The Waltons - Mother's Day - behind the scenes with Judy Norton

welcome back to another segment of behind the scenes of the waltons today in honor of mother's day i was going to talk about the tv reunion movie mother's day on walton's mountain if you're enjoying these please do like subscribe hit the notification bell and please do feel free to share it with friends family anyone you think might enjoy the walton series ran for nine years nine seasons from 1972 to 1981 in 1982 we were approached by nbc cbs had carried the waltons up until then and then nbc was interested in doing three tv reunion movies one of them was mother's day on walton's mountain the year is 1947 and mary ellen is going to marry jonesy our mother olivia is in arizona for her health she contracted tb tuberculosis and it was recommended that she go to a warmer drier climate to recuperate so she has been there in actual fact michael learned had left the series after about the seventh or eighth season i think maybe the eighth season and she had gone on to do the series nurse so michael was actually in new york filming that series i'll get to how that comes into play in a minute we've talked a lot about the recipe over these videos and during the seasons of the waltons here at mary ellen jones's wedding reception people are drinking the recipe we are post-prohibition and there is less uh less attention put on people especially grown-ups having a sip of alcohol here and there so the boys and i expect some of the women are also sharing a sip of the recipe in celebration mary ellen and jonesy choose a rather unusual honeymoon they decide to go camping the spot where we went camping was actually right near drusilla's pond on the back lot of warner brothers studios so as usual we were kind of faking those locations and all while i am driving around in that jeep again all in the back lot through the jungle area of warner brothers up and down and around and i'm not going terribly fast which is good and they would have done an intercut between the actual deer and me seeing the deer so you never see the deer and the jeep in the same shot so i never was anywhere near a deer and i did not in fact hit a deer i'm happy to say of course mary ellen's accident results in her having to have some surgery and being told that it would be dangerous for her to have children of her own in the future this is the whole premise of this episode and as many of you have pointed out there then becomes a discrepancy in later reunion movies where suddenly i have two more children that we speak of as if they were mine and jonesy's natural children although i don't know that that's ever specifically said so perhaps we did indeed ultimately adopt it's a very gray area and it still does not account for where john curtis got to who we've decided did not go poof anyway in this particular case i have had an injury and i am afraid to tell jonesy so i struggle with that throughout the episode and it ultimately inspires me to go and visit my mother to talk over with her how she dealt with coming to terms with finding out that she couldn't have children anymore the theme of mothers and their children is very prominent in this episode for me for mary ellen there is her relationship with olivia her own mother and her emotional distress over finding out that she will only have the one child and her dreams to have more children with jonesy and her recognition that jonesy wanted a large family of his own and then there is the relationship between ben and cindy and cindy's mother plus cindy has just had a child so cindy's being a mother for both ginny and charlie two other children that there was questions about in the reunions uh yeah we had nothing to do with that again sorry to say um and then there is also the relationship between amy amy godzi reappears this time played by actress deanna robbins and she is struggling with her relationship predominantly with her mother corabeth feeling that because she was adopted she she just wants to feel like she has a home and she feels like she keeps getting sent away that corbett doesn't really want her there which is not the case at all but that relationship is a focus of the episode as well so very much exploring the whole relationship between mothers and daughters and even sons and moms so a fitting tribute for mother's day in the whole continuity issue it's interesting that at one point in this episode jonesy makes reference when we're talking about maybe you know twins things like that and and it said something about oh i don't think any twins run in the walton family of course completely uh forgetting about the episode where we found out that jim bob had a twin who died at birth but jonesy says the twins run in his family and personally twins run in ares of my family although neither me my brother or sister had twins so perhaps it skipped a generation keep warning my son that perhaps twins will come up in his generation when i do ultimately go to visit olivia i supposedly go to see her in arizona what in fact really happened was that i was sent to new york and there where michael was filming her series nurse i our company was able to make arrangements with their company and we actually shot in the sets that were used as the hospital for the nurse and i don't remember if we used their crew or they hired another crew but we we shot there so that was that was kind of fun for me to have a trip to new york and spend a couple days there and and film those scenes with michael in a completely different location with a completely different crew but as i watch the episode i think they did a wonderful job of it seamlessly intercutting with the style and the look and the lighting and everything else in the rest of the episode of the waltons i think i'm more aware in terms of differences in this episode that because this was an nbc production rather than a cbs production although both by laura mar the opening credits and the theme music is different so must have been something relative to licensing and writes and stuff like that but always very odd to watch the opening of the waltons without our iconic theme song written by jerry goldsmith the other subplot and the story revolves around elizabeth and drew her longtime boyfriend who comes back to visit elizabeth is busy writing an essay for school and doesn't immediately have time for drew and amy feeling at a loss and wanting to feel important and have attention flirts with drew and spends time with him and decides to sketch him and that comes into a misunderstanding and then she flirts with jim bob who's very harsh with her we do have an opportunity to see the garage location right across from godzi store where jim bob and jody foster teamed up to run a garage so in this case amy keeps trying to get everyone's attention and fails and ultimately jim bob says he's going to be the one to walk amy to church for the final mother's day service where elizabeth reads her essay about wanting to be like her mother and speaks beautifully about olivia and all of her wonderful qualities as a mother which i think to a great extent many of us myself included have worked to emulate i think it's such a wonderful example of a loving caring mother and there certainly are far few better examples of how one might pattern themselves as a mother so that's what i have for you for this segment of behind the scenes of the waltons my tribute to mother's day to all of you mothers out there i wish you a very happy mother's day i hope you get to spend it with your own children and i hope that for all the children out there that you let your mothers know how much they mean to you and here's to family for all of us thank you so much for watching i'll see you next time

Channel: Judy Norton

Views: 29,597

Keywords: The Waltons, Mother’s Day, Walton reunion, Judy Norton Taylor, Judy Norton, Waltons full episodes, Richard Thomas, John Boy Walton, Michael Learned, Olivia Walton, Ralph Waite, John Walton, Will Geer, Ellen Corby, Mary Ellen Walton, Kami Cotler, Elizabeth Walton, Mary McDonough, Jon Walmsley, Eric Scott, David Harper, Walton House, Grandpa Walton, Grandma Walton, youtube, Behind the scenes, 70’s TV, goodnight john boy, the Waltons cast, Earl Hamner Jr, Ask Judy

Id: DRVQjIt5Rzk

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Thu May 06 2021