DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '06 II => Topic started by: dom on December 20, 2006, 03:48:25 AM
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Pick up to three. Feel free to discuss your choices. Happy voting!
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Well Alexandra Moltke is out of the question since she was long gone by the time the show ended, same for Joel Crothers, David Ford, Anthony George.
I would say Joan Bennett, Louis Edmonds or Nancy Barrett.....it should have been one of those three to do the honor since they were the only original actors from the very beginning to stay to the end (even if Joan and Louis did take extended leaves from the show from time to time).
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I figured as long as they weren't dead, they could be invited back and given the honor. That's why I picked A. Moltke as one of my choices. I meant to put Dan Curtis as an option but I forgot.
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I just added Dan Curtis. I think that would have been cool.
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I picked Jonathan, Joan, and Dan.
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I figured as long as they weren't dead, they could be invited back and given the honor. That's why I picked A. Moltke as one of my choices.
Actually I wouldn't have minded if Alexandra had done the last voiceover, maybe even put in a cameo appearance. Did Dan ever ask her, or was he still holding a grudge against her for refusing to return to the show as Vicki?
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I picked Alexandra, since she started it i felt she should have ended it.
followed by Joan and Jonathan...if AM wouldn't then one of the others would have been good
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I picked, in order of preference: (1) Alexandra Moltke, because she started it at the beginning; (2) Dan Curtis, because he was the creator of the show; and (3) Jonathan Frid, because he was the major star of the show.
----- Sally -----
[santa_cool]
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I picked Alexandra, since she started it i felt she should have ended it.
followed by Joan and Jonathan
Those would have been my sentimental choices, too. [santa_smiley] But storylinewise, having Keith Prentice/Morgan, who was also in the episode, do the final voiceover might have made more sense. Still being very much alive, Ben (or Bramwell or Flora) could have been looking back from some perspective in the future - but that wasn't actually made as clear as it might or should have been. However, as has been an often used literary device, Morgan [spoiler]in death could have been aware of future events,[/spoiler]and he would have been capable of laying them out exactly as the final voiceover does. Though, of course, I realize that the very idea of Prentice/Morgan doing that final voiceover would be positively horrifying to some. [santa_shocked] [santa_wink]
Interestingly, I seem to recall reading that the closing voiceover doesn't even appear in the final script. It was something that was decided upon at some point later on after the script had already been completed.
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Still being very much alive, Ben (or Bramwell or Flora) could have been looking back from some perspective in the future -
A little off topic, but you got me thinking about something MB. Ben, in 1841 PT, was [spoiler]relatively young, but in 1840 RT he was an aged man. Makes me wonder if PT Ben was actually Ben Jr., and the Ben counterpart of 1795/1840 Ben was deceased.[/spoiler]
Hmmmmm...... [santa_cool]
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I picked A. Moltke, Grayson Hall, and Thayer David.
It would've been nice to have Vicki come back and do the final voiceover, as others have said, since she was the first character we saw and then she'd also be the last we heard. It seems appropriate.
I picked Grayson because I always enjoy her VOs, no matter what time period it is.
And as far as Thayer David goes, I agree with whoever said in this thread or the one it sparked from, that Prof. Stokes was acceptable to me doing it because he naturally fit the "summing it all up" role of the show.
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i haven't seen the 1841 storyline so i don't know what character thayer david plays but he does seem like an odd choice to me.
since jonathan and grayson were essentially the "protagonists" by this point i would have assumed it would have been one of them.
alexandra is the sentimental choice since she recited the first episode voiceover but since she was already long gone it wouldn't have made much sense(indeed viewers who tuned in during the later part of the show's run would not have known who victoria winters was).especially since this was a "parallel time" storyline that bore no direct relationship to the 1966 characters.
so my vote goes to joan,nancy and louis since they were the only actors who stayed with the show from begining to end.joan bennett in particular had that cool patrician tone that would have suited the final voiceover nicely.
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The voiceover was definitely not in the script, since it undoes what just happened in the scene immediately preceding it (saying the bite wasn't from a vampire). I imagine Thayer got the "honor" because he was handy and in the building. Things were rushed on DS, even at the end.
A Moltke makes sense. Come to think of it, that would have been a sweet moment (first time in my life I've ever used the word "sweet" positively!) and would have meant something. Frid... okay but obvious.
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I wonder if they picked Thayer David simply because his voice sounded so good. There was a regal, but earthy, character to it, having authority and presence.
Gerard
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I missed this vote. If I had voted, it would have been for JF. I love hearing his voice. Since their practice was to use an actor that was to play in that episode, they would have had to have many of these people listed come back and be on the show. I think Thayer David did the ending voiceover and his voice would have worked for the opening voiceover too. I'm glad Grayson Hall did it. ;D
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I don't think it was a planned practise. I think they picked from whoever was at work that day. It's interesting that you can tell which character is about to reappear after a long absence by hearing her/him do the voiceover. And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.
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And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.
Yes! I noticed that too! It's funny, he had two 'voices', just like you describe above. He even talked about that on the Ron Barry Show and in fact Ron asked him to say something in his 'Barnabas' voice and he did, then went back to his regular voice, it was interesting to compare them. ;)
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What puzzled me was, if you can speak like Barnabas, why ever speak any other way? Why sound like a plain old unresonant mundane North American dork like most of us? I suppose that's what Louis Edmonds thought. He's an American southerner, and can't have grown up sounding like Roger, but in the brief snippet of him as himself on the promo bit of the DS videotapes, he sounds like Roger. He must have made a decision at some point.
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I suppose that's what Louis Edmonds thought. He's an American southerner, and can't have grown up sounding like Roger, but in the brief snippet of him as himself on the promo bit of the DS videotapes, he sounds like Roger. He must have made a decision at some point.
Indeed, Louie trained away his southern drawl because he felt, and rightly so, that he couldn't properly do the plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen and Shaw "sounding like a magnolia"! (his quote). Once he trained it away, he took on an "affected" dialect. Jonathan Harris, aka Dr. Smith of Lost In Space fame, did the same thing. He was from Brooklyn, and decided early in his career to ditch the Brooklyn-ese and take on an affected dialect. He said in an interview once that he was asked if he was from England and he replied, "Oh no dear boy, I'm just AFFECTED!" ;) Then went on to explain he was from Brooklyn and wanted to lose that dialect. He then imitated himself BEFORE losing said dialect. He said, "I'd say things like 'Ya wont to go for coofie!" It was too funny! ;)
Then there are the actors from Brooklyn who can just DROP the accent whenever they need to! Richard Lynch is one of those Brooklyn born actors. I was shocked to learn some years ago he was from Brooklyn, I always figured he was from the mid-west 'cause that's what he sounded like in the few things I'd seen him in to date. Then I saw The Seven Ups!
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Thanks Buzz, I appreciate all the history and personal detail I can get. What about Hugh Laurie, hah? He shifts back and forth and it's practically supernatural. Peter Ustinov could.
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I don't think it was a planned practise. I think they picked from whoever was at work that day. It's interesting that you can tell which character is about to reappear after a long absence by hearing her/him do the voiceover. And on the rare occasions that JF did it, we get to hear his real voice, not his Barnabas voice.
Well I heard one of the actors say on an interviews that in the beginning, Alexandra Molkte did all the voiceovers [over 300] even if she wasn't in the episodes. After a while Dan Curtis, realizing that he was paying her even if she wasn't in the episode, decided to change it by having an actor who was in the episode do the voiceover that day. That's what I meant by "practice". More like the "standard".
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I missed the voting, but I'd have voted for David Selby, because he missed the latter part of the story due to his sugery. If he'd been well enough, I think it would have been nice for him to be included. I have to admit, though, aside from that reason, Frid, Moltke, Bennett, Edmonds, or Barrett would really have made more sense. Selby would have sequed the show into the second movie though. I doubt they'd have gotten anyone who wasn't in the episode though. They were already paying an army of people, compared with the cast they usually had in an episode.
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Well I heard one of the actors say on an interviews that in the beginning, Alexandra Molkte did all the voiceovers [over 300] even if she wasn't in the episodes. After a while Dan Curtis, realizing that he was paying her even if she wasn't in the episode, decided to change it by having an actor who was in the episode do the voiceover that day.
That's depressing. Though maybe he was up against the wall as regards money at that point. Thanks for the background. It added something to have AM always doing it. It just seemed sloppy when she wasn't any longer, and the show seemed to "mean" less, somehow.
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it's funny that barnabas introduced himself as a "cousin from england" and yet he did not speak with an english accent.
not only did jonathan frid and "barnabas" have different speaking voices but barnabas' entire intonation differed depending on what character he was speaking to at the time.
contrast the fawning obsequiousness with which he speaks to "cousin elizabeth" to the sarcastic tone he takes with dr.hoffmann early on...recognizing her as something like an equal yet one whom he still has the upper hand with...to the low command with which he speaks to a true underling like willie.
i always think that barnabas,liz and roger are meant to sound old-money and upper-crusty whether they really did or not.
i'm not sure why they decided that jason mcquire would speak with an irish brogue but it did make him seem more like a "seafaring scoundral".
it seemed like kathryn leigh scott used a slighly higher,more ingenueish,pitch as maggie than her own voice.
and for someone who was supposed to have had the hardscrabble background that vicki did she speaks with an absurdly aristocratic bearing.because alexandra moltke is from denmark i always fancied a vague danish accent coming from her but i learned that she was raised in the u.s. so perhaps i just projected that.
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...barnabas' entire intonation differed depending on what character he was speaking to at the time.
Agreed. And I loved it! It is subtleties such as these that help to make Barnabas such an enthralling character (IMO).
I feel this way about Joan Bennett as Liz, which is one of several reasons why Liz is my favorite character. Of course I didn't realize this until I was older and finally got to see the first two years of the show, (when there were so many different personalities Joan had the opportunity to play opposite).
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it's funny that barnabas introduced himself as a "cousin from england" and yet he did not speak with an english accent
Yes, and I for one find that MADDENING! >:( Not to mention the fact that it's completely ridiculous that Joshua even put in the family history that his son ever went to England. Why would he go to what was at that time an enemy country to the US that we'd just won our independance from? Especially when Joshua actually FOUGHT in said war!? It was just stupid.
Just a side note, does anyone else notice that there are times when Frid sounded more American, and then suddenly sounded very Canadian. There are times when Barnabas will say something like, for example, "Julia, we must figure this thing out" and he says out like an American. Then an ep or 2 later, he'll say something similar, but his OUT sounds more like OOT! I like to joke when that happens that he spent the weekend in Hamilton w/his mama! ;)
for someone who was supposed to have had the hardscrabble background that vicki did she speaks with an absurdly aristocratic bearing.
Another good point, wouldn's she sound more like Archie Bunker, being from New YAWK!? ;)
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The fact that Barnabas never had an English accent is an interesting point but it never really bothered me. But it could have made one heck of a plot twist, for example when Burke was so suspicious of Barnabas, how come he never asked "If you're supposed to be British, where's your accent? Did you leave it behind in London?" Burke could have opened up a whole lot of worms with that one, don't you think?
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Why would he go to what was at that time an enemy country to the US that we'd just won our independance from?
In 1797, the war had been over for more than a decade.
for example when Burke was so suspicious of Barnabas, how come he never asked "If you're supposed to be British, where's your accent? Did you leave it behind in London?"
I can imagine Barnabas answering: "Family tradition, Devlin. Even in England, we remembered our American background. But you wouldn't know anything about having family traditions, would you? Didn't your father sweep the floors at the cannery?"
It seemed just right to me to have Thayer David do the final voiceover. If Alexandra Moltke had come back for it, an awful lot of viewers would have been asking, "Who's that?"
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I find it interesting that only one person picked Grayson Hall and in reality, she IS the one who did the voiceover for that episode. ;)
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I wasn't going to say this, because it's embarrassing, but---
I never had the problem many American viewers had with English accents, at least in the 60s. Many Americans, especially in the Midwest, would hear some slight trace of dignity or resonance in an actor's voice, and think he was British. They'd buy an obviously fake or practically nonexistant English accent from an American actor. I watched British shows from early childhood on, and thought I was immune to this kind of thing.
I've always thought the cousin-from-England cover story was meant to explain the (at least semi-) English accent of Barnabas's. Even now, in the last four years that I've had DS tapes in adulthood, he seems to have at the very least a sort of Transatlantic accent, which could be believable from someone whose American ancestor moved to England. If I'm just some easily duped sort of rube who gets suckered in this easily, well, that's going to be unsettling.
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Why would he go to what was at that time an enemy country to the US that we'd just won our independance from?
In 1797, the war had been over for more than a decade.
Yes, but they were still our enemy. If you recall, England tried in 1812 to bring us back into the fold. They even burned the White House during that war. And if you'll also recall, Joshua had NO LOVE for England or it's aristocracy as evidenced when [spoiler]he first met Natalie and scoffed that she still held a title, extolling that American belief that titles were/are ridiculous.[/spoiler]As such, I find it difficult to believe such a man would claim his only son and heir would go to such a country when there were MANY places in the new USA he could have reasonably gone-Boston, New York, Philidelphia, even out west.
for example when Burke was so suspicious of Barnabas, how come he never asked "If you're supposed to be British, where's your accent? Did you leave it behind in London?"
I can imagine Barnabas answering: "Family tradition, Devlin. Even in England, we remembered our American background. But you wouldn't know anything about having family traditions, would you? Didn't your father sweep the floors at the cannery?"
Indeed, and what a great comeback that would have been! ;)
It seemed just right to me to have Thayer David do the final voiceover. If Alexandra Moltke had come back for it, an awful lot of viewers would have been asking, "Who's that?"
ITA agree here, she'd been gone too long, it wouldn't have made any sense for her to come back for either the opening voiceover, or the wrap-up at the end of the episode.