I thought it was an interesting touch that when in the rabid vampire state, his smooth cheeks were covered in thick scruff.
I like your explanation that it's Barn's vampire state that presents the scruff rather than what the truth of the matter is, which is the scene in which Barnabas nearly attacks Vicki is the first scene Alec Newman shot and they were thinking of having him sport to scruff all the time. However, when the dailies came back they decided against that look and had Barn clean shaven in everything else they shot.
They planned to reshoot the near attack scene without the scruff, but they ran out of time...
The transformation of Willie is great
I think that, too. Some have said they don't like how Willie is a bit silly in the beginning. But that's so that we see the change in him once he's with Barn.
if the series continued, I hope there would be more in store for Carolyn then a redo of 1991 Daphne/HODS Carolyn
I don't know what the plan for Carolyn was to be, but the character who would take on the 1991 Daphne/HODS Carolyn aspect was to be Willie's girlfriend Kelly. According to Mark Verheiden, the writer of the pilot script and the intended head writer for the series, Kelly would return as a vampire - but unlike with Daphne/Carolyn, she wasn't going to be quickly dispatched with because she was slated to cause all sorts of trouble for Barn and Willie. But alas...