Just recently bought the first of the "DS Beginnings" dvd sets - and am loving it!   It's so much more in depth characterwise than the later plot driven vamp storylines - though I love those too.

Elizabeth is just the best early in the series, IMHO - I'm so into her character right now - there's just so many layers to her, and Joan Bennett is an amazing actress - she does so much with her face and her body language. You can really feel the pain and repression that dear Liz was living with.  I seem to remember Alexandra Moltke saying in some interview that it was wonderful working with JB and that she learned a lot watching her.  That must've been especially rewarding for AM in those early days when the Liz character was so much more fully fleshed.

And Vicki, well, she's like a different person to how she was later on.  She's way more spunky and smart, and isn't really afraid to speak her mind; she's scared of Roger, but she'll stand up to him - something she didn't really do with, say Abigail later on in the show.  And early days Vicki actually can figure out what's going happening, she's way more perceptive.  You can see her putting two and two together and actually getting four, rather than just sitting around saying "I don't understand" all the time.  Why oh why did the writers make her such a dumb*ss later? It can't have been just to make her a more conventional heroine - they must've needed to have a character that was so dense that she'd never figure out what Barnabas was. 

In these early episodes there's also a warmth to Vicki that I don't get from her later on, except for rarely, like with Sarah, or when she tried to save Barnabas from the dream curse.

You know, it never occurred to me that Charity/Pansy might be lying to Quentin/Petofi because she knew he was evil, but that's a good take on it.

I just always figured either a) Charity/Pansy knew it was the same person, but was being technical about it - e.g. she'd never seen this man before, because previously he wasn't human, or that 2) She really didn't know it was the same guy - she "saw" Barnabas differently because he wasn't a vampire. 

I haven't been inside too many really old Northern federal-style mansions, but have had the chance to check out homes built at a similar time in D.C., New Orleans, Charleston and Savannah.  Yes, very often, the kitchens were housed in a separate building (I believe they wanted to reduce the risk of a fire damaging the main house), and often the servant's quarters were located in the kitchen and coach house buildings.  And the rooms were smaller than you'd imagine for a mansion.

FWIW, I always got the impression that Vicki and Angelique's rooms were in the third floor/attic area, but even so, twelve bedrooms is a lot for a house that didn't look so big to begin with.  Maybe the Old House is like Dr. Who's tardis - bigger on the inside than it is from the outside!  After all, just think of how huge the cellar was - it must've had at least seven or eight rooms.

Gerard, can you enlighten us further with stories about your haunted former place of employment?

Well, I'm not sure that there was a reluctant, self-loathing vampire before Barnabas, at least onscreen.  And I also don't remember seeing a psychiatrist/haematologist/perpetual houseguest who nurses an unrequited love for a vampire before Julia. 

Whoa - it really does sound as if Dark Shadows plundered the plot of this particular episode of Twilight Zone. 

It occurs to me that this TZ story was also mirrored in Thomas Tryon's 1976 novella "Fedora" (I believe a film was also made of it), in which a perpetually young Hollywood actress is revealed to have been a mother/daughter tag team with the mother appearing in the 1930's movies and the daughter in the 1950's 'comeback' films.

I'm sure if DS had stayed around long enough, they'd have found a way to borrow that plot in it's entirety as well! 

Emerald Rose -

Please accept my sincere sympathy for your loss.  How lucky you and your mom were to have had the close relationship you described.  May you find comfort in your sweetest memories of her.

Love,

Alix (Cassandra Blair)

Thanks for the birthday wishes, guys!  It was a great day - my husband took me out for a wonderful dinner, and I even got a DS dvd set as a present!

Let's see...watching Dark Shadows as a kid prompted my love of period drama - seriously if it's a costume drama I'm there!   Also, I'm sure DS influenced my curiosity about gothic stories and the supernatural.  ever since I first discovered the show, I've enoyed reading about ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in the night, particularly if they're set in an old house with some of the other gothic trappings.  Lastly, I sometimes dabble in writing fiction - with some of the above elements in play.

Oh, and my love of Dark Shadows has also made me poorer - from buying the DVDs, and it's made my husband a more tolerant man - he has to put up with watching DS with me from time to time!