DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '09 I => Topic started by: Roland on February 10, 2009, 06:13:06 AM
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At the end of one of the discs, one of the early cameramen states in an interview that occasionally DS had to be performed live because they weren't able to finish the filming in time for the actual airing. Is this true and do we know which episodes he might have been referring to here?
Sorry if a thread already exists on this topic.
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I've never heard that in my several years on the board. It would be interesting if it's true.
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i just watched that interview too.it's on dvd collection 12.
i'd love to know what episodes went on live as well...if it's true.
sometimes d.s. seems to foster some kind of "false memory syndrome" in it's participants and viewers.they "remember" things that never actually happened.anyone who's read kathryn leigh scott's books know she comes up with some doozies.
and i've heard that joan bennett "welcome to hollywood" story about a million times.
since episodes were generally taped a week in advance i can't imagine under what circumstances would have forced it to go on "live".just in terms of sequence it seems unlikely as episodes did not air the day they were taped. [snow_undecided]
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anyone who's read kathryn leigh scott's books know she comes up with some doozies.
I've never read any of these books. Do you have any examples?
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Garth, many examples can be found on the Forums. You could try a search of the discussion boards, maybe with KLS, errors, and book as search words.
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I sometimes wonder if "live" meant to the actors as taping it once. Period. No takes, just taping the final rehersal. I've read that they taped the show as fast as they could before the news had to come on. Lights, camera, action! Change the sets! Roll em!
"This is Walter Cronkite and that's the way it was."
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You could try a search of the discussion boards, maybe with KLS, errors, and book as search words.
Good one! [laughing4]
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From what I've read about the history of the filming of the series, I find it very difficult if they had done any scenes live. Virtually all episodes were done live-on-tape at least a week if not more, before they were aired. In the beginning, everything was done while filming, from opening credits, to filmed exteriors, to commercials, to even the soundtrack, to the closing credits, all packed in and done. Later in the series, some things were added on after it was filmed. Another consideration would be that if something flubbed so severely earlier (or if something had been lost), was that it would've been necessary for the performers to be on the soundset to air that particular scene. Since they tried to keep the number of bodies - live or dead - down to a minimum, what were the odds that the particular performers happened to be on the set, or to even have the set up? Only a few were permanent, such as the foyer and drawing room, so they would have to get everything suddenly put together and there was very little space to do that.
Gerard
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You could try a search of the discussion boards, maybe with KLS, errors, and book as search words.
Not recommended if your mouse does not have a scroll wheel. [snow_laugh]
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[lghy]
I've read that they taped the show as fast as they could before the news had to come on. Lights, camera, action! Change the sets! Roll em!
"This is Walter Cronkite and that's the way it was."
That would be heresy. Cronkite was on CBS. ;)
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A friend tells me that the WABC-TV in NYC evening news anchors that DS would have had to make way for would have been Roger Grimsby, Bill Beutel and Geraldo Rivera ::).
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A friend tells me that the WABC-TV in NYC evening news anchors that DS would have had to make way for would have been...Geraldo Rivera ::).
Whoa! I had no idea he went back that far. [snow_wow]
Maybe they should have brought Geraldo onto the show; they could have had him open Barnabas's coffin like he did Al Capone's vault. [snow_smileydevil]
ProfStokes
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And then he could've had the whole gang sit down to do a "Our-Supernatural-Members-Are-Tearing-Our-Already-Dysfunctional-Family-Apart" chat and see who starts throwing the first chair.
Gerard
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Oops, I didn't pass the info along correctly. Geraldo was part of the news team but not as an anchor. Bad Midnite. [snow_embarrassed]
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KLS is always saying the show was done "live" she still says it sometimes. the correct term is "live on tape". maybe the cameraman recently viewed the film "tootsie" and got confused. in "tootsie" the technicians were constantly spilling coca-cola on the videotape forcing the fictional soap to be broadcast live. maybe this did occur in reality but highly unlikely. as for "WELCOME TO HOLLYWOOD" i think it was lara parker that says it in 1897 or was it 1840? i dont think it was those exact words and she says it so softly that you really have to listen for it but it does sound like she saying hollywood instead of collinwood.
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it's actually nancy barrett who's the chief proponent of the joan bennett "welcome to hollywood" myth.
she certainly never uttered it on air but,as nancy says in some of the dvd interviews,that perhaps she said it during rehearsal or maybe she's even imagining it.
but it's sort of become d.s. folklore.
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I'm gonna have to dig out my Bloopers dvd because I've convinced myself the Welcome to Hollywood blooper is on that! ;)
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Another of the KLS "doozies" is the notion that DS was "filmed on kinescope". I'm sure most of you know that it was recorded onto video tape. Kinescope backups were made to distribute to stations that chose to run the show at another time. I've heard stories, that I've not been able to confirm, that in some areas the last ep of DS aired on April 9. That station was a week behind the network. He claimed that he saw show 1245 twice on two different stations. I have no reason to doubt this person's honesty, but I've not heard about cases like this before. It seems plausible that it might have taken up to a week to get a kinescope to a station. The problem is that kinescopes don't exist for the last year, hence the reason #1219 is missing. I think it's possible that the station might have time shifted the show to another slot. While the network was providing kinescopes, they may have been getting them that way. At some point, the station might have recorded the episodes themselves and shown them a week later, maintaining their schedule and pace. Have any of you heard of anything like this? I remember, when Ryan's Hope was bumped to a later slot in Providence, we were a day behind, not a week. By then, the local would have had taping capability and would not need to wait for film to arrive in the mail.
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when i worked at a cbs tv station in 1979, we recorded "LOVE OF LIFE" on our own 2" videotape machine while it was shown on the network at i think 4pm. however, the staion i was working for was broadcasting the syndicated "MERV GRIFFIN SHOW" at 4pm. we would show "LOVE OF LIFE" at 9am the following morning or we showed the friday episode on monday morning. i dont think the station was doing this since the beginning of "LOVE OF LIFE" so somewhere along the line an episode got shown twice but i was there for the final broadcast which was broadcast by our station on the monday following the final episode broadcast on friday by cbs. so the doctor and k9 is probably right about the station maintaining their schedule because at 1st they were probably rebroadcasting "DARK SHADOWS" via kinescope a week later because of the time it took to ship the kinescopes to the station. then at some point the station got its own 2" tape machine or they were forced to get one after learning there were no more kinescopes being made or sent out anymore. so then i guess in early 71, they recorded the shows themselves and re broadcast them at a later time. in philadelphia, "EDGE OF NIGHT" was not shown on the abc station at 4pm, they also showed "MERV" at that time. "EDGE" was shown on an independent UHF station on a 1 day delay. the same ABC station in philly did not even show "DARK SHADOWS" pre barnabas episodes. they were also shown on an independent UHF station untill the show became more popular or barnabas came on, im not sure exactly where the switch occured. also not sure if they showed it on a delay because i think i saw an old tv guide that listed the 1st episode being shown on monday june 27th, 1966. if that is true then they probably just had permission to broadcast abc signal while abc was broadcasting it.
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I think someone has confused DS with the Tootsie soap that had to go live due to a doofus in editing and some acid (was that it?). . thus Dorothy came out as Michael . . [snow_cool]
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I think someone has confused DS with the Tootsie soap that had to go live due to
It was the show's "future ex-tape editor" who spilled a bottle of celery tonic over the tape of the show airing that day, so they had to do one scene of that day's episode live (Dorothy's party scene) because that part of the tape was ruined.
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We've always heard that DS was taped in one take from beginning to end with NO RETAKES. Now, I don't doubt that this was the goal and usually the case. But there were notable exceptions. I mentioned earlier about the box I bought from DCP. It's a bundle of Costello's documents. Here, in what I assume is his handwriting is what he, or someone wrote (most of the documents have his name written on the top-I don't know if he put his own name on it or some secretary did, this one has no name). 1. Pre-tape of memory scene picked up cross-talk, had to break for lunch and do it later. Much time lost.
2. Taped Dress-NO time to tape "Air".
It appears that whatever this memory scene was, it had to be recorded separately in the AM. It also forced them to go with the dress rehearsal.
On the document for ep632 he writes (same handwriting, so I assume Costello wrote both, as this one has his name handwritten on it) "Shoot Molly scene on morning of Mon-Nov 25- #637 switch with 636".
There were no typos in the above. I checked my typing. The document in question is the first page of the script for 632 and he's writing notes for a dream sequence with Molly (Amy). I'm not sure what the switch part meant. When we get that far in the series I'll check the episode. I assume it means that the dream was originally slated to be in 636 and was held over a day.
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they also had to pre tape the PT sequence with angelique and alexis in the tomb.
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The Collinwood/Hollywood snafu was mentioned in an article that Time magazine did on the show during the original run.
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i think lara parker says it or something similiar in an 1840 episode
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1) Lara Parker says, "Collinwood, at last...." in one of the 1800's storylines.
2) Joan Bennet said to Victoria upon her arrival, "Welcome to Collinwood...."
Both sound like Hollywood to me.
Regarding no re-takes: What was the famous scene that Frid messed up and fought to have it re-done?
There also is a really bad scene with Julia Hoffman and Sherriff Patterson that someone must have messed up and then the scene was badly cut - some action and maybe words were missing. Not sure if this was intentially done or there were inherent problems with the tape and we have to take it as is with no re-take done. (the scene started in the foyer and wound up in the drawing room in one jump.) Sorry I don't have the eppy number as this posting if off the top of my head but she was being questioned about poisoning and it referenced Joe Haskell, i think.
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The episode I refer to with Sherriff Patterson and Julia is 615.
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2) Joan Bennet said to Victoria upon her arrival, "Welcome to Collinwood...."
Both sound like Hollywood to me.
Regarding no re-takes: What was the famous scene that Frid messed up and fought to have it re-done?
Episode one, if you look at the slate reads TAKE 2 or TAKE 3, I'm not sure which. They must have done it again. They obviously were intent on making a good first impression. Perhaps Bennett said it in the early take.
As for reshooting, from what I remember of comments about that, they would reshoot if the set fell down. I take that to mean, if the problem destroyed the entire episode. Later, as editing became easier, I think the actors implied that there was a tad more leeway. I know one person said that Bennett and Frid could get away with an occasional expletive forcing a retake.
As for the original question, I think I recall someone, I want to say Costello saying something to the effect of we were behind almost to the point of having to do a show live but it never came to that. This was at a festival and I think he made mention of taping 2 days ahead of time and having to shoot on some weekends to regain a backlog. That festival was in the 80s and I could be totally off.