Hi again,
Stefan, you had asked Marc Cushman earlier, if there was anything about I SPY's music in his book.
Well, when the FORUM was on our old host site (which unfortunately vanished), we were privileged to have the opportunity to ask our marvelous maestro,
Earle Hagen, himself some questions. Here are a few of his responses to the FORUM. So until we have the pleasure of reading Marc's wonderful book, I thought you might enjoy reading these.
~~~~~
from 2001
I had written to Mr. Hagen about our list of the FORUM's favorite episodes and mentioned that "Home to Judgment" was universally at the top (or near it) on everyone's list. (OK, OK ... so some of us have this
minor attraction for the "War Lord" ...
) "Home To Judgment" has this amazing appeal for both the male and female audience as judged by our responses ... with its raw syncopation, odd-counter balance rhythms ... and its incredible opening sequence of Kelly and Scotty struggling, running, fleeing through those rural farm fields. Mr. Hagen's captivating music totally set the tone and heightened the terror of the mysterious unknown enemy and their sophisticated equipment with every note of his pulsating score ... yet included the soft nostalgic music of Kelly's return to his boyhood days. I asked Mr. Hagen if he had the music for this episode (and the bizarre electronic "enemy" sound) in mind originally - or did it all evolve and develop as he worked on the story ...
Mr. Hagen answered:
"I had nothing in mind when I first ran "Home To Judgment." It was so stylized that I felt the normal I Spy approach would not work. When I looked at a new show to score, I would try to find a key scene that would help me determine the combination I would use. In Home To Judgment there were two. The first was the opening sequence which with the split for the main title ran over six minutes. The second was the scene where the killer with the blinding light comes to get them. I knew there was no way dramatically that my regular combo, a big dance band, plus percussion, would work for this picture. After thinking what I could use to heighten the dramatic stakes and carry me through the long chase, I called my contractor, Wally Popp, and told him I wanted to hire the following orchestra: two pianos, two harps, 4 basses, 4 French horns and 6 percussion. There was a long silence and Wally said, "Sure you Do." I had a hard time convincing him that that combo was what I really wanted. With a six minute plus opening with no dialogue and a tremendously tense killing sequence, the combination made exactly the sounds I heard in my head before I wrote them. Outside of reading advanced scripts for pre-recording issues, I never worked from scripts. The impression you get the first time you run a piece of film is often the most reliable. At least for me."
and about "Tatia"
"Tatia" .... was a unique score in the series. Outside of Laya, it was the only true love story. One of my favorite scores. There are some stand-out music jobs in the series.
Here's some more from Mr. Hagen on one of his favorites ....
Some of the shows of course stand out in memory: "Tatia," "Laya," "Home to Judgment," "Warlord," and one of my favorites, "Mainly On The Plains." "Mainly" had terrible problems with the dialogue recording in the garden sequences between Culp and Karloff. I covered it with music to fill the background which was full of noise. It served the purpose but unfortunately, the music wasn't heard very much. Most people are not aware that I Spy was the first show in TV to use radio mikes. In 1964, radio mikes were primitive. They not only picked up the dialogue but all the ambient sounds within several hundred yards. The more the recordist reached for the dialogue the more street sounds, including cars and trucks going by, he brought into the dialogue track. In Hong Kong, the radio mikes would pick up rock and roll broadcast from Victoria Peak as well as radar sweep from the harbor. "Mainly" had good thematic material, some fun stuff and a sizeable score. One of my favorites.
and there was also this commentary from his great book
Memoirs of a Famous Composer Nobody Ever Heard Of about the "I SPY's" main theme.
"The first order of business for me, was to get a 'Main Title,' the signature for the show's opening. Sheldon wanted something startling, like the kind of titles that the James Bond pictures were using. He hired Format Films to design it. The man in charge, Herb Klynn, came up with a story board that incorporated graphic art, animation, live action, and double screen processing. Very complex, but very interesting. Sheldon bought the concept; and about a week later, I got a call from Herb Klynn asking me for the tempo of the Main Title music.
I had fooled around with some ideas, but was waiting for the finished product before casting it in stone. He was asking me to do the opposite: determine the tempo of the music first, so he would cut the picture to the beat. I worked for a couple of hours; and fixed on an idea for the theme. I was still going to wait for the film before committing the final version, but I knew the tempo, and passed it on to Klynn. True to his word, he cut the picture to the tempo I gave him. It worked so well that Art Seid, our head film editor and post production associate, did the same thing with chases and fights. He would ask me for tempo before he cut the sequence. That saved me hours of sitting over a moviola, trying to determine what tempo would best fit the picture."
AND
here's 2 sites where you can listen to great (and good-sized) audioclips from the
I SPY CD
http://www.moviegrooves.com/shop/ispytvshowsoundtrack.htm
or at
http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm?ID=2800
As always,
Tatia
....
