Favorite Tongue-tied Lines Of Dialogue

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While referring to [spoiler]Michael's "death"[/spoiler]in today's Ep #928, Julia opines that:

"Classically, it's almost classic, actually."

Yes, of course it was, Julia. 

That line is definitely up there with Barnabas' line from Ep #386 when referring to accusations that Vicki is a witch:

"I am defending the right of this girl to be judged innocent until she is proved innocent." 

They're not bloopers, per se, because the lines still make sense within their scenes - but it's pretty safe to say that the tounge-tied delivery was probably not exactly what was written in the scripts. 

Anyone else care to share some of their favorites?

[arashi]

One of mine would have to be when Lang & Barnabas are outside the door and Julia is inside trying to call the police.

Barnabas: Julia, remember... someone!

Too awesome. 

[Midnite]

Arashi, that's one of my favorite lines to imitate.

When Barnabas was trying to convince PT Quentin that Maggie didn't leave Collinsport on her own, and Quentin, indicating the letter she left, says it "was mailed from Collinsport, so she must have got there, which means she did get there somehow, and she didn't walk, so she must have some way of getting there."

Um, okay.

[arashi]

Arashi, that's one of my favorite lines to imitate.

When Barnabas was trying to convince PT Quentin that Maggie didn't leave Collinsport on her own, and Quentin, indicating the letter she left, says it "was mailed from Collinsport, so she must have got there, which means she did get there somehow, and she didn't walk, so she must have some way of getting there."

Um, okay.

::laughing:: Oh my god, that's a good one too. I don't remember that from the show, I'll have to see if I can find it on one of my old tapes.

[stefan]

"I am defending the right of this girl to be judged innocent until she is proved innocent."

I know that flub. Poor JF. Unfortunately it's a flub that's not easily ignored and I try my best NOT to hear it when I watch my tapes. I put some of the blame to the studio heads who wouldn't allow retakes. Shame really.

[arashi]

Another classic, "That night... must go, nothing wrong."

[BuzzH]

"I am defending the right of this girl to be judged innocent until she is proved innocent."

I know that flub. Poor JF. Unfortunately it's a flub that's not easily ignored and I try my best NOT to hear it when I watch my tapes. I put some of the blame to the studio heads who wouldn't allow retakes. Shame really.

I know that this line was *probably* a flub on JF's part, but really it's not *that* bad.  Basically Barnabas is saying that Vicki should be assumed innocent until proven guilty.  For him to say, "Judged innocent until proven innocent" he probably should have emphasized PROVEN as if to say, "Look, she's innocent, and we'll PROVE she's innocent". 

Regarding Arashi's fave--Barnabas: Julia, remember... someone!--The Collinsport Players did a hilarious skit once about that plotline w/that scene and when Lang yells out DAVE WOODARD, the guy playing Barnabas says, "See?  Even Dr. Lang knows, and he wasn't even ON the show back then!" 

My favorite flub has to be when, in 1897, Barnabas is going to try and cure Quentin of being a zombie (I think this is when this flub happened, been a while since I've seen the scene) and Barnabas says, "I'm going to see if Magda has the Mir and the....uh...oh the things that she needs!"  Poor Jon! 

[TERRY308]

Ah yes BuzzH, I remember it well.  Poor Jon.  Poor, poor Jon.  But you know...I still snicker at it..like right now.

[AndreDuPres]

My favourite goof-up happens sometime during the Adam storyline when Julia, Adam, and Barnabas are all in the Old House, and Adam threatens to kill Vicki.  Jonathan Frid attempts to say "Vicki," but he merely sputters incoherently for about thirty seconds.  "Carolyn...Maggie...Julia...Vicki!"  The "classically" one already mentioned is another favourite.

[ClaudeNorth]

My favorite flub has to be when, in 1897, Barnabas is going to try and cure Quentin of being a zombie (I think this is when this flub happened, been a while since I've seen the scene) and Barnabas says, "I'm going to see if Magda has the Mir and the....uh...oh the things that she needs!"  Poor Jon! 

Watch KLS in this scene.  When JF gets tongue-tied, she starts to laugh and puts her hand up to her mouth to hide it.

In a similar vein, I like the scene in which David, referring to the portrait of Barnabas, exclaims that "the eyes are blaring--blazing," causing Alexandra Moltke to laugh.

[petofi]

Rest his soul, Louis Edmonds had a couple of great dialogue twists.  In the pre-Barnabas episodes, during the "bleeder valve" storyline, Roger is describing losing his brakes and careening to the bottom of a hill when he says something about it being a hundred miles to the bottom - he realizes his mistake, then corrects himself with:  "A hundred miles . . . It seemed like a hundred miles . . A hundred feet ..."  The look of sheer sheepishness on his face when he realizes his mistake is priceless!   

Later, in 1967, he is in the mausoleum with Joe Haskell, looking for the missing David (who is asleep behind the wall).  He asks Haskell to wait a moment because "some of my incestors are buried here."  Once again he corrects himself, snorting, "incestors! Some of my ancestors are buried here."

I find these interesting and amusing because of the obvious effort that Edmonds put into correcting them, and the great in-character attitude in which he does so.

Other favorites include "Barnabas Cousins  ... Barnabas COLLINS!" by David "Quentin" Selby, "The Book?!   The HAND!"  exchange between Magda and Evan Hanley during 1897, and Barnabas' exclamation during 1795, "I am not . . . be accepting this!" (I think that's how it went)

For me, the bloopers are a kind of "in" joke for the actor's profession that would not have been available if the show had a bigger taping budget, etc.  They in no way affect my enjoyment of the gothic mood of the show overall.  I remember as a child hearing a few of these, not believing my ears, and moving on with the show.  The next day in school, someone would say something like, "did you hear what so-and-so said yesterday on Dark Shadows?"  Then, I would remember and have a good chuckle!

Petofi

[Misa]

The mistakes are fun, and they don't take away from the enjoyment of the show. For me, I think they add something. There is nothing like this out there that people can watch, maybe if you were to watch the rehearsals for a play, although even they wouldn't be quite like what Dark Shadows was they would be the closest, but otherwise nothing is like this.

Writing a show that is on 5 days a week would be hard work. Having to learn new lines everyday, and not being able to have retakes would be very hard also, not to mention stressful. The fact that there aren't more mistakes on the show is amazing.

I love being able to watch what are basically live performances of little plays. Most plays are the same every day. Of course, some days the performance of the same play might be better than the same play on a different day, but when an actor is in a play he or she rehearses the same show/play for quite a while, sometimes months, before the show is presented, and then they don't have new scenes added each day. They just perform the play they have rehearsed, so if you watch a play there usually aren't many mistakes. If a play were done, like Dark Shadows was, where every day is a new play, and the actors had only a few hours to rehearse, it would probably have just as many mistakes in it as Dark Shadows did on TV.

Misa

[Nancy]

Anyone else care to share some of their favorites?

My favorite wasn't really a flub or tongue-twister - Joan Bennett as Elizabeth, calling to find out the whereabouts of Burke Devlin and a missing aircraft. She got on the phone and in trying to think of the name of the city in Brazil where Burke was heading, stamped her foot and said "That place in Brazil!" 

I love a story associated with forgotten dialogue.  JF told this story during one of the Q&As following a charity performance some years ago.    He was in the drawing room of Collinwood with Elizabeth and Roger - stnading and speaking mostly to Roger and evidently just forgot what he was to say next.  In his despair, he just down on the sofa not saying anything else.  Of course, this left Louis Edmonds to pick up the slack (JB was not an ad-libber either and it was all she could do to remember her dialogue).  So LE patched up the hole and when the director yelled "Cut" when the scene was over, JF said he ran back to his dressing room and closed the door.

Louis Edmonds opened the door quite forcefully and said with irate dignity:

"Thank you VERY much, Mr. Frid.  Thank you!"

And the scene repeated itself throughout the day anytime LE saw JF at the studio the latter hiding his head in his hands.

Ironically, during Q&As and other social-type chit chats, JF is very quick with a remark or come-back.

Nancy

[BuzzH]

My favourite goof-up happens sometime during the Adam storyline when Julia, Adam, and Barnabas are all in the Old House, and Adam threatens to kill Vicki.  Jonathan Frid attempts to say "Vicki," but he merely sputters incoherently for about thirty seconds.  "Carolyn...Maggie...Julia...Vicki!" 

Ah, this was no big deal, my Mom does the same thing all the time!  LOL!  Says all of my siblings names, including my brother's names, before getting mine.  Maybe Jonathan was an Irish, Catholic mother in a prior life!  

[BuzzH]

My favorite flub has to be when, in 1897, Barnabas is going to try and cure Quentin of being a zombie (I think this is when this flub happened, been a while since I've seen the scene) and Barnabas says, "I'm going to see if Magda has the Mir and the....uh...oh the things that she needs!"  Poor Jon! 

Watch KLS in this scene.  When JF gets tongue-tied, she starts to laugh and puts her hand up to her mouth to hide it.

In a similar vein, I like the scene in which David, referring to the portrait of Barnabas, exclaims that "the eyes are blaring--blazing," causing Alexandra Moltke to laugh.

Oh!  I will have to watch both of these scenes again!!  Is the one of David and Alexandra on the blooper tape?  If not, do you recall the ep # of that one?  I know the 1897 blooper in on the blooper tape.