- Welcome back to another segment
of behind the scenes of "The Waltons".
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode
from Season 1 that introduced John Ritter
as Reverend Matthew Fordwick, "The Sinner".
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There was a slightly different feel
to some of the episodes in Season 1
as we were finding our way into the style
and tone of the show
This one I particularly noticed
because of it really set up a conflict
between Olivia and John.
She is very set on the children
and the family being there to receive the new Reverend
who's going to be staying with us
and the Reverend, Ms. Prissom
who is bringing him there, the missionary
and John, on the other hand,
who is not a dedicated church goer,
he has his own views about faith and religion
and he is not in favor of the children
sitting around for an extra two or three hours
waiting for them to arrive
when he has promised to take them to the fishing hole.
So we have an initial insight into this conflict
that becomes a real source of issue in the episode.
Feeling that he has promised the children
to take them swimming,
he overrides Olivia and says, "Yeah, let's go."
And the children are, oh, all too happy to go running off
and put on their swimsuits
and do that rather than sitting around being hot.
It is set up to be a very, very hot summer day.
So the first introduction
to Ms. Prissom and Reverend Fordwick
is with all the children and John in the front yard
being sprayed by a hose
which was probably fun for us to do,
but I imagine that water was cold
and so there's that downside.
But I remember as a kid
always that was how we cooled down in the summer,
was we'd go and throw the sprinklers on in the front yard,
in the backyard and we'd run through them.
So I was very used to that as a form of cooling down
in the hot California summers.
The topping off point of the bad first impression
for Reverend Fordwick and Ms. Prissom is in the kitchen
when they're there with Olivia and Grandma
and Grandpa comes out in his swimsuit
asking if she knows where his inner tube is.
Grandma and Olivia are mortified,
but they all go to the swimming hole, the kids and Grandpa.
So we have a wonderful fun sequence Druscilla's pond.
John swings out and drops into the water
and this was actually, we use this area a lot
and off to one side just out of sight
was where the bridge was that we saw at times
and over on the roads
that you can kind of see across the pond
just out of sight was one of those cabins
that got reutilized all the time
and roads that would come into some of those areas there
and also potentially head off
over towards the Western street.
There are a couple of scenes in this episode
where you theoretically see Grandpa driving.
In one case, he is with John Boy
and you see the truck go down the road
and then you cut into the cab of the truck
where you can no longer actually see
outside the side windows,
all you see is like the jungle
that they're driving through behind them.
That is now into what we call a process shot,
where there is a screen projecting that road
that they are driving along
and there are crew members who are kind of rocking the truck
to simulate the motion of the truck
and then leaves going by light so that it looks like
they are driving through passing trees
and it was all done on the sound stage.
There's another sequence later on
in front of Ike Godsey's store
where you see Grandpa and Reverend Fordwick, John Ritter,
in the cab of the truck,
again, that would be a process shot and they're singing
and then it cuts to a shot of the truck coming, pulling up
towards the outside of Ike Godsey's store.
At that point, you can actually see
that it is not Will driving,
but as you were watching the episode,
that would have gone by so quickly
that you would not have noticed that
because at that point in time,
we did not have the ability to freeze frame as we do here.
Then the truck continues
up to where the big tent is, it stops
and then as soon as they cut into the angle tighter,
then you can see once again, that it's Will in the truck.
However, at that point, the car,
the truck was stopped and parked,
so Will was once again then put in there
and it was all edited together.
I remember this sequence when I was building
whatever it was and hammering and then I hit my thumb.
Now, it was all very specific, I say, damn,
but I do remember the director saying to make sure
that we did not hear any trace of the word God in there.
So damn, I was allowed to say per the script
and then of course, the Reverend, John Ritter,
goes on a tirade towards me and the rest of the children
about what horrible sinners we are
and basically goes off on a rant.
Already beginning to get a feel for John Ritter
and how fun-loving and what a lovely person.
I loved John Ritter and how great he was to work with
and he and Richard were just two peas in a pod
and just always cutting up and having fun
and creating pranks and stuff.
So even though he was theoretically being very scary
and his acting performance is fabulous.
He's incredibly believable as this intense
and earnest young Reverend in training
and when he goes off on us,
we're supposed to be a little like intimidated by it.
So to me, that was personally, definitely acting
because knowing John, I was not intimidated
or scared by him as a person.
So it was like getting in character
and going okay, as a character I'm intimidated.
Yancy Tucker appears significantly in this episode
because he gets drunk and starts a fire in our barn.
So this would have been a stunt sequence,
Yancy, Bob Donner, who played Yancy Tucker
would have climbed those steps, we see him up there,
then when he fell off of there,
would have been a stunt double
and the fire would have been contained.
We would have had to have fire marshals
or somebody representing the fire department there on set
because we were working with fire
and it would have been separated
from anything that could really go up in flames.
So anytime working with fire,
there were all kinds of precautions taken.
Reverend Fordwick's downfall in this first episode
was that he finds out he is a cousin,
a distant cousin of the Baldwin sisters
and has been asked to go call on them.
He goes, of course, with Grandpa he insists
and Grandpa doesn't want to take him.
Everybody wants to steer the Reverend
away from Baldwin sisters because of the recipe,
but he ends up insisting, Grandpa takes him
and the Baldwin sisters
do indeed introduce him to the recipe
which they call an herbal remedy
and the Reverend imbibes way too much
and then promptly collapses at the feet
of the very prim, Ms. Prissom.
So it's a real fall from grace for the Reverend
and leaves him with a sense of his humility
and just what the honesty of himself
and these illusions he had
that now he's beginning to get some real life experience
and find out just what it really will mean
to pursue this calling that he has.
When we shot the big sermon all day sort of gathering there,
it was very hot and in that tent.
So we were shooting in the summer at this point,
so all of this hot weather stuff
was pretty easy to relate to.
I did think the moment when Ralph brings John Ritter in
and says he wants to, he came to hear him speak,
that this is who everybody came to speak
and they want him to speak.
And Ralph knowing he actually was an ordained minister
in real life, as he in a sense - pleads the reverend's case
asking for understanding
and compassion through what he says, not with those words,
but I found it very easy to understand
and get the sense that Ralph
would have been a very compelling and compassionate minister
and his congregation would have been very, very lucky
to have him as ultimately the Waltons were
to have the Reverend Fordwick.
And that's what I have for you
for this segment of behind the scenes of "The Waltons"
about the episode, "The Sinner".
I'll be back with more behind the scenes
and more Asked Judy, thanks for watching.