Let's go outside ..."

[James from London]

Someone tweeted that General Hospital was the first US daytime soap to film an exterior scene, in 1978. But then someone posted this fun scene from Edge of the Night in 1975.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1443666206175662085

Maybe those exterior inserts early on in Dark Shadows don't qualify for some reason. (Coronation Street started filming outside of the studios as far back as the really early '60s. followed by Peyton Place and Crossroads a few years later, but they definitely don't qualify as daytime soaps.)

 

[Daniel Avery]

Kin Shriner has been playing Scotty Baldwin on GH on and off for over 40 years (and still going strong), but yeah...he was mistaken about GH being the first soap to go out of the studio to do remotes. Perhaps he meant this was the first sustained, multi-episode project and not just a few quick scenes.

I don't have actual footage, but I've read stories that The Edge of Night actually did outdoor remotes in New York City as early as the late-1950s, using the rooftops of various buildings (not just their studio) to simulate the show's fictional town, Monticello. Since the show was done live back then, it's even more of an accomplishment, IMO---and would explain why the scenes were done on easily-controlled venues like rooftops. The scene mentioned above where crazy Serena shot her husband was also notable because Edge of Night's transition from CBS to ABC was also their transition from performing everything live to taping their episodes. I'm sure the entire cast and crew was thrilled to finally transition out of doing the show live every day, since such a splashy event could not have been done in the live days.

 

[tommie]

A huge part of why outdoor scenes weren't used was because even when they weren't completely live, they were still filmed as live because editing the video tape was expensive - I think those early shots in Dark Shadows weren't so much cut into the episodes as much as they literally filmed a screen showing the footage, hence why they look really grainy.

If Edge of Night did shoot outside, then I assume they must've had a feed going back to the studio and couldn't stray far from where they shot the main show.

I doubt it's been properly researched which soap first did proper outdoor shoots. Not sure if I'd count the cut-ins on early Dark Shadows since there was no talking in them.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Now that you mention it, there was a scene in a DS episode where Carolyn, upset and needing time to think, was seen walking on the beach (a real beach, not a set). The clip was short and it was filmed from such a distance that it might very well have been a stand-in wearing a blond wig, but I recall it being dropped into an episode. I haven't watched the pre-Barn episodes in ages, so I'm not sure if there were other such scenes earlier than this---usually, if they're going to do remotes, they will film a stack of material they can sprinkle through numerous episodes. And the time period around the launch of a new show is often the only time the network will approve/pay for remote shooting. And of course DS was taped during its entire run, so they had less struggles than shows that went out live to the nation.

 

[tommie]

Now that you mention it, there was a scene in a DS episode where Carolyn, upset and needing time to think, was seen walking on the beach (a real beach, not a set). The clip was short and it was filmed from such a distance that it might very well have been a stand-in wearing a blond wig, but I recall it being dropped into an episode. I haven't watched the pre-Barn episodes in ages, so I'm not sure if there were other such scenes earlier than this---usually, if they're going to do remotes, they will film a stack of material they can sprinkle through numerous episodes. And the time period around the launch of a new show is often the only time the network will approve/pay for remote shooting. And of course DS was taped during its entire run, so they had less struggles than shows that went out live to the nation.

Yes, I think it was during the episodes where Roger had dropped his pen on the beach? Wasn't there also shots of Victoria on that beach finding the pen?

Edit: episode 75 is where Victoria finds the pen, but I imagine they might've taken the opportunity to get some of the cast out there to shoot multiple scenes. I think Roger also has a scene there where he tries to find the pen around these episodes.

75

At Lookout Point, Victoria finds the missing fountain pen that Burke gave to Carolyn. My name is Victoria Winters. I am no longer a stranger at Collinwood. Whether I want it or not, the people who live in this great mansion on Widows' Hill have become part of my life. And now I can only hope for...

darkshadows.fandom.com

IIRC, DS also had a scene where Josette's ghost dances around outside the exterior of the old mansion.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I kept trying to recall where I read the stories about Edge of Night's remote shooting, and then I remembered:

Locations (edgehomepage.com)

I mis-remembered part of the story, though--they did actually pre-tape some of the later remotes in the 1960s and dropped the material into the otherwise live episodes. The earliest remotes, however, were in fact staged and performed live.

They also discuss the famous explosion of Adam and Drake's boat, The Sprite. That boat explosion is my earliest memory of a soap opera, so I can't believe I did not immediately recall the scene when this thread started. My mom and I were visiting her friend Linda, and I was playing on the floor in front of the TV as they sat on the sofa talking about the show. When they showed the boat exploding, my mom and her friend gasped in shock and went all "OMG", since Adam and Nicole was their Big Couple and all. I was all of four years old, and seeing them shocked and upset made me even more shocked and upset, since...well, four year olds don't need much encouragement to get upset and start crying. I'm sure Adam and Nicole were pretty shocked, too. It's one of those weird snapshots in time that stick in your mind.

 

[tommie]

I mis-remembered part of the story, though--they did actually pre-tape some of the later remotes in the 1960s and dropped the material into the otherwise live episodes. The earliest remotes, however, were in fact staged and performed live.

I'd be curious if these had proper dialogue in it or not - as I said, the reason why the Dark Shadows cut-ins didn't have any dialogue was because they essentially filmed the scenes from a projector instead of properly cutting them into the episode, hence the low quality of those scenes. I imagine Edge might've done something similar since cameras/microphones etc weren't as portable today. Plus, I'm always dubious about these sort of things that are mostly based on people remembering things - they tend to make it sound more grand than it probably was.

Unfortunately, I don't think any episodes with these "live" sequences have popped up yet.

 

[James from London]

All very interesting. All I can add is from a non-daytime, UK perspective. In 1961, CORONATION STREET took its characters on a day trip to Blackpool where we see them frolicking at the seaside, but without any sound save a piano music accompaniment, so the whole thing plays like a sequence from a silent film. I guess the novelty of seeing the cast away from their familiar setting was considered sufficiently interesting. A year later, however, there's a group of neighbours having a picnic in the park, complete with dialogue and a car accidentally reversing into a lake; a sequence of another character wandering frantically through nearby streets looking for her missing baby; and, most memorably, a woman standing on the roof of a real-life factory threatening to throw herself off, again with dialogue, intercut with studio-based footage of the neighbours "watching" anxiously from the street below.

Cut to twenty years later and you've got BROOKSIDE, a soap which takes place entirely on location, the primary setting being in a genuine real-life cul-de-sac owned by the production company, where the characters lived in an actual houses, which meant you could have an unbroken shot starting in one house then going outside, crossing the street, and entering another.

 

[Chris2]

The first episode of Ryan’s Hope in the summer of 1975 began with a brief scene of Mary Ryan walking down a New York City street to Ryan’s Bar.

 

[ChrisSumner]

Not so much an early case of outdoor shooting, but I've been watching The Bold and the Beautiful since it's being uploaded to YouTube and I love the regular use of location footage. It's not always a major event, but even a small shopping trip, or the characters outside the Forrester mansion. Since the show is filmed in LA and set there, that makes it easier. A few years ago they brought back the semi-regular location shooting with some permanent sets on the studio lot, trips to Aspen, etc., but lately it's gone back to mainly studio which sucks. Of course I say this as the show currently is airing two weeks of shows shot in Monaco, so maybe they're going to start bringing the location shooting back.

 

[tommie]

Not so much an early case of outdoor shooting, but I've been watching The Bold and the Beautiful since it's being uploaded to YouTube and I love the regular use of location footage. It's not always a major event, but even a small shopping trip, or the characters outside the Forrester mansion. Since the show is filmed in LA and set there, that makes it easier. A few years ago they brought back the semi-regular location shooting with some permanent sets on the studio lot, trips to Aspen, etc., but lately it's gone back to mainly studio which sucks. Of course I say this as the show currently is airing two weeks of shows shot in Monaco, so maybe they're going to start bringing the location shooting back.

DAYS had Salem Place through the 90s and mid-2000s, which was a real outdoor set on the backlot - it really added a lot to the show. Unfortunately, they stopped using it with the excuse that there was construction going on outside, making it impossible to shoot there. Of course, it never re-appeared (and is a parking lot now, which was probably always the plan) and they replaced it Horton Town Square, set-based and seems to be ever-shrinking these DAYS.

 

[ChrisSumner]

DAYS had Salem Place through the 90s and mid-2000s, which was a real outdoor set on the backlot - it really added a lot to the show. Unfortunately, they stopped using it with the excuse that there was construction going on outside, making it impossible to shoot there. Of course, it never re-appeared (and is a parking lot now, which was probably always the plan) and they replaced it Horton Town Square, set-based and seems to be ever-shrinking these DAYS.

That Horton Town Square has always been a confusing and odd set. It reminds me of Main Street on Guiding Light which also got increasingly small and bizarre as the budget was cut.

 

[Daniel Avery]

....and no matter how "cutting edge" they claim the lighting technology is, those studio sets meant to look like outdoor sets are never lit realistically.

 

[ChrisSumner]

....and no matter how "cutting edge" they claim the lighting technology is, those studio sets meant to look like outdoor sets are never lit realistically.

Strangely enough, I do think they were more successful in the past. I've seen old episodes of Another World, Y&R and B&B that have somewhat convincing outdoor studio sets. I do think it can be done, but as you said, the lighting is key.

 

[cijimccashin]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but would like to add AMC tidbits.:

-Erica Kane and Tom Cudahy honeymoon (1978)in St. Croix was supposedly the first on location shoot outside the United States.

In the show last few year's, All My Children filmed quite a few times on location. They spent the fall and winter of 2007 in this huge NYC forest with real leaves and trees. I honestly felt it added some character and realness to the show.

And once they moved the show to California they used this beautiful local park where they filmed pretty regularly until it's cancelation.

I even remember them filming scenes outside a real mansion for the Chandler family home. And showing a drunk Jr driving around.

 

[tommie]

That Horton Town Square has always been a confusing and odd set. It reminds me of Main Street on Guiding Light which also got increasingly small and bizarre as the budget was cut.

Oh yes, I have no idea how the actual layout is supposed to work and what is meant to be where - the park bench set is also turning out to be a classic place for characters to have loud conversations and for other people to hear. It's supposedly next to it?

I miss Salem Place like crazy. Apparently it was actually very small but it added so much open-ness to the set. I did like when they went around the studio lot for the time jump and actually filmed around the offices. A lot of people had Peapack flashbacks though, but I thought it looked good for once (Kristen accidentally killing Haley / Will and Abby having a conversation in a real office - remember that these people once had jobs?).