Dr. Woodard's last episodes

[Joeytrom]

When he learned about the secret room, if he was unable to find Burke, wouldn't the logical thing to do was go directly to the sheriff or at least Sam Evans and Joe Haskell.   Taking it all on his own was not a wise decision.

[MagnusTrask]

Woodie's life could have been saved by such people as you!   Perhaps Dave can even be preserved, now with our knowledge of various people and what bars they work in.   You never know.

[Sandor]

Just last week, a friend played me the DVD of "Muscle Beach Party", that 1964 Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello beach party romp, and who should I see as one of the co-stars but.... yes.... the 2nd Dr. Woodard, PETER TURGEON!
Don't worry, folks, he wasn't clad in a speedo, or flexing his muscles on the beach. He played the annoying nerdy guy who (for reasons escaping me) spied upon Frankie and his teenage beach gang. I kept waiting for Barnabas and Julia to show up on the sand with a hypodermic needle, to put the dweeb out of his misery.

[IluvBarnabas]

They say fools rush in, and that's exactly what this Dave Woodard did.

Again I say Woodard's IQ shrunk waaaaaaaaaay down once Peter Turgeon took over the role. I doubt Robert Gerringer's Dave Woodard would have been so foolhardy as to [spoiler]tell Barnabas he saw his sister Sarah, thus revealing he was onto him.[/spoiler]

[Alondra]

He definitely could have played this differently. It was almost like he wanted to accept his fate. Like he wanted to die or something. By dying this way he was not going to be able to save anyone else from Barnabas.

I've noticed a few times on this show something that drives me batty, people who are investigating someone will reveal to that person the things they have learned so far. Such as in the Laura storyline when [spoiler]Dr. Guthrie is investigating Laura he kept going to her to ask questions and in the course of the conversation he let her know how much he had learned thus far. Eventually he came too close to the truth and she destroyed him. Darn it, you don't let the enemy know how much you know! In this he signed his own death certificate.[/spoiler]

Now we have Dr. Woodard doing the same thing. [spoiler]He went to the Old House and had a conversation with Barnabas, I do not remember all of it but I remember that in the course of this conversation he told Barnabas he had seen his sister. He was trying to gain information from him and just like Dr. Guthrie, he revealed how much he knew already. Why don't these people realize that the enemy is going to destroy them because they know too much? What either of these men should have done is go to the sheriff and tell him all they knew. NOT go to the very person they were investigating and let them know they were a threat to them! In that way they would be able to protect others from that person by learning all they needed to know quietly and then letting the sheriff be the one to destroy them.[/spoiler]

Alondra

[loril54]

I think DC did this because Robert Gerringer didn't cross the line when there was a strike. They could have dragged it out more.

[MagnusTrask]

Woodie's life could have been saved by such people as you!   Perhaps Dave can even be preserved, now with our knowledge of various people and what bars they work in.   You never know.

Not sure what I was getting at here.

******

TV is full of that behavior (telling the villain your suspicions), or it was.   Maybe it was a safer time for people in everyday life, or maybe crimes weren't as well reported yet, but I think a lot of people have some impulse or assumption that being right and virtuous, or maybe middle class and therefore 'worth' (country club Republicans) more than some, means you don't have to worry so much, about crime, or about authorities, or danger of any kind.    Found a body in your house?    You're innocent, no one will accuse you, go to the police.    Suburbia is a bit insulated against harsh things in life.

On the other hand, lots of TV shows in the 60s showed virtuous, unlucky people in trouble with the law, who had to hide or run, with the police often being the bad guys.  I like that.    These shows may have been written by the people Republicans would have called "pinkos".

Anyway, DW being a professional man, respected and perhaps prosperous, may have had myopia as regards danger, underestimating his vulnerability because bad stuff just doesn't happen to his kind of person.   A good guy, but priveleged, so his instincts were wrong for the situation.   RIP.

I do sort of appreciate the growing sense that Dave is just doomed, with no way out, though.    He gets closer and closer, and you know he can't give BC away.  I know the show doesn't go that way.    An innocent, sympathetic character is going to get stopped, in a way that both BC and JH keep their mouths shut about later.    How the f is that going to happen?    You know a brick wall is waiting for him to crash into any day now, but what is it?   How are future protagonists going to get rid of his interference?  It's not going to be pretty, you know that.   And it wasn't.

[Jackie]

It's the most tragic story in all of DS... I think the writers just wanted to get rid of the good doctor and in order to do so, they needed to play with the viewers emotions, "OMG don't kill the doctor" and "Bad vampire!  Bad lady doctor!"  How do we, the writers, dispose of this character in a way that will draw out the most sympathy for him and hate the vampire at the same time.  They did the same with [spoiler]the disposal of Carl Collins.[/spoiler] To tell ya the truth, it is great drama and storytelling even if it angers people.  It's one of the things people remember the most and talk about for a long time.[/b] 

[Barnabas'sBride]

It really had very little impact on me emotionally because Gerringer was no longer playing him. But I did like almost all of the scenes leading up to the event in spite of the new Dave.

[Alondra]

It really had very little impact on me emotionally because Gerringer was no longer playing him. But I did like almost all of the scenes leading up to the event in spite of the new Dave.

I think that if Gerringer had still been playing him that it would have made the scene even worse since we all seem to prefer him in the role. How could we not since he was handsome, had a pleasant voice, and just seemed like a very nice man? Peter Turgeon, though he was not handsome at all, and had a much less pleasing voice, did a very good job in the role. I felt he was a good actor. And I was still disgusted at what happened. This was definitely the lowest that vampire ever sank, even worse than when he [spoiler]framed my Willie for his own crimes[/spoiler] And it was awful the role Julia played in this. I'm glad that they both changed later on. If they had not I wouldn't care of they both were staked!

Alondra

[loril54]

The writers were setting up the fact of Barnabas having something to hold over Julia.  This was ther very bad Barnabas.
[spoiler]The fact that he tried to drive her crazy, when she did almost the whole show by herself. I don't think that people could have been satisfied with it getting much more intense. They went to 1795!![/spoiler]

[Alondra]

The writers were setting up the fact of Barnabas having something to hold over Julia.  This was ther very bad Barnabas.
[spoiler]The fact that he tried to drive her crazy, when she did almost the whole show by herself. I don't think that people could have been satisfied with it getting much more intense. They went to 1795!![/spoiler]

Incredible, that one episode #361 where Julia nearly did the whole episode by herself. I read that Dan Curtis was trying to save a bit of money, so he had only a couple actors that day, but that is one of the episodes that stands out in my memory. Grayson's acting was incredible in that episode.

Alondra

[MagnusTrask]

I think that if Gerringer had still been playing him that it would have made the scene even worse since we all seem to prefer him in the role. How could we not since he was handsome, had a pleasant voice, and just seemed like a very nice man? Peter Turgeon, though he was not handsome at all, and had a much less pleasing voice, did a very good job in the role.

Appearance has nothing to do with whether someone is a good person or not, and I don't believe in liking people because they seem "attractive" to me.   Or the reverse.   

[Lydia]

You may not believe in liking people because they seem "attractive", Magnus, but it can be awfully hard to practice that particular belief.  "Attractive" does, after all, mean that the person attracts you, so "unattractive" means that the person repels you, and it's difficult to like somebody who repels you.  I like to believe that I always vote for the better candidate for president, but it is interesting to note that I have never voted for a candidate whose voice I disliked.

As for Woodard...I'm sure he would have stuck around longer if Robert Gerringer hadn't been replaced.  And as for his idiotic actions...at the point we're talking about, I don't think Barnabas was known to have killed anybody.  Woodard could have figured out about the cows, but that's just animals.  We in the audience know of one murder Barnabas had committed, but nobody in Collinsport suspected that it was murder.  So Woodard may have had trouble wrapping his mind around the idea that he might not survive this little bit of detective work.  He had never seen Barnabas in a violent mood.  He had only seen the charming Barnabas.  It's sort of a weak defense for Woodard, but maybe it's better than nothing...or maybe not.

[MagnusTrask]

"Attractive" does, after all, mean that the person attracts you, so "unattractive" means that the person repels you, and it's difficult to like somebody who repels you.

Physical attraction and personal attraction are different things, sometimes very different and separate things.    Sometimes opposite.   Respectfully, I can't really go along with you here.

You could be right re Woodard-- it could also be that he just couldn't accept on a gut level that something that bizarre and supernatural was really happening, and needed face-to-face confirmation before crossing that boundary, in his head, and as far as going to authorities.    He might have brought "backup", if he had had any available.