Music-wise, Hero's Island is between North's Spartacus and Frontiere's The Outer Limits.
Potentially interesting then. Actually that description also fits A Name For Evil and that's one corker of a score!
It's nice that there's so much love for The Invaders, but I'm not quite in that camp. There are some interesting cues, yes, but for the most part I find the music surprisingly straight-faced for a sci-fi show and lacking the delerious "otherness" quality that makes the Outer Limits music special. But hey, I'd buy The Invaders if it came out!
For me though, the Stoney Burke music trove is absolutely the way to go judging by the re-use of its cues in Outer Limits. Very fine music indeed.
So does anyone definitely know if the tapes exist or not?
"Iron Horse" (1968) Majority of episode scores. Dagonet Productions and Screen Gems Television
"The New Breed" (1961) At least four episodes. Quinn Martin Productions and Selmur Productions
"Chopper One" (1974) At least one episode (the pilot). Spelling-Goldberg Productions
"Matt Lincoln" (1970) Unknown number of episodes. Multiple other composers involved, including Riddle, Goldenberg, and somebody named Mario Litwin. Universal TV
"Vega$" (1978) At least twelve episodes. Multiple other composers involved. Aaron Spelling Productions
"The Silent Force" (1970) Unknown number of episodes. Aaron Spelling Productions
"Branded" (1965) Multiple episodes, including the theme song (which has some great score backing).
"Matt Houston" Theme and at least nine episodes. Aaron Spelling Productions Largo Productions Matt Houston Company
"Freebie and the Bean" (1980) Unknown number of episodes. Failed TV series based on the film by the same name (which Frontiere scored).
"The Young Pioneers" (1978) Unknown number of episodes. (not including the pilot; that was Rosenthal)
"Lost Flight" (1970) Failed TV pilot.
"Velvet" (1984) Failed TV pilot, refered to at two differences sources as a "Charlie's Angles" knock-off.
That's what I could find right now. A number of others on IMDb.
Heath wrote: Hey, between Nightmare and The Mice, you could actually programme the complete score to Incubus if you wanted to.
Ford Thaxton wrote: NO, this 3 CD SET contains everything that Mr. Frontiere had in his archive. MGM had NOTHING in their archives of the scores from this series.
Ford did not respond to queries about Stoney Burke music availability in the thread, but he probably knows if Frontiere has tapes for it and other series/films (I imagine they would have discussed them). Someone on the board could try to communicate with Frontiere, too. Has a PO Box in New Mexico. Maybe Charles Thaxton's friend or James Finch? As mentioned here: http://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=58999&forumID=1&archive=0
A note regarding INCUBUS, I seem to recall reading that it was mostly OUTER LIMITS, but a handful of new cues were written; Frontiere recorded them by sneaking them in during the BILLIE recording sessions.
It’s been three years since the last Frontiere score (The Rat Patrol) from La-La Land.
If you love the torn-inside and hectic leaning of The Unknown/A Name for Evil, you'll also find terrific The Love War.
Twelve O'Clock High is in the line of The Outer Limits but done in an Alfred Newman's vein. Some cues from Twelve O'Clock High will be reworked on the pilot of The Invaders.
I realized that the pilot of The Invaders contained three source music: The Outer Limits, Twelve O'Clock High, The Haunted.
PS: In 2013 and during the DVD release of Stoney Burke, someone used to ask LLL about the master tapes and they exist.
In four Stoney Burke episodes, you can recognize a rework of Hero's Island main title which refers to the love theme from Spartacus. It's amazing how Frontiere reinterprete North.
In an interview, Frontiere asserted he asked North to borrow his scores to study them and North agreed because he understood the desire to learn.
A friend of mine in Santa Fe knows Dominic, and I had him ask Dom about THE INVADERS, but he has no tapes at all and said he wouldn't know where to look. Certainly there ought to be a paper trail somewhere.
In 2013 and during the DVD release of Stoney Burke, someone used to ask LLL about the master tapes and they exist.
oh, that was me. Completely forgot about it: LLL says about a music release, "It’s certainly possible but nothing planned at this time."
Cool again. The rule with soundtracks, or any older archive material, seems to be: if it exists and you wait long enough it'll get released. Patience is the virtue here.
I realized that the pilot of The Invaders contained three source music: The Outer Limits, Twelve O'Clock High, The Haunted.
Interesting. Can you say if the cue right at the start of the Invaders pilot (Thinnes driving fatefully into that pesky diner and falling asleep) comes from The Haunting? That's gorgeous music. Also, there's another cue used a couple of times, most prominently when Thinnes drives up to the alien campers at night. That's very cool too. The Haunting again?
I realized that the pilot of The Invaders contained three source music: The Outer Limits, Twelve O'Clock High, The Haunted.
Interesting. Can you say if the cue right at the start of the Invaders pilot (Thinnes driving fatefully into that pesky diner and falling asleep) comes from The Haunting? That's gorgeous music. Also, there's another cue used a couple of times, most prominently when Thinnes drives up to the alien campers at night. That's very cool too. The Haunting again?
It's The Haunted.
Read this:
Gary GeraniFebruary 27, 2011 at 2:13 PM
On a TV historian/geek note, I was amused to discover the "origin point" of a certain Dominic Frontiere cue that I always believed was the only original piece of music composed for THE INVADERS pilot. Those sleek, long notes we hear as David Vincent drifts off before witnessing the saucer landing were actually created for THE HAUNTED, beautifully capturing the frightening and evocative qualities of Old Dark Houses. Speaking of THE INVADERS, it's amazing how many superficial similarities there are between QM's show and both Stefano pilots. David Vincent, like Orion, is an architect, with a very grounded business partner (James Daly, as opposed to Leonard Stone) and an obsession that pushes his real career into the background; the considerable money he earns as a designer pays for an offbeat hobby. In addition to all the distinctive music lifts, the optical "tear" effect devised for THE UNKNOWN was unabashedly reworked as a graphic for THE INVADERS, minus the sound effect.
Brilliant. Thanks Member. An enterprising label should look into those Haunted tracks like immediately! There could be some great music there if those Invaders tracked cues are anything to go by. But now the question is: do The Haunted tapes exist?
In Follow The Leader (episode 2, guest starring Andrew Prine), two cues from The Outer Limits were reworked and re-arranged, one from Don't Open Till Doomsday and one from The Borderland.
In Decision (episode 7, guest starring Tim O'Connor), one slow mysterious and one brief tense cues later re-arranged on the pilot of The Invaders during the discovery of Bud's Diner by tired Vincent and, later on, Vincent's fight against Sheriff Lou Carver in Kinney at night are heard.
In Interlude (episode 10, guest starring Dana Wynter), one original torn-inside and love cue reworked later on The Love War and A Name for Evil is heard.
Just a few examples…
PS: The last season 1 of The Outer Limits aired on May 1964 and the first season 1 episode of Twelve O'Clock High aired on September 1964.
