DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '10 I => Topic started by: Willie Loomis on May 12, 2010, 03:33:40 PM
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this man was just rubbing me (and lisa richardson) the wrong way. this is a way to touch your sister? how did this actress not roll over his feet or something during the filming of the scenes with Ned Stuard and Barnabas and Julia.
Is it me or was he over the top with the touching and hugging....(i mean a few times he went down around the sisters.....)
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Willie,
You really shouldn't be all that critical of Ned Stuart's "touchy-feely" contact with other people. The poor fellow obviously watches the "ageless" Regis Philbin and the unfailingly self-effacing Kelly Ripa, hugging and smooching the eclectic likes of Courtney Cobain, Snoop Doggie-Dog, Joy Behar, Jennifer Aniston and Perez Hilton, etc., on their enthralling t.v. show each and every day. [gorgeous] [kissgrin] [love3] [puke]
So, Ned is merely following the accepted contemporary social etiquette set by Regis, Kelly and that other paragon of unremitting class and good taste, Maury Povich, simply THE greatest man who ever lived! [ghost_rolleyes] [ghost_wink] [ghost_grin]
Bob the Bartender, President of the Ricky Paul Goldin Fan Club
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jeesh. [ghost_blink] okay. give me a black russian. make it a double! [ghost_undecided]
it's just that he scares me.
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Ned Stuart was probably harmless in the long run but he did give people a creepy vibe. His intensity was a little scary.
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Oh I defintely thought the same thing, that Ned's grabby obsessive treatment of his sister was overtly incestous.
I try to give Ned something of a pass, he had plenty of reason to have it in for Chis, and his only scenes really are focused on Ned's protectiveness of Sabrina over the damage done to her by Chis, but Ned does come off as abrasive and shrill at best.
He was a lot more likable in Return to Collinwood, but by then he'd pretty much had a personality transplant from Jeff.
Of course, we don't really know that much about what Ned would be like in a different context that the one we saw him in. I really like Peter/Jeff, but Ned wasn't likable.
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His portrayal of Dirk Wilkins was great.
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Crazy Dirk was good.
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jeesh. [ghost_blink] okay. give me a black russian. make it a double! [ghost_undecided]
it's just that he scares me.
Hey,
I need a double Johnnie Walker Black after seeing Jason McGuire attempt to "relate" to Buzz Hackett on Dark Shadows.
[ghost_wacko] [ghost_rolleyes]
Bob
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Thanks Bob, I just spit my coffee out all over the keyboard with that one.... [ghost_grin]
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I've watched the Ned/Sabrina/Chris episodes again recently, and I got the impression Roger Davis played Ned Stuart so manically - as to distinguish him completely different from Jeff Clark. Unfortunately, if you play a Jeff Clark episode back-to-back with a Ned Stuart one, one finds little difference in tone - other than the circumstance of the character.
The one scene that creeped me out involved Ned and little Amy Jennings. Ned was left alone at Collinwood while Maggie went dashing through the woods after David. When Ned realized Amy was the sister of Chris, I thought for a moment he might try to kidnap her - or harm her - until Don Briscoe swooped in on the scene and said "Leave her out of this!"
The one person who took no guff from Ned was Dr. Julia Hoffman. I love Grayson Hall's deadpan glance when she and Don Briscoe shuffle into Ned & Sabrina's room at the Collinsport Inn, and Ned barks "Why is she [Julia] here?! This isn't some social reunion!"
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Oh I defintely thought the same thing, that Ned's grabby obsessive treatment of his sister was overtly incestous.
I try to give Ned something of a pass, he had plenty of reason to have it in for Chis, and his only scenes really are focused on Ned's protectiveness of Sabrina over the damage done to her by Chis, but Ned does come off as abrasive and shrill at best.
[spoiler]
IMO Ned only had a right to have it in for Chris if Chris really HAD intended to harm Sabrina...but that had never been Chris' intention. And Ned never knew for for sure what really happened between him and his sister. Granted I can see
why Chris' running off suddenly would arouse suspicion, but Ned knew nothing of what really happened between them. [/spoiler]
Ned Stuart is the worse of RD's characters IMO.
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Ned is a very stupid name. I think that was a clarion call announcing the coming overwhelming stupidity of the character. Just ponder the apellation (a word I now use and possibly spell incorrectly because I'm somewhat drunk) ... whom would you respect named Ned? What name is it shortened from? Does it survive into this century? Did any human even in the 60s say to selves, "Here's a cute infant, let's call the thing Ned?"
I expect you to answer "no" to these questions, just in case that isn't clear.
[female_skull] [female_skull] [female_skull]
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Honestly, if my sister was left catatonic and at the same time her fiancee ran off, I'd have it in for the guy. So I try to give him something of a pass at having it in for Chris.
As for Ned, I think it's a knickname for Edward. The only other Ned I can think of offhand is from the tv show The Lost World.
I liked Ned in Return to Colllinwood, but at that point he was pretty much just Jeff Clark anyways.
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my feelings about roger davis as ned stuart were always "why?".
stuart was a relatively minor character and could easily have been cast using a different actor. so closely on the heels of jeff clark it only added confusion. confusion exacerbated by the fact that nothing was done to differentiate the two characters in terms of appearance or temperment. ned was just nother bossy blowhard.
my impression of the absurd preponderance of roger davis roles has always been that davis must have had a two year contract and the writers/producers needed to write him into the series somehow whether it really made sense or not.
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MSC, according to a number of sources I have seen, Dan Curtis really liked Roger Davis as a person. Davis was dating Jaclyn Smith who had been considered for a role on the series--I have wondered whether there was a connection as to how Davis found his way onto the DS set in the first place. Apparently, Davis was considered something of a teen idol as well. There was coverage in 16 and Tiger Beat, not on the same scale as Barnabas and Quentin received, but frequent nevertheless.
DS only escaped the curse of Roger Davis when he found his way onto the old West adventure series, Alias Smith and Jones. Otherwise, DC had planned a storyline involving a Davis character showing up to be Maggie's new boyfriend in the Summer of 1970. I've often wondered whether this talk wasn't part of what convinced KLS that she needed to get the hell outta Dodge--erm, Collinsport.
G.
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It's often been written that RD was a favorite of Curtis among the actors (and that alone should tell one something about Curtis - but I digress). RD was supposedly cast in so many DS roles because Curtis wanted him to be.
Perhaps we should simply count ourselves lucky that Curtis' wishes to see RD cast in two roles during the series' last year (as 1840/41's Desmond Collins and supposedly as Maggie's boyfriend) never came to pass...
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interesting about maggie's boyfriend.
the whole "summer of 1970" to me seemed just like a big set up for another trip to the past. what happened in the present was almost beside the point. no "new" plot was introduced that wasn't meant to lead directly into the 1840 storyline. so i'm surprised to hear that a new,self contained storyline for maggie was being considered. wasn't the character sort of back-burnered at that point?
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Sort of. But then KLS was working without a contract at that point (which is the reason why it was so easy for her to leave DS and move to Europe with Ben Martin).
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I wonder what the new boyfriend would have been like. Interesting idea, and I would've liked to see Maggie get another bf. I never could accept her having feelings for Barnabas after he kidnapped and tormented her. I knew what happened even if she didn't. I wonder if maybe RD's character was going to be Sebastian?
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the whole "summer of 1970" to me seemed just like a big set up for another trip to the past.
I pretty much agree with this. Even Maggie being victimized by yet another vampire seemed an obvious set-up for explaining that [spoiler]Roxanne had become a vampire in 1840.[/spoiler]
Isn't it popularly believed that had KLS stayed, she would have portrayed Samantha Collins in the 1840 arc? I've seen this claim on many DS boards. I wonder, if she had stayed, would they have gone with the Josette lookalike thing yet again, or ignored it this time? That would have loopy. Four women---Roxanne, Julia, Angelique, and Samantha--all interested in our gentleman vamp. lol
I've never been a fan of Roger Davis. I was always happy whenever any of his characters was written out. The only one I found even barely tolerable was Peter Bradford and that was only in short spurts.
The only other "soap" character I can recall with the name "Ned" is General Hospital's Ned Ashton, grandson of Edward Quartermaine and presumably named after him.
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As for Ned, I think it's a knickname for Edward. The only other Ned I can think of offhand is from the tv show The Lost World.
Actor Ned Beatty, character Ned Flanders? And that infamous DS Forum member damNEDrodan, lol.
There actually was another Ned on DS-- the unseen Ned Calder, Liz's admirer and recent general manager, whose name came up in at least a dozen eps early in the series.
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Just an FYI-- we have readers who don't remember all the storylines and perhaps haven't seen them all yet, so spoiler icons or spoiler tags are recommended for revelations if the threads aren't already marked as spoilery, or if they stray from the topic titles.
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Isn't it popularly believed that had KLS stayed, she would have portrayed Samantha Collins in the 1840 arc? I've seen this claim on many DS boards.
It's not just a fan belief - that's actually what the show was planning before KLS left. But when one door closes, another opens, and KLS' departure brought about the genius casting of Samantha with Virginia Vestoff, who was brilliant in the role.
As for Ned being a touchy feely freak, he certainly was the worst of RD's characters in the touchy feely department, but just about every RD character was touchy feely because RD quite obviously could never keep his hands off of his costars (or his hair ;)).
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I'd have loved to have had KLS as a different character in 1840, but I'd think she'd be a little too young to play Tad's mother. Of course, Joan Bennett was too young to play Barnabas's mother too, so I guess actors ages weeren't always considered in casting on DS anyways.
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[spoiler]I have zero inside information on this, but while it's more satisfying to watch 1995 and Summer? 1970 without knowing they're the set-up for 1840, I'm sure... everything in them is about 1840. They're doing little but preparing us for 1840 from the moment 1995 starts.
I picture DC or the team deciding that they can't think of more films or books to rewrite, so they're going to organize the whole forseeable remainder of the show into a very long storyline where they rob ideas from themselves, taking everything that worked really well earlier on DS, and doing it bigger and better (and longer). The story of DS is in a way wrapped up at the end of it all, a happy ending tied in a bow, so I think they may not have expected DS to go on past that. When it did, all new characters as if one story that started in 1966 had ended, and another had begun.
What I mean is, I think 1995-1970-1840 is one long storyline revolving around 1840 (and the need to get DS back to a more atmospheric time), a tactic to deal with difficulty in getting fresh ideas, and the inevitable end to the show. [/spoiler]
[skull_winks] [candle_in_skull_2] [female_skull]
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so I think they may not have expected DS to go on past that.
Actually, they did have storyline plans past 1841PT (and were even negotiating Diana Millay's return as Laura). But getting into any of that would be going REALLY OT. Though getting sort of back on topic, apparently none of those plans included another touchy feely RD character. [hello]
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Actually, they did have storyline plans past 1841PT (and were even negotiating Diana Millay's return as Laura). But getting into any of that would be going REALLY OT. Though getting sort of back on topic, apparently none of those plans included another touchy feely RD character. [hello]
(Sorry about straying OT, but once I put difficult thought and eye work into a point, I like to make sure I've communicated it before moving on...
Actually, I meant that when planning out 1995-1970-1840, before any of it started, they may not have expected DS to go on past the conclusion of this 1995-1970-1840 storyline. I thought it might have been one last strategy to go out on a high note eventually, or at least deal with lack of new ideas by redoing all their good ones.
Much later, they saw that DS could go on past Barnabas and Julia returning to 1971 in triumph, and 1841 PT happened, and then they came up with further story ideas for that.)
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magnus makes a good point.
leviathan and 1970 parallel-time were stand alone storylines that were worked into the larger DS canvas.
but starting with 1995 it was clear that they were building up to something big that would likely be set in the past where the program had experienced so much success before. one can really only appreciate it in retrospect but there it is.
and interesting point about the possibility of KLS as samantha collins and what that would have meant to the endless parade of josette lookalikes. under those circumstances would samantha have been yet another incarnation? how would barnabas have reacted to that when roxanne was on his mind by this point? oh the questions.
and after the brutality with which barnabas first treated maggie in 1967 i could never buy(or stomach)any implied romance between them in future storylines. those images are burned onto my memory bank and just because the character became popular and the writers tried to redeem him doesn't make that go away for me.
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Honestly, if my sister was left catatonic and at the same time her fiancee ran off, I'd have it in for the guy. So I try to give him something of a pass at having it in for Chris.
I can't help but think that maybe Sabrina stayed the way she was because of Ned dragging her all around the country in his search for Chris, which couldn't have done her any good, either physically or emotionally. And the way he practically manhandled her...that was really disgusting. No matter how desperately he wanted to get to the truth about what happened between her and Chris, Ned had NO right to be so physically brutal to her. The ends don't justify the means, especially when it comes to the unstable condition of your sister.
Even if you think that Ned's vendetta against Chris is somewhat justified, his rough treatment of Sabrina certainly isn't. I don't think Ned deserves a pass for that, no matter what his motives were.