DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '11 I => Topic started by: michael c on May 29, 2011, 01:52:40 PM
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i've been rewatching 1897 after some years...
i've recently gotten to the amanda harris intro and for the life of me i don't understand why this character came into existence. the storyline's nearly over. quentin is in love with beth but engaged to angelique. the dramatic potential right there is enough. but all of a sudden out of the blue comes this character and all of that gets shoved aside.
angelique gets sidelined. poor beth gets written into the margins. and we're just supposed to accept this "love" because the writers put it into the scripts. does anyone know what was up with this storyline development?
and not since poor betsy durkin's DS tenure has an actress been so miscast. donna mckechnie is a sweet lady and very pretty but just wrong for this part(and this show for that matter). she has zero chemistry with david selby and her teleprompter readings are just brutal.
what's up with this character?
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Like death and taxes, the banality that is Amanda Harris will always be with us. Alas and alack.
Let's all chant together: "QuuuuuuuuWWWWeNNNTINNNN!"
cheers, G.
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what i don't get is WHY?
the time period is 3/4 over. why introduce a major new character and storyline so late in the game?
and really. with laura and jenny and beth and angelique and charity/pansy hasn't quentin had enough lady admireres for one storyline. he's a player. WE GET IT.
another loathsome byproduct of the amanda plot is that it brings forth charles delaware tate in his full mouth foaming glory. this has been discussed here ad nauseum but the anger and belligerence roger davis brings to ALL his characterizations is truly awe-inspiring. [ghost_tongue]
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DC probably wanted to pad the 1897 storyline more, as the ratings were the highest ever, so he had the writers create a new character and start a romance. 1897 should have been over by this point.
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I've never actually heard anything about what the thinking was as to why Amanda was brought aboard. In the past, actors like Craig Slocum were hired because someone (in his case DC's wife) had seen them in a play and thought they'd make a great addition to the show and in his case it certainly makes one question DC's wife's taste [ghost_wink]). But who knows...
One theory could be that Amanda was originally brought aboard to help to flesh out CDT's plot since he "created" her and she was initially tied to Quentin and Tim to create conflict. But then things changed in the writers' minds and/or DC's mind and she became more significant in Quentin's life than she ever was in CDT's. It wouldn't have been the first time a character was brought in with one idea in mind only to work out completely differently. (And it certainly wasn't the first or last time an RD character had to be brought aboard because DC loved RD so much. [ghost_rolleyes])
Other than that, I have nothing. [ghost_grin]
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DC probably wanted to pad the 1897 storyline more, as the ratings were the highest ever, so he had the writers create a new character and start a romance. 1897 should have been over by this point.
i so agree...
at this point it's all i can do to keep my finger off the fast-forward button i'm so tired of 1897. the only thing making it bearable for me is julia's appearance in the time period(exit magda, thank you very much)but otherwise i'm OVER it.
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The last time I watched 1897 was during the Watching Project nearly two years ago. What I remember is that I liked the theory of the pairing of Quentin and Amanda. Both of them are disconnected from the everyday four-score-and-ten world because of Petofi's gift to Tate. When they first hook up, neither of them knows that the other is affected in this way, but apparently each sensed something different in the other. I don't remember having any problem with chemistry or lack thereof.
I daresay the writers were looking ahead past 1897 to the return to the 1969, and the Amanda Harris subplot was all about setting up something for Quentin to do when he got there. This seems completely unnecessary to me, because I would have liked to see Quentin more fully involved in the Leviathan storyline, but that's all I can figure.
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interesting thought lydia about the writers giving quentin a ready-made plot when he inevitably showed up in the present.
although if i recall poor olivia/amanda wasn't cold in her grave before quentin started obsessing over daphne.
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although if i recall poor olivia/amanda wasn't cold in her grave before quentin started obsessing over daphne.
I tend to be a little vague about actual airdates, but I'm pretty sure the Amanda/Olivia story was in '69 and Ghost Daphne didn't show up until 1970. It's always kind of amused me that Quentin went from being such a horndog in 1897, with multiple women throwing themselves at him, to virtually dateless in the present time frame. Between Olivia and Daphne, there was only that brief, and soon forgotten, plot point of Angelique love spelling Maggie into Quentin's arms. [ghost_cheesy]
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Like Michael Stroka, and others, Donna McKechnie listened a bit too much to directors telling her to over-pronounce and over-emote. She's somewhat irritating to listen to for that reason. I don't buy that her 1897 stint was just a set-up for her return in 1969/70 though, because the 1897 stretch of story is far more interesting and thought-out than 1969/70.
I really enjoy more-worldy, jaded, cynical, revenge-driven Tim showing up in town again, dragging a semi-floosy with him whom he intends to throw at Trask, to give Trask the needed rope to hang himself. That's all the reason or explanation you need for Amanda. I enjoy her poor-soul-in-search-of-salvation act, I like how she sees through Gregory in half a second, and I like her report to Shaw about it...
As for Amanda and Quentin, DS is not about happy endings and nice people (like Beth) triumphing in the end.... and Q choosing to waste his second chance ast life obsessing on Amanda, someone he has zero in common with, has nothing to talk about with, with whom he just has a vague but overpowering romantic feeling, is entirely in keeping with the unfair world of DS. Partly, Amanda and Q get together to drive Beth over the edge, literally. Q does not appreciate those who care about him, and Q and Beth going off into the sunset just would not happen. If Q survives, Beth can't. There has to be tragedy, and Q must cause damage, or he's not Q.
Amanda in the 1969/70 limbo zone is insufferable.
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Excellent analysis, Magnus. [thumbleft] And how quickly I forget about the whole Tim/Trask angle. :-[
And you're really very close to being completely right, Nightfall59 - Amanda bites the dust (literally [ghost_wink]) in Leviathan's Ep #934, which originally aired on 1/22/70, and Quentin doesn't meet Daphne until Summer of '70 Ep #1077, which originally aired on 8/11/70. [ghost_smiley]
As for 1897, I know I'm not alone in wishing it had actually lasted longer than it did, though I can also completely understand why the fans who prefer the present day stories wouldn't feel that way. However, I honestly like both the past and the present stories. Eventually I do miss the present day characters when the stories sift to the past. But at the same time I really enjoy seeing the actors get to play different characters in the past. And with 1897 I can honestly say I never missed the present day characters, probably because it features what is quite possibly the best set of characters (with a few exceptions) of almost any DS storyline - plus the dialogue positively crackles.
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Amanda bites the dust (literally [ghost_wink])
LOL
in Leviathan's Ep #934, which originally aired on 1/22/70,
A date of tremendous repute. [ghost_grin]
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Amanda in the 1969/70 limbo zone is insufferable.
Bimbo zone, did you say? [ghost_grin]
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[laughing4]
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[stfl]
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Amanda really didn't work in 1897, she broke up the pacing of the story with Quentin, Beth and Angelique. I have no doubt with Angelique in the picture Beth could've been driven to the edge and beyond without Amanada around.
I love 1897, and have often thought how the Leviathons would work in that time period.
I have read a fan fic with Barnabas vs the Leviathons in the 1870s which was great but wasn't finished.
Amanda/Olive worked a lot better in the modern day as Quentin's lost other half, another immortal he could've shared eternity with, and a connection to his past.
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i can definitely see the appeal of 1897. and i can understand why it's a favorite time period for many fans...
i enjoy it(although,as i said it went on too long for me)but it's just not "my" dark shadows. my DS is the present. those are my touchstone characters and visually i prefer the aesthetics of the "present time".
that's one of the reasons i'm looking forward to the film so much. i understand that part of it will be set in the 1700's but it's primarily a "present time" piece...meaning 1972. it's about liz and vicki and julia(and,of course barnabas and angelique)and the characters i know and love from the original series. frankly if it was going to be about quentin and magda and petofi or any of the other 1897 characters i wouldn't really care about it that much.
but that's just my personal taste. and great assessment of the situation magnus.
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I have to agree with Mscbryck that Petofi and those of his storyline wouldn't be as interetsing as Barnabas, Angelique etc. It will certainly be interesting to view the early 1970's through Barnabas's eyes.
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I LOVED Count Petofi and his crazy-ass storyline back in the day, and I'm still terribly fond of darling old goo-goo-googly eyes.
It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today. Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.
G.
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It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today. Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.
I've never heard that before. I doubt it's true on this board.
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It's odd to realize how unpopular the storyline is among fans today. Which presumably is why the Petofi Era remains unchronicled in Kathy Resch's Concordances.
I've never heard that before. I doubt it's true on this board.
Among my friends and relatives that era is among our favorites; if not top 2 for sure.
... it looks like Kathy may have updated because there is at least a volume one for 1897.
http://www.morgandawn.com/kathy_resch_darkshadows.htm
I would admit though Amanda is probably my least favorite of that era. Dorcus has her beat!
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I've already said it many times, but it can never be said too often that Petofi is one of my all-time favorite DS characters, mostly because Thayer David played him to such perfection, but also because he was such a unique character. If only he had been brought into the present. But alas...
I would admit though Amanda is probably my least favorite of that era. Dorcus has her beat!
Gail Strickland would no doubt be thrilled to hear that. [ghost_cheesy]
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I agree. Petofi is one of the greatest DS characters, and Thayer David made him so fiendishly clever and so seemingly unbeatable! The 1897 story line isn't my all-time favorite, mainly because it went on for sooooo looooong, but Petofi made it a lot more fun. TD also did a great job playing Quentin during the mind-switch story.
Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.
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Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.
[laughing4] And Tate himself isn't much deeper, either. [wink2]
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Too true! ;)
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TD also did a great job playing Quentin during the mind-switch story.
Compared with Petofi, Amanda Harris is about as deep as the sheet of paper on which Charles Delaware Tate first sketched her.
The Petofi era is my favorite, but they start to lose me when the bodyswap happens. Thayer's great overall, but doesn't he still seem to be playing Petofi when he's supposed to be Quentin? He still has his Petofi "accent" and cadence... and would Quentin lose all his sarcasm and aggression?
I really like the Amanda/Tate situation. I remember the moment when it dawned on me what Amanda really was, and I went "No... NO..." to myself. I'd probably prefer another actor for Tate, but it's a pretty good character and for once, it makes sense that he's blustering and aggressive and unstable. He has a very bizarre life situation to process.
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In one of Luciaphil's summaries, she talks about Tate's ability to create people and inanimate objects. She wonders if he can create houses and landscapes that suddenly appear. And then (and this kills me, as most of her posts do), she says, "What would happen if he abandoned realism (well, chocolate box art anyhow) and ventured into impressionism? Or if he was ahead of his time and delved into abstract expressionism? What would his creations look like then?"
1897 is truly a trip into Weirdsville.
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1897 is truly a trip into Weirdsville.
And that's a good thing. I think about those kinds of questions with Tate. I was wondering where you were, Janet!
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Petofi is a great character ... for 1897...I don't think of him so much for the 1970's. He was so unique. I know not everyone likes Roger Davis but the character of CDT is one interesting fellow IMO. I think his story could do well in the 70's. Just personal preferences I suppose.
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Miss W., your post made me wonder about CDT in the 1970s. It could work--he could be some hipster type living in the East Village before even Soho became hip. A slightly different version of Petofi could work too, I think. He would have to look very unassuming, I think, so that people would constantly underestimate him until he would twist the knife.
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I think Donna's character was created late in the 1987 story to set up the 1970 story, with the CDT / Quentin (aka Grant) story. That's how soaps work..now and then...more than 30 years ago.
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Iget the impression that little of the return to 1969/70 was very planned out.