MovieChat Forums > The Waltons (1972) Discussion > Filmed in California not in Virginia

Filmed in California not in Virginia

posted 9 years ago by RhysSmith81
15 replies | jump to latest

I see a lot of posts about the scenery in Virginia. I hope that most folks realize that this was filmed on a set in California, not actually in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Just like NCIS is not filmed at Quantico in Virginia.

Some of the obvious give a ways are. The scenes at Virginia Beach. The ones in the show are definitely Cali beaches not Virginia Beach. Virginia Beach does not have the rocks like the ones in the scenes. The view of the mountain. The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia look nothing at all like the ones in the show, the Blue Ridge Mountains are much more lush and green. Time frames, even for tv purposes, driving to Virginia Beach from Walton's Mountain (Schuyler, Virginia)is right around 200 miles. On a good day, now it takes about 3 hours with the current roads and speeds. Top speed of the Model A was about 45 miles per hour. Travel was a combination for dirt, gravel and asphalt. So really there is not way to make the trip there and back very quickly.

While I love the show to bits, and I am a native Virginia. It is very obvious that the scenes are not Virginia scenes. A good person to follow is Kami Colter (Elizabeth on the show) she tells it like is and is very informative about the sets, and the happenings there.

[–] crlnrgbrght5 9 years ago

I think the Waltons lived in the western part of Virginia, so, whenever they talk about going to Virginia Beach, or Norfolk, which is the Eastern part of the state, they make it sound like it's a stones throw away.

[–] RhysSmith81 9 years ago

My great-grandparents and grandparents were born, raised and died near Schuyler, VA in Nelson county right smack in the middle of where the Hamner's were from and during the same time frame. So the concept of the show is pretty nostalgic for me. It is a gorgeous area, but definitely not a day trip back in those days to Virginia Beach...lol It is, tv and writers and producers have to take certain liberties or they could not fit it all in. Some of the other trips are to quick for the era as well. I was born and raised in Virginia myself and actually attended The University of Virginia. I still watch the shows and love them.

[–] crlnrgbrght5 9 years ago

Wasn't there an episode where, John-Boy takes an ekderly lady to the beach? It couldn't have been where they live because there's no sandy beaches in that area of Virginia, not like in California where one can walk to to the beach from their tree lined suburbia neighborhood.

[–] RhysSmith81 9 years ago

That is one episode in particular I was talking about. It is roughly 200 miles from where the Walton's live, one way to Virginia Beach. So in that type of car with no interstates, it would have been impossible to make it there, walk around eat and make it back in one day. Plus the beaches are rocky in Virginia. Not like they were in that episode anyway. We have a house on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina and we sit directly on the beach. Was a bit hairy the past week with the small nor'easter that paid us a visit. But we made it through! The beaches in North Carolina are even different from the ones in Virginia. A few miles from our house we have a herd of wild horses that are absolutely beautiful to watch. Until the tourists get stupid.

[–] FlushingCaps 9 years ago

I am going to take issue on how long it would take to travel to Virginia Beach in the late 1930s, as depicted on the episode in question.

As you state, it is about 200 miles from Schuyler to Virginia Beach. Now I haven't seen that episode for some time, but as I recall, John Boy arranged to depart early in the morning, and they were shown arriving home late that night.

If they left at 6 a.m. and covered, say, 35 miles an hour, they could have reached their destination around noon, allowing for a stop for gas or whatever on the way. They could have stayed at Virginia Beach long enough for supper and done the other things shown and left for home 5 hours later and still made it back by midnight--allowing for driving slower in the dark. I don't know but what they weren't supposed to have arrived home after midnight.

Cut down the time at Virginia Beach to 3 hours instead of 5 and they could easily have been home that night. For that matter, who says they waited until 6 to leave?

My conclusion is that while it would be a long trip to make in one day, it certainly could have been done, in that era, in that type of vehicle.

[–] RhysSmith81 9 years ago

Possible, not probable :) Typically those type of trips were done at best overnight. My point was, it was highly unlikely, especially traveling those mountain roads. It is artistic liberty, and I am well aware of that. Stories my grandparents and great-grandparents told of traveling in those days make it seem unlikely, that is all and love the way they just seemed to breeze there and back easily, those old cars were rough riders and most roads were dirt and gravel. So taking a fragile elderly lady would have been a feat in itself.

http://www.virginiadot.org/about/resources/historyofrds.pdf

[–] TheXmanCometh 9 years ago

I mentioned over in The Seashore thread that the beach house they go to at Virginia Beach is the same house that was Kris Munroe's beach house in Charlie's Angels:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068149/board/thread/242819357

It is indeed on Malibu Beach. The home owners must have been pretty open to filming there since it was showing up in so many different shows.

[–] alanjobe 9 years ago

It's the same way with Dallas. People who have never been there think that you can sit out by the pool all year long. Dallas gets extremely cold in the winter time.

But I do give that show credit because they did film part of the season in Dallas.

Al - Alicia
An - Andrew
Jo - Joseph
Be - Benjamin

[–] teresasigler 9 years ago

Absolutely! I love the Rockford Files! The Virginia Beach house owned by the Baldwin sisters is the same house that Rocky owns. haha. There is a episode of the Rockford Files called "Sleight of Hand", my favorite RF's. Jim is walking on the beach and it is the same beach that was used in the Waltons. They filmed the episode when the whole family went to the beach house to do repair work and found the British girl staying there. The plants on the porch rails were the same plants 2 years later in `77 for the Rockford episode! It is so strange to see the house from the 40's and then in the 70's in the shows! haha

Also, I read that the girls room in the Walton's house is the same room as John and Olivia's room. I begin to notice that they reused rooms for other shows. Fascinating. It is fun to see all of the differences. If you like the Rockford Files, there is a website that shows pictures of what the scenes were filming in the 70's and what it looks like today. Jim was driving to Las Vegas and they showed him passing the famous Welcome to Las Vegas sign. They showed a picture of what it looks like today. There are huge trees and buildings all around and crowded when 40 years prior it looked like he still liked many miles to get to Vegas! I love to see things from years ago and then see what they look like years later. There are websites that get pictures from Civil War scenes and go back and find exactly where it was. There is a great one of a CW scene of soldiers who were under this huge tree on a grassy hill. Many were injured and being taken care of. They fast forwarded to today and that tree is 3 times bigger and beautifully manicured. Who would of thought a hundred and 50 years prior that tree was shade to our young men who were injured in the war.

Just fascinating.

[–] BiffGG 9 years ago

Reusing rooms for a different purpose is as old as Hollywood itself. I'll have to watch the Walton's from a production standpoint to see how many examples I can find.

[–] Naughty-God 9 years ago

That goes for practically 99% of 50s/60s/70s TV shows that were popular back then.

From Andy Griffith to The Dukes of Hazard I think they used the same general area North of L.A. and used it for their Middle America USA back drop.

Twin Peaks used the Angeles mountains to replace rural Washington and Jericho used Van Nuys to replace NW Kansas.

[–] RhysSmith81 9 years ago

If you watch a lot of the shows carefully you see the same scenery in all of the older ones regardless of where they were set.. I just think it is funny that some think all filming is on location. On another board on thought that NCIS was actually filmed at Quantico :) Yeah, I can see a tv show interrupting the daily routine of a Marine Base/FBI Training Headquarters :)

[–] logcabnnut 9 years ago

Cali cheaper to film than way over in VA...dollars and cents

[–] jefgg 8 years ago

A good person to follow is Kami Colter (Elizabeth on the show) she tells it like is and is very informative about the sets, and the happenings there.

Elizabeth always had a big mouth.

[–] megmarch2003 8 years ago

Little House on the Prairie was filmed in California, as well, not in Minnesota. In her book, Charlotte Stewart (Miss Beadle) tells about how the little ponds and fishing holes were fake, built by the production crew. The sun was quite hot on them and Melissa Sue Anderson got a sunburn filming the first episode.