NBC suits (Brandon Tartikoff, perhaps?) apparently insisted that the 1790 flashback and scenes set in the present interweave in the latter weeks of the series
It was Tartikoff who insisted on that. Though the interesting thing about Tartikoof is that he was a big supporter of the show, and if the things in his personal life that caused him to resign his position at NBC hadn't happened, I honestly believe the series would have gotten a second season. The cancellation was more political than anything else because when Warren Littlefield took over he cleaned house of several of Tartikoff's pet projects, including a show that consistently placed in the Top 10, and all because he didn't like them, not because they weren't doing well or at least holding their own. One thing that gets overlooked much of the time when it comes to the '91 DS is that nearly every week it was on it came in 1st in its time period - and more significantly it was #1 in the all-important 18-49 demos. And the later fact is the reason why Littlefield eventually came to realize the error of his ways and approached DC about bringing the show back as a series of Made-for-TV movies similar to what NBC was doing at the time with
Perry Mason. But DC being DC, he told Littlefield, in what I'm pretty sure was very colorful language, that, uh, he wasn't interested.
Also, having watched the entire series over again last year for its anniversary slideshow, I can't say that I recall any instances when sunlight was streaming into the basement room in the Old House where Barnabas kept his coffin (though lightning did flash in the secret room of the mausoleum, which I thought was very bizarre - though probably just about as bizarre as candles often being lit in the original show's secret room even though no one had been in there
). In what ep did you see the sunlight, Zahir?
And BTW, I have no idea why this topic was locked. I didn't lock. And I can't imagine why Midnite would have. But I'm going to leave it locked just on the off chance that she did. However, if she didn't, I'm sure she'll unlock it once she reads this...