Questions about anything

[fuzzygobo]

Back in the days of The Brady Bunch, the pilot was shot to shop around to the networks. The pilot was the better part of a year before regular episodes were shot. In the meantime, sets got overhauled, and Tiger the dog stayed while Fluffy the cat got canned. Yes, canned kitty.

 

[D'Snowth]

"Pilot" seems to have been genericized to the point of basically just being used as an umbrella term refering to the first episode of any series, but as fuzzygobo mentioned, back in the older days of television, a pilot was usually totally separate from the rest of the series' proper, and more often than not used as a presentation to the networks to show them what exactly this show was they should consider buying and adding to their lineup.

One infamous example I can think of off the top of my head is THE MUNSTERS, it's pilot differed significantly from the actual series for two major reasons: 1) It was actually filmed in color, as opposed to black-and-white like the series was, and 2) Different actors played Lily (whose name was actually Phoebe) and Eddie, neither of whom really had any connection or chemistry with Fred Gwynne or Al Lewis (and the kid played Eddie more like an actual feral wolfchild, rather than an all-American type boy who just happens to be part werewolf like Butch Patrick). The pilot obviously never actually aired on broadcast television, but again, it gave the network an idea of what this show would be like, and what changes could be made before going to series . . . I personally wouldn't have minded if the series remained filmed in color, but recasting Lily and Eddie with Yvonne De Carlo and Butch Patrick, respectively, made a world of difference.

In some cases, a series' pilot is actually an episode of previous show that's used as a setup for something of a spinoff, such as an episode of THE DANNY THOMAS SHOW in which Danny gets arrested by a country bumpkin sheriff who's also the town judge, Justice of the Peace, and mayor lead to the creation of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW. In turn, the Season 4 finale of THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW dealing with Andy seeing Gomer off to join the Marines served as the backdoor pilot for the spinoff GOMER PYLE, U.S.M.C.

Of course, that's not to say all series have taken either of these approaches . . . in some cases, even back then, the pilot that was filmed did, indeed, end up being used as the proper opening episode of its series' proper - and you can usually tell, because these are almost always what are known as premise pilots: where basic concept of the show is all spelled out and established in said opening episode, such as BEWITCHED showing us Darrin learning that Samantha is a witch on their wedding night, or I DREAM OF JEANNIE showing us Tony ending up on an uncharted desert island, finding a fancy bottle, and ending up freeing Jeannie, or GREEN ACRES showing us Oliver buying a farm to live out his dream of being a farmer and getting away from the rat race of the city.

And then, every once in a while, you have an unusual case like SEINFELD. What ended up becoming that series' pilot as well as proper opening episode was intended to be a one-off special by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David that basically fictionalized the process of how a comedian gets his material, but this special ended up being turned into one of the biggest smash hits in TV history.

Obviously, it varies depending on many different factors, but again, in most cases, "pilot" is another one of those examples of a word becoming genericized like "Kleenex" and the like.

 

[fuzzygobo]

On that note, there was an episode of the Brady Bunch that was an intended pilot spinoff.
The show was to be called The Kelly Kids, starring Ken Berry as the father, Todd Lookinland (brother of Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady) as son Matt, who gets two new brothers- his friends from the orphanage- Dwayne, who’s black, and Steve, who’s Asian.
The Brady cast got precious little screen time, to make room in this proposed pilot. The series was never picked up.

The Brady Bunch had its own problems. The kids were growing up, Robert Reed was constantly feuding with creator Sherwood Schwartz over the poor quality of the scripts, and in the last six episodes, Cousin Oliver.
That could be a whole other topic that plagues sitcoms. When the original kids get too old, and they bring in a new kid, a show’s days are numbered.

 

[D'Snowth]

Sooooo, does anyone happen to know how long it takes to have your Instagram account verified? I applied for verification over a month ago and have received no response whatsoever since then. Or, is this like a YouTube scenario where even if your account actually is verified (as my channel is), you have to have X-amount of followers for it to actually be official?

 

[LittleJerry92]

To be perfectly honest I don’t know. But if I’m being honest, you probably haven’t gotten verified because your YouTube series isn’t exactly a publicly known series. Just a tough pill to swallow.

 

[D'Snowth]

No, like I said, it's apparently an actual requirement: you have to have a certain number of subscribers (I think the minimum is 100,000) in order for YouTube to actually give you the verification badge (aka the blue checkmark), but otherwise, my channel was actually verified years ago, they sent me a verification code and everything, they just haven't given me the checkmark.

 

[minor muppetz]

There's a song I recently heard on the radio a few times, although I think I understand enough lyrics, I have trouble finding what the song is via typing in the lyrics.

I'm not sure who the singer is, but the lead singer is a woman, and there's a chorus of children. To me it sounds like it came in the 1980s or 1990s.

One of the most common lyrics I remember is Everlasting, I feel like it's "with the world everlasting" or "with the word everlasting", or maybe "with the Lord everlasting". None of those lyrics turn up what I am looking for on Google or YouTube (well, not at the top of the search results). Searching shows several songs with "Everlasting" in the title (and I think most are religious). I can't really decide if this sounds like a Christian pop song.

Some of the lyrics I can remember:

"Is this a dream, with the world everlasting?" (see above)

"We must break loose, with the world everlasting?"

"Is there a part of me? I can see it in your eyes...." (I think the "eyes" line was stretched out)

Anybody know what song I am talking about? I have typed in all those lines, I think I've even typed them all in at once on Google to no avail (I won't be surprised if doing so now has this thread among the top results).

And it's possible I misheard/misremembered some of those.

 

[D'Snowth]

Somebody brought this up on Twitter recently, and I realize it's actually some questions that I've been asking in my mind for quite some time as well. . . .

What exactly is our "permanent record" anyway? And who even has hold of it? And how do other people supposedly see it to judge us based on its contents anyway?

 

[Oscarfan]

It is real; it's your school transcript.

 

[Any Del]

In the beginning of next month I'll be going to the New York City Casino Resort in Queens. This is going to be my first time gambling and for any gamblers on here are there any tips to earn some big bucks? It would be much appreciated.

I was thinking of going on the slot machines and betting low.