FreddieMertz Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 It never fails to amaze me how terrible this is. Sometimes when I have friends over I'll show them the bucket scene just because it's so incredibly bad. I don't know if it's because I'm watching it on a big TV, but you can see all of the wires and stunt doubles and it makes me cringe. There's also some super imposing or something going on. When the bucket is swinging back and forth towards the camera, some of the buildings appear on the people hanging out of the bucket! It's hard to explain, so just rewatch the scene and look for that. Anyway, similar opinions on this one? Disagreements? Anyone know what was up with the green screen of the buildings? It would be appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 This one ranks the lowest for me but I think I have come to the conclusion I don't like Milton. I can handle him on a good episode like the LS one with Lucy as his assistant because it's funny. This one is a weak script and it's too much Milton so I'm very bored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 When viewed on our Packard Bell TV set in the 60s (the one that needed 5 minutes to warm up), we didn't notice the use of doubles or the wires so maybe they just assumed that TV sets of the era weren't sharp enough to pick up those things. This one suffers from not having an audience, the technique that Desilu made popular, then abandoned for the last half of the hour shows. The over-active audience response may have been standard for the time but it's irritating in this one. I like the Mildred scene but little else. It also suffers from bad direction. Desi may have been a jack-of-all-trades but his 3 LDCH's have too many sloppy moments suggesting that Desi was spreading himself too thin. I've grown to love Bob Cummings/Japan. The scene is the geisha house would have been more hilarious had it been tightened up. "Toyko Pete" unfortunately stops the show cold in its tracks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreddieMertz Posted July 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 I've read that there was a small audience present for MBHOATR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Which three did Desi direct? Berle, Cummings and . . . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Fred . . . .Fred . . . . OH FRED! I guess anytime a major star appeared with them, staff, fans, and relatives and friends would just show up to BE THERE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 This being a half century later, people forget that Milton was Mr Television and he was Mr Tuesday Night and before Lucy happened along, HE was the King of television and sold more sets than anybody. So, I always loved him in anything, but, maybe her writers felt with him ON the show, they didn't need to provide perfect writing. Which often happened to Lucy when SHE guest starred on other people's shows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 And Kovacs. How could you forget because him directing is part of the last episode story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 Oh yeah, of course, sorry, I'ZE AN OLD OLD MAN AND I FORGET EVERYTHING. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil Posted July 2, 2014 Report Share Posted July 2, 2014 I've read that there was a small audience present for MBHOATR. What they lacked in number, they made up in VOLUME. It surely was sweetened......to the point of causing diabetes. Madelyn told me that the hour shows took so long, they served lunch and cake to the audience at the mid-point. Sure treated studio audiences a whole lot different in those days. I can't tell if there's an audience for the non-location scenes in Alaska, but seems like there is one in Lamas/SunValley for the indoor scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvsbway Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 I bet long for the hour longs was 3 hours. Now that is considered quick for a 22 min show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 I know, when Joey mentioned once how long it took for a show like Friends to get through that lousy twenty minutes plus yet took hours and hours, wonder how they expect an audience to laugh non stop when they put them through that tedious and long procedure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowpeck Posted July 3, 2014 Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 At least when I saw "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men" in person, the warm-up guy was moderately funny and they provided free pizza and bottled water at the halfway point of each show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FreddieMertz Posted July 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2014 How long did each of those tapings take? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeySanJoaquin Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 How long did each of those tapings take? How long did each of those tapings take? BBT was one of the shortest tapings I've been to in years and came in at about 2 1/2 hours, everything else in the last few years I've seen, including Reba's "Malibu Country" pilot and and ep of 2.5 Men (Sheen was still present) took about 4 - 4.5 hours.... If you're not accustomed to the process and/or find it fascinating as I do, the first couple of hours aren't so bad...but even for me as much as I love going, once it stretches beyond the three hour mark it does begin to get tedious!!! Oh for the "good old days" when they didn't rewrite the script "on the floor" and reshoot scenes over & over again --- 5 or 6 times!! -- just to try a different punchline!! Craziness!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowpeck Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 How long did each of those tapings take? They were both about 3 hours or so. This was right after the writer's strike in 2008, during the first season of BBT and when Sheen was still on 2.5 Men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 5, 2014 Report Share Posted July 5, 2014 I agree with joey, as interesting as it would be, that kind of time is just ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nertz2mertz Posted July 6, 2014 Report Share Posted July 6, 2014 When viewed on our Packard Bell TV set in the 60s (the one that needed 5 minutes to warm up), we didn't notice the use of doubles or the wires so maybe they just assumed that TV sets of the era weren't sharp enough to pick up those things. This one suffers from not having an audience, the technique that Desilu made popular, then abandoned for the last half of the hour shows. The over-active audience response may have been standard for the time but it's irritating in this one. I like the Mildred scene but little else. It also suffers from bad direction. Desi may have been a jack-of-all-trades but his 3 LDCH's have too many sloppy moments suggesting that Desi was spreading himself too thin. I've grown to love Bob Cummings/Japan. The scene is the geisha house would have been more hilarious had it been tightened up. "Toyko Pete" unfortunately stops the show cold in its tracks. I agree that this episode wasn't the best. The one thing I noticed about the episode was how Desi's real life problems were coming through his acting and he looked older than his actual age. Lucy didn't look too comfortable either unless I'm wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upperco Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 Regarding the audience: 1, 2, 7, and 9 were done entirely with the audience. The only episodes in which the audience was completely absent were 10, 12, and 13. Partial audience for 3 (the chase scenes excluded), 4 (I don't *think* the race was filmed with an audience, but I could be wrong), 5 (obviously the outdoor scenes excluded), 6 (we know this because we have seen some footage sans laughter, but it's possible that none of it was filmed with an audience), 8 (the entire plane sequence excluded), and 11 (completely sweetened, but it's possible that an audience may have been there for all except the bucket scene -- and the closing musical number). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C L A U D E Posted July 7, 2014 Report Share Posted July 7, 2014 Thanks for the clarification. Always see your name at the bottom but so seldom do you post. This one was well worth the wait, thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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