Never thought about this one until I saw the beginning of "Wink of an Eye". It seemed that especially Leonard Nimoy was reading his lines from something out of sight. I often wondered if they wrote that episode in a hurry or changed things at the last minute for not enough memorization time, or they did in fact use the prompters throughout the series but ordinarily knew lines well enough not to refer to them often.
teleprompter use during TOS?
- Thread starter billsantos
- Start date
I doubt they used a teleprompter. For one thing, I'm not sure they were even around in those days.
Cue cards, on the other hand, are downright ancient, as is a gofer just off camera feeding the actor lines...
Cue cards, on the other hand, are downright ancient, as is a gofer just off camera feeding the actor lines...
I have no information about whether they were used while shooting Star Trek, but I've read that teleprompters were regular fixtures on the Dragnet sets as early as 1953.
Teleprompters have been around since the 1950s, but they’re usually used for live broadcasts or shows done in front of an audience. Were they commonly used on the sets of filmed dramatic series as well?
Actors use cue cards sometimes.
Marlon Brando liked to stick script pages all around the set, in places the camera wouldn't pick up, but where he could look at them. Sometimes even taped to the chest of another actor in the scene.
It would help to explain Shatner's pauses during his dialogue.
The only two instances I've heard are that Elisha Cook Jr needed a lot of help in "Court-martial" and that Diana Muldaur needed a lot of help in TNG.
I used to not have any sympathy for them until I went before the cameras for "The Old Guys" and couldn't remember a damn line, even though I'd written the script. Oh, I could tell you everyone else's lines, but I just couldn't remember mine. For "Care for a Lift?" Ricky insisted we use cue cards. Doh!
Our regular cast members of college and graduate students (and their instructors) have no problem remembering their lines.
I used to not have any sympathy for them until I went before the cameras for "The Old Guys" and couldn't remember a damn line, even though I'd written the script. Oh, I could tell you everyone else's lines, but I just couldn't remember mine. For "Care for a Lift?" Ricky insisted we use cue cards. Doh!
Our regular cast members of college and graduate students (and their instructors) have no problem remembering their lines.
Shatner began doing that in his early days on the stage, because of trouble remembering his lines on one occasion. He liked the effect and began using it regularly. It makes sense, really; real people have to make up their lines as they go, so they can't just rattle them off as if they're memorized, but pause and stammer while they figure out what to say next. That's what Shatner was going for, to make his performance sound more natural and improvisational.
and it did, imho
Some speeches are difficult to memorize, period. A lot of TV and film actors only memorize the scenes they are filming that day, and if the schedule changes sometimes they don't have time to memorize new dialog and need a "jump start" of sorts..
Reportedly Brando's technique was put bits of dialog all over the set that he could glance at, and then he'd basically improvise something like it, but not necessarily the lines as written.
Reportedly Brando's technique was put bits of dialog all over the set that he could glance at, and then he'd basically improvise something like it, but not necessarily the lines as written.
When I worked in the theatre and the actors had to read a letter or other written document aloud, they would ask (some DEMANDED!!!) that I write out the exact thing they were supposed to be reading aloud. It wasn't a big deal on a normal piece of paper, but to write out a speech on a fabric scroll in "The King and I"... on the last night, I was mighty tempted to substitute something else for the King's farewell letter to Anna, as that actress was really full of herself!
"The World of Suzie Wong" is cited as the point where that delivery style came into its own. The script is apparently a real dog, but Shatner's take on it transformed it from a turgid little potboiler into a rather amusing melodrama, and essentially saved the show from an early demise. It's also apparently the point where he started wearing the toup.
Behind the scenes footage for Superman: The Movie showed Brando reading his lines off cue cards.
For his performance in The Score, Brando wore an IFB (like a TV anchor) and had lines fed to him from someone off stage speaking into a mic. Of course, he ended up improvised most of his scenes with Robert DeNiro.
According to obits of his Last Tango in Paris co-star last week, Brando tried to have his lines written on ... ah, parts of her anatomy.
Or the diaper worn by baby Kal-El in Superman: The Movie.
I own a Majel Barrett cue card and a Michael Berryman cue card from ST IV. Director Nimoy wanted the actors using them during the scenes of Starfleet emergency services people commenting on the effects of the whale probe.
Considering that they weren't even willing to pay for a phone in Nimoy's dressing room, I think it's a safe bet they weren't willing to shell out the bucks for a teleprompter.
Posterboard and markers, on the other hand, have always been dirt cheap...
Posterboard and markers, on the other hand, have always been dirt cheap...
Similar threads
