my favorite carolyn

[michael c]

of all the actresses on the show it was nancy barrett who ended up surprising me the most with her versatility.she brought such nuance not only to the different characters she played but also to carolyn during various storylines.

i'm currently watching the late 1967 episodes.here carolyn is under a certain "influence".
i just love her attitude and mannerisms during this period.very different from "regular" carolyn.her scenes with julia are swoonsworthy.the level of cattiness being achieved here is divine.

she speaks one line in particular that is really quite throwaway but her delivery makes it an all-time favorite of mine.upon rather snottily informing julia that she's better change for dinner she says "cocktails in a half hour don't be late".i don't know why but i just adore it!

i think carolyn during this time is my "favorite" carolyn.i enjoy her during most of the other storylines(the exception being during the adam plot when she infuriated me)but here she's the best.

so my question is not who is your favorite nancy barrett character on the show(ie.millicent/charity/leiticia)but which version of carolyn stoddard do you like the most?

[adamsgirl]

I loved her as the "wild child" when the show first started. I think she was just the personification of what a spoiled, rich girl would have been like in those days when the dictates of society were being shed in general by the younger generation. And, in a stunning reversal, [spoiler]when Liz was hospitalized thanks to Laura's doing, she became very much the lady of the manor - the role one assumes she was born to and was intended for her. I loved the way she stood up to Roger![/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

I thought we were to be presented with a choice between Nancy Barrett and that actress who played Caroline in one episode during the Adam storyline.    Hmmmm... tough decision....

I like it when N Barrett gets to play the wilder or crazier characters; she seems to really enjoy herself and must have lived for those kinds of storylines.

[Brandon Collins]

Seems like I'm with the bigger crowd in voting for 70s PT Carolyn. I just love how she's all bitter and drunk all the time. Just wants to have a drink and belittle her "nothing" husband. THAT Carolyn sure is different than all the other ones.

I also liked the 95 crazy version of Carolyn, because she giggled at everything she said, and was just a hoot to watch. Not to mention the fact that she knew more than she let on, and was putting on a show, which was quite a twist that she played very well.

The original, rich, spoiled Carolyn ranks up there for me as well. NB just played her to the hilt and did a helluva job doing it. They way she toyed and flirted with all the guys, and brought home a new guy every week just to get on her mother's nerves, because she didn't have anything better to do, was PRICELESS.

[michael c]

interesting to see that parallel-time caroyn is having such a fine showing.

i liked her alot too.i liked carolyn most of the time but something about her during the time she was under barnabas' control really amused me.the combination of spoiled heiress/vampire assistant is a winning one.

i just love the cat-and-mouse dynamic with julia.she's definitely julia's equal here in a way that few others ever are.in the same episode as the "cocktails" comment she delivers another priceless line to an about-to-go-off-the-edge julia..."control yourself julia.you must!it's almost dinnertime and you haven't even changed.really julia when you're with us you must live by our rules.".it's just another offhanded line that packs such a punch.

funny thing watching the show a second time around.everything goes by so much faster.my memory of the time that carolyn was under barnanas' control was that it lasted for months.but in fact it was really just a few weeks before the storyline shifts to 1795.

[Gothick]

MSC, that's one of my all-time favorite scenes in all of DS... when Carolyn and Julia have their bitchy cat-and-mouse game in the foyer of Collinwood.  I love how Carolyn snidely twits Julia for failing to dress for dinner and tells her, "if you wish to live with us, you must conduct yourself according to our standards" or something along those lines--it's priceless!  And one of the most Addams-Family moments on DS.

I did think it was a bit less than credible when the writers had Carolyn show some compassion in one of those episodes for what Julia was going through, in a scene with Barnabas.  I thought that given how Vampire Slave Carolyn's character had been established, she would have gloated over every second of Julia's degringolade.

I can't make myself choose one of the Carolyns listed here.  I adore the original spoiled heiress minx of 1966, but the PT 1970 Carolyn gets some of Nancy Barrett's very best scenes in the entire series.  I love it when she drunkenly runs on about knowing ALL the secrets.  And there's a very poignant moment where reflects that if she'd joined Will in his drinking, perhaps things would have ended more happily between them.  The writing seems much more adult and sophisticated in some of those scenes than in the usual tone set for the series.

Well, I've blathered on long enough about how fabulous Nancy Barrett's evolutionary Carolyn was.  Grayson Hall stated more than once that she thought Nancy was the best actress in the entire cast, bar none; this thread offers many reasons why.

G.

[Gothick]

I forgot to add that another priceless moment for Carolyn does occur right in the thick of the infamous "Adam" storyline.  Nicholas is doing his smarmy best to charm Carolyn and she is VERY frosty with him, addressing him as "Mr. Blair" and giving him the freeze when he tries to get on a first-name basis with her.

She has a line that's some version of "We're a very old New England family, Mr. Blair" that she manages to make sound as if she's really saying "what garbage scow did you swim ashore from, buddy???"

This scene is a perfect illustration of my contention that ALL the DS storylines have their moments of perfection.  I would never get rid of my 1968 DVDs because it has so many gems of this sort even when the overall story gets really retarded.

G.

[michael c]

gothick,

i love the scene with nicholas blair too.

i must confess to a bit of plagarism here.i believe it is from you that i got the expression "swoonsworthy" that i used in the original post here.it just seemed to sum things up perfectly.

[Gothick]

That's OK, everything that goes into my mouth is public property.

Erm, I mean, uh... oh, NEVER MIND.

Have you ever seen Nancy Barrett''s cabaret show?  She sometimes salutes the original 1966 Carolyn characterization with a renditon of "Girls just wanna have fun."  It's so cute.

cheers, G.

[Gerard]

The only bad thing about Carolyn's 1970PT character (which I voted for) is that there was so little of her seen.

Gerard

[MagnusTrask]

I had no use for Carolyn when I was a kid.   She seemed merely "pretty", neutral, "nice", and uninteresting.  Now I appreciate how much Nancy Barrett apparently loved playing the crazier or more off-balance parts.    "Nice" Carolyn probably frustrated her as much as me.

[retzev]

Like Magnus, I wasn't really crazy about Carolyn at first, she seemed like just another pretty face or whatever - but there was a period when I got a heavy crush on her. I'm pretty sure it was when she was under Barnabas's influence. I looked through an old group that I belonged to where I referenced it, and the only real clue I found was this: "I've watched through episode 353 so far - love Carolyn now."

So, I vote the 2nd option, for now -

[Julianka7]

I agree with Adamsgirl. The first Carolyn we meet is my favorite.
Spoiled, bored and wild.

I loved her as the "wild child" when the show first started. I think she was just the personification of what a spoiled, rich girl would have been like in those days when the dictates of society were being shed in general by the younger generation. And, in a stunning reversal,

[michael c]

i never really think of carolyn as being "nice".she certainly didn't start out that way.

she grows over time and can certainly act nice but there's always an air of petulance about her.she's so highly strung that even when she is acting nicely i sense that there is always the danger of someone or something crossing her and her lashing out.

now vicki on the other hand takes "nice" to it's apotheosis.often to dizzying results.maggie starts out spunky but over time becomes similarly nice while never quite reaching the apex(or nadir depending on your viewpoint)of vic.

perhaps it has something to do with nancy barrett's acting style.even when the script calls for carolyn to be good she has a fiestiness about her that doesn't translate to mere "niceness".

[Miss_Winthrop]

Another nice Carolyn I think was in the beginning episodes . Despite her sometimes bad behavior, she did reach out to Vicki in a very vulnerable way and let down her defenses on occasion.  I think she sensed that Vicki would treat her fairly and not be bullied by her.  It was really sweet that despite that hard exterior, she was really young and needed a friend close to her own age at Collinwood that she could open up to.