I have a quick question, and I know someone knows the answers. But why did they stop the voice overs on MacGyver, I really enjoyed him explaining what he was doing and why he was doing it? Did it have something to do with kids trying out the experiments?

Time for something else. The voice overs really started to bother me after the third season. Lost Love part 2, Blow Out, The Negotiator, Mask of the Wolf and Murderers' Sky were the first episodes that didn't have any voice overs. Not so sure about Murderers' Sky though but I doubt it. In the third season it was still acceptable but in the fourth not anymore. The Endangered was the final episode that had him talking throughout the episode. In the fourth season he only said something during the beginning of the episode, just like in some third season episodes. Brainwashed was without voice overs and Easy Target was the last episode to have voice overs. Of course there are some short announcements later on after the final scene, depending on the episode.

But I was very glad the voice overs stopped. Maybe in the first seasons it was great to have a few things explained during an ism, but why the talk if you can see what he was doing. To me it was an improvement to the show. Can you really hear him explaining what he was doing in season 5, 6 or 7. That he explains a few things while talking to other characters is one thing. But I'd rather see him as in The Gun and plenty of other times that you can see he's concentrating and that you shouldn't bother him when he's busy. I think it's much cooler that the music supports the scene instead of unnecessary voiceover talk.

Maybe Rocky might know, I enjoyed the voice over it was in a way showing another part of MacGyver. to this day I wish they keep the voice over.

The idea to stop the voice overs was Steve Downing's or Micheal Greenburg's (can't remember which at the moment).

The story goes that when he first saw the show and talked to RDA one of his first comments was that the voice overs need to stop, because that's a radio thing, not a TV thing. On TV you show the audience whats going on, you don't tell them. And apparently RDA was pleased to hear him say it because he didn't like them much either.. and so they where stopped.

And now they have Burn Notice doing voice overs? How ironic is that?

lol I noiced that and I like it.

Thats a good reason to remove it.

I appreciate RDA's respect for the intelligence of his audience to understand what is happening in the scene without the assistance of narration.

Magnum also has narrating but I think that is more to explain what he feels or thinks about a situation so the audience might get more feeling with the character.

I know now how to follow the story and figure out what he's doing. But I kind of agree in the beginning it was interesting, and I learned a lot. I just like the sound of RDA's voice.

I just think it's funny that they have a series in the 21st century that is now doing the voice over. I even think I've heard some in the original CSI, especially when they are trying to solve the crimes. In fact I would say all of the CSI series do voice overs (maybe more flashbacks).

A narrated story can be nice but I think the music adds more to the scene than babbles. If Arnie talked the whole time during the ending of Predator which in the last twenty minutes were like only three lines anymore, I think it wouldn't have been that great as it is now. Writers also said, there was no use of dialogue needed since Arnie was the only one left of his team while battling the Predator. But in movies like Titanic and Sin City and Naked Gun, it was a good example. And as I earlier said in the earlier seasons of Mac it seemed nice too. For the first two/three seasons it worked great but after the third, it became annoying. In Magnum however it seemed do a better job. More subtle and Tom Selleck also has a great background voice.

I think in the movies it's nice to hear a narrated story starting off it's a weaveing tale, but if Rick didn't like talking in the show like he did, then it's best to listen to thoses who know what the show is all about, the one who plays the part, and the ones who created the show.

I just liked where the beginning of the episode had Rick explaining how his day was going. And if there was something he was doing with a ism. He didn't have to talk through the whole thing.

I really liked it when an episode with him and Jack, and explaining to the audience why he shouldn't be with Jack but was with Jack.

I really don't remember Magnum PI using voice overs. But that aired way back in the late 70's early 80's. I do remember some episodes of it being done.

So am I!!!!

same hear loved his voice, all good things sometimes come to an end.

This post has been edited by MacNymph on 3 June 2009 - 09:32 AM

Indeed... unfortunately...

Yeah I actually thought the voice-overs where rather unique for that time period, and I liked them.

They added an extra depth of story telling not used by any other show of that time.

Well, it appears that they are coming back. Burn Notice is using them, to tell their stories.

There is a new series coming on around June 24th called the Philanothropist I've got a feeling that it may use voice overs and be kind of like a rich MacGyver, just from the previews I've seen.

I wished they didn't get rid of the voice overs. I liked him explaining what was happening and how it would work. It also gave him a chance to express some humor in the situation

It gave the situation some humor, but it also let us see how Mac was raised, and where he came from background wise.

Magnum PI.

Magnum PI.

For some reason I had it in my head that Magnuim PI was late 80's. Even though I can remember seeing it on TV as a kid... which would make it early 80's

*shakes head*

There is a funny story I want to tell you regarding voice-overs: I once sat down to watch an X-files episode on TV (one of the later seasons, where Mulder was no regular anymore) on Monday evening at 20:15 to be precise.

It started with a voice-over, and the voice was the German voice of MacGyver (from the dubbed version). So, all of a sudden I totally had forgotten that it actually should be X-files and were wondering, since when they show "MacGyver" at this time of the evening, and why did I never see this episode before?

Took me a while to realize my mistake

You can have all kind of fun with the dubbed voices, when they appear in a different movie but you recognize Jack, Sam and Teal'c from SG-1.

Don't feel bad Rocky. I can remember watching Magnum PI from when the series started to when I was 17, and the series was coming to a end. And we all know how old I'am now. Be proud.

That must been very confusing and very funny.

Recently I've been paying more attention to the use of the voice-overs, and their evolution, as it were.

I wonder if they were originally used because of initial fear that the audience wouldn't 'get it', and that the MacGyverisms would need to be explained -- which didn't make for particularly good storytelling, as has been remarked already. I think that was the approach Greenburg took: if a story required voice-overs to make it work, it wasn't a good enough job of storytelling. By the time he came on board, RDA had a solid sense of the character and knew the VOs were turning into a liability. They tended to slow down the pace, diffuse the action and dumb down the stories.

After the first season, the VOs became less obtrusive (for me, anyway), and were more likely to offer an added dimension to a scene, instead of being an explanation that was needed to make a scene work. Like the show, they became more character-driven.

I'm thinking in particular of "Blood Brothers", a very late example. The episode starts with a voice-over, providing initial framing for the story and a certain amount of internal discovery. Later in the episode, there's a lineless scene with Mac doing the "water into wine" chemical trick with phenolphthalein, giving him something he can use to lay a fake blood trail. There's no VO to explain the science; it would have undermined the tension and distracted from the action. As MGod said, the music is a lot more effective.

Once the VOs were gone (or almost gone), the job of explaining the science, when essential, was given over to dialogue -- which meant that a scene would have character interaction instead, which I think is better storytelling generally, at least for TV. Although it does pose a writing challenge -- there are only so many ways you can have someone ask "What's that? What are you doing?" before it gets tedious.

I like a well-used VO. As Beth has eloquently stated above, best used to express internal revelations that a watcher would have to otherwise assume. I like a little glimpse of what's going on inside a favourite character's head.

'Burn Notice' and 'Pushing Daisies' both use VOs, and I find them delightful.

BN is flat-out funny as Michael helps us explore the cloudy interior of a super-spy's mental process.

PD is actually made with a fairy-tale narration style, while the story itself weaves out and around the narration in most humorous ways.

I think, perhaps, the Voice Over has evolved. Instead of dragging and dumbing things down, it adds a new dimension, one that I always loved in early MacGyver episodes.

jmho

The earliest shows that I can remember doing voice overs was The Waltons and Little House on the Prarie.

I like the dimension it gives the show, but I don't want the whole show being one big voice over. Just like the Gambit's why were they stopped? Isn't that where most of the voice overs occured?

46?

subtract 3 years. I was born in 1966. I was trying to tell Rocky to feel proud of his age. There are days when I don't think I'll see another one.

They did seem to be most prolific in the opening gambits, but I think there are some early episodes where the voice overs where used quite a lot in the actual episode as well.

I wonder if, in those shows, the voice overs where a carry-over from the radio play days. I suspect back then Television shows were still very much based on radio, which brings us full circle back to Greenbergs reason for stopping them.

I think the Waltons it was probably based on the radio days, because the series took place during the 1930's. But the voice overs were mainly done at the end of the episode.

Little House on the Priarie eventually stopped using them all together as Melissa Gilbert got older, and was also done towards the end of the episode. IF I remember correctily. You know when you hit 43 things start heading south.