Leading Ladies Of DS (Is KLS Leading Or Supporting?)

[Nightfall59]

As for Roxanne, by the time she came around many in the audience had tired of the whole Barnabas/Josette thing and were very vocal about it. So that's why TPTB decided during Leviathans to stage the scene between Barnabas and Josette where she gives back her ring and tells him he has to put her in the past and move on. And hence Roxanne.

But they didn't veer too much from the same concept, did they? Roxanne was still very young, worshiping, naive. She was still a Josette "type."

As for the leading lady question, I think once the Barnabas episodes began, they all had their turn at lead status. Alexandra, Kathryn, Lara, Grayson. It really was dependent on what the storyline was.

[Lydia]

Roxanne was still very young, worshiping, naive. She was still a Josette "type."

Roxanne wasn't always that way.  And (apologies for getting further off topic) I think Josette was a stronger personality than pre-vampire Barnabas was, and that if Barnabas and Josette had married, in the end Josette might well have been the alpha spouse - so to speak - in that marriage.

[Uncle Roger]

Well, I always thought the downplaying of Barnabas/josette and Barnabas/Maggie during the last year or so of the show had more to do with Kathryn's decision to leave the show. She spent her last few months working without a contract, so they would have needed to adjust the story accordingly

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No, the complaining from the portion of the audience that had grown tired of Barnabas/Josette actually began during 1897 not too long after the appearance of Lady Kitty - but it definitely hit a peek during early Leviathans. And as we know, DC paid very close attention to what the audience was saying and often adjusted the show accordingly. So, the scene I spoke of earlier was written for Ep #948, which was taped January 23, 1970, long before anyone had any idea that KLS would be leaving the show in September.

[Lydia]

I understand that if KLS had not left the show, she would have played Samantha in 1840.  Does this mean that Barnabas would have gone back to 1840, met a Josette clone, and said to himself, “Just a coincidence!”?  Or, “What do you mean, Julia?  She looks nothing like Josette!”?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

For a change, they might not have addressed it at all seen as Barnabas was into Roxanne. 

[michael c]

the who-looks-like-who game was impossible to guess given that a dozen or so actors played virtually all of the show's characters during it's run.

for instance ALL of KLS's characters "looked like" josette to barnabas but none of joan bennett's other characters(liz, judith, flora)looked like his mother naomi. sometimes it mattered when one character resembled another and sometimes it didn't. who knows by what process the writers decided when it did and when it didn't. why was it that ned stuart resembled jeff clark but megan todd didn't resemble jenny or eve?

i think it would have been fun for KLS to play a not-so-nice character who didn't resemble josette for a change.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

i think it would have been fun for KLS to play a not-so-nice character who didn't resemble josette for a change.

Especially if her Samantha was written as bitchy as the character was for Virginia Vestoff. Though that's anyone's guess given how DC firmly believed that the audience would only accept certain actors in certain types of roles and heaven forbid they should be allowed to play something different (like Alexandra Moltke being allowed to play a dark character, which I would have sorely loved to have seen - but alas...). But then, DC almost routinely underestimated the audience.

[michael c]

my dream of a "dark" alexandra character would not have necessarily been a different character per se but a cruel and sophisticated victoria for 1970 parallel-time.

vain, glamorous and pleasure seeking. draped in gems and outrageous parallel-time couture. her black hair swept up into one of the bizarre do's of the period.

how fun would that have been!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

my dream of a "dark" alexandra character would not have necessarily been a different character per se but a cruel and sophisticated victoria for 1970 parallel-time.

Exactly!

vain, glamorous and pleasure seeking. draped in gems and outrageous parallel-time couture. her black hair swept up into one of the bizarre do's of the period.

how fun would that have been!

It would have been AMAZING! And it's too bad that the writers and Peter Miner didn't do it while DC was too preoccupied with shooting hoDS like the then writers and Robert Costello had hired Frid while DC was preoccupied with whatever it was he was doing back then (shooting The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?).

[michael c]

alexandra would have had, what, a one year old at that time?

so while she likely would not have come back onto the series full time she might have signed on for a thirteen week storyline. especially if given the opportunity to play a "dark" version of the character as she still says she would have liked to.

but again, alas.

[michael c]

that roger davis was gone by that time might have provided further enticement.

[michael c]

this conversation really got me thinking about what the viewers expectations are for who-looks-like-who...

after the second or third storyline they start to get the drift. for the 1795 storyline the writers decided it was important that everyone vicki met in the past looked like someone she knew in the present. after this storyline it became both more random and also more selective as the actors began to take on a repertoire of characters.

as said above viewers began to know instinctively that ALL of KLS's characters resembled josette dupres even before they were specifically told. in a similar vein they know all lara parker and david selby characters are some variation on angelique and quentin respectively. but joan bennett, louis edmonds and nancy barrett can be a new and completely unrelated character each time.

we'll never know how the writers decided when it mattered when one character looked like another and when it didn't but it's interesting what the viewers came to accept.

[loril54]

for instance ALL of KLS's characters "looked like" josette to barnabas but none of joan bennett's other characters(liz, judith, flora)looked like his mother naomi. idn't resemble josette for a change.

I Believe that when Barnabas saw Liz, at least in the first story line he did think of his mother. There was the hangerchief that Barnabas gave Liz. Then there was the whole Casandra episode.

[quentincollins]

Vicki comments on Naomi looking like Liz. I always interpreted it that all characters played by the same actors were supposed to look alike. I think that adds a subtext to Barnabas's relationships especially, given that Liz does really look like his mother. I always felt like Barnabas was very fond of Liz, and that resemblance surely added to his fondness of her.