The perception among the writers and the crew was that the Petofi storyline in 1897 dragged on way too long for the patience of viewers--this was blamed for a perceived initial drop in ratings. The Petofi/Quentin body switch storyline which lasted a month and featured some really way-out plot twists (and one of my personal all-time favorite moments on DS--that shot of the DS skeleton tarted up in Wanda Paisley's tea-gown, wig, and big feathery aigrette--not to mention the whole return-of-Judith storyline, which I LOVE) was blamed in particularly for turning into a major turn-off for much of the viewership. From what I can determine, it seems to me that they received a lot of hate-mail from the fans complaining about this, and the root of the complaints may have really been Jonathan Frid's one month vacation from the show, not the Petofi story and character in particular.
I've seen this supposed drop in ratings during the mind-switch mentioned on Internet message boards, but I can't ever recall reading it anywhere else. Can anyone cite a specific place other than on the Internet where it's discussed?
I can definitely say that I've never read a fan letter to any of the magazines complaining about the mind-switch or Petofi - and that's frequently where a lot of similar dissatisfaction with storylines cropped up...
I've read something about Frid wanted to take a month off from the show, due to exhaustion.
Frid did indeed get time off from DS while everyone thought Barnabas had been staked, but he didn't exactly rest - he did a stock production of
Dial M for Murder. And probably not surprisingly, the 1897 storyline hit record ratings numbers the week of October 20-24, 1969 during the final build-up to and the actual return of Barnabas. Honestly, I love how they played with the audience the entire time Frid was gone, dropping all sorts of hints and having Lady Kitty acting as if Barnabas was somehow communicating with her.
As for Petofi, I've never made any secret of the fact that I love, Love, LOVE him! He's the absolutely perfect combination of erudition and evil, and Thayer David played him to perfection.