I didn't see James Hall's version of Willie until his eps were shown for the second time on Sci-Fi back in August of '95. I didn't know what to expect but was quite impressed with what I saw, mostly because, as michael c points out, his Willie was called upon to be a menacing and predatory lowlife. Not having started to watch DS until September of '67, that was something I'd never seen Willie as when Karlen played him, though I would have loved to have seen him play it, just as I would have loved to have seen Hall's take on Willie post Barn's little treatment on him. But, of course, we can never see either. Well, unless it ends up being possible some day to slip into some Parallel Time universe where Hall stayed with the show and another universe where Karlen played Willie from the start.