{"id":1827,"date":"2010-12-10T11:17:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T16:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=1363"},"modified":"2010-12-10T11:17:06","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T16:17:06","slug":"back-from-oblivion-i-evening-primrose-1966","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1827","title":{"rendered":"Back from Oblivion I: Evening Primrose (1966)"},"content":{"rendered":"

When a TV series \u2013 or a singular episode \u2013 from the early days of the idiot box is found to have survived studios & networks junking old kinescopes<\/a>, re-using video stock, or the dumpster (very real threats that eliminated whole chunks of early TV history), it\u2019s kind of an expected miracle, because many productions from the era of live TV are known \/ expected to be rare: productions like the dramatic anthology series Playhouse 90<\/a><\/strong> were broadcast live, and filmed kinescopes were used for rebroadcasts.\u00a0If there were no \u2018kinnies,\u2019 that episode is lost once the last person with a memory of that broadcast is six feet under.<\/p>\n

What we don\u2019t expect is TV from the late sixties to be rare. Most shows were shot on 35mm film, and 16mm prints were used for syndicated runs (which is how many grew up watching The Invaders<\/a><\/strong>, The Brady Bunch<\/strong>, and other shows of the sixties and seventies), if not colour video dubs for syndication.<\/p>\n

But there are exceptions. The hit gothic daytime series Dark Shadows<\/a><\/strong> was filmed on videotape, and when the series switched to early colour, the results weren\u2019t exactly perfect. The same can be said of the BBC\u2019s Doctor Who<\/a><\/strong>, which for DVD, underwent extensive restoration<\/a> because some of the subsequent colour broadcast masters no longer existed or were in bad shape.<\/p>\n

Neither series is that old when compared to late forties and early fifties series, but it seems absurd that ABC\u2019s Stage 67<\/strong> is rare when Hawaii<\/strong> Five-0<\/strong> or Bonanza<\/strong> aren\u2019t. They were all present on the boob tube in 1967, but they were filmed on different mediums, and the respective success of the latter ensured they wouldn\u2019t be forgotten, whereas Stage 67<\/strong> failed to make a splash, and was dead after one season.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

That failure may have sealed the fate of Stephen Sondheim\u2019s contribution, a musical version of John Collier\u2019s story Evening Primrose<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a><\/strong>] , previously adapted for radio in 1947. The music lived on in live performances and CD recordings, and eventually a CD release<\/a> [M<\/strong><\/a>] of the original score and four songs, but the actual episode \u2013 broadcast one, and then buried \u2013 has been commercially unavailable for 44 years.<\/p>\n

The reasons seem to be a mix of simply being forgotten, a perception of there being little demand to warrant a search for surviving elements, music rights issues, licensing issues, and releasing the episode on DVD – \u00a0a format that\u2019s not going great as most studios have halted or radically curtailed premiere DVD releases of back catalogue items or things not tied to a humpable franchise.<\/p>\n

TV is a bit weirder, in the sense of recognizable favourites, cult shows, and junk being released, but Primrose<\/strong> is a niche product. The reason it finally made it to DVD is because it simply had to. It\u2019s Sondheim, it stars a post-Psycho<\/strong> Anthony Perkins and Charmian Carr (The Sound of Music<\/strong>) in one of two roles before she retired from acting, it was written by playwright James Goldman (The Lion in Winter<\/strong>), and under the umbrella of the Archive of American Television (distributed by E1), it\u2019s another notable effort in releasing rare TV to connoisseurs of vintage television.<\/p>\n

Not much live and early TV exists on DVD, which is why these releases are buyer-friendly instead of rental worthy. You want to own it because you will watch it, most likely more than once because like a good book or a visceral play, it\u2019s worth experiencing again.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the discovery of famous talents in early or unusual roles, which is more impressive than reality junk. Everything has a place in pop culture, but it\u2019s fair to say after you\u2019ve seen a grow-op house restored to something livable, an ugly duckling plasticized into a looker, a band train and perform their debut CD before evaporating, fashion wannabes coming in second in a formulaic contest, a star showing off his \/ her recipe for marinated chicken breasts, or Kim Kardashian feeling unloved because no one gets her need to own a Bentley, it all fades from memory.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase Stephen King, that stuff is all hamburger meat that has an initial appeal but isn\u2019t anything special. An Emmy-winning drama by Rod Serling<\/a> has a bit more cultural relevance in terms of inspiring other writers to tackle hot button subjects on TV.<\/p>\n

HBO would not exist without the playwrights who honed their craft on live TV, because they proved what could be accomplished in spite of sponsor restrictions, network Standards & Practices<\/a> guidelines, and stupid demands that diluted messages or realistic characters in kitchen sink dramas. What we see today are the dramas and experimentation pioneered on live TV, except unfettered by the heavier rules designed to make TV kiddie-safe.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nuff said.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a TV series \u2013 or a singular episode \u2013 from the early days of the idiot box is found to have survived studios & networks junking old kinescopes, re-using video stock, or the dumpster (very real threats that eliminated whole chunks of early TV history), it\u2019s kind of an expected miracle, because many productions from the era of live TV are known \/ expected to be rare: productions like the dramatic anthology series Playhouse 90 were broadcast live, and filmed kinescopes were used for rebroadcasts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[199,183],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-tt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}