- Welcome back to another segment of
"Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
where I'm going to be taking more of your questions
in a segment of Ask Judy.
If you're enjoying these, please do hit like and subscribe.
I have a question here from Peace Shepherding,
couple questions.
Does your current review of the episodes
ever cause melancholy?
If so, how do you adjust to this
given that you're dedicated here
to regularly diving in to knit these,
the past and the present together?
Ah, gosh!
I mean, it,
I would say not regularly that that happens,
certain moments will hit me.
As you've probably seen,
sometimes I get a little emotional about
certain pieces of a segment,
certain scenes, things it'll bring up.
Now whether it is
something that it brought up from the time we filmed it,
or something that moves me now at this point in my life.
Like in The Graduation,
when John-Boy graduated and he talks so much about
the sacrifice and what the parents
had to go through to allow their children to go to school
and to be there for them.
I don't think that particularly meant anything to me
at the time we filmed it,
but now as a parent,
I was much more moved from the perspective of a parent.
And sometimes just,
you know seeing some of the early episodes
and how much fun we had and just remembering all of that.
And then people that we've lost.
Yeah, there's moments of nostalgia
and it can be very bittersweet
and I can miss the joy of a lot of that,
but I feel like
it's important for all of us to always be moving forward
and looking ahead,
that we can't live really in the past or the future.
So we really have to live now.
So I try to
appreciate the best of everything that's happened
and all the experience that gives me,
but also know that there's still a lot of future ahead
and that it is up to me
to create that future and that joy in my life
currently and for the future.
Second question.
Has the experience of your channel
added any new perspective for you
other than realizing some details you hadn't recalled?
Gosh!
Yeah.
I mean, one thing, yes.
I definitely notice how much I don't remember.
I look at whole episodes and think, really?
I don't remember any of this.
Even things that my character was very engaged in.
So that's always a little surprising,
but also I can sit at times and just enjoy it as an audience
because some of,
many scenes I was not there during the filming of
if I wasn't in the scene,
and locations that I never went to.
So I can sit and watch an episode
and just be an audience sometimes,
even though I know know where we shot it
and what was around the corner
and that there were camera and lights,
I can still just suspend belief for that moment
and watch it as an audience,
and really just appreciate
how wonderful the show is as an audience.
The stories we told,
how amazing it is,
how timeless they all are,
and that it, 50 years later they still seem so relevant.
So more and more
I think I just appreciate how wonderful the show is.
So thank you for asking.
This question from Swamp Zoid;
Is there, or was there a misconception about 'The Waltons'
you'd hear often that you always had to
or wanted to correct?
Ah, there's probably ones that I'm forgetting,
but I think more recently,
something I've been aware of people asking or thinking
is that all of the stories
were actually based on true incidents in Earl's life.
The majority of them were actually fiction.
Now, of course it was based on his family.
He did grow up in Virginia.
He did have,
well, actually in real life, eight brothers and sisters.
I don't think his grandparents actually lived with them.
I think they lived really close by.
So certain characters I think were,
I would sometimes hear Earl say like,
that the Baldwin sisters were based on a mother and daughter
that he remembered from his youth,
but every character that came on the mountain, no.
Every incident that went on, no.
I mean a lot of it was fictionalized,
but fictionalized around a family that really did get along,
loved each other.
They did say goodnight through the walls at night.
So that's the part that was very genuine.
And I know Earl,
by the time we were doing this series
you know which was a number of years after
he experienced all of this for real,
he looked back on it
much in the way that I'm looking back at the series now
where I remember mostly the good things you know.
Sometimes something will flash on me and go,
oh yeah, I remember that.
You know I'll remember things that went on
that weren't as positive for me.
And I choose not to share a lot of stuff because, you know,
those are things that don't matter.
And I think for Earl,
it was similar in the crafting of the show,
that he had sort of rose colored glasses about
his mother and his family and his childhood and all of that.
And as is wonderful to know that he looked back on it
was such lovely memories and nostalgia.
And that's kind of how I feel looking back at the series now
that there was far more good
and that far outweighed anything that,
you know, that I could nitpick about.
So that's probably the main thing I'd say that
there's misconceptions about.
Another piece of that probably misconception is that
the house was real.
I have sort of
spoiled that for people who thought that
or wanted to think that,
but yes,
that the exterior of the house was just an exterior.
That was no interior to it there,
and that we shot all of the interiors on a sound stage.
That we didn't really shoot in Virginia.
And so things like that, I think,
but I don't know that those are even misconceptions
that are important.
So if I've spoiled things for you, I'm sorry.
Question here from Jim.
Onset, filming a scene,
how many on average other than actors are there?
Gosh!
A lot.
You know there's probably,
right on at by the camera alone,
there's probably three or four people plus the director plus
and then you've got your lighting people
and your grip people and your...
But they aren't all necessarily
standing right there when you're filming,
but there's probably a good 20 people,
around crew that need to be there probably more,
and then you've got the people that come and go,
like transportation or wardrobe or property people,
or, you know, set decorators, art directors,
things like that.
So a lot of people.
When actors act in a scene, who says stop or cut?
That will either be, it's usually the director.
Sometimes the assistant director
in certain cases will not so much call cut,
but sometimes usually does the quiet on the set,
camera is rolling, sound rolling.
The director usually says both action and cut.
So that's the standard.
Do actors have any say in what they just acted in
before the word cut or wrap?
They can talk with the director about their take on a scene
or their character.
So they have some input,
but usually it's the director's final say.
And they can't just randomly change the lines.
If they have a question about the dialogue
that needs to come up
and be taken up with say Earl Hamner, or the story editor,
even the director doesn't necessarily have the authority
to say yeah, you can just change lines.
So pretty much,
you know your character and you,
you know you have to work within the boundaries
of what has been created for that episode,
for that storyline.
Then, is theater different from TV?
Yes.
Yeah, because you're not filming anything.
So you don't have all of that equipment around
when you are rehearsing and doing things like that.
It's pretty much just the director.
If it's a musical, the music director, the choreographer.
Even the technical people
aren't particularly around during rehearsals.
When you get to the final
sort of run throughs and stuff before the audience comes in,
then you will have your technical people there
to set lights and stuff,
but that doesn't always happen when the actors are there.
So the director has a lot more authority with the theater
and you know sometimes things can be changed more in theater
but it depends who wrote it.
Again, if it's a written script,
you don't, you're not changing it.
So, but yes,
very different in the way that they are put together,
because theater everything's rehearsed
before it ever goes in front of an audience.
Television, you're shooting live every day.
And then,
hoping the highest (mumbles)...
Okay.
Then there was just some stuff about
you having caught me on Password Plus.
I always love hearing that.
Those were such fun for me to do.
So thanks for your questions Jim.
Thanks for joining me for this segment of Ask Judy.
I'll be back with more
"Behind the Scenes With 'The Waltons'" and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.