This is too funny - we both had the same idea for Julia (Susan Sarandon) and Carolyn (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Although technically Carolyn was only 18 when DS debuted, but Nancy Barrett had to be older than that.

I could also see Kathleen Turner as Julia, though, and thought Dame Judi Dench would be a natural as Elizabeth. I like TVGuide.com's idea of using Angelina Jolie as Angelique. She'd be perfect I think. Louise Fletcher is a brilliant idea for Mrs. Johnson!

My idea for Victoria is Anne Hathaway, I think she'd be a natural.

Just curious, outside of this board and the AOL news, has anyone seen much mention of Dan's passing in the general media. As of this morning, almost 9:00 am ET, its not on the IMDB, and was not on last evening's "Entertainment Tonight" or ABC news. I did not hear it mentioned on any radio news coming to work today. Has anyone noted it trickling out to the media?

It was on TVGuide.com today in the Entertainment News, which is where I first learned of it. I gasped aloud, I had no idea. How very sad.

ProfStokes - thank you so much for your very generous account of the weekend activities. I am one of those people who simply cannot afford the trip but thanks to your time and generosity I almost feel as if I had been there. Maybe some day

Any chance you'll publish the lyrics to your "Mickey" parody? I'd love to read them!!

Thanks again.

for starters, victoria was not just a passive observer but an active participant in the events of that year, barnabas knew her.so why didn't he recognize her when he arrived in 1967?when phyllis wick first appears at the 67 seance she was on her way to collinwood for the first time(in 95).but when time returns to the present barnabas knows her.how could he if she never arrived at collinwood in 1795?

Essentially, he suggests that when Vicki returned to the present, she was in another band of time than the one she had left; therefore, Barnabas would not have recognized Vicki when he emerged from his coffin because all of that took place in the Phyllis Wick timeline (erm, maybe it would be easier if you just saw the diagrams, lol.)

Actually, what I suggested is that the only thing that makes sense is that Vicki created an alternate timeline by her travel to 1795 (in which she takes Phyllis Wick's place), but then returned to her own timeline, which is why Barnabas does not remember her as being Sarah's governess in 1795, being hanged as a witch, trying to free her, etc. He still remembers the original timeline in which those things happened to Phyllis Wick. The diagrams, which Prof. Stokes has so kindly referenced, do help to illustrate the concept.

I just finished watching ep 345, where Barnabas tells Julia the story of Josette at the top of Widow's Hill.  It's markedly different than what plays out in the 1795 Flashback.  Barnabas tells Julia that his first meeting with Josette was when she came to live at Collinwood as the young new wife of his middle aged Uncle Jeremiah, and how with the passage of years grew discontented with being married to a much older man.  Obviously, this played out very differently in the Flashback.  How many differing versions of Josette's story are there?

Part of the problem w/1795 is the divergence the writers took from established history by necessity. Originally, the timeline for the deaths of Josette, Naomi and Barnabas were to have taken place in the 1820's. We can only speculate why these events were pushed back to 1795 (the availability of period costumes, for instance). Nor was Jeremiah, the central ancestral figure, supposed to have died during these events - he and Josette were supposed to be Elizabeth's and Roger's great grandparents. Collinwood wasn't supposed to have been built until 1830. Jeremiah was supposed to be in the same age group as his brother Joshua, not the same age as Barnabas.

The decision to kill off Jeremiah was probably dictated by Anthony George's desire to leave the show and had perhaps the biggest impact on changing the established history. I would have preferred to see the part recast, thus salvaging an important historical plot point.

While 1795 is my favorite story line I'm not blind to its faults. The pacing is decidely off, again perhaps necessitated by Anthony George's unexpected departure. I feel it should have culminated in Josette's death (and may have been originally intended so); instead she's killed off about half way through and the whole Nathan/Millicent storyline seems like a lot of tack-on at the end rather than being interwoven with the rest of the period.

I think what makes it my favorite, aside from the time travel element, is that it represents a time when the actors were given challenging roles to play and acted the heck out of it, and it was during a time when the writing was still sharp and the dialogue still interesting and creative.

The introduction of Mrs. Johnson was hilarious. We first met her in the diner after Bill Malloy was killed, and she ordered coffee from Maggie. Maggie tried to talk her into ordering a sandwhich and Mrs. Johnson went on and on about the mayonnaise being fresh; she always made her own fresh mayonnaise, Maggie tried to assure her that the mayonnaise was fresh. Well eventually Maggie brought out the sandwhich - Mrs. Johnson took one bit out of it, made a face and put it down.

Also the scene where Elizabeth interviews Mrs. Johnson for the housekeeper job was equally funny. It seemed more like Mrs. Johnson was interviewing Elizabeth than the other way around.

However, one of my all-time classic favorite humorous scenes was between Roger and Elizabeth, who went to inspect the room in the East wing where Vicki had been locked up by David (and seen the ghost of Bill Malloy). The siblings found seaweed on the floor where Vicki claimed to have seen a ghost. In uncharacteristic frankness, one turned to the other and point blank asked if they'd ever seen a  ghost in their lives. The reaction was basically "I haven't if you haven't." They snapped right back into their usual state of denial and walked out of the room.

The problem might not be focus groups themselves but rather what kind of audience the network is trying to "sell" the show to. We all know the WB is a network geared towards young people, just as "WE" and "Lifetime" are networks geared towards women, "Spike TV" is geared towards men, etc. So my fear would be that a focus group for the WB would consist entirely of teenagers and their responses would guide the network to make the show more teen-worthy.

The thing about all these specialized cable stations popping up though is that it does allow for more "niche" programming. I would think the Sci Fi channel is a more likely home for Dark Shadows, or the proposed Horror Channel I keep hearing about if they did original programming. In those instances the focus groups would consist of Sci Fi and/or horror fans of all ages, not just young people, whereas my original concern about a WB version of Dark Shadows remains the same. I'm not sure it's the right fit or what the WB might do to it to make it the right fit.

I think most DS fans are in agreement that we don't want a kiddie version of DS.

Actually, there is a DS drinking game.  It can be found here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~thinker/dsdrink.html

The most obvious thing that's missing from this list is "If you hear someone coughing, sneezing, running or otherwise moving around off camera."

Vlad - one thing was made very clear by the writers: Angelique  received her powers from The Devil himself, and she herself said as much in one of her incantations. In regards to her various abilities, naturally they were storyline driven, but there does seem to be a power progression as the series wore on. It seems that every time she was "destroyed" and, presumably, returned to the depths of Hell, she managed to convince her  Master to return her to the world of the living to do his bidding. Each of her resurrections may have given her additional power.

She does seem to be "immortal" in the sense that no matter how many times she is destroyed, her soul remains intact and  can potentially return to earth once more.  On the other hand, I tend to think of an "immortal" as someone who cannot die, which does not describe Angelique, for she died many times.