- Happy Holidays, everyone.
And welcome back to another episode
of Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons".
Today, I'm going to be talking about the episode,
The Christmas Carol, which aired in Season 6.
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The Christmas Carol is a different sort of Christmas story
for the Waltons.
Of course, "The Homecoming" started it all,
and at that point we were deep in the depression,
and hoping that our father would be able to make it home
in time to spend Christmas with the family.
In "A Christmas Carol", we are now on the cusp of war
in Europe, and the war is beginning to impact
our family and people around the world.
In this case, the Baldwin sisters have agreed
to take care of two young children from England,
who have been orphaned by the war.
The children arrive and are having a lot of difficulty
settling in and feeling secure and safe,
now so far from home and with people they don't know.
The young boy, Pip, was played by Kami Cotler's brother,
Jeffrey, and we were very happy to have him.
Tess, his sister, was played by actress, Sally Boyden.
There's a number of different storylines going on
with the family.
Jim Bob has created some sort of,
I believe it's a short wave radio.
Those of you who are more technically savvy than me
can correct me on that, if that's not what it is.
But he's been able to reach a young woman in London
and is enjoying talking with her at all hours of the day
and night when the time difference works
on the other end in London.
For Jason, he's struggling with being a soldier
and the concept of training and the recognition that
he, at war, would potentially have to kill someone
and and is really having a difficult time with that,
which is very understandable.
In response, he thinks he's going to give up his music,
because he feels there's no place for that
in a world at war.
Ultimately, he realizes that that is the wrong decision
and goes back to creating music, which of course is
such an important part of his life and such an important
part of our world in general, no matter what's going on.
Good times, bad times, music really feeds our souls
and it's it's always important to have music and art
in our lives.
It makes the difficult times more tolerable,
as I think we're all experiencing in this very unusual year.
For Erin, she's recently lost G.W. to training exercises
in the military and is having a really hard time
thinking of moving on and dating again.
And so when she meets a young man that she has
some interest in, she completely backs off
when she finds out he's actually a soldier.
So she has to come to terms with that,
which she ultimately does, and by the end of the episode,
there's all signs that Erin is ready to move forward.
Then there's Mary Ellen.
I had some mixed feelings about my storyline
in this episode, as I looked back on it;
because I always felt that Mary Ellen was so strong
and independent and yet she,
you know I found myself saying things like,
"Oh, you know, I miss Curt so much, I can't eat,
"I can't sleep" - and I've gotta go there,
even though it's completely unreasonable.
And the poor man is trying to do his job
and she's giving him such a hard time
and making it impossible, as if he's making a choice
of doing his job over his wife and his son.
Which, I kinda disagreed with that storyline.
I'm awfully glad that ultimately they showed Mary Ellen
come around and recognize that she was in the wrong.
And in fact, you know, sort of admits that,
you know, that she took it out on him and,
you know, what's the point of having a husband
if you can't blame him for things?
So there was a little bit of redemption there
of her saying, yes, that she now recognizes
that the right thing for her to do is to go home
and be with the family and take John Curtis back there
and let Curt do what he needs to do.
But, I still have mixed feelings about the storyline.
You weigh in.
See what you think of whether you thought
this was in character for Mary Ellen or not.
And then for Ben, there was a beautiful storyline
with him and Verdie.
I always loved when Verdie, Lynn Hamilton,
did episodes as well.
Ben is working with Ike Godsey as part of the Civil Defense
and doing the air raid drills.
That was interesting for me because my mom grew up in London
during the war, and my grandfather was part
of the patrol for the air raids.
My mom talked about the air raids and having the blackouts
and all of that.
So I was familiar with all of that prior
to filming this episode of the Waltons
and my grandfather used to, after the bombings,
he would have to go out as part of the patrol,
looking to see if there were any undetonated bombs
and you know was very close to some bombs that were dropped.
So we were very fortunate to not have any fatalities
in the family because of that.
But Verdie is looking to raise funds for their church,
for the children at their church.
And she's making cakes that she's going to sell.
She is
robbed and loses all of that money.
And Ben, in a wonderful moment, takes his own money
and replaces the money that Verdie lost and gives it to her.
And so they have very sweet scene where she basically says,
"I always thought of you as a young boy, and now you're
"a very big man."
So I thought that was really beautiful
and a nice storyline for Eric.
And of course, in typical Walton fashion,
we have a happy ending, as through Jim Bob's friend
in London, they are able to contact Tess and Pip's mum
and she's going to be able to join them
as soon as she's able.
And in Tiny Tim fashion, Pip says,
"Oh, mummy, come soon."
It's so sweet.
And we have snow for Christmas
and there was frost on the windows.
And it's just a beautiful episode,
with a beautiful story
and a lovely moment for all of us
for this 2020 Christmas season.
So I hope you have enjoyed this
Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons", "The Christmas Carol".
I wish you the happiest of holidays with your loved ones,
your family, whether they're there with you in person,
or you are having a virtual holiday celebration.
Enjoy each other, enjoy the season, and I'll see you soon.
Thanks for watching.