My mom's name is Catherine Elizabeth (two hits there), and in college I knew a girl called "Angelique."  Yes, she was named after the character on Dark Shadows, and yes, she was a total bee-yatch!

Oh, and my real middle name is Caroline (close), but no 'gar. 

I've wracked my brain and can't come up with any other DS names among my family or friends.  Well, I knew a Vikki a few years back, and she actually reminded me of Joanna Going a little bit.  She said her father named her after Vikki Carr - so her name wasn't really Victoria.

Although my vote indicates I became a fan because of the '91 revival, my fandom is fairly ambiguous.  I was very young when the original series aired (about 7 or 8 when it ended), but watched it on the sneak a few times and was rewarded with having the sh*t scared out of me!    Perhaps this early viewing helped inform my lifelong love of gothic horror.

Anyway, I can't remember if I discovered the MPI videos of Dark Shadows before or after I watched the 1990 made-for-television movie that kicked off the revival series.  Even though I watched all of the revival, and it helped give me the basic story, it was the original series that really got to me - there was just something so unique and wonderful about it.  My roomie at the time was captivated too - we watched all the videos (10 to 15) the rental place had.  Somehow or other we never figured out we could purchase tapes of the show direct from MPI.

I didn't see Dark Shadows again until '99 during the Sci-Fi run - this is when I really got hooked, made my own tapes, starting buying dvds when they became available.  Now DS is one of my hobbies, I guess.  

I would LOVE to see a remake, but it would have to be something different.  1991 was already a rehash, and though it was well cast (for the most part), and had good production values (again, for the most part), something was missing.  That something, IMO, was originality.  I would love to see a new take on the story - keep it Gothic, keep it the story of the core Collins family, but show me a different approach!

Well, I voted for Angelique's muffled evil-little-girl giggles, and let me tell you there's a woman with whom I work whose laugh sounds an awful lot like Angelique's.  Sometimes I'll be hard at work on a report, and I hear her crack up in a distant cubicle: it's startling, and sometimes sets me to wondering if something wicked this way comes. 

That said, I hafta agree with Gothick - love Nicky Blair's guffaws when he gives Cassangelique his version of a manicure!

Glad to see this topic - a good friend of mine gave me the DVDs of the revival series for Christmas and my husband and I recently watched the whole thing - one episode every Sunday night.  Both of us enjoyed it so much.  It gave my husband a better idea of what the overarching storyline is for the original series, and I think he's a bit more likely to watch the older show with me now!

The biggest disappointment of the show for both of us I think, was the constant day for night shots that I guess weren't correctly remastered for the dvd release.  You could really see that California sunshine during many scenes that were supposed to be happening at night.  Just killed the Gothic mood.  And my husband remarked that since they were obviously using the Greystone Mansion for both Collinwood and the Old House, it was sometimes difficult for him to tell where the heck the action was supposed to be taking place.

On to the actors!

I thought Jim Fyfe as Willie was a little overdone, but he was lots of fun - though John Karlen will always be my fave!  Jim was also good as Ben Loomis in 1790, and I thought brought some pathos to both roles.

Likewise, Lysette Anthony was over the top as Angelique, but in this case I didn't enjoy her very much.  I know for lots of DS fans there is nothing to like about Lara Parker's Angelique, but I've always found her amusing and just riveting to watch.  Despite her smoldering sensuality (which was on the plus side in my book) Lysette was kind of one-note (to me) in her approach to role and I didn't like the character.  Still, hearing that she would have been Laura is a promising idea.

Agree with those who were loving Julianna McCarthy as Abigail - she was amazing!  And for some reason, she really made me believe that she was a woman of the 18th century, I can't explain it, but she just seemed right.

Joanna Going was particularly lovely and affecting both as Vicki and as Josette, and I really liked how they changed it to Vicki/Josette - that worked well.  Also quite liked the revamping of Maggie's character as a no-better-than-she-should-be village artist/psychic.  It gave the character something special of her own to do.  And if they'd ended up getting to the 1897 storyline, I would have loved to see that actress play Beth.

Have to say, Roger and Carolyn were both rather boring.  Carolyn especially - and it seemed to me as if the actress who played her was, I dunno, maybe high during the filiming of several episodes?

As others have said - though Barbara Steel played Julia as a rather different character than Grayson Hall (way more buttoned-up, icy and controlled), but in either series, this is my favorite character.  IMHO, Steel was as fabulous as Dr. Julia Hoffman in her own way as Grayson was in hers.

Also on the plus side were Michael T. Weiss as Joe (v. sexy), Adrian Paul as Jeremiah, Jean Simmons as both Liz and Naomi, the little guy who played David/Daniel, Stefan Gierasch (sp?) as Joshua, and the gent who played Dr. Woodard. 

My big question is where was Prof. Stokes?  I have to believe they'd have tried to bring this character on in season 2, had they not been cancelled.  Sarah Collins was a more natural actress than the little girl who played in the 60's version, and I thought Roy Thinnes Trask, though very different, was appropriately mad and vicious.

On the minus side, the character of Daphne was pretty stale and one-dimensional, and they didn't do anything with Sam Evans.  Maybe they just didn't have time.

Ben Cross generally looked right as Barnabas, but yeah, there was way too much snarling and mugging at the camera while dressed up in that hideous white make-up.  For some reason, he didn't seem as courtly as Jonathan Frid in the role, but he was a good choice for the role.  He and Joanna Going had good chemistry as a couple, and I loved this twist in the revival -

[spoiler]that when Vicki returned from 1790, she knew Barnabas was a vampire.[/spoiler]

I wonder where they would have gone with that?

You know, I've often wondered about this too.  You'd think they'd have shown Sarah's ghost playing in her room.  Did they ever show any rooms other than Josette's, the drawing room and the cellar in the present day?  I don't recall seeing Barnabas's room either.

And talking of the old house, just how big was it anyway?  When you think of how many people were staying there in the 1790s, there had to be at least nine bedrooms.  It would certainly have been a job of work for poor Willie to restore all of that on his own, while Barnabas slumbered in the cellar.  

Oh, this news is just too sad!!!  I learned about it via a phone call from one of my oldest friends (also a Dark Shadows fan).  Haven't been able to post until just today. 

But whoever said DC lived his life to the fullest - isn't that the true measure of a life well lived?!

My condolences to the Curtis's daughters, and to the legions of fans... 

I can't seem to find the right eps to confirm this on my tapes. but didn't Tom Jennings have two coffins?  I seem to remember there was cheap old-fashioned one (mentioned above) that he had early on; but didn't he have a much more modern 'casket-style' resting place later on, when Barnabas finally destroyed him?