I had a bit of a binging session during the past few days and I'm finally in 1967 - Bill Malloy's murderer is revealed, Victoria "I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND" Winters is endlessly harrassed, kidnapped and rescued by ghosts and now Laura "Fire Pretty" Collins is in town. Phew!
I've binged through the Laura Collins arc and man, isn't it funny how they sort of dropped Burke's revenge plot? I'm at around episode 200 now and Burke is basically satisfied with Roger admitting to Liz that he killed that man and sent him to prison. No cops. No mention how Burke was getting into the fishing business to compete with the Collins fishery.
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They might have scuttled that story because Mitchell Ryan had an offstage drinking problem that eventually became too much for them to deal with. But then even after the recast Burke was never much of a viable character.
I was watching the scenes where Liz almost jumped off Widow's Hill (rather than marry that walking ham sandwich named Jason McGuire). Before leaving the house, she wrote her death date (April 10, 1967) in the family Bible. I assume this was the date the episode aired. Liz's birth date was listed as 1917, making her 50 years old. The prop people were being quite generous, since Joan Bennett was born in 1910. The writers were even more generous when, in the 1795 storyline, they made Naomi the mother of a nine year-old girl.
I was watching the scenes where Liz almost jumped off Widow's Hill (rather than marry that walking ham sandwich named Jason McGuire). Before leaving the house, she wrote her death date (April 10, 1967) in the family Bible. I assume this was the date the episode aired. Liz's birth date was listed as 1917, making her 50 years old. The prop people were being quite generous, since Joan Bennett was born in 1910. The writers were even more generous when, in the 1795 storyline, they made Naomi the mother of a nine year-old girl.
To be fair, they've seemingly dropped a lot of story threads currently - the whole Betty Haskins / Victoria's parentage has seemingly been dropped too.
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It's a shame they could not have wooed Alexandra Moltke-Isles back to the series to play roles in the parallel-time and flashback stories. It would have given the show a shot in the arm when they needed it, and would have been a Great Achievement In Continuity. Plus, it would have given the fans a reason to continue believing that Victoria was in fact a "secret Collins"--if not Liz's daughter, then maybe Roger's or some cousin--since people looking like Vicky were popping up in the Collins clan at different points in history. If you can have "Burke" and "Mrs. Johnson" popping up in 1795 as Collinses, why not have Vicky show up in (for example) in 1897 or 1840?
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Is she played by Abby Dalton? (just say "yes", even if it isn't true).
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1stly i think they dropped the revenge plot because they had done it for months and maybe they ran out of ideas and they had burke get to the point that he just wanted him to admit he did it. it's never brought up again they also dropped who Vicki's parents are but than in the audio play it's revealed she is Liz's Daughter i dunno why they never said that i think Dan Curtis just said the reason was he just forgot about it. as for why they didn't bring Vicki back the answer is simple at some point on why she left the show she got knocked up so she went on Maternity leave than when that was over she was going to come back and she had been seeing the entire cast
play different characters and she wanted to play a Villain as she's an actress and wanted to try something different plus she grew tired of playing the same character since everyone else got to play another character and they said no you can't you have to be the audience meaning she has to be the one that asks the questions the audience ask. they dumbed her down quite a bit as well she was a lot smarter in the early years than when she left. they tried to replace her and none of them clicked and by than she had quit acting and became a stay at home mom. that wasn't her plan Originally either which was why she wasn't in the show anymore after she left.
with Burke the actor who played him Mitch Ryan it's true he was a boozer and would come to work drunk off his ass or with a hangover and so they would have to give his dialog to Joel Crothers i recall there's a scene that i think it was after he was promptly fired that they gave his lines to Joe instead.
a year or two later Mitch Ryan did go to rehab and has been clean since. and he loved being on the show but he will even admit that he was a bastard and he regrets to ever have drunk anything if i recall him saying as it was his own fault. does that help?
play different characters and she wanted to play a Villain as she's an actress and wanted to try something different plus she grew tired of playing the same character since everyone else got to play another character and they said no you can't you have to be the audience meaning she has to be the one that asks the questions the audience ask. they dumbed her down quite a bit as well she was a lot smarter in the early years than when she left. they tried to replace her and none of them clicked and by than she had quit acting and became a stay at home mom. that wasn't her plan Originally either which was why she wasn't in the show anymore after she left.
with Burke the actor who played him Mitch Ryan it's true he was a boozer and would come to work drunk off his ass or with a hangover and so they would have to give his dialog to Joel Crothers i recall there's a scene that i think it was after he was promptly fired that they gave his lines to Joe instead.
a year or two later Mitch Ryan did go to rehab and has been clean since. and he loved being on the show but he will even admit that he was a bastard and he regrets to ever have drunk anything if i recall him saying as it was his own fault. does that help?
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for me i always thought her wig looked better than that short hair she had in real life
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The whole "I want to play other characters and have fun like everyone else" problem also reared its ugly head in the final year or two with Jonathan Frid. He had to play Barnabas all the time, so the writers did come up with Bramwell for him....but he wasn't as popular as Barnabas. Frid got to the point where he said he wasn't going to play Barnabas any more, that they had to stick with Bramwell (and thus his time period, which was 1840/1841) or either create some new character for him to play--or he would walk. They could not maintain the 1840 story or its Parallel Time equivalent, so the show ended up going off the air entirely, not even returning to 1971.
The character of Julia Hoffman was famously supposed to be Julian Hoffman, a man. When the casting call went out with the typo, Grayson Hall auditioned and they realized it would work better with the character being female--and boy, were they right.
An aside: I feel that they ought to have given Nancy Barrett a Special Achievement Emmy Award for her show-stopping hair in the 1966-67 era. I can't take my eyes off it in any scene she plays.
The character of Julia Hoffman was famously supposed to be Julian Hoffman, a man. When the casting call went out with the typo, Grayson Hall auditioned and they realized it would work better with the character being female--and boy, were they right.
An aside: I feel that they ought to have given Nancy Barrett a Special Achievement Emmy Award for her show-stopping hair in the 1966-67 era. I can't take my eyes off it in any scene she plays.
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yeah Frid wanted to play another character and since he was the lead they were forced to do it and he was by far more Popular than Vicki ever was for obvious reasons. Frid has always said about that i'm a theater actor and i love to play different characters he did love playing Barnabas but he needed to stretch his acting muscles so to speak and i can respect that. i don't think that the show was cancelled before of Bramwell see The Lottery which is really the last storyline they did or one of them anyways that timeline starts off strong but when they found out they were cancelled they rushed to end it so it feels like that each time i watch it well it's rushed.
i don't consider it a problem that he wanted to play another character well do ya blame him? in (1970) when he was back being Evil for the storyline the fans sent angry letters so they were forced to make him good again. what hurt the show was them repeating themselves also another reason was it was cancelled was because of the film, if anyone has seen that hatchet job of a film where it was so horribly edited by Dan Curtis though he was forced to do. since the film was bloodier like Barnabas's death in that the parents who took the kids believed that's what the show was like and so the audience got smaller because of that too.
that's my take on it anyways
i don't consider it a problem that he wanted to play another character well do ya blame him? in (1970) when he was back being Evil for the storyline the fans sent angry letters so they were forced to make him good again. what hurt the show was them repeating themselves also another reason was it was cancelled was because of the film, if anyone has seen that hatchet job of a film where it was so horribly edited by Dan Curtis though he was forced to do. since the film was bloodier like Barnabas's death in that the parents who took the kids believed that's what the show was like and so the audience got smaller because of that too.
that's my take on it anyways
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Soap viewers are conditioned to watch the first three or four minutes in order to see which characters will be appearing that day. Having someone do the voice-over who isn't even appearing could be a bit misleading, and as the show expanded beyond Vicky and her perceptions of what was going on in Collinwood, it was a good idea to let others do the voice-over. Depending on the Union rules, AM might have gotten paid for "appearing" in episodes even when she only did the voice-over. So restricting the VO to actors who were already appearing in the episode might have been a cost-cutting measure. Or maybe AM simply went on vacation and was unavailable to do the voice-overs so they had to share the fun with others.
One thing I discovered in binge-watching DS is how utterly annoying the 1795 plot became as you heard the same voice-over virtually every episode. I can almost recite it from memory now: "A seance has been held at the Great House of Collinwood. A seance which was suspended time and space, and sent a young woman on a frightening and uncertain journey into the past....back to the year 1795. There, those she meets resemble present-day members of the Collins family---only the names and relationships have changed. And Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger...in a sea of familiar faces." [/pulls out hair and screams]
One thing I discovered in binge-watching DS is how utterly annoying the 1795 plot became as you heard the same voice-over virtually every episode. I can almost recite it from memory now: "A seance has been held at the Great House of Collinwood. A seance which was suspended time and space, and sent a young woman on a frightening and uncertain journey into the past....back to the year 1795. There, those she meets resemble present-day members of the Collins family---only the names and relationships have changed. And Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger...in a sea of familiar faces." [/pulls out hair and screams]
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no Burke #2 was played without looking lol buy a guy named Anthony George who was very good in the role actually both of them were good in it as a matter of fact though i've always wished he had stayed on longer than he did but if i recall he had only signed on for so many months and he never really looked back when he did do his last episode i don't think. #2 is played by the guy that played Jason McGuire and also on Dallas as well he played Vaughn Leland a guy named Dennis Patrick i remembered his 1st name but i forgot his last name. he was a damn good actor in anything he ever did he also if i recall the 1st guy to play a vampire on tv way back in the 50's if i recall. i wonder if that still even exists? as Jason McGuire he used his real voice i recall him saying but as any other character he ever played i think he used a different one such as on Dallas for one.
as a matter of fact the reason they stopped using Vicki as the Narrator was a cost cutting measure it was to save money they at some point got tired of paying Alexandra Moltke money to do a voice-over in episodes she wasn't even needed in. i can see that though you cannot Tell a show like Lost in Space in the 60's was the most expensive tv show to make on tv at the time though you can't tell cause some of the FX have not aged well & the same thing goes for DS they look awful today but they were prolly scary back than well DS was VERY Expensive to make and they 99% of the time always used the 1st take unless an actor hated their take they would than swear and they'd be force to redo it Frid is one that would do this. in fact he thought he was terrible in his 1st year even though he wasn't i don't think, anyways, it was very expensive back than to have to do another take.
i will say that some actors left the show left because they had trouble reading the teleprompter and so they were replaced. Nearly all the doctor woodward's left because of that i think. one which was the 2nd one i think Robert Gerringer was one that was fired because in 1967 they had a strike going on outside or something i forget what it was or it could be a bunch of folks against the war i can't remember off the top of my head well he refused to cross it to go into the studio and was fired for it. David Ford also had issues reading it and even Alexandra Moltke had trouble reading it as well because she wears glasses while reading and i'd say she should have worn contacts but i don't even know if they even were around back in the 60's to be honest. one of my favorite stories is the one where Louis Edmonds
i wish i knew which episode this was in but sadly i don't where he was in his dressing room and had thought he was done filming for the day when he was told to get back on set right away and so he grabbed a jacket that Roger would wear and went on stage in his boxers and the camera of course didn't pan down i doubt they could even show that on tv in the 60's.
what makes it even more funny was everyone there ran to watch him film in his boxers the scene and they got the shot they needed but it's just still too funny
as a matter of fact the reason they stopped using Vicki as the Narrator was a cost cutting measure it was to save money they at some point got tired of paying Alexandra Moltke money to do a voice-over in episodes she wasn't even needed in. i can see that though you cannot Tell a show like Lost in Space in the 60's was the most expensive tv show to make on tv at the time though you can't tell cause some of the FX have not aged well & the same thing goes for DS they look awful today but they were prolly scary back than well DS was VERY Expensive to make and they 99% of the time always used the 1st take unless an actor hated their take they would than swear and they'd be force to redo it Frid is one that would do this. in fact he thought he was terrible in his 1st year even though he wasn't i don't think, anyways, it was very expensive back than to have to do another take.
i will say that some actors left the show left because they had trouble reading the teleprompter and so they were replaced. Nearly all the doctor woodward's left because of that i think. one which was the 2nd one i think Robert Gerringer was one that was fired because in 1967 they had a strike going on outside or something i forget what it was or it could be a bunch of folks against the war i can't remember off the top of my head well he refused to cross it to go into the studio and was fired for it. David Ford also had issues reading it and even Alexandra Moltke had trouble reading it as well because she wears glasses while reading and i'd say she should have worn contacts but i don't even know if they even were around back in the 60's to be honest. one of my favorite stories is the one where Louis Edmonds
i wish i knew which episode this was in but sadly i don't where he was in his dressing room and had thought he was done filming for the day when he was told to get back on set right away and so he grabbed a jacket that Roger would wear and went on stage in his boxers and the camera of course didn't pan down i doubt they could even show that on tv in the 60's.
what makes it even more funny was everyone there ran to watch him film in his boxers the scene and they got the shot they needed but it's just still too funny
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It's kind of fun watching Gerringer in the role of crusading, moralistic Dr. Woodard, since my first exposure to him was when he played Del Emerson on The Edge of Night, a hammy con-man who was barely able to stay one step ahead of his scheming.
I recall Dennis Patrick being asked back to play Paul Stoddard in that awful Leviathan storyline, with the producers ignoring the past story of Jason McGuire and Paul Stoddard being co-conspirators/friends. Given all the crazy ways they created multiple roles for the main cast, this was not all that odd.
Speaking of the TelePrompTer, I always assumed it had a key role in making Julia Hoffman so "introspective," squinting while saying her lines, so frequently looking in the opposite direction of the character she's talking to. I guess on the Old House set she could blame it on the bad lighting.
In the same vein as Louis Edmonds's return to the set sans pants, there is the episode where they HAD finished filming the scenes, but needed to do the closing "beauty shot," where they superimpose the credits over a shot of one of the (empty) sets used in the episode. The camera was rolling and the names were scrolling up the screen when suddenly Jonathan Frid dashed across the set, putting on his jacket to leave. He was so eager to leave that he did not notice they were filming. They capture the look on his face when he realizes he's walked into the shot, and of course he quickly tries to get out of view. I can't remember if the whole shot was broadcast (I've seen it in youtube clips but can't recall seeing it at the end of an actual episode) but knowing them....it probably got left in.
I recall Dennis Patrick being asked back to play Paul Stoddard in that awful Leviathan storyline, with the producers ignoring the past story of Jason McGuire and Paul Stoddard being co-conspirators/friends. Given all the crazy ways they created multiple roles for the main cast, this was not all that odd.
Speaking of the TelePrompTer, I always assumed it had a key role in making Julia Hoffman so "introspective," squinting while saying her lines, so frequently looking in the opposite direction of the character she's talking to. I guess on the Old House set she could blame it on the bad lighting.
In the same vein as Louis Edmonds's return to the set sans pants, there is the episode where they HAD finished filming the scenes, but needed to do the closing "beauty shot," where they superimpose the credits over a shot of one of the (empty) sets used in the episode. The camera was rolling and the names were scrolling up the screen when suddenly Jonathan Frid dashed across the set, putting on his jacket to leave. He was so eager to leave that he did not notice they were filming. They capture the look on his face when he realizes he's walked into the shot, and of course he quickly tries to get out of view. I can't remember if the whole shot was broadcast (I've seen it in youtube clips but can't recall seeing it at the end of an actual episode) but knowing them....it probably got left in.