Hey gang,
Talk about fever-pitched excitement! It's almost too much that Quentin Collins I is facing trial as a warlock (the first witchcraft trial in Maine in nearly 150 years), but to top it off, the presiding judge at the inquest of Randall Drew's death is none other than the honorable Wiley, the Pine Tree State's greatest jurist, bar none!
Yes, Wiley (a/k/a "Wily Wiley"), a man whose idea of having a good time on Saturday night, is reading the Uniform Commercial Code while enjoying a non-alcoholic, hot toddy just before retiring for the evening.
Of course, I would be extremely remiss not to acknowledge the wonderful (not to mention, much-anticipated) return of the actor portraying Judge Wiley, Mr. Addison Powell, Dark Shadows' greatest recurring guest star/character actor, IMHO.
Yes, Addison Powell, the man who wowed us all as 1797's sagacious Judge Matigan, 1968's delightfully demented Dr. Eric Lang, and now in 1840, as the learned Judge Wiley, perhaps Mr. Powell's greatest Dark Shadows performance ever!
Regrettably, Judge Wiley will not preside over the three-man tribunal to determine if Quentin is, in fact, a warlock. That weighty responsibility will fall upon the shoulders of Judge Vail (a very sullen and unimaginative jurist, IMHO).
Yet, I can't help thinking that the Dark Shadows writers missed out on a golden opportunity to provide the fans of Dark Shadows with a compelling courtroom drama during the final weeks of the program. Imagine, if you will, that Judge Wiley, rather than Judge Vail, is the presiding judge at Quentin's warlock trial. And, instead of the dour Desmond Collins as Quentin's defense attorney, we get to see the shocking (and, I might add triumphant) return of Jeffrey Clark (a/k/a Peter Bradford) as Quentin Collins' estimable counsel?
Oh, what unremitting joy for all Dark Shadows fans as we get to see, once more, the uproarious mirth and mayhem of Lang & Clark, this time in the incarnation of those two loony legal eagles, Wiley & Clark!
Can you imagine how "animated" Jeff Clark (a/k/a "Mr. Vicky Winters") would be in his spirited defense of his falsely-accused client? No doubt, Counselor Clark would employ his finest histrionic gestures and techniques to convince the tribunal of Quentin's innocence. I can just see the sixty-something Mr. Clark grabbing his still lustrous head-of-hair (now a radiant shade of battleship gray) as he beseeches the tribunal to consider Quentin's high moral standing and reputation in the community when they consider the evidence against him.
I daresay that, in a last ditch effort to save Quentin, Jeff would employ the so-called "spaghetti defense," that attorney Johnnie Cochran used so masterfully during his succesful homicide trial defense of Orenthal James Simpson, a true high point in American jurisprudence!
Of course, Judge Wiley would be the epitome of the perspicacious arbiter, a man (or woman) determined to insure that true justice be achieved according to the prescribed rules of the tribunal (and looking oh-so-cool with that new "mod" hairstle and those groovy sideburns of his).
Yes, indeed, what may have been. Nevertheless, I think that we can all agree that Addison Powell hit, yet, another "home run," so to speak, with his timeless and unforgettable portrayal of Judge Wiley. Touch 'em all, Mr. Powell!
Bob the Bartender, who, like the learned Judge Wiley, will be "perusing" all follow-up postings concerning this final paean to the great Addison Powell.
