The next stop that Bridges makes
is at the Walton house where we find out
that Ben is also in trouble with the law
because he does not have a grower's license
to be growing and selling these seedlings.
And then he also says that they have been getting complaints
from people who have received these seedlings
that they're either dead upon arrival
or shortly after they're transplanted.
Now, Grandpa takes a little bit of blame on this because...
- Zeb, you ought to know that a young pine's
gotta be at least two years old before you transplant them.
- Yes, yes, I had ought to know that.
- (laughs) He doesn't...
He doesn't say, "Well, that's really was all Ben."
I don't know why, but it was nice of him to try
and take some blame.
But even he says to Ben that these are not the types
of trees that were designed to be grown
in non-mountainous areas.
So Ben's tree selling business is a bust,
and he's going to have to work out how to repay the money
or he's gonna be in bigger trouble.
So figures that they can probably work out
if Ben repays the money that the charges
would not be pursued.
Ben asks for a loan from Daddy
and Daddy basically says you can work it off with chores
and you can start now.
Wade has gotten outta jail
and he comes to get Vera to go home.
But Vera basically says that she's not going
if Wade is still planning to be running moonshine
and that he just needs to decide
really what's important to him.
And Wade is furious.
He argues with John Boy again and says...
He now says it was all John Boy's fault.
And then he is gonna go and get Vera
and take her out of the shed.
And John basically gets in his face
and even pushes him down.
- I'm tired of that woman.
I'm getting her right now
even if I have to knock down that door.
- Wait a minute. - Ah.
- This is my property here.
You're not gonna knock down any door.
- And gives him a serious talking to
about how he needs to get his life together.
He needs to put his house in order.
He needs to get a job.
And he needs to really be a husband and a father to Vera
or John's gonna have more of an issue with him
including beating the tar out of him.
- Either get yourself honest work
and take care of your family, (exhales sharply)
or I'm gonna have to thrash you from here to Rockfish.
- Wade goes for a long walk on the mountain
to think about what he wants
and how he's gonna deal with his life.
He comes back to the house
as the family's sitting down for dinner
and more or less says that he recognizes
what his problems are and what the issues are,
and he recognizes what Vera needs and wants in this marriage
and that he has decided that they will...
They will get a piece of land on the mountain.
He'll find some land and that he will build that house
he always promised to build for Vera,
and that they will live this simpler life.
And he's gonna try making his wood carvings again
and see if he can't make a go of that.
And in the meantime, John has offered him a job at the mill
because he said that he has some fine woodwork,
carving work that could really use Wade's hand.
So Wade is gonna do some work for the Waltons
while he gets back on his feet,
and while they figure out how to move up to the mountain.
It was great to have these two wonderful actors
back on the show.
It was Lindsay V. Jones playing Vera,
and then of course Richard Hatch.
I always loved Richard.
I've crossed paths with him
any number of times over the years.
And of course, he went on to star in "Battlestar Galactica,"
many incarnations of that,
as well as "Streets of San Francisco,"
soap operas "Santa Barbara" and "All My Children."
And sadly, he passed away from cancer in 2017.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
about the Season 4 episode, "The Estrangement."
I'll be back with more behind the scenes of "The Waltons"
and more Ask Judy and some special guests coming up.
Thanks for watching.