DVD Talk review of 'One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season'
03-24-10, 01:56 AM
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DVD Talk review of 'One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season'
I read Paul Mavis's DVD review of One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27497 and...
1. "Laugh track" is misleading. The show was taped before a live studio audience for authentic reaction rather than canned laughter.
2. Videotape may look "cheaper" initially, but it adds to the feeling of being live. Also, it doesn't degrade and get dirty like film, which is why so many old filmed shows and commercials look dark and grainy.
1. "Laugh track" is misleading. The show was taped before a live studio audience for authentic reaction rather than canned laughter.
2. Videotape may look "cheaper" initially, but it adds to the feeling of being live. Also, it doesn't degrade and get dirty like film, which is why so many old filmed shows and commercials look dark and grainy.
03-24-10, 04:52 AM
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Re: DVD Talk review of 'One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season'
Wow -- I wrote that three years ago?
Just because a show was taped in front of a live studio audience doesn't mean that the laugh tracks weren't "sweetened" with canned laughter -- particularly when that live audience didn't guffaw and groan and squeal every ten seconds after every single punch line, as the producers wanted. They did it all the time (and still do), and it's more than obvious with almost all the shows from that period (I think even Woody Allen made a joke about it in Annie Hall, where he showed Tony Roberts doing it for his TV show).
To say that videotape can't "degrade" is incorrect, but the nasty look of shows like One Day at a Time has nothing to do with "degrading" videotape -- they always looked poor (Norman Lear shows were notorious in their day for looking like crap, with cheap lighting and ugly sets. That's the look he was going for, apparently, and more importantly, because it didn't cost a dime). That just was the state of broadcast video technology, utilized for episodic television, at that time (of course now, it's lightyears ahead in terms of fidelity -- your kid's birthday party, shot on a basic home camcorder, will look better than any season of Sanford and Son). As for "old filmed shows," try looking at some restored transfers from classics like I Love Lucy or The Fugitive -- they look like they could have been shot yesterday.
Just because a show was taped in front of a live studio audience doesn't mean that the laugh tracks weren't "sweetened" with canned laughter -- particularly when that live audience didn't guffaw and groan and squeal every ten seconds after every single punch line, as the producers wanted. They did it all the time (and still do), and it's more than obvious with almost all the shows from that period (I think even Woody Allen made a joke about it in Annie Hall, where he showed Tony Roberts doing it for his TV show).
To say that videotape can't "degrade" is incorrect, but the nasty look of shows like One Day at a Time has nothing to do with "degrading" videotape -- they always looked poor (Norman Lear shows were notorious in their day for looking like crap, with cheap lighting and ugly sets. That's the look he was going for, apparently, and more importantly, because it didn't cost a dime). That just was the state of broadcast video technology, utilized for episodic television, at that time (of course now, it's lightyears ahead in terms of fidelity -- your kid's birthday party, shot on a basic home camcorder, will look better than any season of Sanford and Son). As for "old filmed shows," try looking at some restored transfers from classics like I Love Lucy or The Fugitive -- they look like they could have been shot yesterday.
03-27-10, 11:05 AM
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Re: DVD Talk review of 'One Day at a Time - The Complete First Season'
Where's the rest of the series? Wake up-Sony. Whats the matter-they don't release tv series anymore?
