Happy birthday indeed to an exceptionally nice guy.

cheers, Gothick

MB, I absolutely agree re Thayer David in NoDS.  I adore Jerry Lacy but Thayer's Rev. Strack characterization is one of his most vivid portrayals!

G.

A few days ago, I read an interview with the guy who plays "Bill" and he expressed interest in doing a sex scene with "Eric Northman" in that show.

I haven't seen it, but if they went THAT route, I just might have to tune in.

Just the fact that Barnabas is in this poll at all is a big surprise, given the fabulous TV vampires who failed to make the, uh, cut (or were edged out by puppets or cartoon characters).  I'm still very surprised at just how much awareness of DS in general there is in the mass media these days.

G.

Since these two compilations clearly show that MPI are looking for new DS product, I wonder whether they would ever consider doing separate "salute to" discs for various DS stars.  I found myself fantasizing about a "Salute to Clarice Blackburn" disc that would include clips from some of her more obscure work in addition to favorite DS clips such as Mrs J telling Davey, "the Sheriff knows that when the whistle blows, it's time for lunch!"

Of course I'm thinking like a fool because the market reality is that only a very small number of people would be interested in a "Salute to Clarice Blackburn" DVD.  But perhaps they'd buy discs in which Lara or KLS host selections of their own clips, perhaps chosen by the fans in a way similar to what Jonathan Frid set up on his own site.

I personally would find this kind of thing more interesting than compilations of specific storylines...

cheer, G.

Love today's snap of Mrs J and Burke.  Those 1966 episodes were some of the best in the series, and it's always a delight to see Clarice here.

Thanks,

G.

Dear God!  Wanda Paisley.  Supernatural horror on DS at its finest.

The wig on that skull is truly priceless...

G.

Dear Fans,

back from a lovely weekend awash in vivid fall colors up in Ontario--and who greets me upon my return but none other than Carlotta Drake at her most fervently FIERCE.  If I recall correctly, the gown Grayson wears in this scene really flatters her complexion, which I believe in somebody's taxonomy of physical "types" is actually described as "autumn."

Really special to be greeted by the sight of my special DS Goddess upon my return here!  I love the snap of Roger-the-Zombie, which has a distinctly Ed Wood look to it, too.

cheers, G.

Hi Philippe,

that's an interesting speculation!  I seem to recall that back in the Sixties, Barnabas' look was often described as vaguely "Byronic," and I believe that Ruthven himself was modeled upon Lord Byron, with whom Dr. Polidori had a very complicated relationship (rather similar to Count Dracula having been modeled upon Bram Stoker's sometime employer, 1890s stage idol Henry Irving).

From very vague memories of reading The Vampyre back when I was in my teens (and you do realize we're going back to the Early Bronze Age here, so it was a loooonnngggg time ago), Ruthven is somewhat similar to the original 1967 characterization of Barnabas--unscrupulous, with a pronounced vicious streak, yet strangely attractive and undeniably erotic--perhaps it was in this sense that the critic you cite thought of Ruthven as "sympathetic."

My feeling is that there were variouis forerunners to Barnabas but the character brought these dispersed elements together in a new way.  In the Universal 1940s thriller, House of Dracula, the Count arrives at the home of an Eric Lang-like scientist claiming that he is seeking a cure for his "affliction" (but I don't think that word is used).  The medical explanation given for vampirism in the movie is similar to Dr. Hoffman's theory about a "destructive blood cell" which leads to disastrous consequences for the main mad-doctor protagonist in "House of Dracula."

The scenario of the vampire seeking a cure develops in a very different way in the 1940s film from how it played out on DS, but I do think of that movie as being influential in how Dr. Hoffman's storyline was plotted, and subsequent developments that grew out of that.  In the first script in which "he" was supposed to appear, Hoffman is described as an austere white-haired scientist in his early sixties, similar to the scientist character in HoD.

G.