King Mark 3,631 Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 Just wondering .They tracked his music in most of the episodes of the series for 3 years . Why didn't they have him score more episodes? The Five Tones 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 Because in the 60's that's how TV music was done generally. You hired a composer or a few composers do a a certain amount of music and track that music in episodes throughout the season. It saved money and time. I think it wasn't till the mid-80's after the musicians strike that TV shows in the US were required to have full original scores. The Five Tones and _deleted_ 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,495 Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 I think it's mostly because Williams' contract with Revue had expired at this point, after which he mostly focussed on pilots and the occasional episode as a freelancer. His four episodes for LiS is actually more than most other TV things he did in his post-contract period between 1964/65 and 1968 (the length of his contract varies according to which source you use -- I've seen 5, 6 and 7 years given as the duration). It must have been a cool gig for Williams at the time (he was recommended to Irwin Allen by Lionel Newman), the opportunity to do science fiction, which he hadn't done before. I think that's why he did a bit more than usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Didn't he have better things to do than commit to an entire TV series that ends with the main dude turning into a hammy vegetable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karelm 2,913 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 How many episodes of Gilligan’s Island did he do? Probably similarly he just did the pilot and maybe first episode or two but his music was tracked throughout the series making it feel Williamsy. Same with Sandy Courage with Star Trek. He wrote just the theme and pilot but staff composers wrote the series. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 Sandy Courage was a "staff composer" actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,495 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 1 hour ago, karelm said: How many episodes of Gilligan’s Island did he do? Probably similarly he just did the pilot and maybe first episode or two but his music was tracked throughout the series making it feel Williamsy. Same with Sandy Courage with Star Trek. He wrote just the theme and pilot but staff composers wrote the series. Williams only wrote music for the unaired pilot episode that was then subsequently tracked throughout the series. As I said earlier, Williams wrote a lot of 'pilot' music from 1965 onwards, and then moved on to other projects (whether the pilots were picked up or not). The Five Tones 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeinAR 1,949 Posted February 4, 2019 Share Posted February 4, 2019 I only know that somedays I am a season 1&2 theme guy and others I am a season 3 guy. Either way its great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Five Tones 302 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 And yet Allen/Fox choose to track Bernard Herrmann's "The Marker" from Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) for the (actually filmed real-life tech) jet pack scenes. The jet pack, only the single most coveted and jokingly resented piece of personal technology of the past 60 years, or essentially since human consciousness. He's the greatest composer of our era, but JW has had to deal with getting put in his place a lot, which might seem unbelievable now. Fwiw, 12-Mile Reef (I have the 2001 FSM release) is a great score. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,495 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 5 hours ago, The Five Tones said: And yet Allen/Fox choose to track Bernard Herrmann's "The Marker" from Beneath the 12-Mile Reef (1953) for the (actually filmed real-life tech) jet pack scenes. The jet pack, only the single most coveted and jokingly resented piece of personal technology of the past 60 years, or essentially since human consciousness. He's the greatest composer of our era, but JW has had to deal with getting put in his place a lot, which might seem unbelievable now. Fwiw, 12-Mile Reef (I have the 2001 FSM release) is a great score. That was also Lionel Newman's decision. I thought it worked great in that scene. The Five Tones 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Five Tones 302 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 It's iconic, no doubt about it. If I had seen 12-Mile as a child, I don't remember it, but when I did seek out the DVD decades later, I could only hear that cue as the jet pack music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 On 2/4/2019 at 7:18 AM, karelm said: How many episodes of Gilligan’s Island did he do? Probably similarly he just did the pilot and maybe first episode or two but his music was tracked throughout the series making it feel Williamsy. Same with Sandy Courage with Star Trek. He wrote just the theme and pilot but staff composers wrote the series. I've only ever seen Gerald Fried credited for doing Gilligan scores. His name is in every episode's end credits. I don't remember any music from the unaired pilot aside from the awful Calypso song that we're all thankful was never used, but some people believe that the recurring Gilligan theme that appears in many episodes was composed by Williams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,495 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 2 hours ago, Ghostbusters II said: I've only ever seen Gerald Fried credited for doing Gilligan scores. His name is in every episode's end credits. I don't remember any music from the unaired pilot aside from the awful Calypso song that we're all thankful was never used, but some people believe that the recurring Gilligan theme that appears in many episodes was composed by Williams. Series creator Sherwood Schwartz composed the discarded 'calypso' song, just as he composed the final theme song (I've always found it amusing that J. J. Abrams did the same thing for LOST, another 'desert island' series, albeit totally different). Williams is credited in a lot of end credits, as if he had written new music for each episode (when it was just re-use of his unaired pilot material). Depends on what you mean with recurring "Gilligan theme". Williams did indeed write several themes that recurred throughout the series. karelm 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 I remember the song Ginger performed for the Miss Castaway contest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Mark 3,631 Posted February 10, 2019 Author Share Posted February 10, 2019 is there a you tube video of a Williams Gilligan theme? did he compose the theme song? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unlucky Bastard 7,782 Posted February 10, 2019 Share Posted February 10, 2019 Well, you ain't gonna get that with reruns of Gilligan's Island... Gilligan's Island... Yeah, the one with the boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now