Michael O'Hare

[Jan]

Sadly, I did see a couple of episodes of Celebrity Rehab with Jeff on it and I came away with an abiding disgust for 'Dr. Drew' who capitalizes on people's pain. Yes, Jeff was portrayed poorly and behaved badly. But since I never met him, I prefer to think of him as JMS drew him in his tribute to the departed cast members - as a man who rebuilt his career after drugs had destroyed it once before with courage and no resentment.

Jan

 

[Republibot 3.0]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but O'Hare was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, wasn't he?

It sounds like it, but JMS never mentioned any actual diagnosis. BTW, if you haven't seen it yet, there's a *long* interview with JMS at http://www.emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/j-michael-straczynski# and a link to a clip where he talks about Michael just a short time before he did so at Phoenix Comic-Con. In the clip, the discussion of Michael's illness starts shortly after the 46:00 mark.

Jan

Wow, thanks for the link. And, yeah, that makes it sound more like Paranoid Schizophrenia. The fact that he went off the meds and disappeared is also pretty common behavior for people with that disorder. How sad.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

I always liked O'Hare's performance except for his scenes with Blaire Baron (in The Gathering), with whom he had zero chemistry. That scene, discussing The Battle of the Line was filled with bad acting, by both of them. It was just a bad scene. They should've done it a few more times and had good direction.

They probably intended to do retakes after principle photography was done,, then were told it was being trimmed way back. in the preliminary edit. Or, conversely, the trimmed version we got might have been an attempt to salvage something from a scene that just wasn't working.

um that scene was cut in the original pilot. the full scene was there in the "special edition.". Personally I think o'hare is awesome in that scene.

I don't see how your comment relates to either of the quotes. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just dont' understand what you said. Can you restate?

 

[Republibot 3.0]

Sadly, I did see a couple of episodes of Celebrity Rehab with Jeff on it and I came away with an abiding disgust for 'Dr. Drew' who capitalizes on people's pain. Yes, Jeff was portrayed poorly and behaved badly. But since I never met him, I prefer to think of him as JMS drew him in his tribute to the departed cast members - as a man who rebuilt his career after drugs had destroyed it once before with courage and no resentment.

Jan

I'm torn: Is Drew Pinsky a good guy who has been corrupted by celebrity and easy money, or is the always-corrupt son of an unsuccessful actress that realized getting a degree could grant him celebrity and easy money?

Because I used to like him when he first hit the public eye, and he seemed helpful, but now I'm kind of ashamed to admit I ever felt like that. Because every time I see him, he's just kind of low-key despicable.

Poor Jeff. He was getting used by a lot of people at the end there, and I wonder if he knew it or not. Was he allowing himself to be used because at least he'd get some help/money that way, or was he too far gone to even realize what was being done to him? Poor guy.

 

[Jan]

I'm torn: Is Drew Pinsky a good guy who has been corrupted by celebrity and easy money, or is the always-corrupt son of an unsuccessful actress that realized getting a degree could grant him celebrity and easy money?

Because I used to like him when he first hit the public eye, and he seemed helpful, but now I'm kind of ashamed to admit I ever felt like that. Because every time I see him, he's just kind of low-key despicable.

<shrug> He's very presentable and he presents himself well and I suppose that *perhaps* he might do some good in making mental health issues more understandable to people. But he also caters to the lowest, basest impulses of human nature by putting people's pain on display and I despise him for it.

Poor Jeff. He was getting used by a lot of people at the end there, and I wonder if he knew it or not. Was he allowing himself to be used because at least he'd get some help/money that way, or was he too far gone to even realize what was being done to him? Poor guy.

I don't know. I might be able to form a true opinion if I saw the uncut footage from the rehab show but there's no real telling. What I did see (only a couple of the episodes, I couldn't bring myself to watch any more) left me with the impression that he really did want to get clean again.

Jan

 

[JoeD80]

They probably intended to do retakes after principle photography was done,, then were told it was being trimmed way back. in the preliminary edit. Or, conversely, the trimmed version we got might have been an attempt to salvage something from a scene that just wasn't working.

um that scene was cut in the original pilot. the full scene was there in the "special edition.". Personally I think o'hare is awesome in that scene.

I don't see how your comment relates to either of the quotes. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just dont' understand what you said. Can you restate?

You said "then were told it was being trimmed way back." My statement was that it was indeed trimmed in the original pilot. Then you say "the trimmed version we got" - but the full version is in the redone pilot.

My personal feeling is that the full scene works.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

um that scene was cut in the original pilot. the full scene was there in the "special edition.". Personally I think o'hare is awesome in that scene.

I don't see how your comment relates to either of the quotes. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I just dont' understand what you said. Can you restate?

You said "then were told it was being trimmed way back." My statement was that it was indeed trimmed in the original pilot. Then you say "the trimmed version we got" - but the full version is in the redone pilot.

My personal feeling is that the full scene works.

Ok, if you think it works you think it works. That means it works for you, that's good enough, I won't argue.

What I was trying to say is sometimes people will shoot scenes that they know won't be in the finished cut, or are unlikely to be in the finished cut, or will be HEAVILY altered in the finished cut because that's just the way the shooting schedule is plotted out, and it'd be more trouble to change the schedule than it's worth. You can usually recognize these scenes in outtakes because the actors don't usually seem very motivated. This used to happen a fair ammount on TV shows, but less so now.

What also happens is that they'll shoot a scene that IS intended to be in the finished product, but it doesn't go the way they wanted, or someone flubs it, or gives an off performance or whatever, and owing to a tight shooting schedule they don't have time to redo it until they get it right. Instead they have to go on to the next scene on the chedule and hope they can come back to do some re-takes of the scene that didn't work. Sometimes they get the chance, sometimes they don't, and they just salvage as best they can from what they got. This happens A LOT in TV.

My suspicion is that the *Full* scene was an example of it being kind of not as satisfactory as they wanted, and the *original cut* in the 1990s pilot movie was their attempt to salvage what they could from it when they weren't able to re-shoot it for whatever reason.

But I could be wrong.

 

[Jan]

As a director, it seems that Richard Compton was distinctly lacking. At the time of "The Gathering", JMS wasn't an experienced editor (something he fixed quickly when the show went to series) and so the original edit left much to be desired as far as character moments are concerned.

It's common practice for the Director's cut to run long by a few minutes but in general, JMS' scripts are written with a view toward every scene and every line being in the final cut. Personally, I loved O'Hare's performance in the scene where he talks about the Battle of the Line but really didn't care for the girlfriend's (Blair Baron?). I was glad when she didn't make it to the series.

Jan

 

[Republibot 3.0]

As a director, it seems that Richard Compton was distinctly lacking. At the time of "The Gathering", JMS wasn't an experienced editor (something he fixed quickly when the show went to series) and so the original edit left much to be desired as far as character moments are concerned.
[.QUOTE]

Yup. Also he was under pressure from P-10 to make additional cuts in the middle to make room for more commercials.

Personally, I loved O'Hare's performance in the scene where he talks about the Battle of the Line but really didn't care for the girlfriend's (Blair Baron?). I was glad when she didn't make it to the series.

Jan

Oh, yeah, he was great. He was great and she was terrible, and the scene as in the P-10 version is basically cut to work AROUND her being terrible, and also to make it shorter for commercial breaks. In the TNT version that's undone, and he's still great, but the scene is massively off-balance because of her. That's all I'm saying. One or two more takes might have fixed it for her, because she's adequate in the other scenes, but they didn't do that for whatever reason. Probably a production reason.

 

[Springer]

As a director, it seems that Richard Compton was distinctly lacking.

To be fair, he has an impressive CV. Maybe just not a good fit for B5, he clearly had a different view on it than JMS. He was a producer on the show as well until the parting of ways so they must have shown him a great deal of trust in the beginning.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

As a director, it seems that Richard Compton was distinctly lacking.

To be fair, he has an impressive CV. Maybe just not a good fit for B5, he clearly had a different view on it than JMS. He was a producer on the show as well until the parting of ways so they must have shown him a great deal of trust in the beginning.

Everyone has an off day.

And, hey, perhaps schlogging through all the mess to make the pilot impressed JMS with his sticktuitiveness.

 

[Jan]

And, hey, perhaps schlogging through all the mess to make the pilot impressed JMS with his sticktuitiveness.

I've always figured that since it was JMS' first series, he counted on names like Compton and Netter to help sell the show *after* the pilot. The theory was that the show would start filming episodes immediately after the pilot but it didn't happen that way.

Jan

 

[Republibot 3.0]

And, hey, perhaps schlogging through all the mess to make the pilot impressed JMS with his sticktuitiveness.

I've always figured that since it was JMS' first series, he counted on names like Compton and Netter to help sell the show *after* the pilot. The theory was that the show would start filming episodes immediately after the pilot but it didn't happen that way.

Jan

Was Netter anyone of note at that point? I think he was vaguely tied to Robotech about a decade earlier, but apart from that [Checking] Nope, I'm thinking of Jeffrey Willerth (sp?) who was a writer on Robotech. And Netter was a suit at MGM for half a decade, then a producer/co-producer.

 

[Jan]

Once one has had power in H-wood, as Doug Netter most certainly had had at MGM, unless there's a major scandal there's still a lot of influence and connections. Jeff Willerth, was never more than a producer's assistant (and body of Kosh, of course) on B5 as far as I know.

Jan

 

[JoeD80]

JMS had stated a couple of issues with Compton's directing - that the editing was hard because Compton would rarely shoot enough coverage; and that he would often have the actors static in one place and not have enough for them to do beyond the dialogue. "Believers" and "The War Prayer" both had added scenes shot because there wasn't a long enough edit at the end.

On the flip side, I think Peter Jurasik said he liked Compton, and Michael O'Hare said that he was a big help with him on getting the Sinclair character down. So Compton was apparently very good with the actors, which not all of the directors were (Mario DiLeo, Adam Nimoy).

 

[Republibot 3.0]

Once one has had power in H-wood, as Doug Netter most certainly had had at MGM, unless there's a major scandal there's still a lot of influence and connections. Jeff Willerth, was never more than a producer's assistant (and body of Kosh, of course) on B5 as far as I know.

Jan

Willerth also wrote for Robotech, and Netter did a CGI demo reel for one of the failed attempts to revive Robotech, so I confused the two. My bad.

 

[Republibot 3.0]

JMS had stated a couple of issues with Compton's directing - that the editing was hard because Compton would rarely shoot enough coverage; and that he would often have the actors static in one place and not have enough for them to do beyond the dialogue. "Believers" and "The War Prayer" both had added scenes shot because there wasn't a long enough edit at the end.

HA! YES! I'M RIGHT! Kinda.

Remember upthread when I said the Sinclair/Caroline/Battle of the Line sequence felt like they just did one take? And it wasn't very good (On Caroline's side), so they just used what they could in the original pilot? That's consistent with what you just said about Compton's directorial style.

 

[Raw Shark]

Richard Compton directed 'Infection' and 'Midnight on the Firing Line,' both of which I thought were terrific. Some of his other episodes tended to be clunky, some of the ones which aren't considered among the best. But the first season was very clunky in some places and very polished in others. That's something I love about season one, that it was so experimental, that every idea they had got filmed, the whole crew came up with ways to make it work on a budget. Sometimes it didn't work, but by this process they got most of the kinks out, and season two was a more polished production. But I do think some of the writing in the first season was the best. The wild ideas and concepts just kept coming. A refugee export service! After years of watching Next Generation, that was the line that made me think 'Oh damn, I don't think we're on the Love Boat anymore.'

Raw Shark

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
Aristotle

 

[Republibot 3.0]

The wild ideas and concepts just kept coming. A refugee export service! After years of watching Next Generation, that was the line that made me think 'Oh damn, I don't think we're on the Love Boat anymore.'

Amen, brother! Preach on!