Exteriors

[Patti Feinberg]

Does anyone know when it was commonplace to have a basement?

Without modern excavators, etc., how long would it take for men to dig all that dirt out?

(My father bought a late 1800s Victorian, with a basement.)

Plus, and I have no idea, how do you keep the foundation (the bottom, where you walk, NOT the basement) up? (I'm not sure if I phrased that correctly.)

Root cellars have been around, but, since a house is not on top of them, they're strickly dirt, terra firma. Wine cellars if I'm not mistaken, are also inside 'dirt' (temperature underground I believe is always 54' F).

[michael c]

the writers made sure from the jump that there were "reasons" why most of the house was closed off (reclusive matriarch. straitened circumstances. buried secrets)...


but there was considerable practical consideration in play as well (tiny set. low production values). but making it part of the story kept viewer questions as to why only 5 or 6 rooms of such an immense mansion were being seen at a minimum.

[Patti Feinberg]

but making it part of the story kept viewer questions as to why only 5 or 6 rooms of such an immense mansion were being seen at a minimum.

Can you expand on this? Did anyone (specifically, first/original run) question, "Why are we only seeing 'x' amount of rooms"?

Also, and this I would believe, because we've all posted about it, how, early eps, kitchen and 'dining area' (Collinwood would have had a large dining hall).

As long as we're talking about rooms and such, it has ALWAYS bothered me that people entering the house put their coats on a table in foyer. Occassionally we see people near the door getting their coats on. Who plops a coat on a table (excluding children)??

Patti

[Gerard]

There was that kitchen set used in the early years of the series where everyone drank coffee and Mrs. Johnson smoked her cigarettes.  It was one of my favorite sets and sadly vanished.  In PT70, the kitchen reappeared with the butler/cook/candlestick-maker/etc. "Trask" did his work, albeit it was a completely different set.

Gerard

[KMR]

Can you expand on this? Did anyone (specifically, first/original run) question, "Why are we only seeing 'x' amount of rooms"?

Also, and this I would believe, because we've all posted about it, how, early eps, kitchen and 'dining area' (Collinwood would have had a large dining hall).

As long as we're talking about rooms and such, it has ALWAYS bothered me that people entering the house put their coats on a table in foyer. Occassionally we see people near the door getting their coats on. Who plops a coat on a table (excluding children)??

I think it might have been reasonable for the writers to assume viewers might question why such a large house had so few rooms visible in the series. But then again, it might also be the case that soap opera viewers were quite used to seeing just a few rooms of any given house in the story. But probably the major reason for saying that wings of the house were closed off was because it adds a sense of mystery to the place, and allows more places for the spooky goings-on.

[Gerard]

Actually, I think if anyone can somehow count all the rooms that were seen on the series, the tally would be more than surprising.  Granted, many were in the closed off wings, within secret passageways, and even in the basement.  I can think of at least 15 separate rooms off-hand.  Of course, none were a bathroom.  Maybe that's why so many living there had those looks on their faces.

Gerard

[KMR]

Of course, none were a bathroom.  Maybe that's why so many living there had those looks on their faces.

 

[michael c]

in the "present day" timeline we saw...

the foyer, the drawing room, the study, the kitchen/breakfast room, bedrooms for (at various times) vicki/maggie, liz, carolyn, david, roger, julia. willie. jason, amy, hallie and an attic room for quentin. and some no-doubt dumpy (unseen) servant's room for mrs. j.

of course there were countless assorted and sundry closed-off basement and attic rooms as well (and not counting the rooms in the other time periods/alternate time bands). so that does make about 15 rooms actively used during the series run.

[Gerard]

Add to those, Michael, Quentin's (sealed off) room, the antechamber attached to it, the empty parallel time room and, like I said, sundry "closed" rooms where various characters found stored-away items as in the Quentin haunting plot as well as the Gerard one, the main cellar room, the locked room where "Paul" was "buried," and, oh, so possibly many others.  We've probably crossed into well over twenty, just in normal, regular time.  Don't forget the room David locked Vicki in where Bill's soaked spook appeared to her as well as the corridor outside filled with discarded furnishings.  One may, if he/she wants, count the patio outside the drawing room with the sometimes working fountain.  We might be approaching 25.  That's pretty hefty stuff for sets considering it was all shot in a claustrophobic studio with limited space on a "limited" (meaning cheap) budget.  I've always taken umbrage when people say DS "skimped" on spending money.  Considering all those sets (whether in Collinwood, at the Old House, at the Blue Whale, Roger's office, restaurants, and so many, many, many other places) the series far out-classed all other soap operas at the same time.  And when taken into account that it was done "live-on-tape" with scenes shot primarily in sequence, with all that limited space, that was an incredible thing to do.  From one day to the next, stuff had to be shuffled around, set up, taken down, recycled and then the process started all over again the next day.  One of the DS books talked about it and how difficult but brilliantly it had been done, even showing "deck plans" as to how it was accomplished.  Granted, the quality did suffer in later years.  And even in the "pristine" years, it wasn't perfect with tombstones wabbling when bumped and "bushes" with Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree bases toppling over, cameras panning back too far to reveal that "grass" was a rumpled mat with the flooring clearly visible, but, still, it was far above and beyond anything offered on daytime TV at that time.

But, also still, where were those bathrooms?  And not a single TV set in the whole house?  The only one we saw was in Buffy's apartment in '70 parallel time.  That's where she probably watched soaps like Space is a Many Splendored Love, and prime-time shows like The Partridge Bunch.

Gerard

[Patti Feinberg]

and some no-doubt dumpy (unseen) servant's room for mrs. j.

And for Ben Stokes, and Angelique (hers was upstairs, I reckon to be closer to ChJosette).

Also, we cannot forget the tower room!

I'm assuming Amy's room became Hallie's room.

But, then there's the closet that sometimes becomes a playroom.

IIRC, there's two masoleums...one, since ((Laura's)) come to town, we'll be visiting soon, and, of course the 'regular' one with lion's head secret passage.

Funny, we've mentioned how DC didn't like going over 5 actors (that's one of the questions on that Quiz Up game I've mentioned I play), but in last ep, Garner & Garner, Maggie, Vicki, Roger, Sam. Okay, that's 5. But I've been counting 6-7 ALOT of late. I know that won't last, except on occassions.

Wait...THREE masoleums....the one where Liz 'goes'.

Patti


[edited by admin]

[Midnite]

And not a single TV set in the whole house?  The only one we saw was in Buffy's apartment in '70 parallel time.

We saw two TV sets on the series-- that one in Collinsport (1st image in DS Wiki's Gallery) and this one in Bangor:

[dom]

I wonder if it's the same one. I haven't put it under a microscope but it looks like it.

[Gerard]

Good detective work, Midnite!  It actually looks exactly like the "portable" set we got from my parents back in '69 one Christmas that was kept on top of the refrigerator by my mom so she could watch Days of Our Lives while she prepared lunch.  Like Dom said, I wonder if it was the same set in Buffy's apartment.

Now, if anyone can find that one, just one, pic of a bathroom, he or she will win the Agatha Christie award.  But then, there were no bathrooms on the USS Enterprise, either (at least there were on the starship in ST-TNG).  No wonder that five-year-mission caused the equal amount of angst as on DS.

Oh, speaking of that portable we got and a DS connection, I remember when, for the first time, I was allowed to "stay up late" by my parents.  Back then, there was something called CBS Late Night At the Movies.  At 10:30 p.m. (CST), it would air a film.  One night, it was Hammer's Horror of Dracula with DS-12 alumnus Christopher Lee.  I begged and pleaded with my parents to allow me to stay up and watch it.  They capitulated.  I was so excited.  That very day, as I prepped myself for my late night viewing, my mom sent me to a local supermarket to pick up a few things.  When I was there, on the news stand, was the copy of Look magazine that contained the story (paraphrased here, because I don't remember the exact wording):  "Can A 200-Year-Old Vampire Find Love in Maine?"  It was about, of course, the cultural phenomenon of DS.  I scooped it up.  Filled with words and pictures, I read it sitting on the front porch.  Of course, that DS collector's edition I purchased has long since disappeared.  But I consumed it. 

Then the night came.  My parents watched the ten-o'clock news and told me I could watch my "crappy movie" on the portable in the kitchen.  They went to bed.  I took it down from the refrigerator and set it on the kitchen table.  I watched THOD mesmerized until 12:30 a.m.  It was the latest I was, until then, allowed to stay up "that late."

Gerard

[Josette]

Now, if anyone can find that one, just one, pic of a bathroom, he or she will win the Agatha Christie award.  But then, there were no bathrooms on the USS Enterprise, either (at least there were on the starship in ST-TNG).  No wonder that five-year-mission caused the equal amount of angst as on DS.

You're kidding!  I don't recall there ever being a bathroom on the show.

[dom]

Mr. Wells was using the "facilities" when Burke and Vicki first entered The Collinsport Inn in episode one.