Just love tonight's two-shot of Hoffman and Alexis.  Another of those fabulous moments!

I was thinking about the early 1970s DS films and how much of what *made* them seem like part of the canon had a great deal to do with the performances of particular actors (and, at least in the first one, Robert Cobert's music).  Whether it be Grayson, Jonathan, Nancy, Joan, Louis, Thayer, John K, or Lara in the lead roles, or having the fabuous Humbet Allen Astredo or Diana Millay show up in a supporting role--the aesthetics of their performances helped connect us to the atmosphere of the series even when the films went off the deep end with some of DC's craziness.

G.

Dear Doctor and K9,

that's very interesting about that note regarding episode 584.  I think that's the one where Maggie has a flashback from her time when Julia brought her to the Mausoleum in the hopes of stimulating her memory in the preceding year.  Fascinating to think that the "Dress Rehearsal" wound up being taped as the day's episode. I wonder how often they wound up doing that.

Given how short the rehearsal times were, I still think it's amazing--and a testimony to the incredible talent involved--that the shows wound up as incredibly good as they so often did.

Regarding Bob Costello's signature, a letter from Costello to a fan might have been included in this book that came out many years ago of letters various fans had received from DS cast members.  Some crew members, such as Ramse Mostoller and Sy Tomashoff, were also included.  I remember more than one crew member mentioning having to accommodate Dan Curtis's shall we say "unique" working style as the main difficulty in working on the series.

G.

Just a line to mark the occasion forty years ago of the last episode of Dark Shadows.  I literally could not believe the series was going off the air and actually tuned in the following Monday at 4 p.m. to see if the familiar crashing surf and music that seemed like a scream turned into a melody would blast across the airwaves with more stories from our beloved Collinwood.  But alas, it was gone for good, and instead that following Monday, April 5, 1971, we got the annoyingly chirpy and misplaced intro to Password (a popular game show moved into the DS slot by the ABC suits).

One of the most frustrating things about the final weeks of the series was that every day, I would tune in wondering if they were going to switch away from Parallel Time 1841 and show what was happening with Barnabas, Julia, and the family in our own time band of 1971.  But they never did.  Evidently I wasn't the only one who wanted to know how the story of the people we knew and loved best in our own time at the Great House continued; a few months after the show went off the air, Sam Hall's article offering a possible wrap-up of the various "present day" storylines was published in TV Guide.

Happy memories to all,

G.

My heartfelt congratulations to my darling Niece and her Snarling Darling for their well-deserved award!  You show once again how it's really done.  Most Excellent!

And a big shout-out to Big Finish for their award.  I have been meaning to pick up that disc but haven't done so yet.

G.

Wouldn't that be cool to have both Frid and Selby do cameos in the movie.  Perhaps they could be seen on a bench together swapping tales of the horrors of days of old in Collinsport.

Ah, we can dream...

G.

Another gorgeous shot of Grayson today.  That outfit seems to have been the one new ensemble that Julia was given to wear--the outfit she wears in a later crucial scene with Barnabas, accessorised by a beautiful scarf, may have been new as well,I'm not sure.  This vest themed ensemble is absolutely cutting-edge Seventies and a complete departure from the other wardrobe she had on the series.I really like her hair in this scene, too; it's much more under control than is the case of much of the rest of the movie.

G.

Gotta love the oh-so-dramatic two shot of Kendrick and Aunt Julia at a climactic moment in the PT 1841 storyline in tonight's slide show!  It could be an especially fraught evening at the Lee Strasberg Actor's Studio.  The contrast in their expressions is really priceless.

I don't follow all the caption stuff in the games section, but I could imagine the fans who are into that concocting some really wild lines for this shot!

Great work again, MB!

G.

Didn't Benshoff write the Monsters in the Closet book some years ago about fandoms and subcultures?  He also wrote an article that was in a volume on the gay element within DS fandom.  This was the piece that included a few infamous paragraphs about Dr. Julia Hoffman "as a drag queen."

Thanks for letting us know about this book, Doctor & K9.  It sounds potentially interesting.

G.