- Welcome back to another segment
of "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons."
Today, I'm going to be talking
about another episode from Season 7,
"The Pin-Up."
Recently, I spoke with Mary McDonough,
and this was one of the episodes we touched on.
So we talked about the relationship of Erin
in this segment.
So I thought I would talk about
some of the other elements in this episode.
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The catalyst in this story
has to do with Ben
who is doing some amateur photography.
He's been shooting a lot of scenery
around the mountain and he comes home
just at the point that Erin is coming downstairs
in a short crop top and very short shorts,
and she says, "Take a picture of me."
He has one shot left in on the roll of film.
And she says, "We'll, send something to mama."
So she goes over and hops on the piano bench,
and has this fun picture taken.
Later on, Ben is at Ike's store
getting his prints back from being developed,
and Ike mentions that there is a magazine
that is accepting pictures
from amateur photographers.
Ben takes the pictures over and drops 'em off.
Well, this is the beginning
of a whole adventure.
Erin suddenly finds herself
a pin-up cover girl,
and the sweetheart of Camp Lee,
the local army base.
Daddy is not at all happy about this,
and Ben is in real hot water
even though it was an accident.
Erin is at first mortified,
but then when she starts
getting all this attention,
and all these letters from soldiers
saying that you know,
how much they admire her,
and how they,
she reminds them of their girl back home,
and finds that she is just
the center of some really positive attention.
She finds it fun and is secretly very happy
it happened.
As Erin and Mary Ellen are reading
this various different fan mail,
Mary Ellen finds herself
giving Erin relationship advice
because all these boys are writing to Erin
because of her looks
without really knowing who she is.
And of course,
Mary Ellen feels like Erin should be admired
for who she is, not just how she looks.
And Mary and I spoke about that recently also.
Another fun scene later on
where Erin, Elizabeth and Mary Ellen
are all reading the fan mail,
and it just reminded me
of all of us getting fan mail on "The Waltons"
and how lovely so much of that was,
and what wonderful things
people had to say about the show,
and about our characters,
and how much they related
to them growing up.
There's a more serious subplot
as Mary Ellen has finally decided to go back
to nursing.
And she's at the hospital and encounters
a young woman that she knows
whose child infant toddler
has gotten into something in the house
when the mom just turned away for a moment,
and the child is now in the emergency room,
and doesn't make it.
This really impacts Mary Ellen,
who then hurries home,
and just becomes really obsessive
about John Curtis,
where he is, wanting to know where he is.
She decides to give up the nursing again for now,
and devote her time
to being the best mother she can,
but in a really overprotective way.
But.
In the hospital and it was kind of nice
to have David Spencer back.
He is the emergency room doctor
that we see at the beginning,
and then he comes by the house
trying to convince Mary Ellen
that she should continue with the nursing,
and that you know,
she can have room in her life for both
the nursing and for being a mother,
and she's not really ready for that
in that moment.
But it was lovely to have Bob Woods back again
as David Spencer.
Also in this episode,
we see actor Kip Niven
playing the Lieutenant at Camp Lee.
Later on in later episodes,
Kip was back as Reverend Marshall.
He did three episodes as one
of the series of reverends that we had
during the course of the series.
As it turns out,
despite being as protective as she can be.
Mary Ellen looks away for a moment or two,
and John Curtis has wandered off.
I think most parents
have probably had that experience
at some time and it is heart-stopping.
In this case, we see a lot of John Curtis
wandering through the woods.
People have asked me how we filmed that.
What I seem to recall is there was always,
it was always safe areas.
And so what they could do in a situation
like this is have something at one end
of where like behind where the camera is,
but off-camera and if they wanted,
John Curtis looking back,
then they you know make some sort of a noise
or distraction or someone calls him from behind,
and he kind of turns around,
and then have also
someone speak to him near camera.
So if they wanted him then to come forward,
then someone would call him forward.
I think a lot of it then was
just happy circumstance
of what his natural behavior was.
Some just darling things.
He looks at things,
and checks around and probably heard noises.
So just things for him to explore.
I know when we finally
got to the bridge sequence,
that was a little different
because we were dealing with a bridge
over actual water.
In that case, I remember there being people,
safety people in the water.
They were out,
obviously outta sight of the camera
but they were there just in case
for some reason the young toddler
decided that the water looked interesting,
and wanted to go check it out
or fell or anything that could have been
potentially hazardous.
So and then of course,
we were at one end.
I was at one end,
Ralph was at the other end,
and between the two of us
John Curtis then went forward to John,
and there was
a beautiful little reunion moment there.
So this of course was all edited together
very carefully.
So there would be short little segments
of where you'd see John Curtis in one spot,
and then they'd be in another part of the jungle,
and they'd set that up.
So he would only really travel
through small little sections,
and all in very protected areas.
But watching it back,
I was just,
I found it so sweet,
the number of just real moments
that they caught on camera,
and what fun the little, little boy
seemed to be having
being out loose and exploring all of this.
This is just a little playground for him,
but he was always safe.
And ultimately lessons about letting go,
and that we need to do that with our children.
as Mary Ellen learns to let go of John Curtis.
Let him live his life protected,
but not overprotected.
And also letting go and trusting Erin
to make responsible choices.
And as she is invited to go speak,
and be a guest of honor at Camp Lee.
And Kip Niven as Lieutenant
comes to personally escort her,
and ask permission to take her,
and Mary Ellen sort of challenges daddy
to let Erin go,
and he does.
So little life lesson
for a number of the characters.
That's what I have for you for this segment
of "Behind the Scenes of The Waltons"
about "The Pin-Up."
I will be back with more "Behind the Scenes
of The Waltons."
And more "Ask Judy."
Thanks for watching.