welcome back to another segment of
behind the scenes of the waltons today
i'm going to be talking about the
episode from season six
the return when john boy comes back
and convinces mr guthrie to open the old
coal mine
olivia is worried about john who is
considering
going looking for work outside of
walton's mountain
the shipyards are hiring because they
are building more ships
and john is considering where he might
need to go
in order to make money she writes to
john boy in new york
john boy's concern because mama doesn't
usually
voice her concerns unless it's fairly
serious
so along with the agreement of his
editor he is sent back to walton's
mountain to cover
the economic impact in rural areas like
walton's mountain
and also what's happening in the
shipbuilding areas by the sea
so john boy comes back which for the
cast
was rather like a real reunion because
richard had left at the end of season
five and
i missed him i think we all did so when
he
returns and he walks up and we each see
him and then he's telling us to be quiet
because he wants to surprise mama
that just it felt like real life when
a relative comes back that you haven't
seen
in some time so that was pretty special
grandpa is feeling unneeded
there's not much work going on in the
actual mill
grandpa feels like he'd like to be doing
something
useful but john keeps saying no no you
know
basically you're too old and you you
shouldn't have to be working so hard and
i don't want you going off to look for
work and
you know they wouldn't hire you you're
too old so he's feeling
pushed out and unwanted unneeded
he ends up going up into the back woods
he comes across nurse nora this is
about the third actress i remember
seeing play nurse nora in this case
she's riding a horse
up in the back woods much like mary
ellen
does as she gets into more of her
practical nursing up with the people in
the backwoods
nurse nora mentions to
zeb that the main thing concerning her
about many of the people up in the
backwoods
is not so much their physical ailments
as
their emotional needs that they're
lonely
and and that that seems to be most what
they need
seb takes that to heart and saddles up
blue
so you see him once again riding blue
this time in a saddle and
off he goes to visit people who
are isolated up there in the back woods
and he finds himself very useful
and very very much needed up there
in helping with the work and with
raising the spirits of the people who
live there and
you see a real transformation with this
one couple that he
spends a lot of time with he visits
regularly and they come to
anticipate and look forward to his
visits for
the company and the uplifting
nature of just having somebody show up
who cares and
it's a great lesson message to
us about those on the outskirts
for whatever reason and the way in which
us reaching out can make such
a difference in their lives and even
simple things that we do
can really help raise someone's spirits
so i i thought that was just a wonderful
element of this episode plus
that it made grandpa feel valuable
and so it kind of served both purposes
so lovely story point various aspects of
filming this episode
including the bus going along the route
i believe that was shot at franklin
canyon near the reservoir out there
and then we are at the rockfish bus
depot once again
western street which i have talked about
and then
later on we are at the mill which was
actually filmed
on the studio lot at warner brothers
there's an
area on the lot called the mill
where they i guess produce various
different types of
set pieces and things like that and that
was where
we shot all those sequences outside the
mill
aaron also has a subplot in this two
hour episode she seems to have some sort
of a secret john boyd comes back he
meets
the new reverend in this case played by
peter fox
reverend buchanan uh who seems to know
aaron's secret but isn't sharing
you know feels that when aaron wants to
tell john boyd
she will the family's worried about her
mama in particular because she keeps
coming home
tired late jason's been dropping her off
and picking her up but
from miss fanny's not from wherever
she's working miss fanny will
not share which is unusual because miss
fannie is the
one of the queens of gossip around town
and and
when john boy comes back and says don't
tell anybody yet she immediately gets on
the phone and starts telling people that
john boy's back
but she does keep aaron's secret and
ultimately we find out that aaron has
been helping care for
the children of a widowed man who has
lost his wife
and needs to go off to work someplace
need someone to take care of the
children and
aaron is doing that but it is
somewhat controversial because here he
is a widow
she's a young unmarried woman and she is
in his home
nothing's going on but olivia isn't so
sure that she's comfortable with this
but erin stands her ground she's a
grown-up now and
she's doing something that she thinks is
important and valuable
and plans to continue to do it
recognizing how much
work is needed on the mountain and how
few resources there are
john boy wonders about the old coal mine
the guthrie coal mine that's been closed
down for some time about five years i
believe
he goes to visit mr guthrie played by
actor
lloyd nolan who had just
you'll recognize him he did so much work
over the years
and verdi is working for him as well so
john boy and john go to see him and
convince him that cole is needed
and that perhaps he can be supplying
some of the shipyards that are in need
of coal
so he agrees that and signs a contract
with john basically a handshake contract
with john
to supply all the lumber and do the
shoring up of the mines
to make it safe for the miners to come
in and once more
you know resource the coal when
john and john boy go out to check out
the mine elizabeth tags along
she mentions that she has spent a lot of
time
wandering around and exploring this area
so while they go
below ground to check out just what's
going to be needed to shore up the
mine shafts elizabeth goes wandering
ends up falling
in a mine shaft and down a hole and
they rescue her she's not injured but
it does become a story point later on
when the men are working and the mind
does cave in and the men are all trapped
many of you have asked how that was shot
the mind
cave in since i was not
on set for the mine in
all of the women were above ground
basically they arrived
when the whistle is pulled and come to
be whatever support they can above
ground helping find the blueprints so
that
that epp and john boy can figure out how
to
get to the men that are trapped and the
women are there ready to
supply food and water and blankets and
comfort and be there for each other
emotional support uh but
i so i was i called eric and i said hey
you were in the mine
how did this how was this done i mean i
had my own ideas and
and as a as a director
i will look at some of those things and
think well if i had to shoot this
how would i shoot it and it sounds an
awful lot like some of my ideas or
actually use so i felt pretty good about
that
eric said they shot they built a
interior set on another sound stage not
stage 26 but one of the other sound
stages that we sometimes used at warner
brothers
and he said they built all of the
interior of the mine
shafts he said which was interesting
because they they had ceilings they were
closed in which wasn't typically the
case when they built sets they would
leave the
ceilings open so that they could put
lights up above and
rig things that way but in this case
because we see
the ceilings of these mine shafts they
were closed in and not terribly high
because these men were not clearing
those the roof
the ceiling of that mine by very much so
he said that when they did the cave-in
the things that were falling on them
were
he doesn't remember if it was actually
dirt dirt or
some other you know substance that
looked like dirt he said all the
all the pieces of beam and rock that
fell on them were styrofoam
so things were falling on them but none
of it was
hard substances and
i said you know i had the sense that you
know most of the
heavy dirt that you see falling is
closer to camera
and you see through this layer of dirt
that's falling and you can see the men
past that and other things hitting them
so what it looks like happened is that
they you know dumped a lot of dirt very
close to camera
so that in the foreground you saw just a
ton of dirt falling
and through that you were filtering and
seeing
the men beyond that and them dodging
things and responding to being hit by
things and being knocked down
so that was how they filmed the actual
cave-in
and then of course when the men were
being rescued and and being uncovered
from the dirt
you know they were just covered with
with dirt and
and eric said yeah nobody's face was
covered but you know so by the time you
kind of saw people
digging them out there was it wasn't
really on their face so
their body might have a layer of dirt on
it but um they were
safe and able to breathe and things like
that so then they they filmed all of
that
of moving people around and dragging
them propping them up against the dirt
and
and all of that in where they had
created that they
he said they just brought in a ton of of
dirt
onto the set and then you know they were
kind of packed in and leaning up against
it and stuff like that
and obviously a similar thing when with
the tunnel where
where ep and john boy and then
ultimately when they find the other
shaft that elizabeth fell down and
they're really digging through there
thinking that they're now
past it and can come in to them from the
other side
you know they had created another piece
of the set where they could be
you know moving dirt and that would have
been something where there really wasn't
there were not people on the other side
of it until they needed to get
that connecting shot and then they would
put those pieces together
so that was how the actual mine cave
in was done to the best of my and eric's
understanding hope that was helpful i
really enjoyed how they did the end of
this episode
you see john boy sitting alone in the
kitchen it's dim
it's dark he's making notes and the good
nights start
you hear the voices calling from other
parts of the house
and you actually see john boy respond
and say good night good night daddy
that didn't happen very often but i
thought it was a very fitting
ending to this episode and seeing john
boy
returning to walton's mountain once
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when i'm doing
another episode that's what i have for
you for this segment of behind the
scenes of the waltons
the episode from season six the return
i'll be back with more behind the scenes
of the waltons and more
ask judy thanks for watching