Wow - First season effects were pitiful.

[doc7924]

With the looming of a reboot I decided to rewatch GAH again on DVD.

First off the first season stories are a lot better then I remembered them to be.

But Holy CSO, the special effects (and I use the term special very loosely) were bad in so many place.

I have seen most of the episodes multiple times - but watching Roseda Rose I had to cringe. That stuff at the end with the submarine.

The beach is nighttime, pitch black. But the sub close ups are shown in daylight or dusk. First its in open water, then near the beach, then open water, then near the beach.

and the worst of all, which I cant believe I never noticed over the last 35 years is when Ralph is on the 'sub' tower - you can see the wrinkles in the obvious black background - either a tarp or a large sheet or blanket.

He is clearly in a set. Now either that was just done badly or they forgot to CSO in the background of the sub being like, you know, ON THE WATER.

And of course the horrendous use of completely mismatched snips of Ralph flying cobbled together from every episode.

Certainly they could have done better effects at the time. There are shows from the 1960's with better effects. Was ABC just too cheap to pay for good stuff or did they just have no budget?

2md season was a LOT better, though still a lot of reuse of the flying stuff from season one.

[HoudiniDerek]

Doc, welcome to the forum and posting!

I have to agree that the special effects leave something to be desired. I'm not sure if the studios were cheap or if the focus was meant to be more on the stories than the effects. In that respect, I actually think some of the shows today rely too heavily on CGI and other special effects at the expense of the story.

[greenguy]

Sept 20, 2017 10:43:41 GMT -5 doc7924 said:

With the looming of a reboot I decided to rewatch GAH again on DVD.

First off the first season stories are a lot better then I remembered them to be.

But Holy CSO, the special effects (and I use the term special very loosely) were bad in so many place.

I have seen most of the episodes multiple times - but watching Roseda Rose I had to cringe. That stuff at the end with the submarine.

The beach is nighttime, pitch black. But the sub close ups are shown in daylight or dusk. First its in open water, then near the beach, then open water, then near the beach.

and the worst of all, which I cant believe I never noticed over the last 35 years is when Ralph is on the 'sub' tower - you can see the wrinkles in the obvious black background - either a tarp or a large sheet or blanket.

He is clearly in a set. Now either that was just done badly or they forgot to CSO in the background of the sub being like, you know, ON THE WATER.

And of course the horrendous use of completely mismatched snips of Ralph flying cobbled together from every episode.

Certainly they could have done better effects at the time. There are shows from the 1960's with better effects. Was ABC just too cheap to pay for good stuff or did they just have no budget?

2md season was a LOT better, though still a lot of reuse of the flying stuff from season one.

Welcome to the forum!

Here's some of my thoughts one by one.

I agree, the first season stories are the strongest. Had these more adult, complex, and serious minded scripts continued I think the show would have fared better. In a nutshell It's been my belief that the network "pulled the teeth" from the series by wanting more "high concept" and simple super hero kid fare.

The flying was better in some spots, worse in others. Many times all that was needed was a good background plate to make a shot stand out. The pilot featured some of the best flying, and more was spent on that. It was felt if they "sold it" in the first show the audience would accept the premise.

The sub stock footage in Reseda Rose was originally daytime footage optically tinted "dark" to attempt a nighttime look. Kind of a similar look was achieved when various TV shows used to shoot "day for night" I love the 60's Green Hornet, but sooo many episodes of that series suffers from scenes shot "day for night"

Before the DVDs and current syndication you would have never noticed the giant black tarp over the sub tower. In the original broadcast, and 1980s syndication, the tarp could not be seen. I recorded the series when it was on ABC, and in 80's syndication, and the shots are too dark to notice it. In the late 90's the show was "remastered" so to speak. Brightness and contrast were boosted, some audio FX altered. Someone better with more experience (or maybe someone who cared) should have been riding those transfers to see that came out right, but the new prints are what everyone sees now.

I don't agree that the shots of Ralph are horrible mismatched. While it does happen, it's the exception, not the rule. ALL of the flying (except for a handful of shots) used for the first and second season were shot right after the production of the pilot. The company had no idea what their needs would be, so they shot a catalog of flying hoping that it would fit their needs. No one I've talked to that worked on the series could remember how much the license fee was the ABC paid Cannell Productions. This was Cannell's 2nd series after he formed his company, the dough came out of his pocket. So say for instance ABC paid a license fee of $75,000 per episode, and a episode budget was $500,000 a show, Cannell would have been on the hook for $425,000 per show. As for shows from the 1960s having better effects, I've never seen a show from the 60's that had better flying. Really great flying on wires, alot of great flying with wires actually yes...but not flying optical effects. Superman The Movie in 1978 was the pioneer in flying opticals. That being said the 3rd season of TGAH had much better flying. That's because Cannell paid to use the Zoptic system used on Superman to improve the shows flying shots.

Looking forward to reading more posts from you.

[doc7924]

I used to post on the older boards but haven't come here in years. ( just found a post I made on GAHeroine from 2005. So its all still here. Cool)

Wasn't even sure the site and forums were still around. I am glad they are.

I got inspired again watching the show. Just as wonderful and fresh now as it was in 1981.

[HoudiniDerek]

Sept 20, 2017 19:13:22 GMT -5 doc7924 said:

I used to post on the older boards but haven't come here in years. ( just found a post I made on GAHeroine from 2005. So its all still here. Cool)

Wasn't even sure the site and forums were still around. I am glad they are.

I got inspired again watching the show. Just as wonderful and fresh now as it was in 1981.

What was your original screen name?

[doc7924]

enovak was my old one. I made a new one because I wasn't sure the old stuff was still here.