that's some "handyman"!

[michael c]

i've been gradually updating my collection to the dvd format...

i just bought collection 1(of the regular series not "the beginning")and in the summary of episode 210 willie loomis is described as being a "handyman".

now our willie was a drifter,a creep and a lowlife when he showed up in collinsport but a handyman? not so much.

do you think the textwriters got the original willie confused with the willie from the 1991 series who was something that sort?

that's the only thing i can think of.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

You're right that there were no signs at that point that Willie had any handyman talents whatsoever. They don't become evident until Willie's ensconced in the Old House with Barnabas. But the interesting thing is that back in the day, once Barn became so popular, Willie was often described in articles and synopses as a handyman. I guess that description stuck so well that now it's even used when it isn't quite yet appropriate.

[michael c]

you're right mysterious.

it must be something of a retroactive description. in the larger sense willie does function as barnabas' handyman. i've just been watching the early episodes and as of episode 210 he was anything but.

since the "regular" dvd releases as opposed to the "beginning" dvd releases skips past the early jason/willie plot and jumps right into the barnabas arrival perhaps they thought it wasn't worth confusing the viewer with too much of willie's backstory since from that point on he basically functions within the context of what's happening with barnabas.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

i've just been watching the early episodes and as of episode 210 he was anything but.

Anything but is right! Some of the things early Willie pulls would still be considered outlandish even by today's jaded standards.

[Gothick]

The main thing one senses Willie was handy at before his rendezvous with a certain "cousin from England" was separating honest folk from their cash, by hook, crook or crowbar.

His attempts to hit on the heiress and the ingenue were so clumsily managed that one has to observe that he was less than "handy" with the ladies, however.

G.

[Philippe Cordier]

This could also be explained as simply information that hadn't been provided to us earlier, couldn't it? I haven't seen the pre-Barnabas episodes since they aired on the Sci-Fi channel, but I don't think much information about Willie's background was ever provided. The emphasis was on his actions at Collinsport. It could be that he had done odd jobs in the past, and that he had then described this background "off-stage" to Barnabas or the Collins family. Although you may be right that this was probably "retroactive" on the part of the DS writers, I prefer to think that it harmonizes with what little information we had been given. In plays, "off-stage" information is common.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

This could also be explained as simply information that hadn't been provided to us earlier, couldn't it? ... I prefer to think that it harmonizes with what little information we had been given. In plays, "off-stage" information is common.

That's not completely out of the realm of possibility, especially if they wrote a character bio when they created the Willie character. There are many things about the characters' backgrounds in the character bios in Art Wallace's Shadows on the Wall that were never delved into on screen but Wallace indicated could come out as the developing storylines warranted.

[Taeylor Collins]

Phillippe Oh you should watch the beginning EPS! I am watching them for the second time and boy are they fun!  Sorry to get off topic...