- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of the Waltons.
Today I'm continuing my conversation with actress,
Deborah White from The Shivere and The Loss.
If you're enjoying these, please do hit like and subscribe.
- Did you have a preference between the two episodes?
- Well, the first one was so damn special,
crossing across that parking lot
and going to Walton - into the house was just,
and I think there was a scene
where I opened the window upstairs and looked down
because my... - Bob has arrived.
- Bob has arrived.
And I'm like,
one of those backlot houses where it's just the window
and I'm going, "Wow, this really is
just what you thought it was gonna be like.
There's nothing here, just the window."
So just the whole Hollywood and doing the Waltons
and just Warner Brothers, which had such history.
And of course I'm a history buff,
so much history, so much history.
So I enjoyed walking around Warner Brothers and all that.
But by the time I came back for the second one,
I was prepared to be an actress,
not just happy to be on the show.
I was prepared to really try
an bring myself up to the level that was needed for the role
because she just lost the love of her life.
And you can't fake that, you know.
- Yeah, I thought about that
because as I was watching the second one,
there was so many more emotional demands in the second one,
and I did not know anything
about your acting history prior to the Waltons.
And I thought, well, and this'll happen with people,
it's like, you're hired for a role,
you were hired for the first one, which was mostly
she's getting married, it's all wonderful.
Yes, there was the Shiveree thing in that,
it was very upsetting, but that was a small piece
of what was demanded of you in the first episode,
and all of a sudden you're brought back,
there's no second audition to go,
"Hey, can you deliver all this heavy duty emotional stuff?"
There's just an expectation that you will
and you more than, you know, you exceeded.
- Oh, thank you.
- Like what was asked of you in just a wonderfully moving,
believable way.
So I had kind of thought about that.
It's like, well, had they hired somebody else
who maybe had the, oh, I can be happy and cheery
and excited about life aspect,
but couldn't deliver the other,
it could have been a nice episode,
but perhaps not as impactful as an audience
as visceral for us to experience.
- Wow, thank you.
And I wanna accept this award
on behalf of. (laughing)
No, that's lovely.
Can I keep you?
That's just lovely.
- Anytime
- You know, and, I had to,
in the second episode,
I was more aware than I was in the first episode
that I was a member of this clan.
And there's a certain way of behaving
that I as an individual am not at all.
I'm very outgoing and a little silly,
and she was very reserved
and very lost in that second episode.
Very lost.
Kind of the way I was when I went to Ellen's house,
I was hysterical when I went to Ellen's house,
but she was lost and in a lot of pain,
and yet, she was still repressed,
I mean, there was not gonna be a lot of emotional outbursts.
So I had to find some common, some balance there, which.
- Yeah. - I have to say
I got from you guys because
I just kind of went along with the flow of the family,
and everybody kind of stayed in character.
I mean, like, for instance Judy,
if you weren't shooting, you were in school, right?
Pretty much. - Yeah, until I graduated.
Yeah. - So you would go from,
you'd be writing an essay and they'd say,
"Judy, you're wanted on the set,
you'd have to drop everything
and switch into Mary Ellen,
and Mary Ellen, right, am I right,
Mary Ellen? - Yes.
- Yeah.
Age.
- And 45 years.
(laughing)
- I mean, I remember the schoolhouse,
I remember where it was,
and I just was amazed that you guys could switch those hats.
And when did you learn your lines and have fun?
But you seem to be having fun.
You didn't seem to be struggling at all with any of it.
It was. - No.
- And I think the nature of the show and the showrunners
and all of that made sure that it maintained that feeling.
Even the pilot, even the Christmas show, the pilot that,
even that has the same feeling, not a lot.
Well, it's different,
but you guys were very comfortable,
very comfortable. - Yeah.
- In your skins too, you know, is what I mean,
not just on the show,
but in your own skins. - Yeah.
- So when I was speaking with not that long ago,
made a comment about about the kids,
particularly the children.
We never came across on screen as Hollywood children
who were acting, there was a naturalness in the vibe
and the whole flow and tone of the show encouraged
and let us, and looked to capture just real children.
And Kami spoke about that when I talked with her about,
and Mary did too,
that they wouldn't try to make us prettier,
make our behavior prettier,
I mean, a lot of times we were goofing around
right up until the camera rolled
'cause we were trying to keep our energy up
and they just kind of roll the camera
and we roll right into that.
As soon as - it drove the director and the crew crazy
because they were trying to light
and we were goofing around,
but for us it was a way to keep the energy going.
And so we, there was a, trying to find that balance
between them being able to work,
but us not having to go from zero to 60.
And that in The Homecoming and even in the series,
they didn't always clean up everybody's hair
or Mary talked about having all these allergies
and how she was like rubbing her nose
'cause we were in the barn and there was hay.
They just let that be, nobody said,
"Oh, don't be rubbing your nose",
because it all made it real.
And it's much more common these days
for it to seem like
you're aware that you're watching a bunch of young actors.
- Yeah, yeah. - As opposed
to watching a bunch of kids be kids.
- They cast the show brilliantly.
I mean, the adults included.
But you guys were amazing together.
But I have to tell you something, you all,
the girls in particular, you all stayed so beautiful.
I mean, you're beautiful Judy, you're just beautiful,
and I could pick Kami out in a crowd.
- Yeah.
That hair. - Yeah, that hair.
I know, and she's Jewish.
That was the thing we used to talk about,
she was the first red-headed Jewish girl I met
and I'm Jewish, so it's like I didn't know.
- And so is Eric Scott who is.
- That's right, Eric Scott. - the reddest hair of the boys.
- I know, I know, it's so funny, it's so funny.
- Yeah.
- But they really cast you well, I must say.
I mean, they really.
- Yeah, we.
- They really knew what they were doing with you guys.
- We were lucky.
And I think Earl was very involved in the original casting.
- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - Of course.
And Pam Polifroni who was our casting -
Oh, she was wonderful. - Director.
And so I think that it was,
I think that the fact that we did the TV movie first.
And so there may have been, I'm just guessing,
but because we were gonna be a five week shoot
and it was a TV movie
and we had Fielder Cook directing who was like,
not just sort of somebody who did episodic television
and Patricia Neil and the whole thing.
That there was a different layer
to what went on with the casting of that original show
than might have happened if it was an episodic or something.
Or that we had five weeks to set the style of it
because we had five weeks as opposed to two weeks
if we were doing a two hour special for The Waltons.
So I just think that
there was more time for attention to detail
that served that piece, but that all of us who did that show
carried over into the series.
- And, no, I'm with you, I'm with you completely.
I mean, I remember from the movie,
we called them "Movie of the Week" in those days,
didn't we call the movies? - Yeah.
- As from a historical viewpoint
that the people who were watching The Waltons
were people who had been children
during the Great Depression.
And they wanted to remember their experiences
as the struggle that they had during the Great Depression,
that the family was what kept them together.
I think historically, it had a very important history.
It came at just the right time,
it came at the right time for America.
There really hadn't been a show like that.
There just hadn't been.
Well, then there was Little House, which came later,
I think, right?
Didn't Little House come later?
- Yes. - Yeah.
I mean, they said, "Hey, The Waltons is really good.
Let's do little..." - Exactly,
let's do another family show.
It was interesting because recently
in talking with Michael, Michael Learned,
she talked about how much she and Ralph and Richard
in particular fought for early on
the scripts in terms of if they got,
because they would only invite the adults
to the table reads, which I understand,
but if they felt something didn't ring true
or it was too sentimental or too crafted,
just not realistic
or real to the characters or real to the period
that they really went to bat about, "no, we can't do this".
Olivia can't be so perfect all the time
or the children can't be so perfect all the time.
And I know Ellen originally, Earl had wanted
because it was depicting his mother
and his mother was still living that he.
- I did not know that. - Yeah.
- Wow. - So I think,
and he knew she'd be watching.
So I think the way he wanted to depict his mother
may have been a little bit through rose colored glasses
and wanting her to be happy with her representation.
Ellen was like, "No, you got enough sweet people.
You need a little spice in there."
And so she was the one that really created that
sort of more prickly character Grandma.
And so we all benefited from their backgrounds,
from their theater backgrounds,
Richard, Michael, Ralph, Will, Ellen,
all had theater backgrounds as well.
So their sense of story
and building characters that were real and believable,
I'm sure made a huge impact on those scripts
certainly over the first few seasons
as we were finding our way,
and in that first being as strong as it was.
So, I mean, I think we had good core material
with some really talented writers, but.
- Oh, yeah. - What I hear
is that they really
and each one of them would come to it
obviously with their own character in mind and.
- Right, right. - They saw that.
So, we definitely are grateful
for the work that they put into it.
- Yeah.
I have one question for you, and then I'll let you go,
did you ever get to do any like fun silly things?
Like be in a parade on a Walton's float?
- Did you do all that stuff?
- We did the Hollywood Christmas Parade one year.
First time we did it, I think we rode,
we were in the old truck,
the Walton truck. - Oh, yeah.
- We broke down on Hollywood Boulevard
and we had to get out of the truck
and there was some float behind us
and I can't remember what show or what it was,
but we all went and jumped on the float behind us.
Nobody had a clue who we were
'cause we were all in our street clothes
and we're just waving from this float.
- That's funny, that's funny.
- We did, we did.
I've had so many wonderful opportunities
because of the show thing, getting to do things
that people just don't get a chance to do.
And I recognize how fortunate I am
of the doors that it opened
and the opportunities it gave me.
And, so it's, yeah, it was a wonderful experience.
- It's a fabulous gift this lifetime has given you
because to be on a good show, a good show.
- Yeah.
- That lasted as long as it did
that has as much meaning as it has.
I'm sure, you got your own Wikipedia page.
You know, it's like, I know, it's like ah.
- Television history,
I said - you last long enough, you're in a museum.
- I know you said that, that's so funny.
- I have another side question
whether you remember or not, 'cause I don't
in The Shiveree at the end when
everybody comes to serenade you two at the cabin,
I wasn't there.
And there were a couple scenes there that I wasn't in
that there was no reason for Mary Ellen
not to be in those scenes.
And I was trying to speculate,
there was a point in my life and it was right around there
where I ended up in the hospital for a couple of days
and I had a feeling,
and I know there was something that was shot
while I was in the hospital
where there was some singing involved.
And I always thought it was something
we were singing for the parents' anniversary.
And someone said, "Oh, well, you should ask Debbie
if she remembers if that was when you were in hospital
'cause she probably came to visit you."
(laughing)
- I did not come to visit you,
but you just rang a memory bell from me,
and yeah, you were sick.
I didn't know you were in the hospital,
but I knew you were sick.
Because I remember thinking, "Oh, they just like,
she's just not there."
- Well, and they didn't make a point of it.
I noticed initially because there was a.
- You were sick. - People scene,
and there was food on my plate, but I wasn't there.
- Yeah. - So I went,
"Oh, they've made it look like I already ate
and maybe came upstairs or someplace else."
And then we got to that and I'm like,
"I have a feeling that might have been it."
- I'm into a third phase, I was the actress
and then I was a teacher,
and now my husband and I are retiring to upstate New York
and we're opening a senior dog sanctuary.
It came about during the pandemic
when we were losing a lot of our neighbors.
We live in a very large complex
in New York City called Manhattan Plaza.
And it's kind of famous, if you look us up,
if you look up Manhattan Plaza,
it's subsidized housing for actors and artisan,
anyone with a union card in the profession.
We have costume designers,
and Tennessee Williams lived here at one time,
Angela Lansbury, the city bought it,
took it over is what's called a Mitchell Lama.
And I'm not going off story,
there's a purpose to this,
because no one wanted to live over here,
this was Hell's Kitchen, nobody wanted to live over here.
So because it's Broadway, the city came up with this idea,
well, they'll take over the buildings
and now it's filled with people.
Anyway, during the pandemic,
we were losing a lot of neighbors,
either hospitalization or they were just passing away.
And they had pets
and the city didn't wanna deal with the pets
and we're animal people, and we're dog people.
The shelters were closed.
So neighbors got together and sort of rehomed
or nurtured these beloved animals.
And when it was over, when the pandemic was over,
which it really isn't, but it's sort of,
when the bad part was over, Dave and I said,
"That's what we wanna do.
We wanna have a sanctuary."
So it took us a long time
to find a property that we could afford,
and it's upstate New York.
And now we are gonna be moving in,
in a couple of weeks, I think.
And we're gonna have a pet sanctuary.
It's called "Moose Lodge Senior Pet Sanctuary".
- Oh. - And
there's a website if anybody wants.
- Yeah, please share how you can support that.
- There's the website is MooseLodgeSPS.
So that's Moose Lodge Senior Pet Sanctuary.org,
and we're a not-for-profit.
And we already have three residents,
we have somebody up there who's watching them
and we're in the city right now because we both still work,
but we will be retiring from that and be up there full-time.
So if you're looking for a senior pet to adopt
or you wanna volunteer,
well, you wanna just come sit, stay, come up there.
That's my third act.
- Oh. - My third act of my life.
I love that, that's so sweet.
- Thank you Judy.
Thank you. - You have a lot of
animal lovers, like dog lovers out there, so.
- Yeah, yeah.
It's very sad to see an animal that's lost its owner
and then they end up in shelters and they're stunned.
Stunned, you know, like they're frightened and stunned,
and so you give them a, they live in the house with us,
nobody's in a cage, nobody's in a, whatever,
they're with us, I mean, we're not gonna have a 1000
but we've had as many as 13 at any one time.
So thank you darling,
I appreciate that. - Yeah, absolutely.
- Well, you're just lovely.
I'm so glad you came to do my show.
Oh, I'm sorry, I'm so glad you asked me to do your show.
- I really do wanna thank you for coming and joining me
and sharing your memories of The Waltons in your life.
And it's so special to me to have connected up again, so.
- Thank you. - Thank you so much.
- You're very welcome.
- And that's what I have for you
for this segment of Behind the Scenes of The Waltons
of my conversation with Debbie White.
I'll also be back with more episodes and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.