I remember seeing a clipping from a magazine published in Jan. of 1971 introducing Keith Prentice to teen readers and commenting that he had signed a "five year contract" for DS.  Difficult though it seems to believe now, the DS TPTB may have been hoping to have Prentice be the hot new male property on the show.

I knew Keith in the early 1980s, after he had returned to Dayton, Ohio, to care for his ill mother.  Shortly after we met, Keith and I went on a dinner date, which ended at my apartment.  Keith was the perfect gentleman with me, and did not try to take advantage of me--even though I was, at the time, young enough to be his son (I was well past 18, BTW--LOL).  Although he had very strong opinons about his DS cast members--some very nice and some not so nice--he never mentioned anything about the show signing him to a five year contract.  Instead, Keith talked about his short-lived DS appearances as just another job, while he looked for other work in NY.  He also told me that he was not that pleased with the film CRUISING, in which he made a short appearance, and was mostly upset that the murder of his character was "left on the cutting room floor," as they say.  He also made some strong comments about Richard Rodgers's attraction to young chorus girls (Keith was in the 1959 Broadway production of THE SOUND OF MUSIC), a claim that has been confirmed in recent Rodgers bios.  Keith has his fans and detractors, but he was very nice to me and my theater friends in Dayton, and I am very pleased to have known him.   

I've been watching the DS DVDs (now on 22), and sometimes I use the "zoom" feature on my 42" widescreen plasma TV, and--surprisingly--the show doesn't suffer too much from being enlarged to fill the screen.  Granted, it's not the original way the videographers intended it to be seen, but the original series' video wasn't exactly the most artistic in its capture of the picture.  It's actually enjoyable to watch this way....

Quote from: BuzzH on September 14, 2006, 03:42:19 PM

Quote from: Midnite on September 14, 2006, 05:15:29 AM

Here Lies Midnite
She Got Letters

LOL!  Got my chuckle for the day! 

Buzz, you beat me to it...I, too, LOL--okay--ROFLMAO--about Midnight's epitaph!

And Midnight: I'm still laughing.  Thanks for making my night!!

I finished the book this afternoon.  First, sorry, Midnight, for bringing politics onto the board--but I must say that the Salem Witch Trials were all about -- in my humble opinion -- politics, and misguided religous fanatics, as DS showed us with Trask, and as LP makes clear in her book.

As for the "last act surprise"...without offering spoilers, the final chapter's revelations, which have been dissed in some board comments, are totally in line with the exposition that we read earlier in the novel, specifically with regards to a certain female character...this is set up very early on, and should not be a surprise to astute readers of the book.

Just my observations and opinions....

Brian

I have enjoyed this book, for the most part, and now I have one chapter left (more on that later, I'm sure), but I feel I should share my thoughts on the "descriptive nature" of the writing in the early parts of the book, such as overuse of adjectives and adverbs..."can you say Edward George Bulwer-Lytton?"

For my own personal taste, less is more, and Stephen King knows how to use his adjectives and adverbs to create images that my brain can visualize.

Still, thanks to Lara Parker for carrying the DS story forward.  There were times when reading the novel that I was totally captivated by the story, characters and imagery.

Now, on to that last chapter. . .

Brian

In addition to all the works quoted in this thread (most of which I have on tape or DVD), I've had the pleasure (??) of finding copies of Grayson's work in a couple of other rare films:  "Qui ƒªtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?"  and "The Parisienne and the Prudes."  Not much for her to do  in "Prudes," (only one short scene), but she's quite fun in "Polly Maggoo" even though it's all in French.

Brian

Some time ago, I posted a comment about the DS revival series DVD collection, which was released in a matted 16x9 version.  Well, the DVD release looks great on a widescreen TV--even the original series (which was not exactly recorded with the screen composition as a top priority) looks good when zoomed to fit a 16x9 screen.

But that's not the intent of this message.  I think I may have posted this a long time ago--if so, please forgive me.  If not, then I'd like to hear from others about this:  in episode 1 of the revival series, at about 15 minutes and 30 seconds into the show, as Carolyn leads Vicki upstairs, we see a portrait of Ben Cross as Barnabas on the right side of the frame.  On the left is a portrait of another Collins ancestor, strongly resembling Thayer David.  Did anyone else notice this, and does anyone know if Mr. David is the subject in that portrait, perhaps as a tribute by DC?

Thanks,

Brian