Personally, I believe the Old House could weather a hurricane much better than Collinwood because of it's perceived location.

BTB, glad to hear you weathered the storm unharmed. We share stomping grounds! I've spent many recent years in the Brick/Herbertsville area & Belmar. And Asbury Park as a teen.

I was staying in Belmar before I left the Friday before Sandy to come home to batten down the hatches and in Brick before that. The house I was in that Friday is now uninhabitable. I'm glad I left because I would have been the idiot that didn't heed the mandatory evacuation.

My only personal loss is all my children's pictures from birth to now. I kept the foto's of them and me together so I feel blessed to still have those.

Annie, we're practically neighbors! I live 5 miles south of Wurtsboro. I think you are about an hour west of me!

Gerard, can't wait to read your book. Sounds like Roger will be a hoot, and the premise, something new.

Dom,

I don't know about the Old House weathering the storm better than Collinwood; there still seems to be far too many d@mned trees around the Old House to my liking.  I could just see one of those mammoth babies crashing through the window into Josette's room on the second floor and doing severe damage.  (No doubt, after such a terrible event, Barnabas would have cursed himself, or his father, for not having gotten Ben Stokes and some other men to cut down even more of those big trees around the first Collins home.) 

And, I'm old enough to remember when Brick/Herbertsville was still called Laurelton.  (Incidentally, Eugene O'Neill had a home in the Herbertsville area, way back in the 1920s.)  I think the boardwalk in Belmar was hit severely, as was the boardwalk in nearby Spring Lake (better known as the "Irish Riviera"), although not nearly as bad as was the boardwalk in Seaside Heights.    If you're familiar with Jenkinson's and Martell's pavilions in Point Pleasant Beach, I heard, but haven't yet seem for myself, that Martell's lost its rear bar/dining area, which extends out on a pier into the ocean.

You know, its too bad that Dark Shadows' two ill-fated lovers, Pansy Faye and Carl "The Comedian" Collins (a/k/a "Shecky" Collins), didn't remain in Atlantic City on the New Jersey shore.  If they had, years later, Carl and Pansy (what with Pansy's obvious show business connections) could have been hobnobbing with the heady likes of A.C. Mayor Nucky Thompson and his wife, Gov. (and later President) Woodrow Wilson, Eddie Cantor, Lucky Luciano, Alphonse Capone and Arnold Rothstein.  Oh well, might might have been...  

Annie,

I'm glad to hear that everything is okay up there in Binghamtom.  Yes, Binghamton, N.Y., home of the N.Y. Mets' Double-A affiliate team, the Binghamtom Mets.  Some of those "can't miss" Binghamton baseball prospects should be able to help turn around the woeful N.Y. Met team in about twenty years or so, what with the feckless ownership and stewardship of the ballclub with team CEO Fred Wilpon and his callow son, Jeffrey, calling the shots.  At least, Midnite's beloved L.A. Dodgers have a new owner, who spends money and seems to know what he's doing!    

And, what can I possibly say about political commentator Chris Matthews, after he opined that Hurricane Sandy may have actually helped President Obama to re-election victory in the final days of the 2012 U.S. Presidential election?  

Mr. Matthews, or as I like to refer to him as Chris "Motor Mouth" Matthews, makes Dark Shadows' own Harry Johnson seem like Lyndon Baines Johnson by comparison!  


 

     

Hey gang,

I'm glad that I was able to obtain access to the wonderful Dark Shadows Forums via the facilities of my local library down here on the beautiful New Jersey shore.  My power, not to mention internet access, has been out for the past week due to the "beloved" Hurricane Sandy, and I'll unfortunately be shelling out a grand or two to remove the fallen trees which, thankfully, avoided my house, but not the fence!!!

I finally did get to drive over to nearby Point Pleasant and Spring Lake on the coast and the damage was, indeed, considerable for the people who live along the ocean in those two communities.  We're all thankful that there was not a considerable loss of life here in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

I wonder what effect Hurricane Sandy might have had on the great house of Collinwood, up there in the scenic New England fishing village of Collinsport, Maine?  Collinwood, with its fortress-like granite construction, would have weathered the storm admirably, imo.

And, as for the Old House weathering the hurricane's fury, as Barnabas once related to Vicky, the house would withstand nature's wrath for many centuries to come.

I hope that all my fellow Dark Shadows pals and cousins are doing as well after the terrible onslaught of Hurricane Sandy.

Best regards,

Bob

No doubt, Bob.  But that was, as you note, before Judith's marriage - before she had learned a little bit about whited sepulchres and the suffering they can inflict on people.  I'm not saying Judith ever became a warm, loving earth mother type.  I'm just saying she improved somewhat, over time.

But this topic is about 1970 PT Quentin.

Lydia,

1970 PT Quentin? Maggie should have given that lout the boot just like Mrs. Tiger Woods gave the boot to Tiger, Tipper Gore gave the boot to Al, and  Mary Jo Buttafucco gave the boot to Joey Baby!

PS Contrast the way Judith treated Beth and Dirk Wilkins with the way that Mrs. Stoddard treated Vicky, Mrs. Johnson and even surly, old Matthew Morgan.

I think Patterson was pretty happy with the situation.  Don't forget, if it weren't for the Collinses, the Collinsport PD would probably have had to lay off 90% of its force.  And I have a sneaking suspicion that George sort of liked the constant contact with the rich folks.

Lydia,

Yes, I think that you're right that Sheriff Patterson probably secretly liked to hobnob with the patrician Collinses; in much the same way that Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced: "Bouquet") liked to cultivate the friendships of as many affluent people as she possibly could (much to her perpetually henpecked husband, Richard Bucket's great chagrin). 

Bob

Hey, gang,

Do you think that Sheriff George Patterson and the other members of the Collinsport Police Department ever got tired all of all those seemingly continuous and unending police emergency phone calls from the good folks who lived at Collinwood?

I mean, it seemed as if there was one crisis after another up there on the great house on the hill: [spoiler]Bill Malloy ends up floating on the water beneath the cliffs at Widow's Hill, Matthew Morgan is on the lam somewhere on the Collinwood estate after admitting that he knocked off Mr. Malloy, Vicky disappears while searching for David on the grounds near the Old House, Adam kidnaps (or abducts) Carolyn Stoddard from the drawing room of Collinwood, Donna Friedlander and Bruno Hess each end up being eviscerated in the woods surrounding Collinwood, and David Collins goes missing on the grounds of Collinwood, literally, far too many times to keep track of! [/spoiler]

I wonder if when the phone rang at the Collinsport Police Department, Sheriff Patterson would almost instinctively say to his deputies: "Jesus Christ, guys, I'll bet it's another one of those 'emergency,' 'life-or-death' phone calls from those pain-in-the @ss Collinses!!!"? 

Aside from ALL of the turmoil up at Collinwood, I'll bet that Sheriff Paterson's daily routine in Collinsport was about as "exciting" as Sheriff Andy Taylor's day was in folksy, homey, and unfailingly tranquil Mayberry, North Carolina.   

I'll venture to say that the most "serious" emergency calls Sheriff Patterson would get (aside from the "usual" catastrophes at Collinwood) would be to break up a fight between Buzz Hackett and Joe Haskell at the Blue Whale or to wait in his patrol car, waiting for drivers, to exceed the posted speed limit on Collinsport Bay Drive on Saturday night .  (By the way, I wonder where the Buzz-man actually lived in Collinsport?  Maybe Buzz lived "simply" and "hippie-style" in a root cellar, like the one Adam took Carolyn to at the old, abandoned Taylor's farm?)

In any event, perhaps Sheriff Patterson was merely counting the days until his retirement, so that he could move down to sunny and beautiful Key West, Florida, just like Gregory Hines' and Billy Crystal's Chicago policemen characters planned to do in the film, "Running Scared"? 

Had he been alive, Matthew Morgan as played by Thayer David (or even George Mitchell for that matter) would have been my choice as fantasy pick for Dream Curse participant. (Not that death ever stopped anyone from doing anything on the show.)

Other hilarians would be Mitch Ryan as Burke Devlin and Sam Evans As played by Mark Allen. Too funny!

Dom,

Oh, it would have been the ultimate display of Alpha-Males unleashed if Matthew Morgan, Burke Devlin and Sam Hall (as portrayed by the truly hulking Mark Allen) had experienced the Dream Curse!


In opening that one door and facing that grinning and malicious skull, ol' Matthew would have literally tried to choke the life out of it; Burke would have whacked it with a right cross to where its nose was supposed to be; and the burly, Dick Butkus-like Sam Evans would have tried to grab and tackle that skull like it was an opposing team's running back! 

Bob

PS Mark Allen also portrayed a tough, no-nonsense (what else?) policeman on a couple of episodes of the great "Leave It To Beaver" tv comedy series back during the early 1960s.

telegram the show, and proclaim: "Dark Shadows, I Love You!!!"?

Yes, gang, there are so many possible DS episodes, which may have prompted the great Academy Award-winning actress to express her admiration and fondness for everyone's favorite Gothic soap opera.

Perhaps it was the memorable early DS episode in which Barnabas, in planning to knock-off Dr. Julia Hoffman, has an extremely pesky fly land repeatedly on his face as he discusses Julia's impending fate with Willie Loomis in the Old House drawing room?

Then again, maybe it was one of those truly comedic (intentionally or otherwise) DS episodes, featuring the silver-tongued (and silver-haired) Dr. Eric Lang and his laidback and unfailingly self-effacing lab assistant, Mr. Jeff Clark?  (I'd vote for one these timeless episodes as one that might have inspired Ms. Woodward to telegram Dan Curtis and company with her best wishes.)

Maybe Ms. Woodward particularly admired actor Dennis Patrick's particularly long and florid death scene after his character Paul Stoddard, had been "slimed" by Jeb Hawkes, in Jeb's "superior" Leviathan form, in Prof. Stokes' apartment? 

Can you think of any other DS episodes/moments which may have inspired Ms. Woodward to proclaim her great affection for Dark Shadows?

Bob