The Waltons - The Empty Nest episode - behind the scenes with Judy Norton

i'm back with another segment of behind the scenes of the waltons this time i'm talking about the episode from season seven the empty nest the episode that paid tribute to will gere who we lost between season six in season seven it was 1941 six months after grandpa passed in real life will gear passed away between season six and season seven coming as a complete shock to all of us we didn't know he was ill it was quite quite a devastating loss so this episode fortunately they had time to for rod peterson and claire whittaker to write this beautiful two-part episode that paid tribute to will gear and grandpa and gave us all an opportunity in our own way as characters and as cast members to pay tribute to him on camera it's also mentioned in this episode that mrs brimmer has passed away actress nora marlow also we lost her in real life so i thought it was very fitting that she was also mentioned because she was a wonderful part of the series for so many seasons and that was also quite a blow to us tough beginning of a new season grandpa was supposed to have died while planting seedlings up on the mountain and tradition was that every year on his birthday we would go up onto the mountain members of the family are thinking that that is what we'll do once again as grandpa's birthday is coming up and we're going to go up and celebrate but grandma isn't ready for that and says emphatically no we're not doing that so each member of the family in their own way is struggling with the loss of our grandfather in our life there are so many wonderful moments and wonderful scenes you know it wasn't all heavy we had some wonderful light moments as core beth decides to turn the pool room at godzi store into a tea room and the only customer she has are the baldwin sisters uh but she tries so hard to bring more culture and gentility to walton's mountain much to the chagrin of ike who was very tolerant of all of corbett's various different ventures to try to bring this culture and art and and whatnot that she so craves bring it to walton's mountain it is occasionally appreciated but mostly completely lost on the majority of people in the community corabeth and ike had a lot of squabbles and she spent most of her time calling him mr godzi and in this moment when she realizes she has pushed him too far there's a just a beautiful sort of makeup moment between the two of them when she calls him dear and you get to see the actual legitimate affection between these two characters that is different as they are there is a lot of genuine affection on both sides with the passing of mrs brimmer the boarding house that she ran is now vacant and we introduce a new character so like a dunbar who has now taken over the boarding house and is going to be letting rooms jim bob has acquired an old jukebox which doesn't work and in his mechanical fashion he gets it working again and ultimately convinces mrs dunbar that it belongs in her boarding house i loved the subplot about the jukebox and jim bob fixing it here he is in the barn he finally gets it working or sort of working but mostly he gets chance mooing and rover squawking about it and elizabeth teasing him endlessly ben decides to grow a mustache but it's not growing very well and john teases him about it throughout the episode as do other members of the family and ultimately he decides he doesn't need a mustache and i think it was a smart choice i love this scene where mary ellen's in a hurry and she needs to feed john curtis and and grandma basically says i'll do it i just think it's so sweet i always love to watch the interaction of john curtis with the various different family members because at that age they're not acting so everything you see from a toddler that age is responding to the actual energy that they are getting off of the actors they're working with so i think it says a lot about the energy that we all had for real working with the young twins who played john curtis real things happened in scenes sometimes and we just had to work with them in this scene in the apartment i'm putting things away in the closet as you can see john curtis in his crib decides to stand up when i turn around i can guarantee you i was surprised to see him standing up in that crib and my thought would have been oh my goodness i don't want him to decide to try and get out and fall out so my reaction is completely it's ad-libbed but it is very much in dealing with my concern for the child and they let it happen because that was real life so sometimes i've been asked about how much of things happening did they keep or what was an accident and would they let that happen this would have been letting it roll because that was a natural parent reaction to a child being in potential harm i was fascinated by the fact that ellen played piano in this episode clearly she actually could play and read music what was more surprising to me was as much as she struggled with speech here you actually hear her able to sing as she is playing [Music] wonderful to see that somehow her speech did not translate to an inability to then sing i loved this beautiful date that olivia and john go on and how beautiful michael looked all done up in period fashion with her new dress and john in his suit just a wonderful moment for john and olivia john faces some conflict for himself in this episode uh matt sarver a big shot from richmond comes he has contracts with the military to build barracks he needs lumber john can't fulfill that size deal matt calls him two-bit this really sets john thinking about his life and how he can get ahead and how he can deal with financial stress and all of that he's ultimately prompted to form a co-op with the other lumbermen on the mountain where they collectively can fulfill this large contract it's a turning point for him and along the way he goes through a lot of stress and thinking and figuring what is the life that he wants and what's most important to him this was also the episode that introduced the new family wagon the woody as john and olivia john's made this big deal in the city to supply all this lumber and so he they get a new a new vehicle and i think it's hysterical at one point olivia says well do i get to drive and he says yeah you can drive now he gets out and she takes off practically before he closed the door just not something i would normally expect on the waltons and from olivia but fun here you'll recognize actress peggy ray who later played aunt rose in this episode she plays the landlady when aaron and mary ellen decide to get a small apartment in town because mary allen's in school and erin has a job in town fun once again to see an actress who did a fabulous job and later returns and we get to have them on a more regular basis another case of a returning actress here the role of mrs sarver is played by jay macintosh who you might remember from the dustbowl cousins as cousin cora she looks a little different all dolled up doesn't she and then we have the most beautiful closing segment in this episode where we are up on the top of the mountain to celebrate grandpa's birthday and theoretically spontaneously each member of the family the kids all have something to say to grandpa grandpa there's a lot of you and john curtis he loves to hold his hands out to all kinds of people just like you did and when it came to mary ellen in another completely spontaneous moment as i talk about how john curtis likes to reach out to people that was not scripted either which whether it was michael or marshall reed whichever one of the twins it was when i held him out like that and was talking he just spontaneously reached out and how special and perfect was that and then we paid that final tribute to will gear and said goodbye to grandpa walton i hope you enjoyed this segment ha you know tough every time we lost somebody or said goodbye to him but i'm so glad that we had this opportunity to pay tribute to him and that all of you got a chance to share that with us as actors and with us as characters thanks for watching

Channel: Judy Norton

Views: 38,141

Keywords: The Waltons, 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, The Empty Nest episode, Goodbye Grandpa Walton, Elizabeth Walton, Mary McDonough, Jon Walmsley, Eric Scott, David Harper, Walton House, Grandma Walton, youtube, Behind the scenes, goodnight john boy, the Waltons cast, Earl Hamner Jr, Ask Judy, 70's TV

Id: Jf4fWISz0Ww

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 29 2021