- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'".
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode
from Season 2, "The Bequest",
when Grandma thinks
she's coming into a fair amount of money.
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At the top of this episode,
we are in Ike Godsey's store
and all of the children are there.
Martha Rose Coverdale comes in,
Mary Ellen's, rival, nemesis, whatever.
She has dyed her hair blonde,
and Mary Ellen is intrigued, perhaps envious.
Mary Ellen's always wanting to be looking
for something different,
wanting something exciting and new in her life.
So, this sparks an idea for Mary-Ellen.
As the children leave Ike Godsey's store,
you see us head off to the right.
Again, a different direction from sometimes
when we see people arrive and leave from Godsey's store.
In this case, as we were to proceed around that corner,
if the camera followed us,
you would find that right around that corner,
we started to approach the front yard
of the actual Walton house.
So logistically, that was really how close
that facade of Godsey's store was
to the facade of the front of the Walton's house
on the back lot of Warner Brothers Studios.
Meanwhile, Reverend Fordwick,
played by the incredible John Ritter,
is at the Walton house and discussing with Esther and Zeb
the need for a new church roof.
And they need, like $50 to repair the roof
so that it is safe for services to be held.
Just after that, the children return from Ike's store
and they have a letter for Grandma from a lawyer.
And within this letter, the lawyer explains
that Grandma's school friend, Fern,
has passed away and she has left Esther $250,
which is a huge sum of money
at this point during the Depression.
So Grandma immediately has various ideas
about what she would like to do with this money,
including pledging the funds
for the repair of the church roof.
Then, a while later Grandpa goes to take a bath
and it turns out the water is freezing.
And so he kicks up a ruckus and everybody comes running out
to find out what's going on.
The water heater is once again giving them trouble.
So this is something else that Grandma decides
she wants to take care of and replace for the family.
Something caught my attention
as I looked at everyone
running out to see what was wrong with Grandpa
is you see Mama come out of the parents' bedroom,
which is the same door that typically,
when you see the girls run down the hall
to go to their room,
it's the same door that the girls go into.
As indeed, I have mentioned that that space was shared
as a set between the parents' room and the girls' room.
And the furniture was just repositioned
depending on whose bedroom it was meant to be.
So in this case,
when we need to see people come out of multiple bedrooms,
you'll note that the girls seem to come out of a bedroom
just to the right of where the parents' room is,
which would have been on the other side of John Boy's room.
However, there was no door there.
So we literally would stand up against the wall.
And when we were supposed to come out,
we would kind of come out of the wall.
But because of the angle of the camera,
you can't see where we were.
So as long as we weren't seen by the camera
before we came out of the wall, then they could do that.
And then after everything settles down
and everybody goes back to bed, we go back into the wall.
I noted a few other things in this particular scene.
I noted that Kami is missing a front tooth.
Well, of course, you know,
she was going through those years when she was losing teeth.
So, in this episode, she was missing a tooth.
It's a little tricky if someone lost a tooth mid an episode,
because we didn't shoot in order.
So you could have a scene where the tooth was there
and then a scene where it wasn't.
And then it was back.
In this case, I didn't notice anything else odd
during the episode,
but I wasn't looking for it specifically.
I also noted in this scene when Ben turned around
to get into bed,
that there was a hole in the back of his night shirt.
Again, they probably decided to just let that roll
because you know, that would happen.
And I'm sure it would have been repaired by Mama or Grandma
shortly after it was noted.
I enjoyed this throwback to the Sears Roebuck catalog,
what we refer to as the Wish Book.
And when all the children have been told by Grandma
that each of them will have $3 to spend
on whatever they want,
they become very materialistic and have all kinds of ideas
about the things they want.
And these catalogs were a way for families and what not
to order things that they needed.
And in this case, for the children
to look at what sorts of toys and other sorts of amusements
might be available for them.
Mama was very concerned about this materialistic side
that was brought out in the children
by this sudden amount of money
that was coming into their lives.
Once again, we are in the bathroom
that we didn't see all that often,
but in this case, Mary Ellen is experimenting
with a home hair dye idea,
and she mixes the stuff and then Mama knocks on the door.
So she has to hide it.
And I love there's a moment where Mama comes in.
She goes, "I smell bleach."
And I'm like, "Oh, me too."
You know, it's like, rather than pretending,
oh, I don't smell it, she just was like, oh yeah, like,
but I have no idea what it is.
When John Boy decides to take Grandma
on a little bit of a field trip,
he's gonna go show her Boatwright University,
where John Boy's gonna be going to school
in the not too distant future.
And Grandma has said
that she's putting a good portion of that money
that she's coming into towards John Boy's education.
That's important to her, that she wants to do that.
And meanwhile, they use the money
that the family has saved up so far
for John Boy's college fund to replace the water heater,
figuring they will put that money back
when this bequest comes in.
But along the way, you see John Boy
coming into where they're gonna drop off
Grandpa's watch to be repaired.
And this is once again, Midwest Street.
Spoilers. Close your ears if you don't wanna hear.
But you see where you see this Salvation Army band playing.
That building that you see behind them
is actually the Walton school house most of the time,
and was occasionally used as a church.
It was a church in "The Easter Story".
It was the church when Mary-Ellen and Jonesy were married.
So, reusing sets once again,
but they're not calling attention to that set.
So, it just kind of goes by.
And then, after John Boy leaves the watch place,
if he were to continue circling around that gazebo,
and that gazebo you have seen in multiple other shows,
including the opening sequence of "Friends"
and multiple other shows that were filmed
on the Warner Brothers lot,
but if he were to continue circling around to the left,
you would be right there at Boatwright University.
And sure enough,
then John Boy takes Grandma in to Boatwright University.
There's a heartbreaking moment for Grandma
when she gets the letter that by the time they paid
all of Fern's medical bills, there was no money,
so this bequest can't be honored.
Grandma is embarrassed.
And, you know, feels that, you know,
she's letting everybody down because she made these promises
that she now can't honor.
And everybody gets a little bit of a lesson in humility
of, you know, in a sense,
counting your chickens before they're hatched.
And arrangements need to be made now
for the various different things that were promised,
and the money that's already been spent.
Back around the dinner table.
Here we are with yet another eating scene.
In this case, we are having corn on the cob,
which you see Grandpa cutting off of the cob,
so that it's easier for his teeth.
And then it looks like maybe we're having beans and franks?
Sounds like a fun meal to me.
I remember as a child that we would sometimes go out
to the beach near Malibu.
There was a beach that we used to go to when I was young.
And on the way home,
there was often fresh corn on the cob stands.
And I remember it loving when we would stop
and get a whole bunch of corn on the cob,
and my mom would just, you know, boil it up.
And we would literally just have corn on the cob for dinner.
And that was it.
It was a perfectly acceptable meal to me 'cause I loved it.
And this is the episode when I do dye Jim Bob's hair.
Rather than trying this home dye kit on my own hair,
Mary Ellen's smart enough to know it could go wrong,
and so she talks Jim Bob into being a guinea pig
for her science experiment.
And she puts the goop on his hair, and his hair turns pink.
This was a wig that David was wearing,
but it did provide for a rather humorous moment in the show.
Everyone got a kick out of Jim Bob now having pink hair.
Ultimately, the money concerns are worked out.
Grandpa decides rather than picking up his watch
that was being repaired and paying $10 for it,
he lets the jeweler keep it
and basically sells it to him for $11,
which is then put back into John Boy's college fund
to start it again.
And John, along with all the boys in the family
and others donate their time,
and probably materials as well, to fix the church roof.
And that is what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
about "The Bequest".
I hope you've enjoyed this.
I will be back with more
"Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
and more "Ask Judy".
Thanks for watching.