Well, excuse the hell out of me for failing to recognize and sign on to the prevailing wisdom. I never accepted the premise, and never forgave a damned thing.
I detested, loathed and despised the character of Barnabas Collins the entire time I watched what I saw of the first run, and I never gave up anticipating the day when he would pay for his transgressions. Did I know deep down that the chances of that happening were virtually nil? Yes. But hope springs eternal.
Please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying your take is wrong - or even that I disagree with it (god knows I've repeatedly voiced my share of problems when it comes to Barn) - only that, given the way the writers chose to portray Barn and weave their storylines after 1967, making Barn accountable for anything he'd done prior was something that was never going to happen...
I never saw all the other characters as mere supporting players to The Star.
And on that we completely agree (again
). Generally, whenever the subject crops up that Barn/Frid IS DS and without him(them) there is NO show, I'm the first to vehemently disagree - cheifly because that notion not only invalidates the sizeable contributions every other character/actor made to the show (check out my take on the MPI DVD menus, for example, on page 2 of "Grrr! DS DVD" on page 23 of the "Current Talk III" board) - it invalidates the entire ten months of story prior to Barn/Frid's arrival. In fact, during those Dark Ages of online fandom that I referenced a few weeks back, I'd even put forth the scandalous and seemingly completely unacceptable/inexcusable hypothesis (among a very vocal contingent of Barn/Frid fans, anyway) that if Quentin/Selby had shown up on the show in 1967 rather than Barn/Frid, DS may have become just as successful without Barn/Frid altogether. You want to talk about asking to have the hell excused out of you?! Try doing THAT sometime!!
Granted, Barn/Frid's contributions to DS are sizeable and unquestionable. BUT IMNSHO, Barn/Frid is not, never has been, never will be the end all and be all of DS...