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vranger's Replies
One thing to keep in mind is that this show was produced in the VERY early stages of large rear projection screens starting to make their way into homes. The most common TV screens at the time were 19" or 25". It was a lot harder to see those details on the smaller screens. For many years now, most of us are watching this stuff on 55" widescreens, or larger, and the film used to make these shows captured enough detail for us to see those things clearly on the larger screens.
One recent example of this that cracked me up is a scene on the Carol Burnett show, where Harvey Korman and Tim Conway are commandos preparing for a parachute jump. Korman puts pitch on Conway's face. When Conway returns the favor, he puts the pitch in Korman's eyes, his ears, up his nose ...
On big screens, you can clearly see Korman mouth, "You son of a bitch." LOL In the 70s, if they thought you could make that out, it would have never seen the air. :-)
It's very common now for me to see major differences when stuntmen are on the screen, but when I originally saw these shows in the 60s and 70s I never noticed.
Oh come on. "Caper" was great. :-) And it was hilarious. Plus, it gave me my favorite line from the series, and one I often quote: "Plan B is make Plan A work!"
Actually, the ratings were OK and it wasn't cancelled. As happens from time to time with TV series stars, Mancuso got a big head and wanted to move on to "better things". Evidently he thought he was about to be a wildly successful leading man in film.
And as most often occurs, that didn't happen. Actors should learn to ride those TV series as long as they can. The list of TV stars who later became box office gold is short. Clint Eastwood, Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan probably lead that list, and Brosnan had wider success than Moore, whose films outside of Bond aren't that memorable.
It seems like over the years, I've run across "Old Man Out" (2 parter) more often than most.
Steven Hill had a religious issue with the shooting schedule, which put pressure on him to film on the Sabbath. Otherwise you'd have never seen Peter Graves on the series. I have nothing against Hill (and he was great as the DA on Law and Order), but overall I prefer Graves.
In doing some reading on the series last night, I came across information indicating that Pernell Roberts didn't like wearing a toupee, and only did so during filming on Bonanza. The report indicated that he didn't wear it during rehearsal. I agree with you though. He looked better with it.
Reading through the comments, it seems a clean sweep for Barbara Bain. :-) She was a top actress at the time, and MI was lucky to have both her and Landau attached to the series.
Lynda Day George was average, and I suspect more often chosen because of her eye candy factor than the weight of her acting.
That's an interesting idea we can hang onto. :-)
Since the team was always under cover, and the personal lives were never elaborated, let's assume that "Jim Phelps" was a Company identity, handed out at convenience to a current IMF team leader. Therefore the "Jim Phelps" of the movie was actually not the "Jim Phelps" of the TV show. Such a device would certainly confuse rival spy organizations trying to unmask US assets.
For YEARS after Bonanza, Pernell Roberts only got the occasional guest starring role on TV, and that because of his notoriety from Bonanza. The few movies he did were both forgettable and forgotten.
He later acknowledged that it was a big mistake to leave Bonanza, against Lorne Greene's advice.
It must have had a tiny nuclear yield, producing an EMP which fried the robot's circuits while leaving the humans just shy of a lethal dose. ;-)
The virtue of Time Tunnel was that it only lasted one season. Most Irwin Allen shows (sort of) stood up for the first season, then became theater of the absurd.
I actually think that most episodes of LoTG are better than anything after season one on Voyage or Lost in Space.
And it's been back on MeTV's Saturday overnight schedule for some time now.
Again, I think I recall, Roberts told this story on himself years later, and indicated he should have taken Lorne Greene's advice.
You may mean that INTENTIONAL comedy is rare. LOL
Yep. That type of breach is only used in extreme emergencies. But it looks so cool, it is overused in media. :-)
I saw both when I was a kid, and I have to tell you it confused the heck out of me. LOL I saw the movie sometime AFTER the footage was used in Voyage. But I'm not sure I actually saw the Voyage episode, just the preview for it. That added to my confusion, I can tell you! LOL
I was only able to solve this mystery of my youth after information came out on sites like IMDB.
Trek got treated better by critics because most of the scripts were thoughtful, while most Voyage scripts were shit.
When Pernell Roberts decided to leave Bonanza, Lorne Greene advised him not to. Roberts declared that the scripts were terrible. Greene agreed, but noted that they were paying him $80k (IIRC) per episode to deliver those lines. He advised that he'd do it as long as they paid him that. LOL
Roberts left, and his career quickly went nowhere.
I believe it's $25 on Amazon at the moment.
If THRUSH was more competent, why do they always lose in the end?