Post by topbilled on Aug 25, 2023 13:58:37 GMT
I think this happened more times than we might realize.
I purchased the complete series (eight seasons) of Rawhide and I started going through season 1 a few days ago. I've been writing down all the voice-over narration at the top of the episodes. In the first season, all the introductory narration is done by trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming). But I think starting in the second season, Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) also does some of the narrating.
This caused me to think about other shows that frequently had someone (typically a lead character) provide narration. Here are the examples that came to me off the top of my head...
Matthew Swain (Warner Anderson) the newspaper editor, provided narration at the beginning of each episode of Peyton Place. Anderson's character was no longer featured on camera after the first season, but he continued to provide narration as if he still lived there and saw everything that happened in town.
Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert) provided narration in Little House on the Prairie and the follow-up program Little House: A New Beginning. I believe there is at least one episode in which Laura does not appear on screen, but she still provides narration.
Episodes of the zany sitcom Soap had announcer Rod Roddy ask a bunch of tantalizing questions at the end of each installment, to entice the viewer to tune back in the following week. This was obviously not a standard narration, but it still was commentary on the action and the main characters' predicaments.
I purchased the complete series (eight seasons) of Rawhide and I started going through season 1 a few days ago. I've been writing down all the voice-over narration at the top of the episodes. In the first season, all the introductory narration is done by trail boss Gil Favor (Eric Fleming). But I think starting in the second season, Rowdy Yates (Clint Eastwood) also does some of the narrating.
This caused me to think about other shows that frequently had someone (typically a lead character) provide narration. Here are the examples that came to me off the top of my head...
Matthew Swain (Warner Anderson) the newspaper editor, provided narration at the beginning of each episode of Peyton Place. Anderson's character was no longer featured on camera after the first season, but he continued to provide narration as if he still lived there and saw everything that happened in town.
Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert) provided narration in Little House on the Prairie and the follow-up program Little House: A New Beginning. I believe there is at least one episode in which Laura does not appear on screen, but she still provides narration.
Episodes of the zany sitcom Soap had announcer Rod Roddy ask a bunch of tantalizing questions at the end of each installment, to entice the viewer to tune back in the following week. This was obviously not a standard narration, but it still was commentary on the action and the main characters' predicaments.
