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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 12, 2022 2:41:45 GMT
First of all--I was watching Police Woman and read a comment by someone that the women who co-starred on the show had to be made to look as plain as possible so as to make Pepper Anderson look better. You do notice that in the series.
They make the women look as non glamorous as possible.
But other shows do it too,
In Kojak for example there is a running theme about hair.
The less you got, the more cool you are. It's undeniable. I have watched the show--and in the first several episodes you notice this--the guys with hair are either victims or crooks. And I jumped to season 3 and it is the same thing.
And I have been watching HARRY O and one episode was pretty funny because you see David Janssen walking by a pool--and he looks miserable etc..and a young woman in a bikini is passing by and turns--looks at him, and smiles---he does not see her.
That was not an accident. This was shot in a closed set environment. There was a McCloud episode where he is walking along a street in New York and passes a woman who turns around and looks back and smiles--she obviously recognized him and turned around. That was not the case with Harry O--it was set and they must have said--let's give him an ego boost. But he wasn't looking so he didn't see her.
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Post by telegonus on Dec 13, 2022 20:14:40 GMT
One thing I've noticed on old shows that seems lost today: better manners, more formal (and I don't mean stuffy) relationships between regular characters; more "respect" is another way to put it. Today, intimacy is the norm (sometimes, I know, it's a kind of faux intimacy), which may also be a reflection of of our very different culture. There's more knowingness, a casualness, which to me seems rather "in yer face". Also, people tend to talk "alike", use similar accents, turns of phrase; and they have easily recognizable social norms that I don't remember from my youth, whether childhood, teen years or young adulthood.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 13, 2022 22:04:22 GMT
Yeah I haven't been watching newer stuff but I do notice the confessional attitude. It's like people are in therapy with someone and very quick to express their feelings (or fake feelings).
Part of it seems to diminish plot action and personal conflict.
Especially since in tv shows they are more like serials or soap operas.
I noticed it in the Sopranos--they would psycho-analyze most of the major characters.
In old tv shows they rarely did that since it was episodic and standalone.
They did it on ST: TNG because they had a counselor character--actually two--the bartender Quinan as well.
Petrocelli for example--there was one episode where his wife mentions the miscarriage from the pilot--"do you ever think about the child?" and he says "yes," and then they go on with the plot of the week.
I have expectations for emotional display if a movie is made after the 70s.
For example I watched Who Dares Win the other day and I was surprised the commando character did not get upset or show any emotional stress that his wife and child were being held hostage--but it makes sense that he didn't show it---because he is supposed to be an elite soldier and the "stiff upper lip" thing.
It's so common now that the male character shows some kind of emotional weakness.
Weird thing though--at the store I saw a father with two small children and one of them started to cry from a fall and he was consoling the child. And I thought to myself--did fathers from 50 years ago do that?
Even the fact that the father was babysitting the children and the mother was presumably working.
This would be unheard of to see in a movie or tv show.
If they did show it--the father was divorced right?
And as I have said repeatedly, what is really noticeable is a softening of voices.
I hear more theatrical voices in the staff working at the supermarket.
Seriously.
But when I catch a new tv show or trailer for a movie--their voices are so mild and even-toned.
Very little expression of emotional extremes, especially anger and passionate belief.
The writing is a culprit too I imagine.
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Post by kirwoodderby on Dec 14, 2022 10:00:10 GMT
I never noticed that about Police Woman, but I bet it's the same for other shows starring women.
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 18, 2022 23:13:27 GMT
I heard Jane Seymour would fret about the women extras behind her in Dr Quinn.
I am surprised since she wasn't going to win an ugly contest but I guess when you are in that sort of thing, you want the focus on yourself and don't want any distractions.
Recently I was at the local post office and a young woman in front of me said she just got back from traveling New York, Los Angeles etc--and she said "Jane Seymour," and then said "she was really nice."
I never got the gist of the conversation but I assume she worked in some kind of film business thing.
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vrkalak
Sophomore
@vrkalak
Posts: 512
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Post by vrkalak on Dec 18, 2022 23:37:01 GMT
Robert Conrad was upset in the Wild Wild West episode, TNOT Ready-Made Corpse, because he felt that Carroll O’Connor was upstaging him. And of course he was…he was great as Fabian Lavender.
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Post by paulslaugh on Dec 19, 2022 8:43:47 GMT
One thing I've noticed on old shows that seems lost today: better manners, more formal (and I don't mean stuffy) relationships between regular characters; more "respect" is another way to put it. Today, intimacy is the norm (sometimes, I know, it's a kind of faux intimacy), which may also be a reflection of of our very different culture. There's more knowingness, a casualness, which to me seems rather "in yer face". Also, people tend to talk "alike", use similar accents, turns of phrase; and they have easily recognizable social norms that I don't remember from my youth, whether childhood, teen years or young adulthood. Characters behaving with better manners, more formal relationships between regular characters; more "respect" is another Hollywood myth. |
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Post by paulslaugh on Dec 19, 2022 8:51:17 GMT
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Post by paulslaugh on Dec 19, 2022 8:53:49 GMT
There are no black people in small Southern towns...or large Northern ones either.  |
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Post by Catman on Dec 19, 2022 11:44:25 GMT
There are no black people in small Southern towns...or large Northern ones either. Well, there was that one time Rockne Tarkington had a speaking part. He even got listed in the closing credits! |
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Dec 21, 2022 5:01:49 GMT
First of all--I was watching Police Woman and read a comment by someone that the women who co-starred on the show had to be made to look as plain as possible so as to make Pepper Anderson look better. You do notice that in the series.
They make the women look as non glamorous as possible.
But other shows do it too,
I Love Lucy was a good example. Even thought Lucy Ricardo was never made to be a sex symbol, Ethel Mertz was always made to be more "frumpy" (for lack of a better term) than Lucy. I think (might be a myth) that Vivian Vance was required or urged to keep more weight than Lucille Ball. It must not have bother Vance to much and she was lifelong friends with Lucy and was in most of her I Love Lucy followups, basically playing another version of Ethel Mertz. And Vance could bear a grudge. You just have to look at what she said about William Frawley post I Love Lucy. Vance was open about how old Frawley looked, saying he was more suited to play her father that her husband. And Frawley, a heavy drinker, constantly berated Vance, as far as to constantly call her "The C**T". There was even a rumor that Vance was going to write an autobiography and call it "I Hate Fred", but Ball talker her out of it.
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Post by paulslaugh on Dec 21, 2022 5:20:54 GMT
First of all--I was watching Police Woman and read a comment by someone that the women who co-starred on the show had to be made to look as plain as possible so as to make Pepper Anderson look better. You do notice that in the series.
They make the women look as non glamorous as possible.
But other shows do it too,
I Love Lucy was a good example. Even thought Lucy Ricardo was never made to be a sex symbol, Ethel Mertz was always made to be more "frumpy" (for lack of a better term) than Lucy. I think (might be a myth) that Vivian Vance was required or urged to keep more weight than Lucille Ball. It must not have bother Vance to much and she was lifelong friends with Lucy and was in most of her I Love Lucy followups, basically playing another version of Ethel Mertz. And Vance could bear a grudge. You just have to look at what she said about William Frawley post I Love Lucy. Vance was open about how old Frawley looked, saying he was more suited to play her father that her husband. And Frawley, a heavy drinker, constantly berated Vance, as far as to constantly call her "The C**T". There was even a rumor that Vance was going to write an autobiography and call it "I Hate Fred", but Ball talker her out of it.
Fred and Ethel are retired vaudevillians, so Ethel being a lot younger than Fred would’ve made sense had they made a point of it in the story. There are plenty of jokes in that. |
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Post by Prime etc. on Dec 21, 2022 7:11:21 GMT
I Love Lucy was a good example. Even thought Lucy Ricardo was never made to be a sex symbol, Ethel Mertz was always made to be more "frumpy" (for lack of a better term) than Lucy. I think (might be a myth) that Vivian Vance was required or urged to keep more weight than Lucille Ball. It must not have bother Vance to much and she was lifelong friends with Lucy and was in most of her I Love Lucy followups, basically playing another version of Ethel Mertz. And Vance could bear a grudge. You just have to look at what she said about William Frawley post I Love Lucy. Vance was open about how old Frawley looked, saying he was more suited to play her father that her husband. And Frawley, a heavy drinker, constantly berated Vance, as far as to constantly call her "The C**T". There was even a rumor that Vance was going to write an autobiography and call it "I Hate Fred", but Ball talker her out of it.
I was amazed when I heard they hated each other. They worked so well together in comedy.
But I guess there's just something about comedians or acting that runs the edge of love and hate and insecurity.
The ALF set. I couldn't believe the stories about how unhappy Max Wright was playing second fiddle to a puppet and how unpleasant it was for everyone else.
Or Kate Mulgrew hating Jeri Ryan. They hid it well.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Dec 22, 2022 1:22:58 GMT
I notice...
Lots and lots of flat, overly-bright lighting.
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Post by marianne48 on Dec 23, 2022 20:55:13 GMT
Nearly everbody back then had a barometer on a wall of their house.
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