June 15, 2003 - 780130 - Yesterday's Giant

[vgarci]

We have a double header, presented by TEXAS (Member #45), for the group to review this week. This show represents the second of the two parts.

For those who do not have the program, you can download it (with or without a Streamload account) at: www.streamload.com/vgarci (http://www.streamload.com/vgarci)

[Texas]

[quote:fa4034bf72]

"If you can dream - and not make dreams your master..."

[i:fa4034bf72]From "If", written by Rudyard Kipling to his son (http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_Kipling/kipling_if.htm)[/i:fa4034bf72]

HIMAN BROWN: "Hi, Norm, remember that show we recorded a week back about that "down-on-his-luck" guy who gets caught up with an old friend who thinks he's going to get rich because of something from the past?"

NORMAN ROSE: "sure, Hi...and the guy's lied to by his 'friend' as to what's really going on, and the friend like a fool is willing to risk everything including his own life to get the treasure?"

HIMAN BROWN: "Yes, that's it. Percy Grainger did such a good script that Fred Lewis and I thought we'd do it again, right down to you introducing yourself at the beginning over that "oboe-and-bassoon" melody we used in "Hickory Dickory Doom".

NORMAN ROSE: "Oh, wow...who will I say I am THIS week?"

[i:fa4034bf72]Imaginary conversation in January 1978 between Himan Brown and Norman Rose[/i:fa4034bf72]

[/quote:fa4034bf72]

...and so, I nominate for this week's show(s) "The Laughing Maiden" and its fraternal twin born two weeks later "Yesterday's Giant". :D

[Texas]

Three things:

1. The always enjoyable Ralph Bell's breathless performance alternates, IMO, between being irritating and "TreMENdous".

2. When the writers were at the top of their form, you could learn things from them even when E.G. wasn't talking. I enjoyed hearing Rose's character talk about "P", "S" and "Raleigh" waves during the nuclear test.

3. We've talked before about the conditions the RMT players had to work with, and what a marvelous job they did with sound effects, music, etc. However, listen when Rose's character "James McLain" starts trying to break or hammer the rocks alongside his friend at around the 32:45 mark.

Is that sound effect what I think it is? :wink:

[Lagavulin]

This was an ammusing episode. Haven't listened to the companion episode yet, will do that tomorrow.

Speaking of sound effects, when they were trying to smash out the center rock from inside the circle of holes, it sounded like they were tossing pebbles against a boulder. Hardly the effect desired!

With 1399 episodes written in such a short time span, it's not surprising that there are episodes that are quite similar. One literary researcher suggests that there are, in fact, only 20 master plots in all literature, and the only thing that changes are the conflicts, characters and settings to tell the story.

http://www.writersstore.com/product.php?products_id=413&cPath=23_49
http://www.rogertaylor.com/reference/20masterplots.pdf

i'll reserve further comment until I listen to the other episode.

cheers
Miles

[Texas]

lagavulin, thanks.

I too find several amusing things in this...such as the caveman's voice. (Interesting how he roared like a lion atop the plateau, but seemed to have a normal, almost conversational volume when he was accepting the food from the archaeologist and his military friend.)

I agree with you on the 20 themes, and think it would be interesting to create a database on how each of the 1,300 RMT episodes break down by theme. However, in [i:1ba836db02]this[/i:1ba836db02] set of programs we almost had a "cookie cutter" effect. As I hinted earlier, listen to Rose's opening dialogue over that "oboe-and-bassoon" music bed in the first act of each of these plays...notice how he says "I suppose" in each one.

Later, you hear him say "wow" or "oh, wow" in each episode...and you hear the "protagonist" say "We're rich, Jason...we're RICH!" ("The Laughing Maiden") or "We're going to be RICH!" ("Yesterday's Giant"). Then there are the plot similarities: three characters in each play, no women involved, one guy thinks he's found something from the past to get rich from, that same guy's a shady character (anyone who heard this program think that Ralph Bell's guy was responsible for what they repeatedly called "that Utah man business"?), he tricks Rose's character into coming along into a high-risk mission, the shady character is absolutely RULED BY his dreams of wealth, etc.

It seemed the RMT guys had a formula in January 1978. And thanks to the execution of the actors, and in spite of the extreme similarities, for me that formula worked.

[Charlie]

This is also an intertaining program. Good ear Kurt on noticing the similar story line with this one the the other SOTW that you suggested this week.

I probably preferred the other one over this one but they were both good. In any event, the acting was superb!

Charlie

[vgarci]

This play takes place in the State of Nevada, during the country's underground nuclear testing days. A profit-minded anthropologist finds a prehistoric family hiding in the Nevada desert. He intends to exploit them for monetary gain and explains his plans to a close friend. The friend, our main character, hopes to use the find for scientific purposes.

This play demonstrates many human traits. We witness the need to understand our origins, the desire for recognition among our peers, greed, benevolence, fear, kindness and many more. I enjoyed both the writing and acting and give this play a 4/5 based on the interesting and unique subject matter. That's not to say the play was completely unique because I've watched, read or listened to other programs where an alien being of some sort is exploited by scientist. However, I thought the content and the ties to the Nevada testing facility was interesting given that it certainly dated the program for the history buffs among us.

[vgarci]

Tex and Lag,
I haven't listened to the other program yet but I thought I'd comment on your posts. I wish I had commented on the sound effects because I also got a kick out of the prehistoric man's voice and the sound of the tiny rocks being used to give us a picture of the massive boulder. Both of these effects made me smile.

[Michael]

Of the 2 programs I enjoyed this one more. Which is strange because I thought the other story was better crafted.. Both are classic tales of men out for profit, but I felt the fact that they were looking to exploit a living creature as opposed to stealing a dead pirates gold made Giant the better of the two. i was able to see the [i:65b5121029]bad[/i:65b5121029] guy as more evil if you will

Overall I thought the acting was good. I did have a couple of problems with the writing however--I found the whole Utah Man reference a distraction, I know it was supposed to be his motivation-but it didn't convince me. I also thought that the introduction of the infant in the last 2 minutes was cheap and beneath the normally solid writing.

As far as the sound effect-it sounds like 2 billiard balls to me.

Michael[/img]

[brian1984_2001]

All I can say is WOW! What an excellent episode!

The idea is truly original and delightful. The script builds the drama wonderfully and presents us with exceptionally crafted characters. Those characters are brought to life with gusto by the all-male cast.

This may have been Norman Rose's finest performance.

I'd put it in the top tier of episodes.

[CBSRMTFAN]

While I've listened to many episodes, this is the first one that involved a prehistoric creature. I am always surprised by the creativity and freshness of each story.

However, I couldn't help but think Himan was indirectly or perhaps directly commenting on the role of Zoo's in our society. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but James talks about creating a national wildlife preserve while Richard talks about exploiting the creatures for money. Richard clearly is not concerned with the welfare of the creatures or science. He seems only to be concerned with the prospects for his own wealth.

There is also one last point that struck me as interesting. Richard (at 18:40) talks at length about duplicating the exact habitat of these creatures down to the caves and all. Nowadays this is common practice but was that the case in 1978 or was Himan ahead of his time?

[Texas]

Michael...interesting thoughts. BTW, "billiard balls being hit together" is EXACTLY the same sound effect I thought.

As to "that Utah man business", the reason why I think (after several listens to this) it was stressed is that it was supposed to have deeply affected Rose's character enough to make him totally opposed to considering exploiting the "Gigantispithecus" (sic? I think at one time it was pronounced "Gigantopithecus" as well in the show). At one point he also hinted that were he to do so he'd be finished as a scientist as a result of that "business.

CBSRMTFAN, I agree...I can't remember any other cavemen, dinosaurs or prehistoric whatnot being used in other RMT plot lines.

Thanks, Brian, Charlie, Vince and all for listening on this.

[dave]

the first thing i noticed about this episode was the lack of or poor sound effects. rmt usually does better than that. i had a picture of a desert setting but then i heard tropical birds and that kind of ruined the mood. the hammer hitting the rocks was funny.

was the caveman supposed to be 100,000 years old? why wouldn't the giganticus guys have EVOLVED like we did?

good acting. up to the rmt standards.

was the info about the different types of waves true?

[Texas]

Dave, as far as the waves, "yes". Here's a fascinating couple of paragraphs:

http://hep.uchicago.edu/~covault/98/handout112_06/handout112_06.html

[quote:624ae20ec3]Earthquakes travel outward from the epicenter in three different types of waves. The fastest of these, called the P-waves, are pressure waves that travel through the ground like sound waves. Then come the S-waves, or shear waves, which move the earth from side to side. Last, but certainly not least are the so-called Raleigh Waves, which result in ripples on the surface of the earth - this is what makes the telephone poles appear to dance. Like counting the second between lightning and thunder to judge the distance to a storm, you can judge the distance to the epicenter of an earthquake by noticing the time between the shaking (S-waves) and the wiggles (Raleigh waves).


Suppose you are in an earthquake. You see the earth start shaking with a period of 2.0 seconds. Approximately 30 seconds later, you see the telephone poles wiggle at a frequency of 5 Hz. Your friend, the seismologist tells you that S-waves have a wavelength of approximately 7 kilometers, while Raleigh waves have a wavelength of 160 meters.
[/quote:624ae20ec3]