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Post by stevefreestone on Jan 23, 2021 10:53:29 GMT
Yes I know it all exists but bear with this.
I read sometime ago that they recorded for most episodes 35-40 minutes of material which was then edited down to fit a 30 minute standard sitcom broadcast size.
Does anyone know if the edited stuff still exists, if true?
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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 23, 2021 12:49:03 GMT
Some out-takes were used on Christmas tapes, including the one where John Cleese notices a wobbling wall & starts tapping it, which was later used on the Auntie's Bloomers.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jan 23, 2021 16:42:20 GMT
That seems normal for that sort of comedy. Some of the blackadder "studio tapes" have been seen by people. Occasionally a good joke was removed just to cut down the runtime, but usually it was simply the logical way to assemble a half-hour episode.
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Post by darrenlee on Jan 23, 2021 22:42:27 GMT
Perhaps it's worth mentioning that the episodes as released on home media (and I assume as originally broadcast) do not 'fit a 30 minute standard sitcom broadcast size'; well, only 4 of the 12 do. The rest are longer than 30 minutes - the longest are series 2 episode 2 at 36 minutes, series 2 episode 6 at 34 minutes & series 1 episode 3 at 33 minutes. These last two had 35 minute slots when first shown, but according to BBC genome series 2 episode 2 had just 30 minutes on debut and then 40 minutes for repeats. Can anyone explain that? Anyway, they were clearly given more flexibility in episode length than you might have expected.
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Post by Richard Marple on Jan 23, 2021 22:47:16 GMT
The episodes of Father Ted tended to run longer than 25 minutes and were trimmed down.
The script book includes many lines & scenes not present in the final episodes. Sometimes the original scenes didn't work out so well & the cast managed to improvise a better one. The small cows scene is one of these.
Also some vignettes not crucial to the plots were shot for one episode & moved to another to balance out the run times.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jan 23, 2021 22:51:23 GMT
The episodes of Father Ted tended to run longer than 25 minutes and were trimmed down. The script book includes many lines & scenes not present in the final episodes. Sometimes the original scenes didn't work out so well & the cast managed to improvise a better one. The small cows scene is one of these. Also some vignettes not crucial to the plots were shot for one episode & moved to another to balance out the run times. The leads were stand up comedians, I believe, and would do things differently every take. I imagine Cleese by contrast probably was very methodological.
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Post by Dan S on Jan 24, 2021 13:51:54 GMT
but according to BBC genome series 2 episode 2 had just 30 minutes on debut and then 40 minutes for repeats. Can anyone explain that? Probably nothing mystical, it probably overran when first shown because they'd mistakenly only scheduled a 30-min slot.
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Post by richardwoods on Jan 24, 2021 17:53:04 GMT
I’m sure that I read somewhere that Fawlty Towers run time was just the way the individual episodes were made, & that they were very reluctant to trim them as it would spoil the flow of the plot. This caused on-going scheduling problems as a result.
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Post by richardwoods on Jan 24, 2021 17:54:04 GMT
It might possibly have even been in a booklet with the VHS release.
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Post by Dan S on Jan 25, 2021 1:13:50 GMT
I’m sure that I read somewhere that Fawlty Towers run time was just the way the individual episodes were made, & that they were very reluctant to trim them as it would spoil the flow of the plot. This caused on-going scheduling problems as a result. I kindof wish more TV shows were made with this attitude (Although I can fully understand why they're not!). Many a time a show must end up too long and it's necessary to cut a good scene. Conversely there must also be times when a show is too short and some unnecessary chaff has to be added to pad it out.
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RWels
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Post by RWels on Jan 25, 2021 15:44:41 GMT
I’m sure that I read somewhere that Fawlty Towers run time was just the way the individual episodes were made, & that they were very reluctant to trim them as it would spoil the flow of the plot. This caused on-going scheduling problems as a result. I kindof wish more TV shows were made with this attitude (Although I can fully understand why they're not!). Many a time a show must end up too long and it's necessary to cut a good scene. Conversely there must also be times when a show is too short and some unnecessary chaff has to be added to pad it out. But in some ways, that always was the case wasn't it? You don't want to miss a second of good shows while thinly talented shows seem spread too thin. If anyone wants to make a closer comparison, there are the episodes of Are You Being Served In Australia - made for a commercial slot so 5 minutes shorter. Hold it against the original to see the difference. (Of course, it depends on everyone's taste if you want it to last longer or finish earlier.)
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