Lets talk about the dumbest things the writers ever did.

[MagnusTrask]

Leviathans sent his 1969 body to the 1897 coffin?   How clever of them.   Come to think of it, Leviathans ate my homework.    That is the best explanation I can ever hope for though, isn't it?

The best of luck to you Lydia in your 1968 legitimization.   I'll let you do the hard work, while I sit on the sidelines observing and reaping the rewards.

Yes, Roxanne's existence as a vampire in 1970 'before" any BC/JH interference with the past is unusual and inconsistent with the way things usually work on DS.    Barnabas made her a vampire, yet supposedly was flat on his back throughout the year in question.    I can only conclude that Ang or someone through some truly weird set of circumstances popped the box and let 1840 Barnabas misbehave before recontaining him... the "first time around".   Wow, I feel like a physicist or something, discussing all the nuances of time like this!   I wonder how string theory figures into all this....

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I wish to retract something I said in my previous post on subject # 5: Adam.  I said: “Concept good, execution bad.”  Having watched episode 500 for the Watching Project, I have realized that I'm regularly seeing things in this storyline that I didn't see there before.  I never particularly minded this part of the storyline; it's the later part that I objected to.  And now I'm willing to entertain the possibility that there are things in the later part that I never noticed before, so I had better not condemn it until after the Watching Project has waded through it.

I've often mentioned that I think the first half of the Adam storyline is quite well done. For me it isn't until Nicholas exerts his influence that it takes a turn for the worse...

(who can forget the writer (and an excellent writer at that) who became so unsettled that he threw up under DC's pressure and quickly quit rather than work under it?)

Like Gothick, I had never heard that story before.  I don't know that it changes my opinion, however.

I simply added that story for anecdotal flavor. It's referenced in a few different places, but one I can think of off of the top of my head is an interview Sam Hall did with the DS Files series of books.

But aside from that story and to your original point, the fact remains that DC didn't actually persuade anyone to let him do DS as a Gothic soap opera - he was told in no uncertain terms that the soap format was the only format ABC would agree to. And truthfully I'm very grateful to the ABC exec who insisted it be that way because doing the show as a soap was absolutely the perfect format for DS. Though that was thanks mostly to the people who worked on it who, unlike DC, understood the format.

[Joeytrom]

I have read many times about that writer who suddenly quit after not being able to take it anymore from DC. 

In an article, Sam Hall said he & Gordon Russell were looking on in bewilderment as this writer then bolted from the studio & never returned again.

[loril54]

I have one question about Adam and Eve being the parents of the master race.  Do we really know what the
children were going to look like?  They may not have looked like Adam and Eve,  there might have been some
cellular damage along the way.

They could have done some interesting things with one effecting the other Adam and Barnabas.  But if Angelique died n 1840 then we wouldn't Cassandra and her evil brother.  Joe might marry Maggie and Sam might be alive. Was Jeb and Sebastian astral twins?

I could go on a long time.

[Angelique Wins]

DC was brutal to work for.  But supposedly, it was Lela who came up with the "Barnabas realizes Angelique is his one true love" reek.

Yay, LELA!!!!   You GO, GIRL!!!  WOO HOO!!!!




Judy

[Doug]

You're not alone, Lori.

I too think that was the biggest boo-boo on the part of the writers....I could see Barnabas MAYBE forgiving her (and this is a big MAYBE considering all that she's done to him and his family) but loving her? Tsk, tsk, shame on whoever came up with that bright idea.

Of all of the episodes I've seen where Barnabas hated Angelique because the things she has done to him and
his family, I was confused myself when he told her that he loved her. I would think nobody will forgive a person
that killed your mother and sister. Too bad the writers did'nt consider that.

[MagnusTrask]

Doesn't my version work?

[Angelique Wins]

Doesn't my version work?

Probably.  But I'm partial to mine.   

But if Angelique died n 1840 then we wouldn't Cassandra and her evil brother.  Joe might marry Maggie and Sam might be alive.

Exactly.  And it might be that Angie had something to do with that--the Sam part, anyway.  That's what I told KLS at the NY Fest.  Maggie and Joe SHOULD have been together, in fact, that's exactly what happened AFTER the show (in my humble opinion, of course) AND Maggie deserved to have her Pop back.

I could go on a long time.

Couldn't we all?  Let's see...almost 1000 pages so far!  LOL!!!!

I LOVE this show!!!!!

Judy

[Doug]

Yes the writers could have done something interesting with Adam and the connections between Barnabas and Adam. Adam never came back, what happened to Adam with Barnabas became a Vampire again?

They could have brought aback a different actor with the idea that Adam had plastic surgery.

How about Barnabas whet into to PT because he wanted to protect Maggie. If I remember correctly he
didn't attack Maggie during that period. I personally think he didn't want to attack another character.

I don't know if this is true or not. But I've read this about 14 years ago. Before the writers decided on the 1841
Parallel saga, they thought about writing the story about when Barnabas and Julia came back from 1840, Barnabas
and Julia were going to be marry to each other. Somehow, Barnabas becomes a vampire again and Roger and
Elizabeth finally finds out about Barnabas being a vampire the whole time ever since he arrived in 1967. In order
to save Barnabas, Julia travels to Asia to find Adam. That is all it said.

I think Dan Curtis and the writers should have went with that story instead of the 1841 Parallel story. Who knows,
maybe the show would have lasted another year or two on ABC.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hi, Doug. I haven't officially welcomed you to the forum yet, so welcome! 

Bits of what you've written are actually what was planned for when the show returned to 1971 after 1841PT. Unfortunately, though, it's not likely that if any of it had played out instead of 1841PT, DS would have lasted longer because the handwriting was already on the wall as far as DS coming to an end. Sadly, too many aspects of the show were already conspiring to bring it to an end.    And if you do a search of the forum, you'll find several different topics that discuss what brought about its end.

[Doug]

Bits of what you've written are actually what was planned for when the show returned to 1971 after 1841PT. Unfortunately, though, it's not likely that if any of it had played out instead of 1841PT, DS would have lasted longer because the handwriting was already on the wall as far as DS coming to an end. Sadly, too many aspects of the show were already conspiring to bring it to an end.    And if you do a search of the forum, you'll find several different topics that discuss what brought about its end.

I've read when they started the Leviathans saga, that was the beginning of the end of DS. Which part of the forum
that discuss the ending of the show?

[Angelique Wins]

Bits of what you've written are actually what was planned for when the show returned to 1971 after 1841PT.

Really?  That whole Barn and Julia bit and going to Asia?  That was part of it?  I read a whole bit by one of the writers and I thought that was just his opinion of where the show should have gone, not necessarily DC's plan for where it would go.  But speaking of PT, I must admit, while I did like some bits of it, how weird is it that a show you've been watching for years suddenly goes, "meanwhile, in parallel time, this is happening..." You'd go, "Excuse me?"  I mean, I know we'd seen parallel time before, but at least the first time there was somebody from our time band there.  I remember watching the show the first time--anxiously waiting for them to get back to "our" characters and see what was happening, and they ENDED it in PARALLEL TIME!!!!  I felt so...betrayed.  Sort of like when Star Trek worked for YEARS setting up this whole universe, and then suddenly, it was "meanwhile, back several hundred years ago, this happened." When DS ended, I was like, "That's it!  I'm gonna have to have a little TALK with somebody..."

Judy

P.S.  Barn & Julia?  Really?    Too scary.  I'd have to watch the show like you watch monster movies--through your fingers.  Or better still, behind the couch. 

[Midnite]

I don't think it ranks high as a dumb writing mistake, but in addition to other questions mentioned about changes to the timeline caused by B, J, & TES' tinkering in 1840...

SPOILER ...(how did Roxanne become a vampire?; why did Edith have to die prematurely?; how dumb was it to send Barnabas back through the stairway instead of returning him to his coffin?, etc.), wasn't it also problematic to have Quentin's stairway destroyed?  It would no longer be needed to travel to 1840 since another big haunting was averted.  But I can't think of a reason to assume that the events of 1840 would prevent B & J's side trip to 1970 PT, so... when Julia and Barnabas return to RT but end up in 1995 instead, how would they get to 1970 if Desmond has destroyed the staircase?  Wouldn't Barnabas or Julia realize, "Oh wait, we're going to need that thing one of these days to get back to our own time"?

(edited to remove spoiler tags)

[Doug]

Spoiler:
wasn't it also problematic to have Quentin's stairway destroyed?  It would no longer be needed to travel to 1840 since another big haunting was averted.  But I can't think of a reason to assume that the events of 1840 would prevent B & J's side trip to 1970 PT, so... when Julia and Barnabas return to RT but end up in 1995 instead, how would they get to 1970 if Desmond has destroyed the staircase?  Wouldn't Barnabas or Julia realize, "Oh wait, we're going to need that thing one of these days to get back to our own time"?

Midnite, those are good questions. Another thing I would like to know. When Barnabas and Julia were trying to
enter the staircase to escape the zombies that was wrecking Collinwood, Julia enter the staircase that took her
back to 1840. But how did Barnabas escaped the zombies, when four of them grabbed him? The next episode,
Barnabas was inside the Old House with Professor Stokes.

[PennyDreadful]

He probably laid the smack down on those zombies - as in some vampire powered blasts to those nasty zombie mugs.

Or he turned into a bat and flew away

Or he just pulled his vanishing trick

I like the first possibility best.