trail of bread leads off:
Watching a few clips of UK Sitcom Victoria Wood's Dinner Ladies (Lunch ladies for you, I think) they said that each (of the very few) episodes was filmed twice (Friday/Saturday) in front of a live audience. This is of course expensive (VW was indulged by the BBC on the basis that she was actually brilliant), but allowed for rewriting and tweaks to get the best from the episode. I wondered if any USA sitcoms had done something similar.
Yes. In the ‘70s the Norman Lear shows (ALL IN THE FAMILY, MAUDE, GOOD TIMES, ONE DAY AT A TIME, JEFFERSONS, etc.) were all shot on tape.
There were two performances with two different audiences. 5 PM and 8 PM. After the 5 PM the writers would sometimes tweak the script. What you saw on the air was the best take from each of those performances.
From Joe:
I've been watching a lot of MASH during social distancing, and it seems like Charles Emerson Winchester was Frasier Crane before Frasier Crane: Smart, snobbish, thrown in with a group of zany characters, with whom he's initially standoffish but comes to be more a part of the gang and displays a lot of depth. So with that long-winded intro, I think if any MASH spinoff would have worked, it would have been with Charles. What do you think?
It was my understanding that David was approached about doing the sequel but was not interested. And in future years he rarely took part in any MASH retrospectives. He didn’t want to only be associated with Charles Winchester.
I wasn’t there for the origination of AfterMASH. It was Larry Gelbart who came up with the concept and wrote the pilot. Larry also was present most of the first season.
The reason David Isaacs and I joined AfterMASH was the chance to work on a daily basis with Larry Gelbart. And it proved to be an experience worth its weight in gold. We learned so much and so enjoyed his company – despite the outcome of the series it was a once-in-a-lifetime incredible experience because of Larry Gelbart.
WB Jax queries:
I wanted to know if you ever met the late (film music composer) James Horner or if you and/or David attended any of the "Volunteers" scoring sessions. If so, can you share some memories about the sessions or about James Horner?
Unfortunately, no. Our only involvement in the music was to select the oldie used over the main titles (“Blue Moon” by the Marcells).
Otherwise, we were totally out of the loop. And to be honest, James Horner, at the time, was not as established as he would become, so we didn’t go “Wow! We got James Horner!”
But he was a phenomenal talent and died way too young (61). The music might be the best part of VOLUNTEERS.
And finally, from Bryan Price:
Ken - You mentioned in a previous post thinking that the SF Giants were loaded with some of the best broadcasters on a team. (I agree - it's a great foursome.) Can you think of another team that has four broadcasters with such high talent?
This is subjective, of course. But in my opinion: The Mets, the Padres, the Rangers, the Rays, the Phillies, the Braves, the Cubs, the Brewers.
Other teams might have a great TV crew and lousy radio guys or vice versa. Pretty much every team has at least one good announcer.
But for my money, the best of the best in radio and TV combined are the Giants, the Mets, and the Padres.
from By Ken Levine
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