Sorry, the dog ate my script!

[deron]

Is it just me, or is everyone having problems with their lines on the most recent episodes?  Monday was a hoot, because they looked at the teleprompter more than they looked at the other actors.  

I know this happens all the time on the show, but yesterday was bad.  I can think of two reasons for the possible drop off in the actors delivery of their lines...

... the actors didn't like or understand the direction the show was going in at the time.

or

... there were a lot of rewrites to the script right before taping the show.

I'm looking foward to Nicolas Blair showing up.  It seems to bring a breath of fresh air to the show.

deron

[VAM]

Consider it a wash!

 

[CastleBee]

I'll take door number two...the rewrites seem more logical to me - well, except in the case of Roger Davis who seems like the type who would rebel against the script and uh, digress.  

[Tanis]

We used to have a community playhouse in our small town.  I was assistant director and we did several melodrama plays among other things.  I see melodrama in Dr. Lang.  It does appear slightly in other areas also.

Real far out melodrama is hilarious, the more goof ups you have the better it is.  We did the classic villian with the handlebar moustache, black cape and all.

Tanis

[Raineypark]

A handlebar moustache and a cape on Lang would have been a visual aide....at least we'd be sure we were SUPPOSED to be laughing.

Was it really that they kept RE-writing the scripts?.....or simply that they didn't get them written at ALL until the last minute?  On the web-chat, John Karlen mentioned memorizing his lines in the morning, on the subway, on his way to work.......

Rainey

[Happybat]

Well, now I really understand why everyone hates Dr. Lang so much!  He is a loud-mouthed blow-hard.  And you're absolutely right, Monday's episodes showcased some pretty ghastly acting, even for Dark Shadows.  The exception was Julia's wonderful scene!

As for Nicholas Blair, bring him on!      

(Sorry, sorry, I'm having too much fun with these emoticons ...)

[Cassandra]

Is it just me, or is everyone having problems with their lines on the most recent episodes?  Monday was a hoot, because they looked at the teleprompter more than they looked at the other actors.  







I'm looking foward to Nicolas Blair showing up.  It seems to bring a breath of fresh air to the show.

deron

I did notice Dr.Lang especially looking at the teleprompter alot during the episodes. His back could be facing the camera, and all of a sudden, he'll do a complete 360 degree turn and look directly into the camera. Maybe he's waiting for an applause or something for his much dramatic acting![hello]
Im looking forward to the arrival of Nickolas Blair also!!

[Donna]

NICOLAS BLAIR

He could add some relief to the muffed up scripts of recent episodes.  

[Gothick]

The schedule was that they were supposed to get the new scripts in the studio by 4 so they could be ready for the next day's read-through, which the actors for that day's shooting were supposed to do around 5 or so in the afternoon.

Whenever you find one of the actors describing their day, they always mention how long it ended up being when they had to stay over for that late-afternoon read through of the next day's script.

btw the episodes were NOT always taped in broadcast order.

Gothick

[kuanyin]

btw the episodes were NOT always taped in broadcast order.

Gothick

How interesting, that would have never occurred to me. I realize of course, that movies scenes are rarely filmed chronologically. But I wouldn't have thought they had that much lee way time with DS. Did they do it live once or twice?

[Thom]

Apparently Frid was the worst offender of the teleprompter. But give him a break ..he had the most lines to memorize. HIs scene today with Lang banging on the door to impede Julia was CLASSIc. "Remember...Remember someone!" And poor Addison Powell has to tell him outloud 'Dave Woodard'. HILARIOUS!!!! In the future onthis show when any of the characters mean to refer to 1795 it's always 1797 or some other year. There were a lot of missed stage cues as well. In 1897 Grayson Hall as Magda comes walking in yelling at the director or stage hand as the camera is on her! It was a riot.

[Gothick]

Hi Kuanyin,

If you get this book called Dark Shadows Memories (I think that is the title of it), it gives you the taping date and the broadcast date for each show.  The shows were frequently taped out of order, though in some cases the numbering was consecutive for a period.  So this is one reason why the actors today don't have a clue about the storylines unless they have taken the time to watch the old tapes.  In some cases, the taping schedule had to be adjusted because some of the actors, such as Thayer David, had other commitments.  Some of them were doing plays at the same time as the show was running ... Don Briscoe did Boys in the Band, Virginia Vestoff did 1776, and David Selby and Lara Parker both did plays that didn't run very long in 1969 or 1970.

When the schedule for taping the episodes was adjusted, the actors called it "re-ranking the shows."

Given this situation, it's amazing that ANYBODY had any degree of continuity at all on DS!  but this is why in some instances they re-do a scene from the previous day's show with completely different costumes, or sets!

Best,

Gothick

[jennifer]

Very funny stuff though Dr Lang was just annoying  don't think he was really into the part maybe he hated Dr. Lang too!

jennifer

[Dr. Eric Lang]

According to Katherine Leigh Scott, in her book "My DS Scrapbook Memories," the day began with a read-thru of the episode with the writers. At that point the writers often re-wrote some of the episode - often it was most of the episode! The cast was then given revisions on pink pages. So even if they had completely memorized their lines before coming to work that day, they often found their lines re-written on the spot and had to re-learn them. KLS reports that often the entire script would be in pink pages!!!
Obviously some of the actors were better at memorizing new lines quickly than others.

[Luciaphile]

On one of the MPI tapes (I forget what they called the series, but it's the pre-Barnabas stuff), there's an interview with Dennis Patrick and he mentions that as Jason, he got quite a lot of dialogue (the writers liked him evidently) and he'd have it down and then he'd be handed a whole new scene to do the day of shooting.

Luciaphil