the show's costuming always has me on the edge of me seat.

i'm currently watching the 1970pt episodes.while the show could always get a bit heavy-handed with the hairpieces the hairdressing for kathryn leigh scott and lara parker was taken to breathtaking heights across the 1970 episodes.

we get curls.we get braids.we get towering updos.combined with the panty-grazing hemlines of the period an odd top-heavy silhouette is the effect.

needless to say joan bennett,grayson hall,alexandra motlke,lisa richards and clarice blackburn were no stangers to the piece but it was usually something static.something that defined the character's "look".here the hairdessers just seem to be having a party on the heads of maggie and angelique.

interestingly with the exception of the period wigs worn during some of the time travel stuff nancy barrett seems to have been spared from overly aggressive hairpiece use.carolyn always wears her own long,loose blond hair.

forget ohrbach's.the show's wig supplier deserves a credit.

this odd thought crossed my mind today.

because 1897 was the show's highest rated storyline that means there were thousands of viewers who had never watched before this.thus they had never "met" victoria winters or burke devlin or joe haskell or most of the characters that populated the earlier part of the show.

but for that matter they actually knew very little about "present time" barnabas collins' situation either.or that quentin first appeared as a ghost.they had never "met" carolyn stoddard or roger collins or maggie evans either.

so when the storyline returned to the present these were essentially "new" characters to these viewers that they had to be "introduced" to.which is funny when you remember that most of them had been on the show for years.

these viewers experienced the show in reverse to the way most of us have.they might have recognized the actors who played roles in 1897 but had no idea who thier present time counterparts were.imagine the first time elizabeth stoddard walked into a room and saying "who's that?".long time viewers would patiently explain "that's liz.she owns the house.she's carolyn's mother" or "that's maggie evans.she used to be a waitress but now she's david's tutor".to them maggie evans was just some girl who looked like kitty hampshire.

that must have been strange.like i said...odd thought.

i have been watching the 1970 leviathan episodes.

quentin's presence here continues to baffle me.there is just some very sloppy storytelling going on.

i realize that the character had become trememdously popular so they needed to work him into the storyline post-1897 but i don't think they gave him a compelling raison d' etre.when barnabas first arrived as a "lost cousin" they wrote him a plausable story about who he was and where he'd been and elizabeth offered him the old house as a place to live.

with quentin here they didn't really bother with any of that.they just plunked him down in the middle of this plot and had everyone accept him no questions asked.this doesn't make alot of sense.

so on to my question.unless i blinked and missed it i can't tell where this character is supposed to live.he strolls in and out of collinwood like he owns the place.he seems similarly at home at the old house.but i don't recall liz graciously offering him a room at collinwood.i haven't seen a bedroom set for the character yet.perhaps this gets resolved in a future episode but where the heck does quentin collins live?

i recently completed dvd set 18 which takes us to about the mid-point of the leviathan episodes and introduces us to jebez hawkes.

i felt like this character's introduction was in many ways strikingly similar to the adam storyline.

obviously the surrounding situations were completely different but in many ways the two characters parallel one another.

both characters arrive in a "child-like" state(adam mentally and jeb physically)and rapidly achieve adulthood.
both characters are willful,impetuous and self-centered.they both develop intensely rivalrous relationships with barnabas who is in many ways responsible for their very existance.both are fixated on carolyn.both weild power by threatening people barnabas cares about.

in some ways this felt to me like a vastly different telling of the same basic story.

that said i like this storyline thus far more than i thought i would.i've always heard such negative things about it.
do i think that the plot is ridiculous?absolutely.but i'm enjoying it's telling.these episodes have a distict creepiness and tone that's all it's own.i love the antique shop set.i like that barnabas and julia are at odds again.i like frosty leviathan liz.

i hated those annoying leviathan brats.i think paul stoddard was something of a wasted opportunity.quentin seems adrift and without much purpose.

i'm only about half way through it so i'll save my final judgement(the later part of it does sound really dumb)but i enjoyed these episodes alot.

i just completed the 1897 storyline and are several episodes into the leviathan storyline.

i enjoyed 1897 but i'm always glad to see my favorite characters again after a time travel story.
it's comforting to see carolyn and maggie and elizabeth...no matter how strange the plot.

but it was more than just seeing familiar faces that i found comforting.
it was the bizzare contrast of the "present day" fashions played against the dark gothic interiors.if anything the clothes got even brighter and the skirts got even shorter during the time that the show was set in the past.carolyn's outfit upon return to the present was dizzying.a brilliant poppy red blouse and a pastel polka dot print wraparound chiffon miniskirt!in one episode miss olivia correy gets a fox fur over paisley silk lounging pajamas...an eye-popping combination that will be burned onto my retina forever(please don't forget cassandra collins' blinding ensembles,julia's electric tweeds or vicki's any-dress-as-long-as-it's-sleeveless).

for me this sets up a visual dissonance that is one of the most striking things about the show.
the juxtaposition of the setting(ancient,heavy,somber)and the jauntiness of the clothes is the most visually arresting thing that speaks "dark shadows" to me.it's one of the first things that caught my eye.while the historical costumes make more sense within the ancient setting during the time travel stories i always feel as if i'm watching a period piece.in the present it feels more like d.s. to me.

this combination of ohrbach's,gothic settings,robert cobert's soundtrack and of course our actors set the mood for me.perhaps because i wasn't yet born when the show originally aired these fashions have a novelty for me and that's why i find them so striking.

so on to the subject of this informal poll.what do you guys think?storyline aside what do you think visually represents the show better?the present day or the time travel episodes?

one never know what one will stumble across when perusing the internet...

if anyone is interested in a very recent photograph of our girl the 'newyorksocialdiary.com' covered an extremely swank party for writer dominick dunne held on october 25th.there among such swells as carolina herrera,judy peabody and wendy vanderbilt(!) is a photograph of the still quite lovely alexandra moltke isles.

who knew ms.isles moved among such rarified circles?i knew she came from some sort of 'old money' but apparently she's still a player.give it a look.

i know i'm asking for trouble but i just can't resist.

recent talk of recasts made me think.were there characters on the show that simply could not have been effectively recast?ever?
characters that had become so defined by the actors that played them that there just wasn't anyone else who could have captured the character again in the same way?

in my opinion there were six such characters:

VICTORIA.ELIZABETH.BARNABAS.JULIA.ANGELIQUE.QUENTIN.

to me too much of the actors' persona actually shaped these characters and no one could effectively replicate that.any attempt would have been futile.

as much as i love(adore!)nancy barrett i find it conceivable that another actress,well chosen,could have been a possiblity.it would have made for a different carolyn stoddard but under the right circumstances it could have worked.the same for kathryn leigh scott.
but could anyone else play julia other than grayson hall?or liz other than joan bennett?and try and imagine a recast for barnabas.they might as well cancel the show on the spot.

early on i think that there were a few good recasts(sam evans,matthew morgan,willie loomis).later not so good(vicki).but the actors i mentioned brought too much of themselves to the roles and it defined them.in some cases turning minor characters into stars.

so what do you guys think?could any of these actors be replaced?what characters not mentioned do you think could be added to the list?

i've been watching dvd collection 15(the 1897 storyline)and just when i thought 'room 24' couldn't reappear again it shows up as tim shaw's room at the collinsport inn.this room is sort of like the roger davis of sets.
here the door that used to lead to the kitchenette is now the entrance to the room so the number '24' is not visible but i'd know this set anywhere.the window treatments are always the same.loose weave taupe drapes backed by venetian blinds.

so the question is this.since they went through the time and expense to design the elaborate victorian interiors used throughout the 1897 storyline how expensive could it have been to simply hang period-specific drapes in this room?

speaking of the collinsport inn they also utilize the lobby set here.that certainly took me back.i half expected victoria winters to walk in with her plaid suitcase fresh off the train from new york.in fact the early quentin storyline and the 1897 storyline both utilze sets not seen since the early black and white episodes.the collinsport inn.the police station.the caretakers cottage.what do you think they did with these sets when they weren't being used?were they sort of collapsable and could be folded up for storage and then easily set up when needed?the studio could only have been so large and in edition the the main sets always in use(collinwood.the old house)there must not have been space for the dozens of other sets occasionally used.