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Todd Purdom

👤 Person
132 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

So the problem was shows that were produced in one place and shown in another had a very poor visual quality. One of the challenges that you can't, even now you'll notice probably sometimes if you watch a movie and a television screen appears in the background, it vibrates and has a kind of a jiggly moiré quality. Because the speed of film is different from the speed of the video image.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

So the problem was shows that were produced in one place and shown in another had a very poor visual quality. One of the challenges that you can't, even now you'll notice probably sometimes if you watch a movie and a television screen appears in the background, it vibrates and has a kind of a jiggly moiré quality. Because the speed of film is different from the speed of the video image.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Digital has changed some of this. But in any case, Lucy and Desi, the whole goal of the show was to work together, live in Los Angeles, where they were about ready to have their first child, their daughter, Lucy Desiree Arnaz. And the sponsor and CBS wanted them to come and do it in New York. And they said, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. And that's when CBS said, well.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Digital has changed some of this. But in any case, Lucy and Desi, the whole goal of the show was to work together, live in Los Angeles, where they were about ready to have their first child, their daughter, Lucy Desiree Arnaz. And the sponsor and CBS wanted them to come and do it in New York. And they said, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. And that's when CBS said, well.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Digital has changed some of this. But in any case, Lucy and Desi, the whole goal of the show was to work together, live in Los Angeles, where they were about ready to have their first child, their daughter, Lucy Desiree Arnaz. And the sponsor and CBS wanted them to come and do it in New York. And they said, no, no, no, we don't want to do that. And that's when CBS said, well.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

We're certainly not going to have you do it live in Los Angeles and make the most important markets in the country watch a blurry kinescope. So you'll have to film it. And that will cost more.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

We're certainly not going to have you do it live in Los Angeles and make the most important markets in the country watch a blurry kinescope. So you'll have to film it. And that will cost more.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

We're certainly not going to have you do it live in Los Angeles and make the most important markets in the country watch a blurry kinescope. So you'll have to film it. And that will cost more.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

His basic idea was, let's film it on 35mm film stock, just like a movie. But because CBS and the sponsor also realized that Lucy performed best in front of a live audience, as her radio show had demonstrated, they wanted to film this television program also in front of a live audience.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

His basic idea was, let's film it on 35mm film stock, just like a movie. But because CBS and the sponsor also realized that Lucy performed best in front of a live audience, as her radio show had demonstrated, they wanted to film this television program also in front of a live audience.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

His basic idea was, let's film it on 35mm film stock, just like a movie. But because CBS and the sponsor also realized that Lucy performed best in front of a live audience, as her radio show had demonstrated, they wanted to film this television program also in front of a live audience.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Well, as you probably know, a movie is filmed most of the time with a single camera set up over and over again for each shot. Every close-up of a reaction, it involves a separate camera setup. And to try to film a half-hour situation comedy like that would have been in those days very cumbersome. It would have also wrecked the spontaneity.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Well, as you probably know, a movie is filmed most of the time with a single camera set up over and over again for each shot. Every close-up of a reaction, it involves a separate camera setup. And to try to film a half-hour situation comedy like that would have been in those days very cumbersome. It would have also wrecked the spontaneity.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

Well, as you probably know, a movie is filmed most of the time with a single camera set up over and over again for each shot. Every close-up of a reaction, it involves a separate camera setup. And to try to film a half-hour situation comedy like that would have been in those days very cumbersome. It would have also wrecked the spontaneity.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

It would have been complicated to capture the laugh and reaction. So they came up with this notion of using three cameras at once in synchronicity, filming the show like a play. And while a game show, the Ralph Edwards' Truth or Consequences had been experimenting with that technique, no one had ever really done it for a play, you know, like a sitcom.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

It would have been complicated to capture the laugh and reaction. So they came up with this notion of using three cameras at once in synchronicity, filming the show like a play. And while a game show, the Ralph Edwards' Truth or Consequences had been experimenting with that technique, no one had ever really done it for a play, you know, like a sitcom.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

It would have been complicated to capture the laugh and reaction. So they came up with this notion of using three cameras at once in synchronicity, filming the show like a play. And while a game show, the Ralph Edwards' Truth or Consequences had been experimenting with that technique, no one had ever really done it for a play, you know, like a sitcom.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

So, Desi went around talking to various cinematographers, including the Academy Award winning cameraman, Carl Freund. who had started out in German expressionist cinema in the 20s and 30s and come to Hollywood like so many emigres from Europe. And he said, you can't do it. And Desi said, why? He said, because you have to light separately for the close-ups, for the medium shots, for the long shots.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

So, Desi went around talking to various cinematographers, including the Academy Award winning cameraman, Carl Freund. who had started out in German expressionist cinema in the 20s and 30s and come to Hollywood like so many emigres from Europe. And he said, you can't do it. And Desi said, why? He said, because you have to light separately for the close-ups, for the medium shots, for the long shots.

Fresh Air
Best Of: The Innovation Of 'I Love Lucy' / Mark Hamill

So, Desi went around talking to various cinematographers, including the Academy Award winning cameraman, Carl Freund. who had started out in German expressionist cinema in the 20s and 30s and come to Hollywood like so many emigres from Europe. And he said, you can't do it. And Desi said, why? He said, because you have to light separately for the close-ups, for the medium shots, for the long shots.