DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '26 I => Current Talk '07 I => Topic started by: retzev on January 29, 2007, 07:14:32 AM
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All the talk about flubbed lines in another thread has got me thinking - how do you feel about bloopers, flubbed lines, etc? As for me, I dig'em. They do break the spell a bit, but they make my DS experience feel more immediate, more personal. I'd really like to hear other cousin's thoughts - do they annoy you, do you wish they weren't so? Or do you enjoy them, do you consider them part of the charm?
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I know the bloopers bother the actors but for the most part are good sports about them. I didn't notice the "mistakes" when I was a teenager and they didn't bother me at all. Today, I find them endearing because they add a charm to the show. It feels like a live theater and mistakes are taken in stride and they move on. I appreciate the professionalism of the actors who can look at the mistake, deal with it and continue where they are. We make mistakes in real life and we just have to learn from them and move one. I love how Louis Edmonds was able to joke about his bloopers when they happened, add them into his dialogue and just continue with the show. I'm not bothered by them but sometimes feel embarrassed for the actor when some of them happen. For me, they do add a certain amount of charm. If DS was all cleaned up, bloopers removed, it would be like any other great show. But I would NOT want them to remove them from the DVD.
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I don't like flubbed lines, but I happily accept them as the price of some things that I do like about the show - for example, five episodes per week instead of one, which makes for a total of more episodes, and the atmosphere of not sweating the small stuff but rather moving on to get the story told.
On a related topic: I love it when the closing credits get messed up in any way.
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I don't think that some of the tension would have been there if they didn't do it live to take. You are right it is almost like being in a theatre. :o
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Although the flubs, bloopers and whoopsies are all now very apparent to us, when I watched DS during its original run, I just didn't see them. Maybe it was the innocence of youth. The only three that I remembered as a child were Barnabas mistating the year 1897 (he said something like 1895 or some such), Jonathan Frid walking across the foyer set with costume in hand during the closing credits, and seeing the fly buzz around Julia. Many decades later, when I watched the episodes on Sci-Fi, I kept wondering to myself as I could now clearly see the blown lines, the crashing props, the microphone booms, the stage hands, et. al., "how did I miss all that?" Ah, youth - it covers and forgives a multitude of sins.
Gerard
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All the talk about flubbed lines in another thread has got me thinking - how do you feel about bloopers, flubbed lines, etc? As for me, I dig'em. They do break the spell a bit, but they make my DS experience feel more immediate, more personal. I'd really like to hear other cousin's thoughts - do they annoy you, do you wish they weren't so? Or do you enjoy them, do you consider them part of the charm?
LOVE 'em! Really pissed MPI saw fit to delete some of them in the beginning of the DVD run, most specifically, my FAVORITE! When Bathia Mapes forgets her line and a stagehand yells from off camera THEN GO TO THE HOUSE BY THE...! >:( Why MPI chose to do this I'll never understand! [idontknow] [hdscrt] Thankfully though, I have my Blooper DVD which has it. ;)
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LOVE 'em! Really pissed MPI saw fit to delete some of them in the beginning of the DVD run, most specifically, my FAVORITE! When Bathia Mapes forgets her line and a stagehand yells from off camera THEN GO TO THE HOUSE BY THE...! >:( Why MPI chose to do this I'll never understand! [idontknow] [hdscrt] Thankfully though, I have my Blooper DVD which has it. ;)
Maybe MPI thought they were doing the fans a favor, trying to make DS series like any TV series today, blooper-less. But IMO removing the bloopers compromises the entire flavor of the series. There was a scene just before the 1897 storyline where Barnabas is searching for information about Quentin. Maggie is sitting there, says something about David and then goes to look in on him. They cut it out and all we have on the DVD is Barnabas sitting looking over the photos shifting positions. I saw the shift and it looked strange. I read the Robservations and saw what they cut out. ggrrr Remove something and you've changed it. [signblah05]
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Personally I love the bloopers, and I too think they add something quite unique to the show. Why, if MPI cut out all the bloopers out of every episode on every disc in every set, we'd have substantially less DS for our money! I was also upset that they cut that Bathia Maples blooper, but like Buzz I can watch it on the Bloopers DVD now so it makes no nevermind to me.
Not to mention the fact that some of the bloopers have opened windows into discussions, fanfiction, and other things that would have never been possible if they hadn't existed in the first place. So I say let's give those actors a round of applause for screwing it all up!
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I love the bloopers too. They set DS apart. I didn't notice them as much as a kid watching but my mother would point them out. I can take the bloopers a lot more easily than the inconsistencies, which are sometimes hard to wrap my mind around.
They were always messing up names and years. I just watched the summer of '70 storyline and twice Barnabas forgot which year they'd been in, we know it was 1995 and he said 1998 once and 1999 once. It's good when the other actor was able to cover for it a little, but you had to really be able to think on your feet.
The really fun ones are when a gravestone wobbles as someone grabs it (Carl in 1897) and when a piece of the background falls down like when Quentin is pulling a sword out of the decoration thing on the wall during the Leviathan storyline and the whole thing comes crashing down. I think the actors were very professional by just ignoring them and going on, but what would have been hardest for me would be to not burst into laughter before they yelled "Cut!"
Alondra ;D
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The really fun ones are when a gravestone wobbles as someone grabs it (Carl in 1897) and when a piece of the background falls down like when Quentin is pulling a sword out of the decoration thing on the wall during the Leviathan storyline and the whole thing comes crashing down.
Or how about when Adam/Robert Rodan knocks the little tree over when he's in the woods w/David, LOL! ;)
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They didn't bother me during the original run of the show. If I were watching the series over and over again they would probably annoy me.
Nancy
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LOVE 'em! Really pissed MPI saw fit to delete some of them in the beginning of the DVD run, most specifically, my FAVORITE! When Bathia Mapes forgets her line and a stagehand yells from off camera THEN GO TO THE HOUSE BY THE...! >:( Why MPI chose to do this I'll never understand! [idontknow] [hdscrt] Thankfully though, I have my Blooper DVD which has it. ;)
I think there's a thread somewhere in the forums that says that MPI contracted out the cleaning up of the episodes for DVD and that that company removed that blooper.
As for the flubs and stuff I think it makes the show more fun. It's totally endearing and adds a fun element to the show.
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Or what about the blooper when the blind falls down in 1897 (?) and Roger Davis turns and looks at it and then keeps going?
And my PERSONAL FAVORITE of ALL TIME is this:
Barnabas: Go to Collinwood and tell them that you saw no one here.
Dirk: Oh, that's great! But what am I gonna tell 'em at Collinwood.
Barnabas: THAT YOU SAW NO ONE HERE!
That gets me everytime. lol
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And my PERSONAL FAVORITE of ALL TIME is this:
Barnabas: Go to Collinwood and tell them that you saw no one here.
Dirk: Oh, that's great! But what am I gonna tell 'em at Collinwood.
Barnabas: THAT YOU SAW NO ONE HERE!
That gets me everytime. lol
Yeah and this time it wasn't JF who flubbed. ;D
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And my PERSONAL FAVORITE of ALL TIME is this:
Barnabas: Go to Collinwood and tell them that you saw no one here.
Dirk: Oh, that's great! But what am I gonna tell 'em at Collinwood.
Barnabas: THAT YOU SAW NO ONE HERE!
That gets me everytime. lol
Yeah and this time it wasn't JF who flubbed.
Yeah, he looks at Davis like, "That wasn't MY fault!" LOL! He does this again in 1841 PT when he's playing Bramwell. He and Lara have a scene at the Gazebo, Bramwell and Catherine's 'trysting' spot, and she COMPLETELY goes blank and tries to casually glance at the teleprompter. He's looking at her and you can tell he must be thinking, "C'mon Lara, you can do it, you can remmember that line!" The look on his face suggests that he's ROOTING for her to remember, LOL! ;)
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And my PERSONAL FAVORITE of ALL TIME is this:
Barnabas: Go to Collinwood and tell them that you saw no one here.
Dirk: Oh, that's great! But what am I gonna tell 'em at Collinwood.
Barnabas: THAT YOU SAW NO ONE HERE!
That gets me everytime. lol
Yeah and this time it wasn't JF who flubbed.
Yeah, he looks at Davis like, "That wasn't MY fault!" LOL!
I know! When this scene played out with Davis JF had this look on his face like "YOU IDIOT!" I mean, c'mon! He JUST told you where to go and what to say, and you still ask what you're supposed to say. At least he didn't say "Where am I to go and what am I gonna tell them when I get there?"--meaning he got HALF of the line.
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So many bloopers, so much fun!!!
I always love it when the window curtain comes crashing down in Tate's studio. Hilarious.
Roger's "100 miles....it SEEMED like 100 miles" and "incestors....ANCESTORS!!!" lines are legendary and funny but you have to give old Louis credit for bouncing back so brilliantly.
Don't know if anyone else remembers this but I remember during the Laura storyline (1967) Joe is on the phone with someone (can't remember who) and says "Tell Dr. Guthrie, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on my way." That cracks me up too.
I recall little Sarah had a bush stuck to her dress when talking to David one time. And of course someone already mentioned the bush falling down thanks to Adam.
It's amazing we can all still take the stories so seriously yet laugh at the many bloopers....proves what a gem DS really is. We watch for the drama but I think we all watch for the wabbling sets, messed up lines, crashing objects equally so.
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I didn't notice the bloopers as a child. They just didn't really register.
I suspect I'm in the minority here, but I don't care for the more obvious bloopers. I find they detract from the fabricated hyper-reality of the show. Can they be funny? Certainly. But I'm not watching the show for the bloopers. I'm watching it for the characters, the atmosphere, and the storylines. For me, the more obvious bloopers tend to detract from the escapist horror/fantasy elements I enjoy most about the series. A minor line stumble is one thing - no biggie. A crew member audibly whispering lines from offstage is quite another thing though.
I'm *really* in the minority on this one, but I don't mind that MPI trimmed out some of the mistakes. I prefer that bloopers be on their own reel - preserved for the sake of completion, but not part of the episodes themselves.
When I see the mistakes I feel for the actors. It definitely gives the show a spontaneous, live feeling but it can hurt the mood they were trying to create.
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It definitely gives the show a spontaneous, live feeling but it can hurt the mood they were trying to create.
This is very true. I remember a Fest where Frid said that he was just mortified w/himself for going up in the scene where [spoiler]Josette & Jeremiah come back and he's told they are married.[/spoiler]He had to wheel & deal w/DC to get them to edit out his mistake, and I'm glad he did because what a heartbreaking scene that turned out to be! :'( One of his absolute best scenes ever on DS!
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As an adult, to me, those bloopers are all part of the charm and campiness of Dark Shadows. Of course, as a child, I never saw it as campy. I did, however, notice some of the bloopers, such as the fly and flats falling down on the sets and the boom mikes, but those were so obvious. The flubbed lines, though, weren't as obvious to my grammar school sensibilities. Still, I'm glad I decided against the DVD's and got the tapes instead. I have the entire series on VHS. I had decided to do that simply because I had heard about some of the bloopers having been edited out on the DVD's. In time, I will collect the DVD's as well. Tapes don't hold up well through time. For now, I'm safe.
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Didn't Sam Hall say something like one of the writers just wrote too many fancy lines for Barnabas. So the writer was let go. Probobly John has more mistakes because he has more lines than anyone else. You can tell I stand by John. :-X
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PennyDreadful - We might be in the minority together, because I feel pretty much exactly the same way you do about the bloopers. I don't get the appeal or the "charm". I've always watched the show for the characters and storylines, too. I didn't even notice many of the smaller bloopers (like line flubs) while watching the show because I was so into the story and the characters. Many went right over my head. The crew member whispering lines from offstage....I don't mind something like that being edited out.
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Didn't Sam Hall say something like one of the writers just wrote too many fancy lines for Barnabas. So the writer was let go.
Yes, he did say that. I'm betting that it was just after Josette's death. Barnabas is in the secret room of the mausoleum talking to Ben, and he has a speech full of high-flown stuff, not in the usual Dark Shadows melodramatic way, but idiotic poetical-like. It's sort of weird and doesn't make much sense. I can't remember if Frid made any obvious flubs in it, but the impression I got was that he had to have forgotten stuff or it would have made more sense.
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"Open the door Magda...CRASH....clingtingpingding......."Open the door Magda" ;D
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PennyDreadful - We might be in the minority together, because I feel pretty much exactly the same way you do about the bloopers. I don't get the appeal or the "charm". I've always watched the show for the characters and storylines, too. I didn't even notice many of the smaller bloopers (like line flubs) while watching the show because I was so into the story and the characters. Many went right over my head. The crew member whispering lines from offstage....I don't mind something like that being edited out.
I understand what you're saying, but to those of us who enjoy the bloopers, it's just part of the whole charm of DS. I've talked to some Dr. Who fans in Australia (the original Dr. Who series, not the new one) who have similar feelings for that show. They wax poetic about some of the flubs and bloopers.
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And my PERSONAL FAVORITE of ALL TIME is this:
Barnabas: Go to Collinwood and tell them that you saw no one here.
Dirk: Oh, that's great! But what am I gonna tell 'em at Collinwood.
Barnabas: THAT YOU SAW NO ONE HERE!
That gets me everytime. lol
Yeah and this time it wasn't JF who flubbed. ;D
That IS MY FAVORITE as well! I LOL everytime! I am like RD what the heck? He said Tell them you saw no one here!!!
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Welcome Taeylor! Hope to see more from you. ;)