Watching the early Barnabas episodes , it surprised me that they would announce the change from the first Dr. Woodard (Richard Woods) to the second Dr. Woodard (Robert Gerringer).  Woods appeared in only 2 episodes somewhat apart from each other and the audience wouldnt have been that identified with him in such a small role at that time to be informed.  The first time I saw DS, I didn't remember the first Dr. Woodard at all.

When they recast Lt. Riley during the Laura story, there was no annoucement, even though the change occured the very next day.  I would think in that case, there should have been some announcement in the actor change.  The second actor was better, the first was too New York sounding.

The same for Harry Johnson.  Craig Slocum had the role for several months and was prominently featured for a while.  Yet there was no mention made of the new actor (Edwrad Marshall) replacing CS during the opening credits he first took the role over in.

Matthew Morgans recast didn't get announced but Sam Evan's did.

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.

I know that the actors on DS did go on strike at first like the actors on the other soaps did, but Dan Curtis got scared that if DS was off the air too long, the series would lose its audience, so he persuaded the actors to come back.  Gerringer refused and was fired.

If Gerringer as Woodard was doing the investigating and revealing of Barnabas as a vampire and he called him a "monster" to Julia while then being killed by Barnabas, that would not have made a very good impression on the viewers.  The Peter Turgeon Woodard being killed by Barnabas was bad enough as said earlier here.  For 1967, when the bad guys always got their comeuppance, this must have been a shock to viewers.

When I watched this story the first time, I kind of felt like being sent adrift alone once Burke and Woodard were gone.  Here we have the bad guy left to do whatever he wants while the heros were all gone.  The writers seemed to not really know what direction to take for the next month and the show started to slow to a crawl just before 1795 came around.

Joey

Ron Sproat once stated that Barnabas' origin was to be originally set up as told through ghosts and books instead of a time travel story.

This would have let the writers keep what had been said about Barnabas' origins without anything being compressed into 5 months and going against continuity.  The story would have taken place over years and the characters of the 18th century Collins' would be seen at various stages of their life.  I doubt they would have had a with trial though.  It would have also been able to keep with the 1830's as being Barnabas' first time as a vampire as opposed to 1795.

What do you think the story would have been like if they did go this route?

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

During her witch trial, Vicky did realize that Angelique was the real witch.

Anthony George had a six month contract, which expired about one month into 1795 and chose to leave the show.  I think the writers were stuck with this in the story and had to kill off Jeremiah and use another actor as the ghost in bandages.  They should have recast Jeremiah Collins, it would have made it easier. 

PT Julia and Justin could be the children of Jeremiah Collins.  Morgan could have existed in RT as a son to Daniel and Harriet who died in childbirth or by accident.