I did notice one mistake...Episodes 4 and 6 have the same end credits..they belong with Episode 4...none of the guest stars for Episode 6 are credited.
That probably is not surprising there are mistakes as the network probably did little work to clean the episodes up. I was surprised with the cast reunion that more was not talk about with regards to Ralph Macchio being on the show. Ralph's first big break before he did the karate kid movies. I had many gals i went to school that had posters of Ralph from the Karate Kid days!!eric scott richard said:I did notice one mistake...Episodes 4 and 6 have the same end credits..they belong with Episode 4...none of the guest stars for Episode 6 are credited.
Hi Eric,eric scott richard said:I'm thinking the mistake was a result of the chaos that must have ensued following Hyland's death. Episodes were shown out of order, and this may have been an oversight. It may have been corrected for later airings. I'm thinking these transfers are from the negatives because the detail and contrast are excellent.
sjbradford said:I don't think Buckley was "universally hated". But I do think there was a period of adjustment. Buckley was used to doing Broadway and features, where you have the time to do lots of rehearsals (and retakes). Willie Aames, I believe, said that some of the cast had issues with how much rehearsal Buckley wanted to do at first, but once she adjusted to television, it wasn't a problem. There was also a problem with a Christmas gift Buckley gave to her younger co-stars her first year on the show - a book on acting (by Lee Strasberg, I believe). Some of the kids took this as Buckley's way of telling them that they weren't good actors (while others looked to the gift as Buckley's way of mentoring the younger actors).
But I don't think the kids were especially close to her as they were with Van Patten. And I remember reading that they didn't shed any tears when she didn't do the reunion movies in the late 80s.
Your comments make sense since the show was based on raising a family of 8 kids.My guess is Diane Hyland bonded immediately with the kids and replacing her was difficult as the actors were attached to her. The studio tried to add Betty Buckley in S2, but, there appear some chemistry issues early on and maybe that had to do with the strain relationship and/or cast not accepting Betty Buckley. However, i did notice from S3 on that the series seem to adjust better to Betty Buckley. My only question is to the rationale why Ralph Macchio was added as the nephew of Betty Buckley. Could it be that kids were getting older and they needed another young adult with different issues to add more to the story lines? Ralph Macchio was young and up in coming star that broke ice with a few movies before he gained a role on eight is enough.eric scott richard said:Thanks for the info!
Pilot episodes aren't generally shorter, except of course if it is a TV-movie pilot. It is also not uncommon for extended tv movie pilots to be trimmed down to episode length for reasons of syndication and allotted time slots. I think 47-48 minutes (PAL speed) was standard for a U.S. hour tv show in 1977.vnisanian2001 said:Excellent information, Neil. Thank you for sharing it.
Even though it's uncut, why is the pilot episode only 47:34 long? Are pilot episodes generally shorter than actual series episodes?
I had my friend check on the pilot and it runs around 49 minutes, give or take a few seconds, no different than the normal running time for the other episodes from that season. Without doing a complete side by side viewing, he doesn't see any noticeable cuts so right now the thought is that the DVD pilot is taken from a tape that was timesped for syndication. If I hear anything differently from him, I'll post it, but for now that what it appears to be.vnisanian2001 said:Excellent information, Neil. Thank you for sharing it.
Even though it's uncut, why is the pilot episode only 47:34 long? Are pilot episodes generally shorter than actual series episodes?