About one week prior to the start of 1795, Julia tells Elizabeth that she will be leaving Collinwood in about one week, her work almost done.

Does anyone know if they were planning to write her off the show or just have her live elsewhere?

With 1795 coming up, it seemed they were trying to tie up the loose end of her still living at Collinwood once the show returned from 1795, and they apparently forgot all about it when 1795 ended.

I read in an interview with Art Wallce in a publication from the 1980's (I think the Dark Shadows Files) in which he claimed to have created Barnabas Collins himself.  I always thought that he was long gone by this time.

Anyone have any information on this?

What are your opinions on this mini flashback where Barnabas goes back to 1796 to save Vicky from the gallows?

I thought they could have done without this and either write out Vicky and Jeff leaving town or just have her fade off with Peters ghost.

1795 was such a great storyline, they never should have changed the ending (I will not even get into the second return with Barnabas and Kitty).

I have read posts stating that the fans demanded that an explanation be given as to what happened to Vicky and they interrupted the Quentin story to put together the Vicky storyline.  I just don't find that logical given the fact that by the time that Betsy Durkin's VW went off with Peter's ghost aired on TV, that viwers had enough time to write in or call in to get an explanation for Vicky to air so fast.

By the time of the filming of this episode, the writers must have had the 1796 return already written as there are about 10 shows apart from Vickys vanishing to Barnabas telling Julia the story of the his last night in 1796.

Tom Lenk (Andrew on "Buffy" and "Angel") would make the perfect Willie Loomis in the WB DS.

Here is info on him:

Tom Lenk images

[spoiler]Unfortunately we never got to see how 1897 set up following the conclusion of the 1840 story with Edith and Gabriel now dead.

I think the ramnifications hit 1897 much more then the present time as it is only two generations later.

IMHO...Quentin I and Daphne most likely never returned and neither did Desmonf & Leticia.  They wouldn't want the memories of what happened to them constantly around them.

Perhaps this led to a more placid time with the parents of Judith, Edward, Quentin, and Carl now living past the time they originally died and raising the children themselves.

The personalities of the children may have also changed with their parents raising them instead of their grandmother Edith.  Quentin II may never have become the lout he was and never had a werewolf curse placed upon him, so there is never any ghost for David and Amy to find in 1969.

Barnabas & Julia now never went to 1897 as Quentin II may have lived a normal life with Jenny and died a normal death.  Quentin II's son may have moved away when he got older and never came back, raising a family elsewhere.   Lenore still married and had a daughter who married a man named Jennings.

The Quentin in the present time is now the real grandson of Quentin II now living with the family.  He may have arrived at Collinwood in 1970 at the time of the Leviatian's.

What we have here is following the Adam storyline, there is a year where there was nothing happening at Collinwood until somehow the Leviathan's got hold of Barnabas in November 1969 and sent him to their dimension making it appear it is really 1796.[/spoiler]

I found this info on him from the Internet Movie Data Base and it seemed so unusual I thought I would share it here:

He left a clause in his will stating that his sons could not collect his money until they were in their 80s.

He had six sons, three are still alive and one daughter.

It would have been simpler for Barnabas to use the staircase as opposed to the I Ching to get to 1840 and just leave the 1840 Barnabas untouched in the chained coffin.