- Welcome back to another segment
of Behind the Scenes of "The Waltons."
If you're enjoying these, please do like and subscribe.
Recently, I arranged a Zoom call
with our long-time production assistant, John Dayton,
who's been kind enough to answer different questions
and share some of the behind-the-scenes production side
of things in the filming of "The Waltons"
that I couldn't remember.
So here, I'm going to share with you some
of that Zoom meeting that we had.
So getting into some of the questions
that I get asked that I didn't know how to answer,
one being, some of these are technical things.
The practical water on the set,
when you're in the kitchen and all of a sudden for a scene,
we actually see the water coming out, someone pours a glass,
someone's washing dishes.
How did we have
water on the set? (laughs)
- Well I'd like to tell you it was magic.
- Oh,
well I know that. - However,
it was a garden hose. (laughs)
- From where? (laughs)
- We had potable water on the
south side of the stage.
It was the side of the stage
where we entered from outside,
so there was a potable water faucet there,
and that's what we did.
- Ah, okay.
- And I mean there were times,
if you weren't gonna drink the water,
I mean we could, if you were really gonna drink
a lot of water,
then we had
a container,
many gallons of fresh drinking water,
and used a different hose,
but basically that was it.
It was a hose.
Now I never got, I never connected it myself
because that was out of my department, you know. (laughs)
- Right, and then we'd have a big catch basin
underneath the--
- That's right,
a bucket. - 'Cause the piping underneath
didn't go anywhere.
Yeah, a bucket. - How big a bucket? (laughs)
- Yeah, per take, dump it,
depending on how much water had to run.
- Yeah.
Okay, so it just kinda came in from the outside,
'cause I remember just off of the kitchen set,
between where the stove was and where the cabinets were,
there was a door, and through that door
then was where the prop department
had their sort of on-set kitchen that they used to prep food
for scenes and they'd come through there.
- Who was it, Tony,
or Freddie Westcott,
did props. - Freddie, Leon,
Leon Schotter for a lot of years was our prop master,
and Freddie, and then, and I don't know if Eddie Villa,
our craft service, if he ever
was involved in that. - No, I don't think Eddie,
no, but I remember Freddie cooked some stuff at home.
And would bring it,
I remember Irish stew he made that one time.
You know, you guys couldn't care less
because you'd take a bite or two and that was it.
- But depended on the scene, you know,
because if it was one where we were mid-meal
or starting a meal and we all had to dive in
and then the conversation continued,
then we actually did have to eat more, but you know,
a lot of times they tried to make it right at the beginning
and just as the scene,
just as people would start eating,
the scene would end, 'cause it was all of us getting ready
to start a meal, so then we'd kind of not really have
to eat, but, or it was the end of a meal or something,
so those were a little easier,
but when it was into the meal and mid-meal,
then everybody had to deal with it.
- But when you sit for hours,
that food doesn't quite taste the same.
(laughs) - No.
And then they cover it up and then you go to lunch
and then you come back and they uncover it.
It was like, it was so charming.
But it was edible, I get asked that a lot.
The food was, I mean,
it may not have always been real palatable,
it might've been cold and, but it was not plastic food.
We never had fake plastic food.
It was always real, you know.
(indistinct) Yeah. - About that,
about that door.
- Yes, the mystery door.
- Yeah, was that ever explained?
- It was.
There was, in one show, Ralph came out of there I think
with a ham or something, so it was kind of like a pantry,
or it was kinda like, 'cause there was another door
next to where the icebox ended up being
that I think one time I,
in an episode I've watched, I think John-Boy came in
from there or something, and the door by the front door
that we rarely saw,
that in one case
I think Grandma came out of there
like from their bedroom, so those were the doors
that we hardly ever used that I'd be like,
uh yeah, I don't remember.
They were used so rarely that, you know, it was just a guess
as to what was behind those doors or what was supposed to be
behind the doors.
- So, as you came down the stairs, there was a platform
- Right.
- that was elevated above the living room
and above the kitchen.
- Right.
- And there was a door there.
- Yeah and that was into Grandma and Grandpa's room.
Yeah, that was the bedroom.
- Yeah. And it went, cause then when you went into
that room, you went down 2 or 3 stairs into
Grandma and Grandpa's room.
I've been asked this and I can't remember.
When you moved further onto the set
and there was the upstairs and there was a section
where you could come, where you could see someone
down the hall coming from upstairs,
so there was a little platform that was hidden
- Right.
- And then we'd come up the final stairs and
we would be right by where
the three stairs were to the attic, et cetera.
Did they dig down into
- Yes
- The stage to create that hole there?
- Yes. - So it wasn't pre-existing or
- I don't know. It's always been part of the set
so I assume, I wasn't there for the pilot, but
for the first season.
- It was always there so I don't know if---
- And I gotta tell ya, there was dirt down there.
- Oh. Hmm.
- There was dirt down there.
The reason I remember that is on the ferris wheel,
who directed I? Oh my God.
Larry Dobkin, didn't Larry--
well, the director
- Mm hmm.
- I believe it was--
- I think it was Larry.
- Larry, yeah. He wanted a point of view
of Elizabeth
as she fell down the stairs.
- [Judy] Mm hmm.
- So, to do that,
I ordered
a handheld
camera,
35 milimeter,
- [Judy] Wow.
- And
I believe that
the camera operator,
could have been Dick Rawlings.
Anyway, the camera operator took the camera
like this
and we counted
1,
2,
3
and he threw the camera down the stairs (laughs)
and we were rolling, the camera was rolling,
and I remember saying, "You can still hear it"
It was going "zzzz"
(Judy laughs)
because it was high speed
because we wanted that to be a slow motion
- Oh wow.
- A slow motion shot.
Now, I did look at the ferris wheel,
it's one of my favorite episodes.
But, of many,
but I did look at it closely
and I believe we didn't use that shot.
It would have had to have been at the beginning
of the ferris wheel, the opening,
where we have this crazy dream sequence
- [Judy] Mm hmm.
- Kami, bless her heart.
- I don't remember seeing a shot like that when I saw--
- Yeah, I don't think it was used.
But it was the first and only time
I saw anyone
throw a camera
down steps
- Did someone catch it or was it landing on a pad, or?
- No. It landed in the dirt.
- Oh no.
- Yeah. At the bottom.
- And it was okay?
- Yeah, it was fine.
You know, with movies, you have a lot of stunts
and car driving and things like that.
You don't plant a camera, it'll get run over.
You know, so yeah, that happens,
but this was a nice camera. (laughs)
- Wow.
- Fun.
- Crazy.
Okay.
I'm gonna move on to another practical question,
which was the fire places.
Like when the fireplace burned,
like when you could see that it was burning,
or when the wood stove was burning,
we're on a sound stage.
How did they vent those?
- Okay, I don't remember the stove.
I remember very funny things about the stove
but I don't remember ever having a wood fire in there.
- Yeah. There were episodes
where you literally saw the wood in the stove, burning.
Eric said he thought that they had a vent
that they piped all the way up and out---
- There was a vent.
- And vented out the roof of the stage.
- There was vent, that was a 35 foot, by the way, ceiling.
It was 35 feet above the floor.
But yes, there was that vent
and we used propane. I mean, just like a barbecue.
You know, for the fire in the fireplace,
it was really simple, you know,
it was like a gas fireplace today.
- Okay.
- You could change the color of the flames.
If you look at Robin Hood, that was shot at Warner Brothers,
you will see that in the old technicolor days,
they used a very vivid orange,
orangish reddish
yellow flame.
- Hmm.
- And that
color depends on the gas that's used.
So, use the appropriate gas for the appropriate flame
you want.
And most people know that the flames in barbecue grill
don't really look like
firewood.
Flames that come off logs burning.
So, there were mixtures of gas that could be used.
- Hmm.
- I don't know why I don't remember the stove.
What I do remember about that stove
was we were shooting a scene in the kitchen
and, oh gee, Olivia had to pour coffee.
(Judy laughs)
And I remember her going to the stove,
putting her hand right on the top of the stove,
picking up the coffee pot, with the pot holder,
and bringing it over to the table.
Senensky (Ralph Senensky) was directing.
And you know, I never wanted to stop anything.
It wasn't my business to stop things,
but it was my business to spot things.
And I said, "Ralph, she just leaned against the stove"
and he went "cut!"
And poor Michael, she says, "what'd I do? What'd I do?"
(laughs)
He says, "You're leaning on the stove"
- Yeah, I just was watching an episode
I think yesterday or something and there's a point where
Grandpa gets up during the night
and he's gonna warm some milk
and he put it on,
like he put a metal saucepan
on the stove
and then like 30 seconds later, he goes over
with his bare hand and takes it off the stove
to pour the milk. (laughs)
And like, oops! (laughs)
So, another thing I get asked a lot is
about the cars.
Now, I know at the end of every episode,
it would say, automobiles courtesy of,
I think Movie World Buena Park
so, what was the deal? Were they are rented, leased?
Any owned?
- Yeah. No, no, no.
Well the production company didn't own vehicles
other than the ones we drove to work.
- Right. I just didn't know
cause we used that old green truck for so many years
that you know, I didn't know.
- No, but Warner Brothers,
the company itself,
had a small stable
of vehicles.
- [Judy] Okay.
- And mostly, they were older vehicles
and if Lorimar needed one, they'd have to pay
Warner Brothers for the use of it.
By the way, we paid for every day
that stage was set
with us.
So, even on days we weren't working, we paid rental fees
to Warner Brothers.
- Hmm.
- Or to Burbank Studios.
- So the vehicles were a mix of some from--
- They were a mix
- Movie World and some from Warner Brothers.
- Right and when specific ones were needed,
oh what episode was that where that really fancy car--
- The Actress?
She had the--
- Yes! That was the one.
If you have an order like that,
you might have to, if Movie World didn't have it,
you might have to go
yourself,
it would have been my responsibility, or the first (1st Assistant Director),
but generally, it would be my responsibility,
to find one.
And you might have to rent it
from an individual.
- Huh.
- So, yeah,
cars were expensive.
- Hmm.
- Those cars were expensive.
- We used a lot of them. We used a lot of--
- We used a lot of them.
- Yeah. People always ask me,
"What kind of car was that?"
And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry,
I'm not that much of a car person, so,
trying to source that information was always tough.
Same thing with the animals.
I mean we used, I can't believe how many animals we used.
You know.
- Okay, goats--
- Besides the normal goats and chickens
- Cows
- And cows and the mule
- The mule
- And a raccoon and peacock and pigs
and Yancy had all of his animals
and we had a fox
- That's hilarious.
- We had a deer and we had the little spider monkey
in The Carnival. I mean, it was just like
every time I turn around, it's like,
oh gosh, there's another animal
and bullfrogs and I mean, it was, Calico the cat.
I did a whole episode about the animals
and the number of animals that then people
commented on that I didn't remember to mention,
you know, and I was trying to pull stills of all of them
I'm like, I'd have to go through every, single episode
to try and find all the animals we used, but
you know, I'm used to animal wranglers and
they would source them and stuff or?
- Yes, yes.
- Okay.
- And the chickens, by the way, originally did stay
overnight
and weekends,
but when Will
started collecting eggs, they got a little bit,
and taking them home, they got a little upset with him,
the wrangler did.
And that overnight stay
soon got eliminated.
- Yeah.
- I don't know why, I mean they got, the greens people,
was it the greens? I don't know.
Anyways, I remember them getting upset
over Will growing corn or something.
Actually growing--
- Cause I understand that he planted that.
That's what I had heard, that he's the one
that planted that garden and he took care of it
a lot of the time.
- Maybe that's how the argument went.
If you planted it, you know, then it's yours,
but as you know,
and rightly so,
our unions were very strict. Very strict
about what you could do and what you can't do.
You know when we were moving so fast
on the Waltons,
it's amazing that we got, what we got was so wonderful
in the short time we had to shoot these episodes.
- I hope you've enjoyed this and I'll be back again
with more Behind the Scenes of the Waltons
and more Ask Judy.
Thanks for watching.