Another clip is here!!! These early Frat Boy ones are not as fun to comment on, but bear with me, eventually we will be rolling through clip after clip with lots to discuss and analyze. Commentary follows.
As I wrote above, this clip, and some of the other early Frat Boy ones, are not as interesting to comment on, things were just getting going, I am not sure that Roger was anything more than Frat Boy at this point, in the eyes of TPTB.
The velvet voice of Roger @1:20 or so just makes him appear so sincere. However, follow that up with the taunting about "RAAACHHEEEEL" in the little sing songy voices of Zach and Todd, the eating of the pizza (extremely vehement concerning their lives are on the line and they've committed a terrible act against someone), and the laughing at Powell's compassion and you've got the makings of a villain. Of course, we get to see this villain come undone and be patched up for almost 9 years, over and over. There is a God and I thank Him!
"If you don't think what we did was wrong, then there is something wrong with you." Powell had it right on target. There was something very wrong with Todd, and also Zach, which they never explored really, and it made for the development of one of the most unique and strong characters even played on soaps.
The sweatband question by Nora, Todd just denies it and makes crude comments, Zach almost seems to have a conscience for like two minutes, Kevin is outraged (can this Kevin be any better? I liked him best). Todd's posture always interested me as well, he seems to loom over people but he's not always taller than they are by much. Of course, he's bigger than little Zach (LOL) but Powell, and even Nora, are not that far off height-wise. It's interesting how physically big he seems, and he's really NOT (like Asa for instance, who really is quite large in stature.) I guess it's all the bullying and the "alpha male" thing.
FAIL: Nora's purple suit. Eek...so 80s carrying over to 90s. Todd in orange is not so good either, but since you can see the outline of his physique, I will let it go.
QUESTION of the DAY: I've often wondered what would have happened if TPTB did not choose to let us know for sure, up front, what happened with Marty, and have us take that reeling ride with Nora as we found out it was really true. It certainly would have put a different spin on it and made for interesting storytelling another way. My question is, then, what do YOU think? Would that way have been better? Or is the way it was written best?
Sound off, your comments are always welcome!
I always find alot of "stuff" going on in these early scenes, most of it having to do with the evolution of Todd I guess. I LOVE watching this early Fratboy Todd.....he is so smooth and charming and charismatic.....asking Nora if he can get her something to eat when he goes to the kitchen.....asking Kevin about how his dad is....the perfect gentleman! LOL He is such a MASTER MANIPULATOR!!!! I love this twisted Todd. And he has this small moments where he is right on the edge of losing it, when he says to Nora "WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG".....Pete is almost coming out! LOL Peter Mannings influence is so evident on Todd here. And yes, the larger then life thing is all over this clip again....it's the way he walks up on people, in their face and looks down on them, RH is a master. Kim, you mention RH voice a few times.....what I find so amazing about RH when playing Todd is, RH truly goes through a transformation when playing TOdd, he becomes Todd. I have a story Ill share sometime about that and a coworker of RH's, but my point about his voice is, Todd's voice is not RH's voice. When playing Paul Ryan or when doing interviews, RH's voice sounds totally different. Todd's voice is not RH's voice! Again the guy is amazing in this role. Another quick comment about his voice, I love how the NY accent pops up every now and then when Todd is talking...especially when he's being tough guy, you can really here it! LOL That's all for now!
ReplyDelete@Kim -- Great question about "what if we wouldn't have seen the rape"! That would have been a great way to watch it too, but the Spring Fling rape was the ground breaking story, so we had to have that story first. And it is amazing to watch how calloused these boys are after what they did and us the audience knowing it. It still blows my mind that any of the audience could like Todd at all.......but that is just the talent of RH I guess! LOL
ReplyDeleteBut if we didn't know and hadn't seen the rape, I would have been completely sucked into Todd's manipulations, the guy was just so good at it! LOL
@bjujubee - I first must say I am happy this place is getting off the ground.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you make some great points. PLEASE....make a thread about the co-worker story about the voice. I've noticed also that the voice he's using as Todd does not match Paul's. It's eerie. Pete especially, sounds almost demonic.
Yes Mr. Frat is quite the smooth one, but also disgusting in a lot of ways. He does everything with vigor however, talk, get upset, eat....he is larger than life and Roger did this.
I think if I were watching the Spring Fling story not knowing if it were true, I'd have fallen for some of it. However, if they chose that route, we never would have seen Powell unravel with guilt - which is part of the appeal of the tale.
Bjujubee, we owe you a debt of gratitude!
There's so much going on in this video! Todd is just so smooth...not really a typical well brought up gentleman when out in public or around people like Nora, but I guess a Frat Boy version of a gentleman which makes since because while he may have had a bad childhood it seems he would have likely been taught how to be a gentleman, so those things could tend to come out at times even though he was so far from actually being a gentleman. Now, I mostly say all that because of the ease in which he asked Nora if he could bring her anything
ReplyDeleteOne thing that really strikes me is Nora....first she delivers the line "so you went and got it?" so perfectly and it tends to sound funny (at least to me) but once you get past that you can kind of see perhaps a tiny bit of suspision...I mean it doesn't really get strong or seem to really bother her until later on but there does seem to be a little twinge around the edges...so subtle and yet so perfect!
ahh I do like this Kevin the best and think they should have kept him!
Todd eating is really something something to see! lol I mean just look at him with that pizza. lol He's so natural and so Frat Boy with his eating.
Zach: "and these girls were staring at me like I had some disease"
Todd: "Marty, she just got what was coming to her...we're the ones that have to keep paying for it"
Wow, they are so completely clueless here but yet at the same time it's done so true and natural because Todd is completely clueless and continues to be for a long time. And Zach, well I think he's always gonna be clueless.
Toward the end with all the talk of the sweat band you can tell that Todd, and Zach are worried...they know that if it's found it could mean real trouble for them, but at the same time we, the viewer, knows that they don't really even understand why they would be in trouble...they know they forced Marty, but these are guys that at least at this point believe what they are saying when they say she wanted it.
Anyway, all in all I think it was so perfectly done that it makes since that it's a storyline that will go down in history!
@Kim in reference to the Question of the day...
ReplyDeleteThat would have been a great way to watch it too...it would have been interesting to take that ride with Nora, but as Bjujubee said...it was a ground breaking story that I think required the story to really kick it off.
Plus, like you said we would have had to lose the whole Powell coming undone stuff. But, a lot and I mean a lot of really strong acting would have been lost to be able to pull it off...Marty's emotional and quiet despiration and fear was so powerfully and amazingly portrayed by Ms. Haskell in those early aftermath scenes...In her home before going to Andrew, when she went to Andrew, when he brought her to the hospital...none of those scenes would have been able to be shown because I don't see how we could have seen them and still taking that ride with Nora, just as I think she wouldn't have been able to believe a word they said if she'd seen Marty in those moments.
@Precious - oh yes, you certainly hit on something that I forgot about. The scenes with Marty in the aftermath are PRICELESS. She is SO convincing in her role, that I waited and waited for Susan to return, and then....I was whacked over the head with the Tarty story recently. Gag. However, those scenes are amazing and really belong in this story. I believe they aired a "public service announcement" at the end of the shows, I am almost certain, and Susan was the one speaking!
ReplyDeleteYes, if Nora saw Marty in the aftermath, this whole story would have gone kaput. The boys didn't even really see what they had done. Powell, pretty quickly realizes, Todd, much later, and Zach...uh, Zach? Zach are you there? What a ground-breaking idea and story.
I think you're right...it's been so long I can't be for certain, but I think SH did do some PSAs after some of those shows.
ReplyDeleteI was going to comment on a part of a scene in one of the earlier COTDs where Marty was at home alone after...I think I'll go back and comment on that now because the fear and the pain in that scene has stuck out to me since I watched it the other day...I think I didn't comment on i then because I was working on my todd comments. lol or maybe I haven't tackled that video yet at all.
Anyway, to me those scene are just way to powerful to think of the storyline played out without them.
SH did do a PSA after the Spring Fling epis......I believe I have it on dvd somewhere even. Just on a side note, RH did a PSA for Starr's illness epis about bone marrow donors and SH did another PSA about rape after the Tarty mess.
ReplyDelete@bjujubee - those will make GREAT EASTER EGGS on HOLIDAYS for our friends here....!!! Thanks for the plane crash story.
ReplyDelete@Kim-- I have so many early RH interviews from shows, that he did right when he was nominated and then won.......I need to get those onto my computer so we can get them on here. Then you will definitely see what I mean about the voice thing! LOL
ReplyDelete@Juju - these will make EXCELLENT gifties for our readers. Please let me know whenever any of them are ready and we can post them on holidays and such! And of course, ON THE FIRST DAY HE'S BACK!
ReplyDelete