- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the scenes of 'The Waltons'".
Today, I'm going to be talking about actor
Richard Gilliland, who played my second husband,
Arlington Wescott Jones, III,
commonly known as Jonesy.
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I was stunned and devastated
when I recently heard about the passing
of Richard Gilliland.
Although he was only in five episodes of "The Waltons",
at the time, he and I had a very close friendship
and I felt that he is someone who I have had such admiration
and affection for ever since.
Even though our paths haven't crossed in some time,
it felt like losing a relative.
So, I wanted to pay tribute to him
and the work that he did on "The Waltons".
The character of Jonesy was first introduced
in the episode "The Whirlwind" in Season 9.
Mary Ellen and Jason are driving along country roads
and pass a vehicle going the other direction
that Jason says Jim Bob is in
and seems to be out of control.
Indeed Jonesy's car has lost its brakes,
and around a sharp turn,
he loses control and the car flips.
By the time Jason and I arrive,
Jim Bob is emerging, relatively unscathed,
but Jonesy is a little in and out of it
as we pull him from the vehicle,
and then take him back down
to Walton's Mountain for his recovery time.
I'll always remember Richard's smile.
It was so evident in every episode.
He was so endearing as a person, as a character,
that he fit seamlessly into the Walton family.
My only regret is that he wasn't around to do more episodes.
He was also adorable
with little Michael and Marshall Reed
who played John Curtis.
And when he first sees John Curtis
and does that, "Who's that?"
And here is sweet little John Curtis looking
oh so sad as I go and take his hand.
Later in the episode, the two of them bond.
Jonesy reads to him. We take him on a picnic.
The only thing that I find sort of interesting
is that when Jonesy asks about Mary Ellen's husband,
and Cindy tells him that Mary Ellen has been a widow
for four years.
This is true, based on Curt having died, we thought,
at Pearl Harbor in 1941,
but now we are after the war.
However, if you look at John Curtis, this is the same child.
These were the twins that played John Curtis
at the time that we last saw Curt
in episodes in Season 7.
Now, of course we're in Season 9.
So it's really only two years later.
John Curtis was a mere, not even walking.
He was still a babe in arms when Curtis died,
and now he supposed to be,
it's supposed to be four years later,
which would have, if I'd been a widow,
would have put John Curtis at nearly five years old.
And it is very clear that this toddler
is not four or five years old.
So definitely by them saying I've been a widow
for four years, we do really dance
that continuity issue
that several of you have commented on in different episodes.
The character of Jonesy was a bit of a Jack of all trades.
In this initial episode of "The Whirlwind",
he says he is a geologist, had studied geology.
And yet, in later reunion movies, he actually is a vet.
So, whether he's supposed to have gone back
to vet school or his early schooling
also included vet training is always a little vague.
But, as either a geologist or a vet,
I think they decided to change him to a vet
because that gave him something more practical
that he could be doing as an occupation
in the reunion movies and in later episodes.
So, whether a geologist or a vet,
or in this case, in the kitchen,
flipping eggs and whatnot for breakfast,
truly an endearing Jack of all trades.
When Jonesy climbs the ladder
up to Mary Ellen's window and knocks on the window
and tries to get in, and then pushes that ladder off.
The wider shots, obviously, with the ladder,
were shot on the back lot at the exterior of the house.
And he did knock on the window there.
When you have the closeups both of me in the window
and him in the window,
those were shot at the studio. (stage)
Now, in order for them to get the shot
of this close-up of Jonesy,
he had to be a little further away from the camera.
So where he is actually like this,
his arms are just out of frame,
you can barely see them,
he's pretending to lean on a window sill
because he could not get close enough
to the window sill to actually prop there.
So sometimes as actors, we had to imagine things like that,
or cheat them a little bit in order to get the shots.
Richard was very tall.
He was like 6' 4" and I'm only 5' 5",
so at times, like on the porch here
and other points in the episode when we're standing
side-by-side, and I'm not wearing heels of any kind,
you can really see that height difference.
I do recall there were times
when, because of that height difference
they actually put me on what we would call an apple box,
so that the framing made us a little closer in height.
Those were always funny to do scenes standing on
some sort of a wooden box to raise the height differential.
In this scene on the porch,
they sort of handled it by having Richard lean down more
on to the porch railing and I'm standing a little taller.
So it puts us a little more in proximity
so that the shot looks a little better there.
After the initial two-part episode, "The Whirlwind"
and "The Tempest" that introduced the character of Jonesy,
Richard came back to reprise the role of Jonesy
in our first three TV reunion movies
that were shot in the early 80s,
including "Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain",
when Mary Ellen and Jonesy were married.
I'll talk more about that reunion movie
at some point in the future.
Richard had done quite a lot of work
prior to "The Waltons",
and after "The Waltons", he continued to have
quite an extensive career,
including playing a recurring role on the series
"Designing Women", where he played the boyfriend
of the character Annie Potts played.
However, in real life,
he also met and married actress Jean Smart
from "Designing Women".
And so although he was playing the boyfriend
of Annie Potts, in real life, he was married to Jean Smart.
During the time that we worked together,
Richard gave me a gift of a ceramic dog
that sits on my fireplace hearth,
and is a constant reminder of my dear friend,
who is now gone, and who will be in my heart
and my memory forever, as he will be for all of you.
Thank you for sharing with me
this tribute to actor Richard Gilliland,
who played my husband Jonesy.
I'll be back for more segments
of "Behind the Scenes of 'The Waltons'"
and more "Ask Judy".
Thanks for watching.