The Burnout

[bmcgill]

I watched The Burnout episode and I was just wondering if anybody knew how they done that scene of the house burning. Did they build a replica front side of the house and set it on fire or was the original house accually on fire and they built it back.
I have noticed too how good and authentic the house looked when they had scenes of it upclose. It looked weathered on the outside and on the sets of the inside rooms you can see stained walls around the doors which would be common for a house with 11 people living in it.

[TomV]

Hi Buck, how are ya?
Good question that you bring up about "The Burn-Out".
I remember in 1974, "The Towering Inferno" introduced new for the time, more realistic ways of showing structures on fire and dangerous looking interior fires. I think "The Waltons" wanted to do some fancy fire special effects, too, so "The Burn-Out" was written.
I'm being a little sarcastic here, but "The Waltons" had a pre-existing house on the lot that could be burnt up somewhat, using old burnt up boards from other buildings and then repainting to look about the same. I'm sure some new windows and paint wouldn't have hurt in the first place. ;D I think the windows blowing out from the heat of the fire was an expensive special effect at the time.

Kami Cotler said at one of the previous reunions, that she was terrified by how realistic the house fire was and that Mary McDonough (Erin) really was inside! (I hope I remembered that correctly.....)

[bmcgill]

Hey Tom, Good to hear from you. Thanks for the information. I guess they can do amazing things with special effects in filming. I'd like to visit Warner Brothers some day but I understand that the original house really did burn and was started by an arsonist.

[mdcjjj]

I watched it this week too, and then a few days later on the Quilting episode, Olivia was up in the attic looking through her hope chest. Wouldn't you think all that stuff up there would have been burnt up?

[wetherwacky]

Definitely. There were tons of things that they got out of the attic after the fire burned it out.

[bmcgill]

OOOOPS, another blooper. I guess that is just television and film making. They can't possibly think of every little detail but I do see your point about the things in the attic.