Kami Cotler (Elizabeth Walton) Reacts to The Waltons "The Foundling" Season 1 Episode 1 Part 1

hi my name is kami Kotler and I played Elizabeth on the Waltons and we're gonna be making a little video talking about the foundling which was the first episode of The Waltons TV series ever aired I think it was aired in September 1972 so when it came on I would have been seven interestingly enough it was not the first episode of the series filmed we actually filmed the hunt first that was the first one we shot but they aired the family instead they actually screened both of them which was really unusual they never did that again after we made the hunt they did a screening for the the cast and families and then after we filmed the family which was I think the second episode we filmed they also screened that and after the hunt my mother I think thought that this was in a series that was going to be renewed but after the family I think she might have felt a little bit differently so I'd love to hear what you guys think about the relative comparative merits of those two episodes I'm fond of the foundling so that's why we're starting there so I'm gonna go ahead and hit play and see what I can remember from when I was seven [Music] nice guitar opening it's quite evocative and then they're actually panning across the mountain that was right behind the Warner Brothers Studios so in in Burbank it's just kind of a biggish hill in the middle of the city and then we hear the signature trumpet come in kind of tell it's not really Virginia because in Virginia you don't get dirt like that something will always grow fade into a zoom shot into john-boy in the window riding and thinking and then you can see the big shot of I'm gonna pause it there you can see the big shot of Ralph driving up in the green pickup truck which this pickup those old cars were not easy to work with well you were supposed to drive up and stop on a specific spot right because the camera was placed and the vehicle would have to pull into the frame until you needed the vehicle to stop where it was expected to stop on a mark and they didn't do that they would you could put the brakes on and cut them off but often the engine would keep running and it was just hop forward and roll forward a bit and we all got pretty adept at jumping out of the way because we knew they were unpredictable so I'm wondering in this later shot as though as the car pulls into frame if really what's happening at that point in time is that the engines not running and they're about three or four burly guys with ropes that are pulling the truck into the frame for this opening shot oh we're on the teeter-totter for that shot that was a fun teeter-totter we played that all the time yeah so they're pulling that car into frame and the North gets out the sunlight that's terrific on the back of his head we were very fortunate director photography and then you can see Michael gets a Miss Michael learnin on the front of her title because it was just confusing that she had a boy's name and I think she had a boy's name cuz her dad gave her a boy's name but for the purposes of our credits they would put a Miss in front of it to clarify it Palin you notice Ellen when she comes up takes her classes up and puts them into her apron-pocket and again that's classic Ellen Corby she was very good at always having her hands busy and it's believable people are busy and for that grandma character that kind of always doing something with your with your hands I think Fitz who she was right she was always busy and then Will's coming from the barn the barn and the sawmill are one of the few interior/exterior sets where we filmed inside a building that we are also use the exterior for if you look at the front of the house that's just a front all the interiors are actually on the soundstage so if you were to walk in that front door there's like a empty room that's connected to a second empty room which connects over to the side porch but there's no upstairs so it's just some scaffolding in case somebody needs to look at a window oh and there's the dog so breakfast is the dog yeah reckless was a boy dog like the dog actor was actually a boy and then in later years they brought a female dog and fans have commented that reckless which is sexist about halfway through the series runs and that's why because the actual dog went from being a boy to a girl they never really addressed it I don't think in the story so everybody's waiting and everybody's rushing up to the front steps he has a fabulous hat on the dog is standing right where he's supposed to be and then I ran out okay a couple things about my run up um I can't honestly say I remember filming this maybe I remember filming this if if you've had that experience of watching something from your childhood either seeing photographs or hearing stories about or watching super 8 like home movie footage of it it's hard to tell what's your actual memory and what you've kind of recreated from the document that exists but I think I kind of remember shooting this I'm pretty sure that when I'm running up they told me to slow down because I'm sure that the first time we filmed it I just ran in full bore because that would be the natural thing for me to do and then they probably said just slow it down slow it down because they needed to pan the camera with me and so I thought okay after run look like I'm running fast but actually not run fast and I think there's something slightly unnatural about my gait but that this is me being a seven year old taking that instruction I'm also wearing my rompers and these rompers were something that our wardrobe mistress loved but I'm wearing my little my little brown boots so I wore that a lot on the show and Patricia Norris who is our costume designer who loved that outfit and it was old most of our costumes came from from the Warner Brothers costume house and so they would go back into the you know the 1930s rural section I assume and pull stuff out and I fell in love with those god-awful rompers and when I finally outgrew the boots and I don't know if I outgrew the rompers are they actually disintegrated paddy cried she was so sad to see those costumes go she just thought they were perfect but I'm gonna run up now and jump into Richards arms which I got pretty good at my instruction is to lean over and turn on the radio and I do and Eric has nice little touches having the back of my head and you have to admit that considering that it was the second episode filmed and we'd only ever work together on the homecoming we were already pretty comfortable with each other so thank you for watching part one of cami narrates the family we hope you enjoyed it and that you'll come back to watch part two go ahead and click on the bell and then YouTube will notify you in the next part is ready for your viewing pleasure there's also a place to subscribe so that you can let us know that you want to see more of this or to click like which will also let us know that you're interested if you want to know more about the Waltons and what it was like to be on television in the 70s you might want to follow me on Facebook there's a link down below in the description but that's a place where I try to go regularly and answer questions and post my memories

Channel: Kami Cotler

Views: 394,180

Keywords: the waltons, waltons, elizabeth walton, kami cotler, 70s, 70s television, 70s tv, cbs, lorimar, warner bros, virginia, rural virginia, great depression, john boy

Id: KxBLUaMUnfY

Length: 8min 7sec (487 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020