The "starring-as" credit...

I'm guessing this is determined beforehand and not after the pilot is aired.

So that was Jerry's unofficial (to the public) title?
Interesting...and it makes sense.
And he probably was awake for another hour or two when he finally did hit the sheets!

 

That's a guild rule: the writers who worked on the pilot get a token credit and a certain payment for every episode, because they basically determined the "style" of the show. The DP and director also get additional payment as well.

Seinfeld was the de facto showrunner for the last two seasons of the show after Larry David left in 1998, citing burnout and exhaustion as factors. Senfeld supervised the writers room, personally rewrote every script himself, and also made a lot of the creative decisions on casting, hiring directors, and other day-to-day duties that kept the show running. At the end, Jerry was also completely burned out, and turned down a reported $5 million dollars per episode to keep the show going another year:

Jerry Seinfeld explains why he turned down $5 million offer

People have described the job of "showrunner" as basically being somebody who's asked questions and has to make decisions about five times a minute for 12 hours a day.

 

As I was reading through the thread thinking about all of the subtleties of credits, it occurred to me that in the age of Netflix, you have to go out of your way to actually see a show's opening/end credits. And not to go off on a tangent but I personally never feel the need to skip an opening, and I actually want to see the end credits full screen. You kids get off my lawn!

 

The Love Boat paired each actor with their character's job, but only "And Lauren Tewes" included her character's name:

Gavin MacLeod as Your Captain
Bernie Kopell as Your Ship's Doctor
Fred Grandy as Your Yeoman Purser
Ted Lange as Your Bartender
And Lauren Tewes as Julie Your Cruise Director

 

No, Cousin Itt was credited to Felix Silla, who was inside the costume. The "voice" was done by other people.

Silla also played Twiki on Buck Rogers. Mel Blanc did the voice for Twiki.

 

Cannon was interesting. William Conrad was indeed the only regular, the only character to be in any of the episodes more than a couple of times. Martin Sheen played the same character in two different episodes, there were a couple of others, and that was it. I guess it is a tribute to Conrad that he was able to cover so many emotional bases. One wonders why the show didn't save more money by having Conrad do his own narration!

Cannon featured the major guest stars in the opening credits. Anywhere from three to seven actors depending on episode. Some with prior fame, like David Janssen or Tina Louise, would be Special Guest Stars. Some were Special Guest Stars without it being obvious why.

Occasionally there were actors with major roles in the episodes that were not featured in the opening credits. Milton Seltzer, not a huge name, but an actor I recognize, had a major story line in an episode, his own scenes, but no opening credit. Just was featured with half a dozen others at the end. There were other instances.

The worst crediting I have ever seen was Ward Wood on Mannix. "The cop" was a regular character on Mannix, played by different actors. The producers' top choice was Robert Reed, but he was busy with The Brady Bunch (whose house set was used in many Mannix episodes) and only appeared occasionally. Larry or "Lawrence" Linville did it for a while. But Ward Wood was by far the most used, 75 episodes. Only Mike Connors and Gail Fisher were featured in the opening credits; the guest stars and everyone else at the end. Ward Wood was not only at the end, he seldom if ever got his own card! Always shared, with one or even five other actors. Reed got his own card, Linville got his own card. Not Ward Wood.

I wonder if Tina Louise got paid more when they upgraded "the rest" to the opening credits. Her credit actually got worse then.

 

Trivia about Quinn Martin shows...

 

Ha I say to you -- HA!

I FART in your general direction!

'Gotti' has FORTY-FOUR (44) credited producers

 

Wasn't that a Fugs song?

Or did they do 'I FART, Therefore I Am'?
Those fumes are starting to confuse me too!

Comparing a film's credits to that of a TV show...YOU win!
Let me be the first to sign the card that's also circulating!

BTT,

Then there's this:





On 'The King Of Queens', Stiller got
'And Jerry Stiller As Arthur'.

Mr. Ed..............Himself

 

Episode of Cannon with Mark Hamill...too new for opening credit.

 

“Ask for the and”

Ask for the and - Witterpedia

 

TEASE!

It’s been nearly 3 days since you promised to ‘pass one’ in my direction and I’m still eagerly waiting.
Since the odor ambiance "fragrance" in my humble abode is the same as it always is, I’m guessing it still must be really in you end-o?

I do have one request if you decide to make good on your promise and that is too make sure you have at least (at least a 1½) of red meat 4-5hours before launching.
And not any lamb or pork either...Bull or Buffalo meat (they’re the most potent of the lot).
And can you have about a pint of Haagen-Dazs too with the same meal please (nothing like lactose gas)?
Your choice of flavor.

My budget’s a little too tight to spring for the meat this month.
I can handle buying several or more pints of Haagen-Dazs easily enough, but unfortunately my doctor advised me to cut out dairy.



Time for a new doctor.

 

The story goes that when the Gilligan's Island producers renegotiated everybody's salary to give them a bit of a raise for Season 2, Bob Denver went to Sherwood Schwartz and requested that they get rid of "and the rest" and actually give Russel Johnson and Dawn Wells an on-screen credit (which required changing the theme song lyrics to include "the Professor and... Mary Ann"). Wells -- the only surviving cast member -- has thanked Denver many, many times for giving her that small perk.

 

Jonathan Harris; the "special guest star" title was due to the fact that he was hired after the pilot...hence the Special Guest Star!

 

They actually added both the characters of "Dr. Smith" and the Robot, partly on the suggestion of the network and partly because of the producers. The documentaries on the restored release on Blu-ray go into this in great detail. I seem to recall Jonathan Harris made comparatively low money that first season ($1750 a week), but this doubled by the final season, where he made more money than any other actor on the show.

Marc Cushman's exhaustive 2000-page, 3-volume set, Irwin Allen's Lost in Space: The Authorized Biography of a Classic Sci-Fi Series, goes into all the excruciating details and will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about it:



https://www.amazon.com/Irwin-Allens-Lost-Space-One/dp/0692750185/

I read his previous books on Star Trek, which left no stone unturned, but I'm not sure if I have the stomach to plow through this much detail on Lost in Space. Still, you gotta admire the guy's tenacity and extraordinary research... which did include details on how the credits were assigned and how hard Jonathan Harris worked to get more control of his character and the scripts.

 

I'm aware of the circumstances that led to the changed title sequence. But normally that change would have been considered a downgrade for Tina Louise.

The first season credits are:

Starring Bob Denver
Alan Hale
Also Starring Jim Backus as Thurston Howell
Natalie Schaefer
And Also Starring Tina Louise as Ginger

Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells had their own cards, no pictures, in the closing credits:
Co-starring Russell Johnson
and Dawn Wells

When they moved to the opening credits, there was a billing change.

It was
With
Russell Johnson
Dawn Wells

on the same card. Russell's head shot is higher and to the left, but Dawn's name appears above Russell's. Russell is the only one who gets his name below his picture and not above.

I am guessing that "With" is a downgrade from "Co-starring." So there was quite a bit of horsetrading that probably happened there.

Everyone else kept the same billing, but Tina's did get worse. Usually when there is a highlighted final billing like that, additional characters are slotted in front of that. A notorious case would be M*A*S*H, which had a very conventional top-down crediting with no special notations, most prominent to least. Gary Burghoff was intended to be sixth out of six. Jamie Farr and William Christopher moved in behind when they moved to the opening credits. But Gary wanted to leave the show at the end of the seventh season. The producers wanted him to leave during November sweeps of the eighth season. They paid him to do so. In addition to filming away from the rest of the cast, his billing changed to "And Gary Burghoff as Radar", billed after Farr and Christopher.

So my question more was did Tina get comped because she lost her special last billing?