Stage 67's TV musicals (Sondheim, Bacharach, Bock/Harnick, etc)

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 8:20pm

I find thes elow budget tv musicals done for 1967's, ABC tv show Stage 67 fascinating. I knwo the show was a mix of original pieces--primarily by theatre people--musicals and dramas to fit into an hour slot.

Does anyone have a list of how many of these were musicals? I know that Bock and Harnick did one of Canterbury Ghost which I haven't heard (was it commercially released)? Bacharach and David did On the Flip Side which I find wonderfully weird and charming (I own the Japanese CD release) and of course Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman did the wonderful Evening Primrose which I've seen and own a copy of the privately pressed vinyl soundtrack (I think the original performances and arrangement shave never been matched in any of the re-recordings and the instrumentals are gorgeous--I hope the plans to release this to CD finally materialize).

What else was done? How were the other ones?

I did find this link with some info : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_Stage_67 It sounds like a gem of a show

E
Updated On: 5/3/07 at 08:20 PM

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 8:29pm

those sound great eric. i've never heard of them.

[Julian2]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 8:41pm

Was Richard Rogers Androcles and the Lion a part of that? I have mp3's from the album released of that.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 8:54pm

who wrote the lyrics for that? I've always wanted to hear it

but no--I'm not sure, in the 60s there were a fair number of original tv musicals (50s too I guess)--Cole Porter's Aladdin springs to mind too

I'd still be curious to find out who had the great idea to ask sondheim to do EPrimrose? some fan of Anyone Can Whistle who was hiding at ABC?

[Julian2]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 8:59pm

Really? Because that was done in 1967 as well. And Rodgers wrote the lyrics as well as the music. That and No Strings were the only complete scores done by himself alone.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 9:00pm

I'm probably wrong

You should post it to your AWESOME blog--

E

[best12bars]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 10:07pm

Sadly, I only know Evening Primrose. I would love it if these other Stage 67 productions would one day find their way to a DVD release!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/3/07 at 10:30pm

Hell let's try to get EPrimrose on official DVD first (there is a bootleg seller who sells On the Flipside but I haven't btohered yet though I'm curious) I guess all of them are kinescopes which is part of the problem (the truman capote one is on DVD tho)

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 12:37am

Evening Primrose wouldn't be a kinescope. It was done on color videotape. I remember it, vividly, because it was the very first show I ever watched on the color TV I purchased for my bedroom. It was done long after kinescope was no longer used. Of course, that doesn't mean that a b&w video copy doesn't exist. I know that there is a b&w copy of the 1962 special The Broadway of Lerner & Lowe, which was broadcast in color.
Updated On: 5/4/07 at 12:37 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 12:53am

All that was saved was indeed a kinescope--that's what you can view at the Museum of TV and that's what the bootlegs are made of. Sondheim even said in the Sondheim review that he doubted there'd be any commercial potential for it sadly because of that.

I'm not sure why a colour taped show (and you're right--it was) would only be saved that way though I know videotape was very expensive back then so often reused immediately after and the show was low budget (ABC's All My Children was aired on colour videotape from when it premiered in 1970 but only a handful of episodes from pre 1976 survive and all of them are B&W kinescopes)


(From the Sondheim guide http://www.sondheimguide.com/television.html): ABC Stage 67: "Evening Primrose"
Presented in a series of entertainment specials on the ABC network, this original musical had a teleplay by James Goldman (based on the short story by John Collier) and songs by Stephen Sondheim. It was televised on November 16, 1966 in color, but all known copies originate from a black-and-white kinescope of the broadcast. For more information go to Evening Primrose. (60 minutes)


It is very frustrating though of course back then no one knew people would kill to see it in full colour 40 years later
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Updated On: 5/4/07 at 12:53 AM

[bk]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 1:12am

I recorded a few songs from Stage 67 shows on the album Prime Time Musicals (which was available just a few days ago as part of my blowout sale). On that album is the song It Doesn't Matter Anymore from On The Flip Side, one song from Canterville Ghost by Bock and Harnick, and one song from Getting Married by Jule Styne/Comden and Green (along with a whole slew of other songs from musicals written expressly for TV). As far as I recall, the musicals on Stage 67 were Evening Primrose, On The Flip Side, Richard Adler's Olympus 7-000, Canterville Ghost, and Getting Married.

I have what I think is the only video copy of On The Flip Side, which I happily got from Joanie Sommers, one of its stars. It's a lot of fun, directed by Joe Layton.

One of the other wonderful Stage 67s was Sam Peckinpah's film of Katherine Ann Porter's Noon Wine.
Updated On: 5/4/07 at 01:12 AM

[Julian2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 1:23am

Wasn't the Cinderella DVD released taken from a kinescope?

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 1:31am

Cinderella was definitely from a kinescope, but videotape didn't exist then. I just cannot imagine anyone still using kinescope in the late 60s. It makes no sense to me, whatsoever. Kinescope is nothing more than placing a movie camera in front of a television monitor and filming the image off the television. That's why the image is often smeary and oddly shaped. Cinderella was also in color, but it was broadcast live. Evening Primrose was done on videotape, not live. By the way, I still have an audio tape of Evening Primrose, that I made when it was aired. It's on a reel to reel tape. The entire program. Too bad we didn't have home video back then.

Updated On: 5/4/07 at 01:31 AM

[Julian2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 1:37am

I just wish they would release it, color or no color. Does anyone know anyting about the quality of the surviving kinescopes for a possible DVD release?

[bk]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 2:54am

There is, apparently, only ONE surviving 16mm black-and-white kinescope, and that is owned by the Museum of Broadcasting. They can't license it as they don't own those rights. Years ago, I made some inquiries about the rights, but they are hopelessly convoluted and even if one could get ABC to actually find their contracts, you'd then have to clear everything with the John Collier estate, and I don't see that happening anytime soon - it's why the CD has never come out.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 4:00am

Yeah apparantlyt he Collier estate is *notoriously* tight. (Come to think of it so is James Goldman with things her husband wrote, I wonder if that could be another barier). Like I said at least one Stage 67 episode (the Truman Capote) has made it to DVD so I guess stranger things are possible but it seems like it would be way too much work for the small profit that could come.

The CD was announced a few times between 2000 and Sondheim' 75th Anniversary--and is still labeled as part of that huge box set that was once again due this Spring but I have no hopes of seeing. Still I see a CD release as much more likely.

(I've never even heard of attempts for a DVD release---unlike say Image's attempts to release the 1976 Japanese video of Pacific Overtures--so assumed everyone just considered it too much of a lost cause)

Bk is your copy of On the Flipside a kinescope or a full color video? i know a TV bootlegger (though of course he doesn't call himself that) sells one on a prominent TV website for 20 bucks but that's the only Stage 67 he has (he sells it on DVD). I always wonder if it had any part in Bacharach/David writing Promises Promises. I remember trying to get Primetime Musicals when it came out through my CD store with no luck (that was just before I started ordering most music online)--and then forgot about the album. I'll have to keep an eye out for copies.

Either way it had a commercially released soundtrack (now available remastered from Japan along with their other Bacharach remasters) no doubt because of the names involved--Sondheim wasn't a name when he did his. The songs are great, and oft recorded of course but as a big fan of Sondheim's rare underscores (the Stavisky soundtrack is a fave of mine--as are the two suites from plays included on Unheard Sondheim--for me the highlights of that album) I love the clarinet based instrumentals used--to eerie effect--that he did with orchestrator Norman Paris (sp?) and they deserve to be heard more.

JohnBoy it is insane to believe but it's very true--I know you have no reason to trust me but the sad state that it's only been preserved on kinescope has even been mentioned several times by Steve. Like I said soap operas (even when some, like ABC's had switched to being videotapes) would reuse their videotapes over and over, erasing each episode up to the mid/late *70s*! Key episode would be preserved by the MUCH cheaper kinescope format and the videotape reused--and it seems this is how many low budget primetime shows like Stage 67 were preserved as well up to 1970 or so.

E


Updated On: 5/4/07 at 04:00 AM

[bk]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 12:05pm

The On The Flip Side is off a 16mm kine. So, maybe someone has a 16mm kine - stranger things have happened, I guess, although I'd never seen this listed anywhere.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 2:12pm

I know that they used to reuse video tape. Many shows were completely destroyed because of that practice. What I find hard to believe,is that anyone was still copying shows by placing a movie camera in front of a television monitor in the mid-1960s, when the show was already on videotape. I believe you, it just makes no sense. Videotape was not more expensive than film! We had a reel-to-reel videotape machine at my high school in the 1960s. I never much cared about it, but perhaps I should transfer my audio of the show. I got it out (the tape is almost transparent) and had a bit of listen, and it really sounds pretty bad, as you can hear:

http://media.putfile.com/03---Track-3-82
Updated On: 5/4/07 at 02:12 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 6:34pm

I've read a few places videotape back then was more expensive than film but I don't reallys ee how that can be true. I agree the whole practice is illogical...

bk a LOT of Bacharach collectors have On the Flipside--probably now especially due to that bootlegger i mentioned--I've seen some scenes form it and the image is very crisp so it must be sourced from a fairly early generation copy of the kinescope...

[sondheimboy2]

Posted: 5/4/07 at 9:42pm

Back in the 1980s, the bootleg record label "Blue Pear" released an album with the soundtracks of several made for television original musicals. "The Canterville Ghost" was on it, I recall.