The Aaron Spelling Thread

[Daniel Avery]

It had the laugh track, and also had the "awkward pauses" where the actors intentionally stopped talking for a second or so to accommodate the canned laughter. When a show is recorded without the audience present, but the laugh track is to be included later in post-production, they often instruct the actors to do a brief pause so that the laughter doesn't "step on" the next line.

Seeing these episodes with the laugh track removed must have been strange---seeing the characters say something funny, then pause a bit before the next character said their line and waited, etc. Then again, a lot of Love Boat was awkward, so maybe it wasn't noticeable. The most awkward bit I saw (and saw often) was the actors attempting to sell a serious romantic scene as they stood in front of a bad rear projection of the ocean, as if they're on the deck of a ship. It always takes me out of the scene.

 

[darkshadows38]

well M.A.S.H. one of the greatest shows of all time did have a laugh track at first. just not during the surgery scenes if i recall

 

[Monzo]

MASH didn't have laugh track in my area either. I guess it's just about what you are used to, same with original version or dubbed version. I'm watching Dynasty on DVD again in German, but DVD also contains those scenes that were cut off in German tv version, which means that there is suddenly an original scene with subtitles. I prefer German voice actors over original voices, because like with cartoons the voice actors match with the characters' personalities, but I get why people say they can never watch anything dubbed and prefer original even if it means subtitles.

 

[darkshadows38]

no you misunderstood M.A.S.H. was a show that isn't meant to have a laugh track the writes didn't think so nor do i. but the studio back when it started forced them to use one and the only time they didn't use it was on the O.R. cause nothing funny really goes on there, i am sure some things are said there at times that are funny but you get the point. nothing's funny about someone having to have surgery during a war.

but from my understand the studio must have slowly realized it did not work on it and so they started to use it less and less i don't remember it even being used by the end of the show's run. but it Originally was and it just feels weird hearing it when you watch the early seasons. laugh tracks don't really bother me but there are some shows that really don't need them i don't think. besides having a live audience is i think more realistic when you are filming a show Like say Friends for example.
M.A.S.H. wasn't shot in a studio it had it's own grounds if you look it up online it looks awful there. but it had it's own land on Paramount's lot. as well it should it was shot differently than most shows were shot at that time or hell even now. some shows do shoot on location but they of course didn't go all the way to Korea to shoot M.A.S.H.

 

[colbyco]

Love Boat didn´t also have a laugh track on German Tv.

Like some peopele wrote: Spelling was good in casting, concepts and clothes but the writing was the big problem in his productions.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I've always looked down my nose at THE LOVE BOAT but now I think it's kinda sweet, especially in these troublesome times.
HOTEL suggests that it's more exciting (it's related to a great novel after all) but it never really satisfies. Same with HART TO HART which I loved in the eighties, I struggled to rewatch the episodes on DVD so I never bothered with other season releases.
I've never watched CHARLIE'S ANGELS and I have no desire to do so in the foreseeable future.

 

[Seaviewer]

Not a fan. He was good with casting and concept, but the execution was pandering and kind of crap. A "dumb gene" was in his bloodline.

A good way of putting it. As far as I know he was never credited with creating anything. He recognised a good concept but the gloss he put on everything could be off-putting.

 

[Chris2]

He was a master at original casting. I look at something like Love Boat which had no right to work as well as it did, but had a perfectly cast crew. And they kept switching things up in the various pilots until the found the lineup that worked.

Charlie’s Angels and 90210 are others where the casting was just perfect.

Of course, the execution of his shows was often fluffy. And once he had the perfect cast, he struggled with replacements later on (Kate Jackson, Shannen Doherty, Lauren Tewes, and Pamela Sue Martin were among those who were never adequately replaced). And his additions were often questionable: Ace, Your Ship’s Photographer on Love Boat, or Jesse on 90210 (one of the 90210 writers criticized that casting and said the actor had a receding hairline and ears “as big as Botswana”).

 

[bmasters9]

Same with HART TO HART which I loved in the eighties, I struggled to rewatch the episodes on DVD so I never bothered with other season releases.

I think that's why I enjoyed it-- I had never gotten into the show before, or seen many of the episodes, so I wasn't as familiar with it then as you were (made it easier to enjoy, the unfamiliarity).

 

[supermanfan]

Love 7th heaven watch it on Hulu and same with the og Melrose place!

 

[darkshadows38]

i also love 7th Heaven it's cheesy as hell sure but it's a Guilty Pleasure and it just amazing how long it's been off the air it feels like it just left the air ya know?

 

[AndyB2008]

He was a master at original casting. I look at something like Love Boat which had no right to work as well as it did, but had a perfectly cast crew. And they kept switching things up in the various pilots until the found the lineup that worked.

Charlie’s Angels and 90210 are others where the casting was just perfect.

Of course, the execution of his shows was often fluffy. And once he had the perfect cast, he struggled with replacements later on (Kate Jackson, Shannen Doherty, Lauren Tewes, and Pamela Sue Martin were among those who were never adequately replaced). And his additions were often questionable: Ace, Your Ship’s Photographer on Love Boat, or Jesse on 90210 (one of the 90210 writers criticized that casting and said the actor had a receding hairline and ears “as big as Botswana”).

He axed Herve Villechaize from Fantasy Island and replaced him with Christopher Hewett to add.

The series died not long after Herve left.

i also love 7th Heaven it's cheesy as hell sure but it's a Guilty Pleasure and it just amazing how long it's been off the air it feels like it just left the air ya know?

They actually slashed the budget for 7th Heaven in their final season.

The WB and UPN had just merged into the CW, and when deciding which WB shows would move to The CW, it was a toss up between 7th Heaven and Everwood (titled Our New Life in Everwood here in the UK).

7th Heaven was on the chopping block at first, hence they shot a series finale.

Suddenly there was a change of heart and 7th Heaven got renewed for an 11th season and Everwood was axed, but the consequence was Spelling/CBS had to cut the budget. A effect of this was David Gallagher decided to opt out (effectively saving paying him), and Catherine Hicks, Mackenzie Rosman and George Stults had to miss episodes in another cost saving move.

Only Stephen Collins and Beverly Mitchell appeared in all episodes of the series (and of Season 11) as a result. (Barry Watson and Jessica Biel had left the series by then)

The same problem plagued another Spelling/WB show Charmed towards the end, which forced Dorian Gregory to be written off altogether and Brian Krause to be in less episodes. This around the point Kaley Cuoco joined.

 

[darkshadows38]

i didn't realize 7th heaven even had their budget cut, honestly the season before it ended it really should have ended there it had a good season finale and than it got renewed one more and it had a really shitty finale go figure. i don't remember if i did see the last season of Charmed i'm sure i did but not when it 1st aired my dad did though cause he watched it. charmed is now being put out on bluray and i may just buy it but who the hell knows when ya know? there was a comment on you tube i don't remember where it was that said i want 7th Heaven back and i had to post and i don't think i ever got a reply that Stephen Collins i'm sure would love to do it cause he'd have to be Involved since he was the star i'm adding that part here on there i posted on how he handed his SAG card back in when all that shit went down a few years ago.

i wish he hadn't but really only cause i like him as an actor it's just a really terrible thing he did to those women but i do give him props that unlike a lot of celebs he did actually admit doing it and he did actually call those women on the phone i'm not sure if he saw them in person to Personally Apologize for it too true it's not gonna take away what they went through but it's something that i don't think Bill Cosby ever did as far as i know.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I am not sure anyone has mentioned it, but Aaron Spelling also had a brief foray into daytime television with the 1990s soap Sunset Beach on NBC. It didn't exactly set the world on fire, ratings-wise, but soaps were on a general ratings decline in that period. We had a thread discussing it in the US Soaps Forum.

 

[darkshadows38]

i never watched that one

 

[tommie]

I am not sure anyone has mentioned it, but Aaron Spelling also had a brief foray into daytime television with the 1990s soap Sunset Beach on NBC. It didn't exactly set the world on fire, ratings-wise, but soaps were on a general ratings decline in that period. We had a thread discussing it in the US Soaps Forum.

It's funny because initially they clearly attempted to have it look more in line with Spelling's prime time shows, but obviously it wasn't just daytime that was on decline at the time, but Spelling's 90s prime time soaps (Melrose Place / Beverly Hills 90210) had hit their peak at the time too which probably didn't help. After nine or so months they decided that the daytime audience couldn't handle a soap that looked more prime time and started giving it production values more in line with daytime plus a new theme in 1998 (I much preferred the original Tim Truman theme).

Add that they aired it at noon in a time slot that a lot of affiliates liked to pre-empt it; in a lot of places in Europe it aired in the afternoon which is probably why it succeeded on bringing in such a young cult like audience here. Maybe not popular with the Another World fans, but I would've aired Sunset Beach in that time slot if I wanted to give it a real chance to succeed, or if they could've reclaimed the 3PM time slot from affiliates that could've been an option too (but it would've suffered from the same pre-empted problem that it had at noon).

 

[AndyB2008]

It's funny because initially they clearly attempted to have it look more in line with Spelling's prime time shows, but obviously it wasn't just daytime that was on decline at the time, but Spelling's 90s prime time soaps (Melrose Place / Beverly Hills 90210) had hit their peak at the time too which probably didn't help. After nine or so months they decided that the daytime audience couldn't handle a soap that looked more prime time and started giving it production values more in line with daytime plus a new theme in 1998 (I much preferred the original Tim Truman theme).

Add that they aired it at noon in a time slot that a lot of affiliates liked to pre-empt it; in a lot of places in Europe it aired in the afternoon which is probably why it succeeded on bringing in such a young cult like audience here. Maybe not popular with the Another World fans, but I would've aired Sunset Beach in that time slot if I wanted to give it a real chance to succeed, or if they could've reclaimed the 3PM time slot from affiliates that could've been an option too (but it would've suffered from the same pre-empted problem that it had at noon).

When it was cleared by NBC stations at the noon hour, the second half faced Port Charles (that's if the ABC stations did clear it at 12.30pm, as some didn't and threw it to the early hours of the morning) and The Young and The Restless.

Add to the fact some stations didn't air it - WDIV in Detroit and KPRC in Houston refused to clear it, so the then UPN-affiliates KTXH (now MyNetwork TV) and WKBD (now the CW) aired it instead.

To add too, neither WDIV and KPRC broadcast Passions either from launch, leaving independent stations again to air that. Eventually WDIV and KPRC picked it up and aired it in the official 2pm slot before Passions was dumped from NBC.

It's funny because initially they clearly attempted to have it look more in line with Spelling's prime time shows, but obviously it wasn't just daytime that was on decline at the time, but Spelling's 90s prime time soaps (Melrose Place / Beverly Hills 90210) had hit their peak at the time too which probably didn't help. After nine or so months they decided that the daytime audience couldn't handle a soap that looked more prime time and started giving it production values more in line with daytime plus a new theme in 1998 (I much preferred the original Tim Truman theme).

Add that they aired it at noon in a time slot that a lot of affiliates liked to pre-empt it; in a lot of places in Europe it aired in the afternoon which is probably why it succeeded on bringing in such a young cult like audience here. Maybe not popular with the Another World fans, but I would've aired Sunset Beach in that time slot if I wanted to give it a real chance to succeed, or if they could've reclaimed the 3PM time slot from affiliates that could've been an option too (but it would've suffered from the same pre-empted problem that it had at noon).

James E Reilly came in as a consultant around the time the opening was revamped, with the new Dominic Messinger theme.

Also around roughly 100 episodes in, they axed the filmic look effect they had been using and moved back to it being videotaped like the other daytime shows. That and a reduction in the outdoor location shoots of Seal Beach, California, which was the setting of Sunset Beach.

 

[darkshadows38]

daytime soaps i could care less about but having said that they are a good stepping ground to start your Career. my mom used to watch the daytime soaps and to use her words i stopped watching when the kids would sleep with the same people the parents did uh yeah that would do it for me too. she loves Shemar Moore and was thrilled when he was on Criminal Minds and the reason i bring him even up is he talked about being on it maybe a year or two ago i think? and how he thinks just how bad of an actor he was back than. my mom disagrees but than since i don't watch them he may or may not be right i dunno.

i think it was the 25th Anniversary since he started in the soaps since that was i think his first job. he went back to it i think for like 1 episode i think? i doubt he will go back again.

 

[tommie]

Daytime soaps used to be very good work security for people and with the way it was taped in the past (literally one episode per day, minimal editing and you were home before dinner) made it a very good option for actors with family who wanted a stable income.

 

[Seaviewer]

i don't remember if i did see the last season of Charmed

I've never seen it. The ratings must have been bad for the previous season. I believe that it aired here five afternoons a week until they burned them off.
Kaley Cuoco, huh? Was that before or after 8 Simple Rules?