The Waltons - Director Ralph Senensky & John Dayton - Behind the Scenes with Judy Norton

welcome back to another segment of behind the scenes of The Waltons today I have special guests um John Dayton is joining me once again and along with him is director Ralph sensy you've heard me talk about Ralph any number of times he directed about 14 episodes of The Waltons including the two-part episode the conflict and the two-part episode the grandchild along with that he directed all sorts of episodes of shows during the 60s 70s 80s he directed Seven episodes of The Partridge Family six episodes of Nanny and the professor Nine episodes of the courtship of Edd's father uh seven episodes of the original Star Trek series uh a couple episodes Wild Wild West a show I always enjoyed watching four of the fugitive five Dr kild air some Route 66 even a Twilight Zone episode and Mission Impossible uh so that's just that's just an overview of his his long career so uh I'm very happy to have Ralph join me and John Dayton I just recently talked about the warrior which um Ralph directed so please welcome Ralph sininsky and John Dayton I listened to the two of you this morning and John when you were talking about the gift and my asking for to to go to Franklin Canyon for a day and you you said they gave me permission what you left out was I gave up a half a day in order to get it oh so so so I shot this the show was was filmed in six days rather than the usual six and a half didn't you say you also did the same thing on the conflict to be able to go raise your Park that that that was less by far to begin with the 2 hour with the 6 and 1 half day hour should have been 13 days uh after there were two weeks at the end of the second week after the end of 12 days there was going to be there was the threat of a writer strike and so we scheduled it to do it in we're scheduled to do it in 12 days except the Show filming ahead of me was behind so I didn't start till noon so the conflict was filmed in 11 and a half days that's I know remarkable yeah yeah and we went up to Frasier Park uh just one day for for the Pony the pony that was it y but this one we went up there for six days how do you remember that Ralph I don't know did you keep a a journal while during your years no just all un ly no all right you have raised the bar so high now all the viewers are going to expect me to remember every detail of the 200 plus episodes that I was in and I am going to fail miserably by comparison but you you did over 200 I only did 190 oh okay so I get Grace on the the last 25 or so John you're looking good Jud good as are you yeah looking Fant take those off you know you're just a little miracle you really truly are to me and you my inspiration Ralph I I can't begin to tell you how a young guy uh new to the business basically um I had the wonderful experience of I looked at our shows that we did and I count well you directed 15 is that right 12 two of them two of them were two hour yeah okay all I worked on every single one of those with you except for the conflict so you yeah you became my inspiration R and you were such a dear friend to me and I uh you know I got to be careful I get really emotional but oh well that's all right as long as you do and I don't but uh I wonder Judy if we could just go uh back to August of 73 to the chicken Thief which was Ralph I think that was your first show wasn't it yes okay so how did how did you come to initially be hired to direct the chicken Thief did you have a history with anyone connected with the show already the agents were and I was happy to get there and once I got there I learned very early on what a great place it was because the opening scene of the chicken beef was John Boy comes into Ike's store and he stops just in the store because Ike is waiting on a customer and John Boy was just looking at him and the customer left and he was went on looking at him and John Boy comes over to Ike and tells him how he really hasn't paid attention how what a remarkable man he is and so I says well you want to hear more and course John boy makes an excuse and says no I went to Earl and said Earl that's a lovely scene but there's no closure and he went home and wrote and the next day he came in and had another scene for later where John Boy comes in and I gets all excited he's on the other side of the store he comes running around and goes back brings out a big box of stuff baby pictures all of his stuff for John to have John Boy to have and he says what are you going to write about me it was a Charming scene and I I just I Lov the fact that Earl was so responsive to a suggestion I knew there was a place that that I was going to be happy working you know could we just talk about that just a little bit more because a lot of fans ask uh about rewrites and uh you know who did them and why and how involved was the director with for example like you suggesting something be changed did that work out well the whole time you were on the series oh yes yes yes yes especially on the conflict on the warrior oh yes I remember the warrior oh yes yes that is going I just did a segment about the warrior so that will be on just shortly before we have this conversation so this will be a nice followup to that segment where I shared different excerpt of things you said about shooting that and we all remember that one oh there was a lot of I wasn't I wasn't in it but I remember being around a little bit there was more that happened behind the camera than in front of us yeah wasn't that Edward France and Victor Jory that you wanted well Edward France was signed oh he was signed and I had worked with Edward and then afterward I had to go tell him that we're you're not going to be able to do it and uh I mentioned Victor Jory because Victor Jory was have Indian ancestors to make him eligible but he wasn't available Edward France had played Indian brilliant actor and I always envisioned that as a male Indian parallel to the Pony cart if it was that it was that good because Earl wrote that whole script the orig the original script was by some relative either probably of the adson family one of the women in the family wrote it great idea just a dreadful script and Earl and I went over to his house and I think we wor for about 5 days he did the writing and we sat and we talked and just worked our way through it and it's a lovely script who took the credit for that it wasn't Earl no it wasn't Earl I'm sure Earl would do that as with so many writers je Jean did that would would rewrite but would not take the credit yep I remember saying to you who's Victor Jory and you said he was the carpet bagger in Gone With the Wind right yes and I worked with Victor later on young young Maverick ah a wonderful actor the gentleman who played the Indian now I don't remember his okay but I do remember this Ral I do remember stumbling over lines and not being able to remember lines and I remember you it's a duel thing you were were trying to coax a performance out of an actor who couldn't remember his lines wasn't that didn't you end up using Q cards CU I seem to remember being on the set at one point and there being it was on the Sound Stage and I don't know maybe I'm just imagining it there weren't Q cards but there were two cameras for everything he filmed so I shot the longer either the over shoulder or the two shot and his closeup all at once and foror Marge Fowler who edited it I mean I would go through it with my script and as he set a line and if he said something that didn't work then I would make a make a mark sometimes I would have seven eight takes on two cameras I remember did you know in advance you were going to have two cameras or was that something that was a scramble once you realized how difficult it was going to be oh I I I I used two cameras a lot when needed but not under those kind of conditions so did you at the beginning of the episode before you started filming already requests right the minute I the minute I knew that I had lost the battle you know I I remember ordering those cameras so I also remember the drama with Ralph white and will and I remember sitting in Will's trailer with uh Ralph and them explaining to me boy they were stubborn weren't they Ralph I me to tell you a funny story later Ralph was going to be directing a movie for television and Ralph faren our wonderful assistant director was going to be his his assistant director and he was casting enough not casting the people that you would normally cast and Ralph faren did say to him aren't you going to use real Indians this time well he Fen was such a gentle man and such a oh he was wonderful I not they all he Harvey Walter they were great that whole company was great just great well was it the chi going back to the chicken Thief for a moment because I read something I think in your blog and I would think it would be the chicken Thief uh there was just such a sweet story about uh you said something about it was a lunchtime and instead of spending your time planning your afternoon you spent the time trying to memorize all the children's names yeah because I started I started at noon because of the half day thing and so I was starting my half day was going to be an afternoon and I did spend the morning just trying to I Knew Richard because i' had worked with them but the other six and and the Mary Ellen and I mean you you your name and and aon's you know Mary McDonald's name they they they had the flxs more than the boys did ah well because we had Ellen Corby and we had Mary Ellen and then we had Mary MCD and yes have Mary McDon and Mary Ellen and Ellen Corby and while while we're on Ellen I just recently saw again and I hadn't seen it in years the uh I Remember Mama and Ellen's performance just blew me away oh that's right oh yes well the in the movie itself did and I had avoided it because I I just looked at I thought oh I don't see that Dynamite all the performances Irene D and Barbara Bel Getty but Ellen and then I've read since that Ellen who had moved from script girl into smaller roles and then when she got this role and she was the Oscar nominated for it didn't win and then never had another big role in movies until Grandma Walton when you talked about having um having requested Edward France um it raised the question for me about buondi how did she come to be playing Martha Kin did had was that I asked I asked for her okay and I had I hadn't met bu in 1957 I directed a play at hu theater on Melrose of the immoralist and cast Rachel Rachel ases she was the daughter of Dorothy Adams and Byron fers two Stallard names of character actors and she played the lead well her mother darl brought Pula to see the performance but I didn't get to meet bu and I as where I asked Doo I said would it be possible for me to telephone Miss Bondi and she checked and she said yes if she gave me her number and I called Gula so we had this conversation in 1957 and the one thing I remember that she told me true acting is being not seeming wow wow just you know says so much in so few words had no other contact with her until 1974 no I think 73 was when I did B chicken beef and uh 74 would have been the conflict the third season and that was going to be the two season opener but I don't know why of all the movies that i' had seen of bua I just remember Trail of the lone saine which was 1936 the first color film color movie ever shot on location with uh syvia Sydney Fred McMurray and Henry Fonda and uh and she played a mountain woman she played Henry F's mother and uh I said I wouldn't be La Bondi and nobody disagreed they just they called her and they got her wow you know what was funny I remember the kids uh it was the buzz was who's bua Bondi I even me I didn't know who you know we didn't have access to VCRs or old movies we just didn't know who she was but while we're talking about her because I had course I knew Bu from then until she died in early 90s and I just the great stories she told me may I tell them now yes please told me about the biggest dis disappointment in her life she had come to Hollywood uh when they did Street Scene which was an omized play that she had appeared in on Broadway she was one of the few people there might have been some that was brought out to do the Sam Goldwin film of it and had been in Hollywood ever since by by 1938 39 but she had already she already had two Oscar nominations and course she she didn't an audition she didn't screen test that people wanted P they called and asked for her and she either accepted or didn't well she said she had a phone call from John Ford probably somebody calling for him asking if if she would come and test her Grapes of Wrath for ma have I told you the story John no oh oh it's a great story now buer didn't test and so this was a special request and they did say two things number one John Ford will direct the test and you will be the you're the only one who's going to be testing and of course ma jod was such a great great great role and so Bula accepted bua then went into her wardrobe got out the oldest clothes she could find she said went into her backyard and got dirt under her fig Dales and then got a friend and they went up north and they went to two or three Oki camps H and she did that for a couple of days talking to the people and at one point I did ask her I said You by that point you were a fairly well-known person were you ever recognized and she said just once and I said what did you do she said I left so she came back and then she was ready and she reported to the studio and they they filmed then they filmed the test and she filmed it with they had two or three scenes Mr Ford directed them uh there was a contract actor uh who played the scenes with her and when they finished they thanked her and as they were leaving the actor that she she had done a test with K and you know to say goodbye to her thanked her for told her what a pleasure it had been working with her and he felt she was the best of all of the actors actresses who ATT tested for it and she knew then that she wasn't going to play LOD wow she told me she felt she felt that but didn't she knew that it was going to be Jane Darwell and she felt that it was because Miss Darwell was a contract player I've read a biography of Ford since and I think I think there was something else I do think that John Ford wanted her but Daryl xanic wanted jamee Darwell because he wanted Mao to be a mother earth figure and unfortunately the mother earth figured Mao should have been scrawny and thin and I I personally think that Grapes of Wrath is a great film it would have been an an impossibly magnificent film if people had played and there would have been a part to it that isn't necessarily there now it's a great film but it's it's really kind of an ugly film and a downer and there would have been a Humanity with bu playe Ma and did how did bu take that you just take it and then she said it was it was the biggest disappointment for C oh and then I have another one This was later I mean uh she was cast in the the snake pit with the Olivia Olivia deavalon film and she was playing one of the crazy ladies in the insan asyland she had two scenes with with this with havn and because she only had the two scenes and the film had been in production and filming for some time so you know all actresses don't start on the first day so by the time she got to it they had been shooting for a while and there were a lot of actresses that she knew and they they all they all told her youa prepare yourself totally and a to Li the director he's impossible we we don't know what's happened to him but he just he's he just is impossible we can't be pleased and buul said she had worked with toly on the sisters at Warner Brothers with Betty Davis and they said well wait you'll see so came the day bu was to do the the bigger of the two scenes that she did with with Olivia and they got it set up and they were ready and they said let's film it and bu had most of the lines Mia was seated Buu was standing and Buu had it was Buu SE and she did it and got to the end and Mr Li fox said cut once again please and be Lo over the ladies other ladies in in the in the scene you know on the sidelines and they're going you see so she did it again cut do it again please six times oh God before he said cut print so she went up to him after said toie can I ask you a question he said of course P what she said well what was wrong with those first five takes and he said nothing I just like watching you act and you know something and I remembered that as we were shooting you know the two I filmed with her and she was a joy to watch act yes and I can bear witness to that oh oh yeah Absolut absolutely sure Ralph um did bua win the Emmy for the Pony cart bu did but I own it her niece okay that Mary Jackson suggestion gave it to me and it is going to the museum when I go m M to sit on the pony C mhm oh wow were weren't you going to take her to the uh uh Amy Awards I'm should ask me to but I was scheduled to go to Hawaii to film I think it was haai I know I'm not sure which one but at that it was at the same time that I was doing a a major re revamping building adding a third floor to my house and I just I was I was afraid to leave it so I had to say no and and then I ended up not going to Hawaii because of the house and I was lucky because when it was finished and I was showing somebody in it and he said I smell gas there was a leak in the fireplace up there so I mean if I had been gone I think you called me and said would you like to take her and I I don't remember that but well I hope it was if you and I agree that I called you you call I I called you I called you I can lie too if we could talk about you a little bit more um I remember in the ponyart Ralph um the final scene where Ed Graves had done this beautiful feel the flowers and I was next to you when she hit the ground I remember going it was such a spectacular ending oh yes that was then and then and then she was bent over and then as she comes up from behind the flowers looking up with that great look face and then in the editing room I had done a shot starting up in the trees coming down to establish the shot when John Boy and Martha kin arrived and they took and they used that shot in Reverse to end the show when it went back up it was son yeah it it was they they just the editing room took the shot and added that so she's looking up and then that shot took them up to the heavens thank you very much to Ralph and John for joining me for this first part of our conversation I'll be back with more of our conversation more behind the scenes of The Waltons more ask Judy thanks for watching

Channel: Judy Norton

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Keywords: The Waltons, Judy Norton, Judy Norton behind the scenes, Waltons full episodes, Ask Judy Norton Taylor, Richard Thomas, John Boy Walton, Michael Learned, Olivia Walton, Ralph Waite, John Walton, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Walton House, Beulah Bondi, Ralph Senensky, The Pony Cart, The Conflict, Grapes of Wrath, Walton Director, Kami Cotler, Jon Walmsley, Mary McDonough, Eric Scott, David Harper, Grandpa Walton, Grandma Walton, youtube, 70’s TV, Classic TV, Earl Hamner

Id: hPMDaYLy0xs

Length: 26min 44sec (1604 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2024