Just a Side Note

The reviews of the episodes are fine and dandy, but I thought you should have a taste of the craziness that makes me love watching DS.

At the beginning of each episode, the clapper board is shown with the video recording date, the air date, and the take number of the episode. The man announcing the information has a deep baritone and I hope a deep sense of humor. Once he finished and then asked if they could hear him or did they want him to do it again. Sometimes you see the actors standing behind him waiting to begin. Sometimes you see smoke from his cigarette blowing across the screen. My favorite was the time the actress he was standing in front of (who happened to be tied and gagged at the time) kept bouncing her knees and making the clapper jump!

At the end of each episode, as the closing credits and music are playing, he gives a little promo for the shows playing in the evening. I know 40 years from now the shows we watch today will sound silly, but I still wait to see just how funny the coming attraction was.

Sometimes it is evident the actors haven’t learned their lines. I am not criticizing. I know how hard it is. I just finished playing Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker. Learning a script, working the same lines day after day, is hard work. I can’t even imagine what it takes to learn new pages every day. But that doesn’t stop me from giggling when I see the actors staring over the shoulder of another actor, obviously reading their lines. Or, when they step on each other’s lines, and everyone experiences a momentary fluster.

Sometimes the camera shimmies like it’s in the midst of an earthquake. Once I saw the mic dip into the scene and I’ve seen the mic shadow a number of times. Occasionally there is a loud BOOM like someone has dropped something important or slammed a door without thinking. Sometimes the camera isn’t on the actor who’s speaking or jumps away and lands on nothing before swinging back to the action. It’s a treat when the somber music from a scary scene runs over into the next light-hearted scene.

Part of the reason I watch the show is for the crazy storylines. A real phoenix? Vampires?Ghosts? Demonic possession? It’s hard to believe that it is a true soap opera. I mean it really doesn’t compare to the modern storyline in my favorite soap opera today. There is plenty of sex, children aging ten years in two weeks, numerous marriages and ugly divorces on The Young and the Restless but not a single ghost or vampire. Today everything is so slick---bright lighting, perfect make-up, glamorous clothes. I think I prefer the Dark Shadow days. It’s fun to pay attention to the storyline and see some human mistakes---and a ghost or two.