Why was everyone so...greasy back then?

[johnnybear]

I like how most of the actors appearing in shows of this age were all greased up with Brylcreem! Especially Shatner, who has his normal hair combed into his toupee to hide his thinning scalp! It's sad to think that a guy is continually reminded of his failings on the hair front, almost like he can help it or wants it that way!
JB

 

[XCV330]

maybe men like to wear eyeliner and keep their hair in place during that decade. styles change. 10 years later the warp core had to be upgraded to support all the hair dyers being plugged into the eps conduits

 

[Relayer1]

This is Duncan Edwards - something of a local hero and football legend, part of a Manchester United team so youthful they became known (after the manager Matt Busby) as "The Busby Babes".

Duncan was just 21 when he died following the Munich aircrash.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

^^^Off topic, just stumbled across a movie the other day with David Tennant playing one of this team's coaches.

 

[Relayer1]

^^^Off topic, just stumbled across a movie the other day with David Tennant playing one of this team's coaches.

Did he look very middle aged in it ?

 

[Therin of Andor]

Was it the makeup?... WHY WAS EVERYONE SO GREASY??

You've heard the term "greasepaint"?

 

[Noname Given]

The only time I recall a trace of eyeliner on him was for some (not all) of Evil Kirk's scenes in "The Enemy Within"
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd182.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd756.jpg

Also, I don't think the greasy look in that second image is from sweating. It's just the type of makeup they were using back then. When they applied it heavily to achieve an effect, it got shiny.

There was eyeliner used by the entire cast pretty much the entire first season. There was also often some dark makeup on their eyelids for some reason, but that wasn't as consistently done. I believe they used certain types of gel lights in the first season to produce an eerie color palette.

I think in the second season there was a change of DP's because the lighting became more flat/standard; and the use of eyeliner went away.

 

[Maurice]

I think in the second season there was a change of DP's because the lighting became more flat/standard; and the use of eyeliner went away.

No. Jerry Finnerman was with the show into the 3rd season.

 

[Noname Given]

No. Jerry Finnerman was with the show into the 3rd season.

Then I guess it was either a money issue or a creative decision, because the lighting in subsequent seasons after the first is different

 

[Maurice]

The more complex the lighting is the longer it takes to set up, so cost might have had something to do with it.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The more complex the lighting is the longer it takes to set up, so cost might have had something to do with it.

When Gulf+Western acquired Paramount and Desilu, the new owners put each episode of Star Trek on a shorter shooting schedule. That, plus the second year budget cut, seems sufficient to explain simpler lighting.

Put another way, those early episodes have a little something extra for us to savor, especially in HD.

 

[Sir Rhosis]

Did he look very middle aged in it ?

Tennant played a coach named Jimmy Murphy (born 1910), so he was fairly close in age to the guy he played, maybe a little younger, when the film was made in 2011, if that is what you meant. Here is the Wikipedia article about the film. United (2011 film) - Wikipedia

Sir Rhosis

 

[Maurice]

I was just watching the Lost In Space pilot and man are they sweaty when the planet starts freezing. It was the lights, mostly (plus wearing parkas under said lights).

 

[johnnybear]

The effects of living on Priplanus I guess!
JB

 

[Harvey]

When Gulf+Western acquired Paramount and Desilu, the new owners put each episode of Star Trek on a shorter shooting schedule. That, plus the second year budget cut, seems sufficient to explain simpler lighting.

Put another way, those early episodes have a little something extra for us to savor, especially in HD.

Gulf+Western didn’t become a factor until late in the second season.

 

[johnnybear]

Somewhere around the screening of The Immunity Syndrome wasn't it, Harvey?
JB

 

[TheAdmiralty]

Is "greasy" your way of saying "sexy"?

 

[tesral]

I like how most of the actors appearing in shows of this age were all greased up with Brylcreem! Especially Shatner, who has his normal hair combed into his toupee to hide his thinning scalp! It's sad to think that a guy is continually reminded of his failings on the hair front, almost like he can help it or wants it that way!
JB

(Adjusting the onions on my belt) Having come from that time myself it was the thing. Nearly all men put Brylcreem or something like it in their hair. And looking historically we used less. The doily was invented in Victorian times to protect furniture from men's greased hair.

So, it was nothing unusual. Actors would usually have their hair plastered down with enough hairspray to have a helmet.

 

[mb22]

Brylcreem TV Commercial 1950's - YouTube

• Greasy Kid Stuff: The brand that viral marketing built | Ad Nauseam (wordpress.com)

 

[publiusr]

A little dab will do ya’
Not the whole tube...