Dear Fans,

On Friday, I was able to browse a copy of Boze Hadleigh's newish book, Broadway Babylon.  There are a couple of paragraphs devoted to Keith Prentice in the section of the stage and film productions of Boys in the Band. Nothing was said that was new to me, and I do feel obliged to warn potential readers that Mr. Hadleigh's assertions are not always to be taken as gospel (!) truth. 

The 1969 film of Boys in the Band is being released on DVD this November--a bare bones release without any extras, apparently--and there's a rather grainy copy of an original trailer for the movie now on YouTube.  At least a couple of brief Keith Prentice scenes occur in the trailer, for those who have never seen it. Bear in mind that he did this BEFORE he was on DS.  Hadleigh mentions that Prentice went on to work in another soap after the cancellation of DS--I can't recall which one.

In unrelated news, I'm heading off to spend my annual week at a Farm owned by a lovely gay couple who are friends of mine.  I spend a week living in a tent in a field, well off the grid and far away from phones, computers, and all the rest of the so-called modern conveniences.  HEAVEN.

Still, I'll probably think of some favorite DS scene at least once.  Perhaps while I'm skinny dipping in the pond I'll remember Grayson's scene in End of the Road where Stacey Keach digs her out of the sand at the beach and she giggles in her memorable gurgling drawl and exclaims, "Hi there!"  A bit of summer fun from 40 years ago...

cheers!  G.

In season 3 of Forever Knight, they did an episode that was an interesting exploration of the whole HIV/AIDS thing and how it could or could not impact vampires.  I think the episode was called "Fever."

G.

Stuart, is the script for Clothes of Sand your work?  Congratulations, if so!  I'd heard you had written some of the earlier dramas... I have not been able to catch up with the CD series, unfortunately.

cheers!  Steve

They never discussed in the DS scripts whether or not Barnabas had a soul when he was a vampire.  Perhaps the idea of a vampire lacking a soul comes from Miss Rice?  It may exist in some of the old Eastern European folklore collected by "Reverence" Montague Summers back in the 1920s.  Many indigenous or pre-Christian thought systems treat what we would call the "soul" as having three components.  Due to traumas of various kinds (includes being the victim of a hex/curse), part of this tripartite "soul" can be ripped away.  If what remains includes the original physical body imbued with some form of life force, this can behave like someone possessed or like "one of the living dead."  I won't go on because I am getting into off topic waters here.

To me, the way the Angel character was handled on Buffy (from what I saw of it) was very different from how Barnabas was portrayed on DS.  Of course, I'm sure that there was some awareness of Barnabas and DS in the mix on the part of the people who worked on the show.  Has Joss Whedon ever mentioned the series in interviews?

G.

Perhaps I should have said that comparisons, *as a class*, tend towards the invidious.  I was speaking more generally as regards criticism--not specifically stating that 1991 was invariably the loser in a comparison with the 1966 original (even if that IS what I personally think).

I know that having had the pleasure *winces* of seeing the trailer for the remake of The Women (a 1939 classic) yesterday, I can bet dollars to doughnuts that many of the reviewers of the new production will have their nails sharpened with the most lurid "jungle red" (as was said in the original) as they merrily shred the performances of Meg Ryan et al.

G.

Apart from the DVDs, I'm not a collector, so my interest in all of it is purely academic.

If fans purchase the merchandise, even when the quality is crap, there is no incentive for MPI to strive to improve the product. 

G.

Is there some unknown rule that ALL the DS merchandise offered by MPI has to be gutwrenchingly tacky?

They've done a wonderful job with the DVDs, on the whole; now perhaps they should think about "re-branding" (shudder) their merchandising dept.

G.

Just to chime in that I LOVED the re-styling of the sets and look in PT 1970.  Quentin's orange jacket WAS a major faux-pas but did underline the character's emotional instability.  Alexalique's Peter Max dress puts me into a trance on the DVDs!

G.