"Alfred"

[horizonbeach11]

I didn't want to hijack the other thread where this episode was mentioned, but I was curious if any of the rest of you felt that this episode felt "off" somehow.

Things about it that seemed "off":

Under use of laugh track. I know, I know, this is not something that one could normally accuse any sitcom of, but I think it's because I've been so conditioned to hear a laugh track after just about every comment in a show, M3S included, that I really picked up on the lack of it here, especially after Dodie's lines, and there were a lot of them, as this was a Dodie episode. She would say something like, "Oh, Mama, do I have to go out there? Klunky old Alfred is out there!". Normally, this would have been followed by a brief laugh track, as if to cue the audience that it was cute, but this episode is rife with Dodie saying things like that over and over and OVER again from beginning to end, and nary a giggle, so she really just ended up sounding somewhat like a mean little brat.

Which leads me to the next "off" thing: kids in sitcoms (at least older sitcoms where parental wisdom and authority were still respected) "get" to be bratty for about five minutes, at which point wise mom or dad will step in, give them a talking to about the error of their ways, and they will instantly feel badly about their actions and all is well again. But in this episode, Barbara told Dodie over and over and over that she was basically being a brat and it never did sink in, Dodie just kept it up throughout the whole thing, she never did back down or apologize or obey Barbara. This felt weird, especially for a sitcom like M3S that always tried to teach little moral lessons in each episode and had basically good, obedient, and compliant kids in it. "The Brady Bunch" is another example of this, those kids always felt badly and apologized, just as Steve's boys on M3S did. You came to expect it.

The color, sound, editing, acting, and overall quality was pathetic. I don't think it was MeTV's fault because I don't see this with all of the episodes that they air. It feels like the PTB knew that the show was going to end soon so they stopped investing top dollar in it, I also noticed this in the episode where Katie briefly contemplates ending her marriage to Robbie which was made around the same time. One minute the family would be in the kitchen sitting around the table, then the next second it would be a scene in the living room with just Uncle Charley and Katie with no lead in, intro music, or whatever else they use to introduce the next scene. Now the editing may have been on MeTV, I can't say for sure, but again, I don't see this in every episode that they air so what gives?

Writing. In this episode, I would estimate that Dodie starts at least half of her sentences with, "Man!" Over and over, "Man, Mama...", Man, Daddy...", Man, we have to eat dinner with Alfred? Man, that's rotten!", etc. etc. Could they possibly have written it like this, or was this maybe just the way that Dawn Lyn was talking at that phase in her life and the PTB didn't really care enough anymore to correct her? It was almost jarring, coming out of a little girl over and over this way, and why didn't Barbara, the proper Engilsh teacher of season ten, correct Dodie like she would have then? She was really nitpicky at that point, Dodie would say, "I don't feel good" and Barbara would immediately respond with, "You don't feel WELL." But two years later Dodie talks like Shaggy from Scoobie Doo and it's just hunky dory? Weird.

Anyone else find this one "off"?

[stevea]

I didn't notice the lack of laugh track...I'll recheck that.

Any sitcom that is well-edited will have what I call transitions. These show the passage of time. Normally, a transition is a dissolve between scenes, a picture flip with a xylophone, or a shot of the house, normally with music (M3S uses these last two a lot). Most of these season 12 episodes (with a few exceptions) dispensed with the transitions--I think (but have no way of knowing for sure) this probably results from edits to syndication prints that date back to the 1970s (I'm saying the original episodes probably had the transitions) . So, what we're seeing are episodes that originate from old 16mm 1970s films--this is evidenced by the 1970s-era Viacom logo at the end of these episodes (when MeTV doesn't cut it out).

Another thing I'm convinced that was edited on these episodes are the closing credits. This is why you never see the main cast in the closing credits--they were edited out of the syndication prints. Also, if another poster was right several months ago, the original show opener was changed for season 12 to remove Don Grady, and add Dawn Lyn and Ronne Troup. That was edited out, and the syndication opener from season 10 syndication was substituted.

When you look at the CBS TV Distribution website for M3S, it says no dubbing inventory exists for seasons 11 and 12. I think that's partially correct--the first half of season 11 was probably mastered to videotape in the 1980s or 1990s, since it was part of the syndication package then. But for some reason later season 11 and all of season 12 were not syndicated, except maybe for a brief period in the 1970s, when TV episodes were bartered between local stations on lower quality 16mm, edited prints.

The phrases no dubbing inventory exists, IMO, is a fancy way of saying, "We at CBS have never mastered these episodes to videotape from the original 35mm network prints."

Therefore, that's why these not-available-for-syndication episodes look inferior to earlier M3S episodes, and are so badly edited. Unless and until CBS remasters these episodes from the original network prints, unfortunately, this is what we're stuck with.

Some of this is just conjecture...but there is some pretty good evidence in what wer're seeing, too.

[stevea]

An example of a very obvious missing transition is in season 12 episode Three for School. The third scene shows Steve and Barbara in the kitchen, and later Charley enters. He has a sweater on leaves, and cut. Suddenly, we're in the kitchen, and there are Charley and Ernie in there, and Charley is in shirtsleeves, making cookies. Either there was another scene which was missing, or there should have been a transition. I'm betting they went to some music with the house, with the original network showing.

[stevea]

With regard to the writing, I agree, this was a weak episode. I don't remember who wrote it but it definitely wasn't George Tibbles, their top tier writer. They let Dodie's whining go on way too long. They also made a typical sitcom casting mistake--the actress who played Alfred's mother (Alfred says he's an only child) looked to be in her late 40s to early to mid 50s--way too old to have a kid who's around 6.

As far as Dodie's dialog goes, either the director or someone on set involved with the script should have corrected her if she ad libbed all that 'man' stuff. I doubt all that was in the script, but you never know. I got tired of all those "Cool it, Paula"s of Ernie's in an earlier episode, and those were probably all in the script.

As far as the criticisms of the sound, picture, and color, and other characteristics probably caused by the bad quality of the source, as you can see by my previous posts, I'm all too happy to jump on your bandwagon.

[biffbronson]

For the print that was aired, obviously a scene with Dawn and her friend, played by Victoria Meyerink, was cut. We know that because Victoria was listed in the closing credits, yet made no appearance in the edited ep. An example of the frustrating cuts.

[Hazel Anyday]

This is the same thing I talked about a few weeks back when I talked about one of the season 12 ep.s I had just seen, in it you see Dodie and Barbara talking to each other in Dodie's bedroom, blink your eyes they're suddenly down in the living room with some of the family, I think they were now about to leave the house(?) but the scene definitely cut from the bedroom 2 person scene to a living room scene with Dodie, Babs and more. Koo Koo. I think these Season 12's were chopped up by a Japanese chef right at your table!

[jacqui_appleton]

the editing of old shows to fit in more commercials is just horrible. Until i got the full version from ITunes, I didn't know that most of Ellen Hamilton Latzen's part in an episode of Family Ties isn't in the version syndicated on my local station. Which is a shame, especially as syndicated viewers miss the part where her character states that she doesn't believe in either Santa Claus or Ronald Reagan.

[biffbronson]

Alfred standing outside the Douglas home reminds me of the much earlier season episode featuring Ernie. In that one, his rival for a girl's attention sings "Someone stole my girl away..." while angry with Ernie -- again, standing around outside the house.

There were other eps with examples of the one-on-one interaction outside the house, of course going back even to early Bryant Park episodes with Mike talking to Jean from their respective windows. In the color seasons, sometimes rocks were tossed lightly at the window of Ernie & Chip.

I think a little more common sitcom thing is when a group arrives, stays outdoors, and wants the attention of one of the young people, like the gang yelling "Hey Cleaver" for Wally on Leave It to Beaver. Another fairly common theme is the outdoor workman, like the painter sanding window sills on Father Knows Best or the window washer on Family Affair. In these cases the actor is brought into the story from without, so to speak.

Like the breaking of lamps and vases, the M3S viewer becomes accustomed to one-on-one scenes with at least one guest actor situated outside the house.