welcome back to another segment of
behind the scenes of the waltons today
i'm going to be talking about an episode
from season seven
the portrait i've been asked about that
one a fair bit lately so i thought i'd
cover it now
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like and subscribe in this episode we
meet derek pembroke iii played by actor
jared martin
he has recently returned from
paris where he was painting
and also post-war he had been a soldier
in the war
he's come back with what we now have
come to know as ptsd
it was an unusual topic for the waltons
to explore in the 1970s
i would say rather ahead of its time
derek when he comes back is
appears to be just very moody and
introspective and when he first meets
aaron at ike godzi's store
he is very taken with her you might even
say obsessed
to me this episode had a very dark moody
feel to it a lot of tension uh the music
throughout the entire episode really set
a somber mood
also keeping in with this being just a
little bit of a different feel of an
episode for the waltons
it was directed by ralph sinenski who
directed a number of episodes of the
waltons and if you want to hear what he
had to say about this particular episode
you can read his blog
he
really digs into different aspects of
how he felt about the script and about
the filming of it so it's very
interesting reading there's a point in
the episode where derek is at the dew
drop in jason is playing it's basically
closing time nobody's really in there
but he
sits
uh
nursing a beer
as john plays
and he asks if jason knows any french
songs and jason plays something
that then
derek
sings to
and uh it's i thought it was fascinating
that he did sing and that he did sing in
french as erin walks through the woods
at one point
she hears something
and
she goes to explore what it is that
she's heard and it's a very again eerie
sort of a shot between the music and the
way the camera sort of follows her
nowadays a shot like this would be done
with what we call a steady cam that uh
the camera operator actually wears like
in a harness and it has shock absorbers
in it so that
it absorbs
uh the any movement any uneven ground as
the operator carries it through and
follows whatever the action is and it
keeps it balanced so that it isn't all
shaky
at this point in time
i believe they
it would have been difficult to do a
tracking shot because you need level
ground to do that so it almost looks
like perhaps a handheld shot
as we often saw
in news coverage in earlier times and we
still do at times where camera operators
just have the camera on their shoulder
and they chase the action in this case
the irregular movement of the camera and
the music
really does create
a whole mood as erin goes through the
woods wondering what it is that she's
going to discover and she finds
derek they have a brief conversation
he seems a little disoriented he
is fascinated by her and wants her to
come with him he wants to paint her he
initially sketches her and then wants
her to come with him so that he can
paint her she
is
uncomfortable with this and and
says no she has to go home
and more or less
flees
from this very odd encounter but i think
she's also fascinated by derek i noted
that when we see mary in this scene with
derek she
is not wearing a sweater
by the time she seems to have wandered
home
having just had this interaction with
derek she is now wearing a sweater so
i'm not exactly sure where this sweater
came from perhaps she made some stop
along the way
perhaps she went home and went back out
i don't think so i think there was maybe
just
some place along the line they lost
track of that a sweater had been there
and then a sweater hadn't been there so
it it happens very interesting dynamic
between the characters of aaron and
derek i spoke a little bit with mary
about
the filming of this episode and just
recently sat down with her uh in a
session that i will be sharing with you
very soon and this was one of the things
that i asked her about
this particular episode because it was
sort of different and it was
a different sort of episode for the
character of aaron as well
so she shared her thoughts on some of
this which hopefully you'll enjoy
hearing um
but ultimately
her fascination does pull her to derek
and he is staying at his
family's home
and he is drawing this huge mural
on the wall of one of the rooms of the
house um
in ralph sininski's blog he said that
our art director ed graves had painted
all of those war scenes that we see on
the wall
and then also in some
artwork that he takes to godzi's store
and wants to sell sometimes i get asked
about who did the artwork and things was
it you know was it michael when she was
supposed to be painting uh was it really
marie earl as mod gormley but typically
it was actual
you know trained artists and stuff like
that in this case our art director ed
graves was clearly a talented artist and
he did supplied all of the artwork
so when aaron finally does go to the
pembroke house and derek wants to paint
her
initially he scares her off and she runs
away when she sees the art she finds it
very disturbing and he
wants to call her gabrielle so clearly
he is confusing her with someone he knew
in paris during the war that has left a
really deep impression on him
um
later in the episode mary allen is
working at the hospital and asks she's
working on the psychiatric award at the
time she asks one of the doctors some
questions and then sees this painting on
the wall
the painting looks a lot like
derek's work and she asks about it and
it turns out that it was derek's work
and that he spent some time in the
hospital
and the doctor felt that he was really
struggling
and had hoped that he might stay but he
didn't
as the episode progresses aaron
does go back to
derek's house and he wants to paint her
and there is this
beautiful
image
of mary
in this in this large piece of artwork
um however the eyes are not painted but
you see her glorious red hair
and
it just is very very moving
and then
as he gets deeper into his
delusions she becomes more and more
frightened meanwhile mary ellen has told
daddy um
that she has heard that there are
concerns about derrick and aaron is not
home so mary ellen and
and john
go to find
aaron and derek is having a bit of a
breakdown john
embraces him
and
assures him that they will get him help
and
he says he wants to go
back to this doctor
that
had been of help to him
so
um
you know a dark heavy episode but
certainly touching on a very important
subject there was a much lighter-hearted
subplot where
um jim bob they're going to raise money
for um a church fair or something like
that so he's gone up into the attic and
found this old bird cage that is sort of
broken um grandma sees it and it's like
no no he's like but it's broken and and
it doesn't even have a bird she's like
get one so he and elizabeth initially go
out and try and capture a bird well that
doesn't work so then jim bob goes and he
and he gets one from a store
uh it's supposed to sing it doesn't but
grandma is determined that this bird
will sing and that she's going to teach
it to sing
there's a sweet scene where jason is
playing piano and grandma is dusting and
he insists that grandma sit down with
him and do this duet now despite her
stroke and as i have heard is not at all
unusual despite the fact that ellen
really struggled with her speech she
could still sing and so there's a
darling little duet and during the duet
the bird finally starts to sing
so
that was just
just a sweet moment and it was lovely to
see ellen have this
moment and then her joy with the um the
singing
of the bird that's what i have for you
for now for this segment of behind the
scenes of the waltons about the episode
the portrait and
soon i will be speaking with mary
mcdonough and we will hear her thoughts
about the filming of this episode also
i'll be back with more behind the scenes
the waltons and more ask judy as well as
my segments with mary mcdonough thanks
for watching