Katie's Career--butchering episode

[Cloudymoor]

Geez, it's not like this is the first time I've noticed drastic cuts in these episodes but when you watch an episode with Katie getting a job at a coffee house and they cut her actually singing---you gotta complain! In the end credits, they show that she sang a song entitled "The Fountain" written by Don Grady, so I really would have loved to have heard that.

I remember some earlier episode where Rob and Katie were in a scene post argument, and they never showed the actual scene of the argument.

Who knows, maybe Ernie really IS in more scenes of the Season 12, but they're just being cut. I dunno.

[stevea]

It's horrible. That episode had 18 minute of program time--normal for MeTV is 23 minutes.

To top it off, there's at least one other non-music scene cut.

[Cloudymoor]

You're right. Katie decides to quit the job because one of the triplets has the sniffles. But you don't see this happening----the next thing you know, she's on the phone telling the manager she can't work there anymore....Pathetic!

[someguy23475]

I remember seeing the episode on Odyssey, but can’t remember if the songs were included. I want to say they were. It’s not a good episode either way.

[stevea]

Odyssey had the songs.

Agree on the last statement. I might have a different assessment if I could see the episode complete, with good picture quality.

The only network that had most S12 episodes complete was Nick at Nite, back in the 80s.

[Hazel Anyday]

Not only did Katie sing this dreary woe is me song once in the show I remember her singing it twice. This was all talked about before in an earlier thread from last year. But I'll repeat what I said, I thought it funny that the manager of the club says something like "I hope you can sing more than one song" to Katie and all you ever do see is Katie singing that same song twice. Maybe one of the scenes cut from even the version I saw was Katie singing a different song, 3 songs sung in one show, one dreary Don Grady song twice and then another song, most likely a popular song of the time, sung once. 3 songs cut this would explain why the Me TV version is only 18" long. Just my theory.

[Hazel Anyday]

It took me a while but I found the previous post I referred to where we talked about Katie's Career. It's on post #22 here:
https://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards...+Career&page=2

[someguy23475]

I’m the one who moved that thread up, and I forgot about it!

The writing in season 12 overall is not good, so I can see only the one song being sung twice, despite the owner’s comments.

[CJ]

Originally Posted by Cloudymoor

Geez, it's not like this is the first time I've noticed drastic cuts in these episodes but when you watch an episode with Katie getting a job at a coffee house and they cut her actually singing---you gotta complain! In the end credits, they show that she sang a song entitled "The Fountain" written by Don Grady, so I really would have loved to have heard that.

This episode was horribly edited. In addition to both times Katie sang, a scene with Dodie talking on the phone and then telling Steve that Katie is crying in her room is edited out. This explains why Steve goes into Katie's room and gives her a pep talk and also explains the comment the owner makes when he comes to the house about the phone being tied up.

Here is the link to an audio of the song with stills of Katie singing in the episode. This is the second time she sings it when Steve and Charley sneak into the coffee shop to check on her. The first time she sang it was the audition when she ran out because the owner was on the phone and not paying any attention. This is why she was crying in her room in the first place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCpgcadCKK4&t=11s

[stevea]

I've seen that scene with Dodie on the phone. According to my old editing notes it's not in the Odyssey version. Maybe I've seen it on Youtube, when some of the episodes were still on there. There is another scene later, where Katie is in the kitchen with who knows who, and is leaving for the coffeehouse.

[CJ]

Originally Posted by stevea

I've seen that scene with Dodie on the phone. According to my old editing notes it's not in the Odyssey version. Maybe I've seen it on Youtube, when some of the episodes were still on there. There is another scene later, where Katie is in the kitchen with who knows who, and is leaving for the coffeehouse.

Yes, both those scenes are on the N@N version, as well as a couple more scenes. One is Dodie & Barb downstairs and Dodie gets on the phone again and relays to Barb some story and Barb tells her to get off the phone, then Katie comes in to tell Barbara she got the job. There is also a line or two cut from the song right before Steve walks into the coffee house. There is still approx 1 minute missing, so there very well could have been another scene (song?) at the coffee house leading up to Katie returning home all excited and telling Steve that they loved her. Seems like we should have been privy to a scene like that.

[stevea]

As was pointed out earlier in this thread, Katie on the phone quitting came rather suddenly. Maybe there was a scene upstairs where she was concerned about the sniffles.

As far as the minute missing, even in the longer versions, there are still some choppy, abrupt scene changes here and there, where you can tell something is edited out.

One of the cuts is right before we see Dodie on the phone the first time, indicating even part of that hall scene was cut.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Please all don't jump all over me for this.....LOL.......Remember its all opinion regarding her singing and some facts about to come.

I have made no secret I have been a huge sons' fan since discovering it on my local channel WNEW-TV Channel 5 NY.....Bless Metromedia for making my childhood so pleasant. BTW They ran it weeknights at 7PM and of course only the CBS Color seasons were syndicated minus season 11 & 12. This was around 1973.

I do remember the character "Katie" from the original network last seasons as my parents were watching. I as a innocent child instantly crushed....LOL....my family also watched "The King Family" Specials (all out on DVD BTW Uncut) now im getting to my point.

It's opinion I will agree she isn't the best solo singer, but Tina Cole was a huge asset to the series as since she was a "Kings' Cousin" Tina was the break out of the family for the younger generation compared to watching the mothers sing.

So it would be natural to utilize her known singing skills on Sons, now once Don Grady left the series in season 12, mainly due to his real relationship with Tina ending which he did the break-up, this left Tina heartbroken. This is apparent still in the 1977 famous "Sons/Partridge" reunion special where again she sings a Grady tune with him watching, you clearly see she is still not over him.

Now to appease Grady and hoping for a spin-off or at least season 12 appearances, they naturally had Katie sing the Grady songs, yes even twice for royalties and ego.

I already admitted Im a bit bias, plus my kindergarten teacher looked just like "Katie" with the same style of the period hair, and i could barely speak around her....LOL.....then she left me before the school year ended because she was pregnant. So here's to you Miss Whitman wherever you are! LOL

Lastly I had a few professional encounters as mentioned in other posts with many cast members and actually in the mid 1990's met Tina and interviewed her, sadly the tape is permanently lost, but i do have two other mini reunion episodes I produced & directed featuring Tim, Cynthia P, Barry, Stanley & Dawn. They aired on a low-power consortium network called Channel America. I retain the masters to those episodes.

Back to my talk with Tina on camera and off, she was a delight, she literally is "Katie Douglas" so sweeet, maybe my fawning helped....LOL.....

OK that is my take on the whole Tina singing debate, now please be gentle with your replies!

[stevea]

Thanks for the interesting accounts. I'm not fond of her musical performance in the season 12 episode (which was included in the Odyssey episode), but she did a credible (but brief) performance of Petula Clark's "Downtown" in season 8. This is not cut in syndication but if season 8 comes out on DVD it probably will be, knowing how CBS DVDs are done.

[TV Guy]

Tina could carry a tune, but her voice was nothing special. However, she more than made up for that with her looks and screen presence.