Jason's right hand in "The Last Mustang"

[dewdroppatron]

I apologize if this subject has been discussed before.  I searched and could not find any results.  Here or on Google.  We recently watched Season 5 Episode 13 "The Last Mustang".  I have been watching The Waltons since it was originally on the air in the 1970's, and have caught re-runs through the 80's, 90's and now I own the complete series.  For the first time I noticed that Jason, or really Jon Walmsley makes an effort in multiple scenes to hide his right hand.  In one scene near the beginning of the episode (10 min) he hands a letter to his father but holds it by his sleeve with his hand covered by the sleeve.  In a later scene where they capture the mustang (45 min) his right hand is in his pocket and he does not take it out.  It appears that he is purposefully hiding his right hand during the filming of this episode.  

Does anyone know the reason for this?  Was it ever discussed here or in any convention?

Thanks.

Attachments:

[isumpin]

i saw in an interview where he stated he broke his hand and they kept telling him they would write it in "next week" but they never did and he had to hide the cast. maybe this was when he was talking about. I would try and check the next few episodes. 

[Kyle]

I suspect he had a very noticeable bandage or a cast on that hand and they didn’t want to have to explain it in the script.

[Brenda]

The next episode after The Last Mustang was The Rebellion, the episode about Zelda Maynard playing the church organ instead of Grandma. I always found this interesting, because I don’t remember ever seeing Grandma play the church organ. Jason always played it. Now I wonder if there was some plan to write Jason’s broken hand into the script as a reason why another church organist was needed, but they decided against it.

The Career Girl was just a few episodes later. They did sort of write Jason’s hand injury into that one.

[Easton]

If you look carefully at the first 2 pictures, his forearm looks unusually flat and thick and the cuff doesn't look natural. I'm not at all sure that it is even buttoned. Also, it appears that he's holding the letter between his index and middle fingers instead of in his thumb and index finger.

Kudos to dewdroppatron. Good catch! I've never noticed.

(If you want to see the picture enlarged, click on it. When the larger image opens, you should be able to click on it to enlarge it to full size if it isn't already.)

[tommyc]

Great attention to details dewdroppatron!  Welcome to the forum and I really like your screen name!  I'd love to be able to be a patron at the Dew Drop Inn.  

I like your theory Brenda!  I bet you're right.  It never dawned on me that we never saw gramma play the organ before.