I had the chance to see syndie prints of nearly all the GFU episodes last year, and I'd say the series is good fun, though very uneven.  Some of the stories are so outrageously campy that even I wind up shaking my head.  Margaret Leighton's episode which includes a matter transmitter device I believe (a favorite Sixties conceit) and the show with Peggy Lee and Noel Harrison trading burlesque-style double-entendres while Powers is duking it out in the desert opposite Ruth Roman are both classics of their kind (and a very strange "kind" it is). Karloff is superb as Mother Muffin--they brought in Robert Vaughn's Napoleon Solo character for that one. 

Oh, Yvonne de Carlo is in a particularly bizarre episode, too.  Fun stuff.

G.

lol @ UncleRoger!

G.

I'm pretty sure Pennock was naked in a couple of scenes as well, but because of how it's filmed, you don't get to see much (if I'm remembering correctly).

There is this one scene that I found really compelling... it involves an actress telling a long story.  It feels very late Sixties avant-garde NY stage, to me at least...

G.

Wow, Midnite.  That's one hell of a new avatar for Mr. Nicky!  Most Excellent!

"And then I shall touch you ... I puh-ROMISED you that!"

How can Lara Parker not remember her work as Cassandra??? It WAS her finest hour!

G.

Dear Gawd, the Vampire Van.  We had that one.  I think my sister helped me with the kit because she was much more used to model-building than I was--either that, or our grandfather helped us--I really can't remember.

Somebody finally put a vampire van of sorts into a movie in the early Seventies--Deathmaster with Robert Quarry as a crazed vampire hippie guru.  Far less stylish than the one in the model kit.

G.

Thanks, Michael, for that interesting report.  I agree with you about the future of the Festival in its present format.  MB had a link to a Festival post from 2003 or 2004 and I had forgotten that there was talk of ceasing the Festivals at that point.

My prediction is that *if* Depp Shadows takes off (which is a big *if* given how royally Conan and Fright Night just flopped at the box office), THAT will become the new focus of any convention or fannish activity.  People who are into the "original series" (or 1991, etc.) will become a sideline to the main event around the Depp series and its paraphernalia--action figures, video games, etc. 

It is truly fascinating to me that the original series continues to garner new fans in their 20s and 30s.  If the series were made available on one of the online channels such as hulu, think of how even more widespread the fandom would become.

But it will all seem like very small potatoes if the Depp series really takes off.

I liked how Alex, in one of her interviews for one of the MPI releases (it may have been way back in the early 1990s for the 25th anniversary) was musing about the 50th anniversary and said something like--maybe the reunion will take place via seance!  I always thought that was a fitting envoi to the phenomenon of original DS fandom.

G.

Is there a website that tells the original airdates of the episodes they are running?

If ANYBODY out there has or gets hold of copies of Grayson's episodes, please PM me through this site.

Thanks

Gothick

Many thanks, Claude North, for those astute and delightfully witty comments.  How sad that so many fans rushed to leave as the rare occasion to view "The Crucible" was offered to them.  Makes one think of a New Testament quote, but I'll spare you.  At least in this instance they were being rude to a videotape.  I still remember how painful the behavior of fans was years ago when David Selby and his acting partner presented the play Selby had written live on stage.  Imagine getting to see a play of this calibre practically for free given the low prices charged by the Festival committee for Registration.  It wouldn't have been so bad if fans had simply left, but they kept going in and out throughout what was a thoughtful, sensitive, beautifully crafted performance. 

Interesting to see that the Brooklyn Eagle in their blurb on the series plot has Barn "awakening" in 1972--the correct year for Depp Shadows, but not for the original series... which was well off the air by '72...

G.