- Welcome back to another segment
of behind the scenes of the Waltons.
Today, I'm doing a segment of Ask Judy.
So I'm going to take a few more of your questions
and hopefully share some things
with you that you might not already know.
I really do appreciate you all watching these videos
and sharing your questions and suggestions.
If you are enjoying this, please do like and subscribe.
Bill asked if I ever got to ride in the back
of John Boy's car, he called it the mother-in-law seat.
We called it the rumble seat.
And I did a number of times.
I don't remember all of the episodes,
but it seems to me I recall in the episode,
The Competition when Erin and Mary Ellen first meet Chad,
and we give him a ride back to the Walton house
that I maneuver it so that Chad and I
sit in that rumble seat together
while Erin sits in the front with John Boy.
I think I'm very clever to have arranged that.
And Erin is none too happy to have been, you know,
sort of pushed out and outmaneuvered by me.
Bill also asked if I ever visited Schuyler, Virginia
and the real home of Earl Hamner.
Yes, I did.
Not at any point during the actual filming of the series,
because we filmed all of it in Los Angeles.
We never got to go on location to the actual
Hamner house or Virginia.
When we did 'A Decade of the Waltons' right at the end of,
I think it was the eighth Season when we all spoke
with our real life counterparts,
Earl Hamner's real brothers and sisters
about playing them as characters on the series.
They did split screens.
So they filmed all of Earl's family members
back in Virginia, which is I think where they were all
living at the time or wherever they were.
They, they went to them and filmed those pieces
of their half of the conversation.
And then all of the cast filmed on our soundstage.
And we, we spoke to them via sort of a double screen.
We did not actually see them
as we were filming our side of it.
We just shot our half of the conversation.
So that was all pretty well scripted,
but it was a nice opportunity to have that interaction
on screen that the audience got to see.
After the series was over
I think the first time I went to Virginia was
in the nineties, in 1990 something, 92, 93,
when the Walton museum opened.
When Earl was growing up, the area,
the building right across the street
from the real Hamner house was I think
at one point the school that he went to.
Later it became I think a community center.
And then as Schuyler fell more
and more on to hard economic times
someone in the community wanted to do more
to bring more attention and more, more funds into the area
and decided because of the notoriety
of the Waltons and the love of the Hamner family and,
and everything that he turned that community center
into a Walton museum.
When it opened in about 1992 pretty much all the cast
flew back for that opening.
And it was quite an event.
I don't know if any of you out there were at that,
but the crowds were amazing.
And they were from all over.
People came from England and Australia
and all over the United States.
I felt like, I felt like I was at a rock concert
or a political rally or something.
And it was pretty exciting.
It's a small area.
The roads are, it's not easy to get into.
And there was quite the traffic jams of people trying to get
into the area to attend that opening.
It was lovely to have that resurgence and to get to see
the real Hamner house and to tour it.
I have been through it a few times now.
So if you were ever in Schuyler it is, it's lovely.
You should stop by and see that museum.
And across the street is the real Hamner house
which you can take a tour of.
There's also very exciting,
a new John and Olivia Bed and Breakfast that was recreated.
It looks just like the Walton house, except this one
when you go inside actually has ceilings
and full walls and, and a real upstairs
and you can stay in the rooms.
There, there's a Grandma and Grandpa's room,
John Boy's room, John and Olivia's room,
the girls' room and the boys' room.
And they are varying degrees of, of recreations.
Some of them look more like the actual rooms than others
but the downstairs, the living room, the kitchen,
and all of that, they did a wonderful job of recreating.
It was very surreal for the members of the cast
who attended the opening weekend
of that bed and breakfast.
We were the first I think outside,
outside the people who built it and own it,
the first people to stay there.
It was quite fascinating
because we arrived and we were the only ones in the house.
The owners left the house to us for the night
and we all sat around the kitchen table for real and just
it was so surreal to be there.
And I felt so funny.
It was like we've been left alone in the house
which never happened on the set
because we were only ever on the set if we were filming.
So I was never just hanging out
on the set all by myself or with just the cast.
And in this case, we were, it was quite special.
And we, we looked around and we reminisced and went,
oh that's a little different
or these stairs feel different,
or this is a little bigger that's shaped differently.
And so it, it was the first time we had an actual real meal
that was you know, cooked for us and,
and warm the whole time, a complete meal there
at the table that wasn't for a scene.
So quite an experience.
And again, I highly recommend it if you are a Walton fan
to go and have that experience.
I hope to get back again sometime.
So over the years I have been then
to Schuyler a number of times.
And, and it is, it's always full of memories for me.
And I really appreciate that, that that still exists
and that it has continued to grow
and be an area that is now a tourist destination.
For those of you who love the Waltons.
Someone else asked if I collect any autographs
or have any autographs from other celebrities
that I have met.
Occasionally I have, I have asked for an autograph.
I don't do it very often.
Oddly, I'm always self-conscious to do that.
I don't know why, but I feel,
I just feel self-conscious about asking people.
But sometimes if I am at autograph shows
where the Walton cast,
where we are participating in an autograph show
then sometimes there will be an opportunity
to have a photo taken or,
or get other actors and performers that,
that I admire to get them to sign a photo.
I know we did that at one point with some
of the original members from Batman were, were present.
And so Adam West and Burt Ward
and then Lee Meriwether and I'm spacing on it.
But one of the other actresses who played Catwoman.
So there were, there were several members
from the Batman series and we had a picture taken
with them and I had them sign it
and that was very special to me.
So occasionally things like that will happen
but I can be just as much of a fan of people
I admire as anyone.
So thanks for asking.
I was also asked knowing Earl did the narration
did he ever visit the set and meet the cast?
- Yes.
Earl was actually a member of the production team
the entire time.
He, besides being the show's creator,
he was the, the story editor
and the creative consultant throughout the series.
And then a producer.
He wrote quite a few episodes
and he was up in the production office all the time
and came down to the set very regularly.
I first met him when we were doing The Homecoming.
He was at the original auditions for The Homecoming.
He was around the set all through The Homecoming.
And when we up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming filming
he was up there.
And then when we did the series he was around.
So it was lovely to have all those years
of getting to know him,
not just through the recreation of his family,
but him as a person.
Absolutely lovely man.
I adore him.
We would call him uncle Earl and he didn't,
he actually appeared in an episode during the series,
one of the episodes, the,
I believe it was called The Journey
when John Boy takes an older woman for a visit,
a journey that she's wanted to do before she passes away.
And as they have dinner and they dance,
she remembers her husband.
And as she dances, it flashes back from her dancing
with Richard, to her dancing with Earl Hamner
and he has mutton chops.
And, you know, and, and is, is dressed of that earlier era.
And we actually see him on camera.
And then again, when we did the Decade of the Waltons
we see him actually on the back lot of Warner Brothers
and walking through the sets from the old saw mill
to the front porch.
And then I believe we also see him
inside the Walton house sets.
So he did actually appear on camera a few times as well.
There has been a lot of speculation and questions about
whether or not there will be any Walton gatherings, any,
any fan reunions for the 50th anniversary.
And I am happy to say that the members of the Walton cast
we recently joined up on Zoom to all talk about this.
Me and Mary and Kami and Jon and Eric.
And just to talk about what we might want to do,
were we interested in doing something?
And so we are exploring a number of options for 2022
to see about celebrating the 50th anniversary
of the beginning of the Walton series.
Of course this December celebrates the 50th anniversary
of The Homecoming.
We thought 2022 would likely be a time when
it would be safe for us all to travel again and gather.
So we might do one thing.
We might do a number of different events,
but we are thinking of you.
And we would like to be able to join with you
in celebration of this show
that means so much to all of us as a cast.
My, my second family, but also we know
from all of the lovely interaction we've had
with those of you who have followed the show
for all these years, what it means to you.
So we really do enjoy that opportunity
to share with all of you in person.
So we will keep you posted through our Facebook pages.
And I will try to let you know any updates here
on my channel here when I have information.
So, maybe a while before we know anything
but we'll let you know.
Those are the updates I have for you for this segment.
I'll be back with more behind the scenes
of the Waltons and more Ask Judy, thanks for watching.