I've recently been going back to the mostly excellent THRILLER TV Series DVD set and listening to the Commentaries for the particular episodes. Most I've heard are pretty interesting, giving us some nice behind the scenes info on the making of the particular episodes.
But they dropped the ball on one for me. Gary Gerani thought it would be cool to try "something different" on the commentary for THE WEIRD TAILOR, which is one of my favorite episodes and that has a wonderful Jerry Goldsmith atmospheric Eastern European flavored music score. Gary decided that this time instead of doing the regular episode commentary, which I was dying to hear about the making of this episode, he decides that he will not even talk about the episode but "recreate" a interview with Associate Producer Doug Benton about working on THRILLER and so for the length of the commentary track he and Doug's son pretend like they are Doug Benton and an interviewer doing the interview. It has absolutely nothing to do with THE WEIRD TAILOR. It might have been nice to do this as an Extra special feature, but using the WT's commentary time seemed for me a bit of a cheat and great let down. THE WEIRD TAILOR Commentary Track was no place for it. Anyway, just wanted to air my frustration.
Please share your comments on the THRILLER Commentaries. As I said, most I've heard so far are pretty well done. Just wanted to hear about THE WEIRD TAILOR, GARY!
Ted Post on "Papa Benjamin"; lousy episode, great commentary!
Yes, I enjoyed that one. Ted seemed really displeased with the casting of John Ireland and the whole episode story wise. Ireland did seem to have only two expressions throughout the show. Disinterest and disinterest.
Ted seemed like a really great guy and was definitely "old school" in his way of talking and his directing attitudes. He made it clear near the end that he disliked Pete Rugolo's score.
But it was ALL ABOUT THE EPISODE and that's what a Episode Commentary should be about. Okay Ted mentioned that he enjoyed working on GUNSMOKE for just a bit. I believe Steve Mitchell handled the commentary chores with him and he was quite good and seemed to have a nice rapport with Ted Post.
Would have been great if they could have done commentary with any of the surviving composers. A Goldmsith commentary on one of his episodes would have been a treasure!
The commentaries within the THRILLER DVD set are all welcome and worthwhile, to me.
They are an interesting mix of 1) reminiscences from cast & crew who had worked on the show, as well as 2) authoritative input from life-long fans of the series [some of whom either watched the show during the original broadcast (such as Jim Wynorski) or younger enthusiasts (Guillermo del Toro)].
Personally, I'm much more interested in hearing the interview with Doug Benton than particulars about "The Weird Tailor". "The Weird Taylor" was much more satisfyingly rendered (to me) as one of the 4 Robert Bloch stories used in the 1972 ASYLUM by Amicus.
I wished one of the DVD extras included an appreciation for the actresses of THRILLER, to whom I devoted this prior FSM thread:
Would have been great if they could have done commentary with any of the surviving composers. A Goldmsith commentary on one of his episodes would have been a treasure!
So would've been one with Morton Stevens, in which he could've mentioned his collaboration with Goldsmith.
The commentaries within the THRILLER DVD set are all welcome and worthwhile, to me.
They are an interesting mix of 1) reminiscences from cast & crew who had worked on the show, as well as 2) authoritative input from life-long fans of the series [some of whom either watched the show during the original broadcast (such as Jim Wynorski) or younger enthusiasts (Guillermo del Toro)].
Personally, I'm much more interested in hearing the interview with Doug Benton than particulars about "The Weird Tailor". "The Weird Taylor" was much more satisfyingly rendered (to me) as one of the 4 Robert Bloch stories used in the 1972 ASYLUM by Amicus.
I wished one of the DVD extras included an appreciation for the actresses of THRILLER, to whom I devoted this prior FSM thread:
Oh, I just wanted a "Weird Tailor" commentary on the "Weird Tailor" Commentary track that's all. I thought that red face thingy was for, "Dang I got a sun-burn and boy it's uncomfortable". Glad you enjoyed the Doug Benton thingy. You might have felt the same if your favorite Doug Benton episode's commentary track suddenly became a interview that had nothing to do with it. Just my own feelings and opinions. To each is own. Enjoy what you like everybody.
