ORDINARY PEOPLE

[VAM]

Was there a normal person (character type) on DARK SHADOWS? I guess it depends on what you consider a normal or an ORDINARY person. Who (if any) do you think and explain why?  

[jennifer]

Mrs J but i quess we don't know all her secrets and there is Harry!

jennifer

[Maggie Evans]

I can think of 3 offhand..Maggie,Joe & Roger.Maggie had a job ..Joe had a job...Roger always acted busy at his job   and there were not really alot of secrets for Maggie and Joe,although Roger had one (accusing Burke Devlin of drunk driving) ..Other than that,who am I to say that watching over a vampire (like Julia does for Barn) isn't ordinary?...
These days..it's kinda hard to tell what's ordinary  :-/

[ShadowsAtlanta]

If, by "ordinary", you mean down-to-earth, sensible, not undead (LOL), not an instigator of Collinsport drama, and reasonably content, I'd have to cast my vote for Joe Haskell.

Which is why I think that Carolyn, a very "non-ordinary" type, could not bring herself to be with him.  She enjoyed drama and living on the edge to much to appreciate the "ordinary" yet most probably happy life she could have had with Joe.

Funny how DS imitated real life so well in some cases... too many Joe's get cast aside for the Buzz's of the world.

         coincidentally I remain,
                 Joe    

[ProfStokes]

Was there a normal person (character type) on DARK SHADOWS?

Maybe Susie the waitress or Bob Rooney the bartender.  They were both fairly ordinary, non-supernatural people who held mundane jobs and went about their own business.  Sheriff Patterson seemed pretty down to earth too.  

ProfStokes

[MikeS]

I think Joe Haskell was the most ordinary character on the show.  A hard-working, stable guy.

Which makes his eventual fate all the more tragic.

[Miss_Winthrop]

I could be wrong but I think Carolyn threw Joe over for Burke Devlin.  By the time Buzz arrived on the scene, Joe was with Maggie.  Now I personally wouldn't have thrown over a hunk like Joe   for just anyone like Burke Devlin!

If, by "ordinary", you mean down-to-earth, sensible, not undead (LOL), not an instigator of Collinsport drama, and reasonably content, I'd have to cast my vote for Joe Haskell.

Which is why I think that Carolyn, a very "non-ordinary" type, could not bring herself to be with him.  She enjoyed drama and living on the edge to much to appreciate the "ordinary" yet most probably happy life she could have had with Joe.

Funny how DS imitated real life so well in some cases... too many Joe's get cast aside for the Buzz's of the world.

         coincidentally I remain,
                 Joe    

[ROBINV]

Joe and Maggie were probably DS' most normal people, at least before they got into the clutches of vampires Barnabas and Angelique.

I also cast a vote for the pre-Leviathan Megan and Philip Todd.  Aside from the dissolution of Joe and Maggie's relationship, I felt really terrible for those two, chosen for this awful task, losing everything they had along the way.

Love, Robin

[Cassandra]

I'd say that Sam Evans was a pretty ordinary guy for the times.  He worked as an artist, then after his work was done would go down to the local pub (Blue Whale) and have a few beers with the guys, Bob & company. He had no use for that supernatural stuff,  except of course when it hit him smack in the face.     (He surely didn't deserve it)

[Craig_Slocum]

and there is Harry!

Harry is a lot more ordinary and normal than most of the residents of Collinsport, Collinwood, and the Old House.

[VictoriaWintersRox]

Hmm. Maggie and Joe were probably the most normal people in Collinsport, along with Sam. Too bad they were all made unnormal by other people  

[lurkerintheshadows]

Most normal people were mrs. johnson, joe haskell,maggie evans,bob the bartender,and sheriff patterson.

[Daphne]

Joe, Maggie, Sam, a pre-Barnabus Julia, and probably Carolyn and David, too. Even if they were rich, they didn't have any weird powers, or deep hidden secrets. Altho, I guess just about everyone was normal before Barnabus came to town with the exception of Liz, Roger and kinda Burke. Maybe that's why the show wasn't all that great in the ratings before Barnabus ..... everyone was so ordinary. But then again, what we consider ordinary depends on how we've seen the world. Sounds like a philosophy question ..... What is ordinary? AHHHH!! I refuse to think until I have to go back to school. lol

[Luciaphile]

Normal?  The only ones who really qualify are probably peripheral characters, people like Mrs. Johnson or Jonas Carter or Frank Garner.  

Liz, Roger, Carolyn, David, Sam, etc.  All had more their share of neuroses and problems.  I wouldn't consider them normal in any sense of the word.  Alcoholism, murder, attempted murder, agoraphobia, self-destructive behavior.  

Whether there's any such thing as normal, is another question, but most of the conventional characters were just as messed up if not more than the supernatural ones.  Liz as say, a witch, would probably be just as scary if not more than Angelique

Luciaphil
(who has seen the divine Joan in Suspiria hehe)

[ShadowsAtlanta]

Daphne, you made some good points, but I would argue that Julia was probably never an ordinary person in her pre-Barnabas days, teenage years, childhood, infancy, or previous incarnations.

She was researching the occult before she ever stumbled across Maggie (and remember she only found Barnabas because she pursued her suspicion that Maggie had fallen prey to the supernatural).  Also, parapsychology aside, she would have had to be an extraordinary woman to pursue medicine and psychiatry in the 50's/60's.

It would be interesting to see someone's version of Julia's history... maybe she was the love child of Magda's daughter and some member of the Collins clan... hmmm....    

         Joe