From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Sat Feb 13, 1999 12:57 am Subject: [probe_control] Curtis I tried sending the first part of Probe to Curtis (SPOILAIRE@aol.com), but it bounced back. If anybody has any info on how to contact him, please let me know. John My permanent address is actingman@iname.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/probe_control Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Sat Feb 13, 1999 1:00 am Subject: [probe_control] Discussion topics We should try to get something going here. If anybody wants to discuss any of the episodes, or the books, or whatever...go ahead. I watched Let Us Prey and made notes (and of course never got around to writing a review.) Since Kevin found a source for six more episodes, and several of us have versions of the pilot, we can discuss, rag, and celebrate various aspects of the show. I can't wait to see if my memory of the second Probe Control is even close to what it actually looked like. John My permanent address is actingman@iname.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/probe_control Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Mon Feb 15, 1999 11:41 pm Subject: [probe_control] Probe two Well my memory is not to bad. I remembered correctly enough details about the second Probe Control set after 25 years...in other words I got my six additional Search episodes today! Damn! Once we all have them we will have to start discussing the episodes, and the set changes. It is also interesting to see that these last eight episodes had a different line producer...not Robert Justman (who's name was on Let Us Prey.) I always wondered if NBC ordered changes in set and production team to "save" the show. John My permanent address is actingman@iname.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/probe_control Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Sat Feb 20, 1999 12:46 am Subject: [probe_control] Episodes What an amazing thing to watch Moment Of Madness for the first time in 25 years, having only an audio tape to listen to all of these years. What I found interesting is that it is a good episode. Having seen Let Us Prey as the first episode in all that time, I was worried that the series wasn't as good as I'd remembered. But MOM and also Flight To Nowhere did not disappoint. We will have to see how the rest hold up...but I remember 24 Carat Hit quite well, and now that is a good one. I am fairly certain that I do not like the second Probe Control set. It does not look as good, the white brick interior walls make no sense, and with the full lit background, it distracts from the people we are concentrating on in the foreground. I also notice that they took all of the consoles from the first set and spread them around in the second set. Also, they removed the numbers from the upper right corner of the screen and replaced them with blinking lights (which doesn't look too bad.) As a 13 year old kid in 1973 I remember thinking that the last eight episodes of the show (with the new set) were maybe trying to get away from the tight computer link-futuristic feel that the series was originally conceived as. It will be interesting to watch the rest of the episodes we have and see if that theory holds up. And of course I hope we find more episodes to continue testing my theory. John My permanent address is actingman@iname.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/probe_control Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com From: actingman-jc@worldnet.att.com Date: Fri Feb 26, 1999 7:02 pm Subject: [probe_control] Let Us Prey Repeating myself, but the last time I saw an hour episode of Search was NBC's last telecast in August, 1973. Next time I got to see it was when Let Us Prey arrived in the mail late last year...25 years later. I was worried that my memories of the show were far better than the show itself after watching LUP. I had been able to catch some late night airings of the pilot over the years, so I knew that was good, but I was wondering what was going on with LUP. As the folks on the Space: 1999 mailing list have learned to their annoyment when we did an episode by episode analysis, I write down nits when watching, and list them. Sometimes I make full paragraphs, sometimes just angry or funny observations, or whatever. Here goes: Let Us Prey I know from the individual film frames I have that they (sometimes?) used more then one camera when shooting the Probe Control scenes. I have wondered why they did this...it is expensive because you have to have multiple equipment setups (rental charges) and multiple crews (salaries, catering expenses etc.) I've wondered if they did it because they wanted to: 1. Make sure the Probe scenes only took one day of shooting (or half a day etc.) 2. They wanted a connected feel between the shots. 3. Who knows... This might be part of the reason I wrote "odd camera angles" for the Probe scenes in the beginning when they are briefing Bianco. They look very strange to me, but I understand them a little bit knowing there was more then one camera at work. Actually I think this episode is full of strange angles, and when I say strange I mean out of the ordinary angles that don't work, or just strike me as different, rather then different AND effective. Another example is that use of the overhead shot looking down in the compound when Bianco is learning fully the predicement he is in. Anjennette throws the glass, Richter ducks, and as he is completely bent over with the rifle pointing at the ground, Bianco is standing right over him (does he touch him?) and instead of hitting him and taking the gun from him, Bianco runs out. This just looks dumb. Either Franciosa added that part about stopping at the guy, or the director did, but it is stupid. It might have made more sense if Bianco had run straight out. Also, Richter should not have gone as far over as he did (which he either did because Diana Hyland is a very good or very bad thrower, or because the director wanted a very obvious window of escape for Bianco.) By the way, why is Bianco prowling around at night in a bright white suit? Yes he looked good in it, but it stretches credibility a bit, and again I suspect it was a poor judgement made by who knows who on the production because whatever he wore that night he would be wearing for the rest of the episode. Wearing that bright white suit while breaking in to a house at night he might as well have worn a light up tie as well. This episode takes place over a couple of days at least, and yet there is no passage of time within Control. What's worse, they use the same closeup angle of Cameron through much of the episode contributes to the lack of time passing. They needed different angles to help establish time movement, (and some beard growth or something on Cameron) and different angles just to make the episode look better. Because Cameron had so little to do in this episode, I think they just wanted to get those shots out of the way, so they shot from one angle. Also, Burgess Meredith had so little to add to these scenes (because there was little to them) that he ends up doing the same thing in every scene: Looks urgent, says "Yes Bianco" and readjusts his microphone. I thought the characters were very one dimensional stock characters: The crazy, maniacal rich guy, the emotionless henchman, the flighty floozie who realizes the error of her ways and helps the hero. I can't decide if Diana Hyland was good casting or not. I've warmed to her as I've rewatched the episode, but on my first late 90's viewing, I thought she was miscast. I'm split on this one: either Bianco should have kept the rifle he takes away from Richter, or he was right to throw it into the stream. Look at the script I sent out. I've seen this in many tv scripts, not just Search ones, where the commercial breaks in the finished episode come at different times then as indicated in the script. This is true of LUP. To use an Irwin Allen term, this is a run and jump episode. Lots of running, chasing, being chased, explosions, etc. Very little use or need of Probe and it's resources, and a regular plot device (overused) of cutting the agent off from Control. They also have some equipement logic gaffs: If they are receiving telemetry from Bianco's earjack, showing that it is working, then that is a signal they can trace. Also, his earjack transmits as well as receives? If it does transmit telemetry, then that cancels my next nit that Danzig can set his earjack to transmit as well as receive? And what is picking up the sound in his earjact to transmit? And Why doesn't Bianco transmit on his dental implant as much as possible? Control should be able to triangulate in on that signal. If we are looking at the episode from Ter, then we are also seeing the commercials from back then...which is a whole other discussion in itself. Okay friends, write to the list and tell me I'm wrong about everything. After all, that's why they have pcs at work, isn't it? John My permanent address is actingman@iname.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/probe_control Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com