My Anthony George experience may be different, since I first watched him on "Search For Tomorrow" in the early 70s as the kindly Dr. Tony Vincente - before realizing he had been on "Dark Shadows" in its early years. The weirder part is, after George was killed off "Search," he later joined "One Life To Live" as a likeable doctor, and at the same time (mid-70s), a local station was showing the first re-run 1967 episodes of "Dark Shadows" - the early black and white Barnabas ones.
Realizing that Anthony George was now playing Burke Devlin - 180 degrees from Mitch Ryan's version of the part (writers' choice likely, to pit Burke as Barnabas' rival), I was more disappointed that his dour presence was so unlike his later daytime efforts on "Search" (he married the long-suffering heroine, Joanne) and "One Life To Live" (he was a widower with 2 grown kids). But maybe the Burke character was re-molded to possess a creepy, chauvanistic way of expression - to contrast Barnabas' nostalgic romanticism. It was as if we the audience noticed Anthony George's detachment and Burke's new uncharacteristic aloofness and concluded, "Sure, Barnabas may have a coffin waiting for Victoria, but he'd treat her better than this Burke #2 would!"
-Sandor