How Is That Not Out? Biggest Head Scratchers By Decade. (1 Viewer)

[FanCollector]

You’re exactly right about Barney Miller. It was purposeful, though. They would leave trash on the set when the cast and crew brought in food or papers or whatever, so as to make it seem more “lived-in” and dingier. Certainly the paint and the color scheme suggested the grungy feel, but they used whatever additional techniques they could to make the set feel that way.

 

[Ed Lachmann]

Bachelor Father was a great show. The reruns used to air on Antenna TV (I think) a few years ago. I'd watch it whenever I caught it scanning through channels. How many seasons were there? I doubt too many. It was a fun show though.

Bachelor Father, number ONE on my most wanted list. Can't believe it hasn't had a DVD release yet. Just loved that show.

 

[Ron1973]

You’re exactly right about Barney Miller. It was purposeful, though. They would leave trash on the set when the cast and crew brought in food or papers or whatever, so as to make it seem more “lived-in” and dingier. Certainly the paint and the color scheme suggested the grungy feel, but they used whatever additional techniques they could to make the set feel that way.

I'm not knocking the show by any means. I didn't know about the trash, etc.-interesting!

 

[MatthewA]

I know the early 70s marked a clear change in the colors used in films as well. They went from that bright technicolor Disney look of the mid to late 60s to that drab colorless stuff in the early 70s. I remember how drab Love Story (71) looked in particular and many other films of that era. TV of that era followed suit. The Lear shows, MTM, Bob Newhart, Barney Miller,etc. It seemed bright colors didn't return until the early 80s.
It would make an interesting study to find out why.

It coincided with the Western obsession with Indian culture—think of the Beatles and the Maharishi, or Sammy Davis Jr.'s Nehru jacket phase—and the development of higher-speed negative stock.* Unfortunately, it also coincided with the end of dye-transfer printing (mainly used for movies but they tried to make a low-contrast version for TV film chains that was seldom used), while low-fade negatives and prints didn't come around until the early 1980s after Martin Scorsese's public campaign, the same time when TV stations started to switch from running film prints on film chains to getting tape for everything, and the development of the 3:2 pulldown eliminated the "ghosting" effect that's obvious in pre-1982 TV broadcasts and even some early studio home video releases.

Disney was the exception because they tried to do things the old-fashioned way as long as they could until around 1979/1980 when they decided to start modernizing everything to catch up to other studio's techniques. At least they kept the animation department open, which Warner Bros. didn't and left to others until Spielberg convinced them to get back into it.

*I also believe the smog in large cities, especially New York and LA, affected the judgement of people in power in the entertainment industry. I don't know how you would prove that in a study, though.

 

[Frank Soyke]

Gotta confess film elements and the technical stuff is not my field of expertise. What exactly is "ghosting?"
My guess is the black outline that appears behind characters that I have seen in early videotaped black and white shows.

 

[MatthewA]

It's when two frames look like they're blended together as one. You can see it when you freeze frame it. Even in the credits of this show, you can see the difference between the film parts of the city and the video parts of Archie and Edith playing piano.

 

[Neil Brock]

Bachelor Father, number ONE on my most wanted list. Can't believe it hasn't had a DVD release yet. Just loved that show.

Why is that so hard to believe? Its a show which up until Antenna TV ran it, hadn't been seen anywhere since CBN in the early 80s. Not exactly an in demand series.

 

[Neil Brock]

I gotta say that I watched NOTG on Cozi for the first time a while back. Never had seen it in reruns . I was optimistic given the stellar cast, but no offense to fans of the show, but I found it very boring and slow moving. I was very disappointed

Good guest stars but the shows really are padded to make 90 minutes. The shows would play better at 60 minute length.

 

[Neil Brock]

I'm still undecided about Please Don't Eat the Daisies. I saw a couple episodes on Warner Archive. I don't see any place that describes the show in b&w one season and color the next, but one episode I watched was in b&w. It was the pilot; maybe just the pilot was in b&w. Anyone know?

A few shows in 1965 had black and white pilots. Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, Hank and Daisies come quickly to mind. There may be others.

 

[Regulus]

A few shows in 1965 had black and white pilots. Get Smart, Hogan's Heroes, Hank and Daisies come quickly to mind. There may be others.

There are, The first season of the "Forest Ranger" version of Lassie (1964-1965) was filmed in "Beautiful Black and White".

 

[Pathfiner]

The Name of The Game with 70-75 minute episodes like the Mystery Movies, The Virginian and Cimmaron Strip was very slow moving compared with the 50 minute average cop and Detective or western TV shows

For example the award winning (and seemingly never off our TV stations here !) Columbo works even tho' it moves at a elderly snails pace.... minus any realistic credibility, fights or action besides the murder - and has the formula of Columbo immediately knowing who the killer is - and the ending where often the killer trips themselves up or has made a silly slip Columbo has picked up on etc - it's very much a formula show but is liked by many (Columbo only once gets beaten up, never uses a gun etc so it meets the 'non violent' TV criteria fully)

so super fast pacing and mega exciting punch ups or explosive endings - often followed by a smug tag scene jokey ending (complete with a bit by bit explanation of the plot for the benefit of those viewers who still haven't grasped it ! - see Ironside or Diagnosis Murder etc for examples of this) - isn't always required to make a show work (a show like Columbo proves that point - in TNOTG Tony Franciosa's 'Jeff Dillon' was rather like the later Columbo in doggedly going after his target with a razor sharp attention to detail and a 'nuisance' persistence - Dillon couldn't even fight that well either !)

- TNOTG with it's far slower style probably would appear rather boring to some today, but back then attempted to expand the normal TV show approach somewhat re it's stories and whilst not 100% a rule generally it had three different types of segments episode themes - current affairs (Franciosa), crime (Stack) and big business or political games of chess plus the 'offbeat' episodes (Barry)

the Robert Stack segment had the most action but even that is slow paced - and especially by today's 42 minute episodes standards

COZI TV only screened around 32 or so episodes of TNOTG - some strong ones I don't think were aired included;

'The Prisoner Within', 'Collector's Edition', 'Shine On Jesse Gil', 'Jenny Wilde is Drowning', 'The Black Answer', 'The Other Kind of Spy', 'The Enemy Before Us' (Franciosa)

'The Taker', 'The Protector', 'Lola in Lipstick', 'The Third Choice', 'The Broken Puzzle', 'High Card', 'An Agent of The Plaintiff' (Barry)

'High on A Rainbow', 'Give Till it Hurts', 'Witness', 'The Bobby Currier Story', 'The Skin Game', 'The Cowboys'', 'The Suntan Mob' (Stack)

while 'Appointment in Palermo' (Barry) and 'The King of Denmark' (Franciosa / Susan Saint James) which COZI screened were in my opinion the two weakest episodes of the show !

it's all opinions of course, but I really loved TNOTG - it's 'feature film' slower pace didn't ever bother me at all