Paying guest star villains in season 3

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bat-rss
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Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by bat-rss »

Joel Eisner, on the To the Batpoles blog that isn't related to the podcast (of the same name) that my brother and I make, asserts "The only reason [the Londinium storyline] was done as a three-parter was to cover the cost of the guest stars (they needed the two parters to pay for two guest stars) but the three parter was used to pay for the extra bit players and the extra outdoor sets and the redressing of the regular set, besides the two guest stars."

I can see how it would be best, after spending money on sets and locations, to be able to use them for three episodes instead of two or one, but I don't understand the math of the two-villain stories. Presumably you're paying them per episode, and if you're paying two villains for two episodes, wouldn't it be twice the cost of having two villains in one episode, or one villain in two episodes?

Have discussed this with High C and he didn't get it either. Anyone else here have some knowledge of this?
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TBolt
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by TBolt »

yeah I was trying to do that math too. Reuse of sets makes sense. But they still had to pay Rudy Valee Glynis Johns, Lyn Peters and all the others for all three episodes, so I don't see the savings there, its not like only one of them appeared in each episode. I guess what he is saying is that they used the sets over, saving budget for the paying of guest actors.
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High C
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by High C »

It's also interesting that they paid Dallimore $2,500 for 11 scenes over five days, and Lyn Peters $1,000 for 13 scenes over six days of shooting. (The shoot took nine days total.) But before you say Holy Misogyny, keep in mind Yvonne was making over 3x as much as Burt was.

I guess a lot of it had to with how long you were in the business, and how good your agent was. Yvonne had been in the business far longer than Burt.
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Therin of Andor
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by Therin of Andor »

High C wrote: Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:33 am (The shoot took nine days total.)
There's your answer. Doing a three-parter and reusing sets meant that they spent an average of only three days to create each episode.
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High C
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by High C »

Therin of Andor wrote: Sun Sep 30, 2018 6:07 pm
High C wrote: Sun Sep 30, 2018 9:33 am (The shoot took nine days total.)
There's your answer. Doing a three-parter and reusing sets meant that they spent an average of only three days to create each episode.
Three days of filming was the standard time for each 30-minute episode throughout the run, so I don't know what you mean.
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My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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Therin of Andor
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by Therin of Andor »

I was thinking four might have been standard?
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Re: Paying guest star villains in season 3

Post by High C »

Therin of Andor wrote: Mon Oct 01, 2018 1:15 am I was thinking four might have been standard?
No. Dozier's files show that most episodes were shot in three days. I suspect the pilot was an exception, of course, and I know they took four days to shoot the final one, the Minerva ep. I guess at that point the budget and time didn't matter so much because they knew it was over.
'I thought Siren was perfect for Joan.'--Stanley Ralph Ross, writer of 'The Wail of the Siren'

My hobbies include gazing at the Siren and doing her bidding, evil or otherwise.

'She had a devastating, hypnotic effect on all the men.'--A schoolmate describing Joan Collins at age 17
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