I get really upset in the "Summer of 1970" storyline when Grayson wears some beautiful, exquisite new things (just love those scarves) and then all of a sudden she's back to wearing that inexpressibly hideous orange tweed horror which they practically made her live in for a certain period of 1968.

I have a theory that that drab sweater-set thing they forced her to live in for much of the Miss Hoffman period in '67 was actually burnt in the studio parking lot by the vengeful actress on a rampage once the action shifted to the Eighteenth Century.  I keep thinking that Lara Parker burned her Cassandra wigs too although even in the Sixties she probably would have needed a toxic waste permit from the City for those.

I always crack up when I remember how a friend of mine and I asked Parker at a convention once how she dealt with all those wigs as Cassandra and she batted her eyelashes and said "Cassandra?  Who was that?  Did I play that?"  I don't think my friend ever quite got over the shock.

G.

Interesting.  On one of my regular DS DVDs there's a short interview (about five or six minutes long, I would guess) with her where she says similar things about Joan, Louis, Thayer and Clarice.  Since the latter two are hardly ever mentioned in the MPI tapes, it was very satisfying to hear her speak so glowingly of them here.

G.

The latest rumors I've been hearing is that commercial marketing of DVDs or Blue Rays or whatever may all become obsolescent in the not too distant future as the industry moves towards a model of having people pay to download stuff from secure sites onto their hard drives (or TIVO loops or whatever).  Since the cost for the download to the owner/proprietor would be more or less nonexistent this is as close to a model of pure profit as one could get.  In some cases limited-issue sets may be marketed as collectibles to a small niche of specialized consumers--look at Time-Life's new release (still impending) of the Man from UNCLE episodes as an example of what this looks like.

It's all enough to make this old Luddite's head spin!

G.

Alexandra Moltke did look ravishing on camera as Victoria, and her understated performance provides a much-needed contrast to the goings-on, particularly as the show went WAY over the top during the 1968 storyline (which I happen to love).

Something Nancy wrote above made me think that for most of the people who worked on the show, their work was their livelihood, and that was something of a bottom line for them; whatever they tried to do artisticially with their work on DS, it was also a regular paycheck in a profession where regular paychecks can be scarce as hen's teeth.  Something in one fan's memoir of the last day of taping in '71 made me realize with a shock that Louis Edmonds was really worried about what he was going to do for a living since the show was ending.  I think the aspect of it that he particularly enjoyed, at the time, was the flexibility to go out and do other projects and yet still be on board as a regular of the show.

But for Alexandra (and to some extent, I think, for Jonathan), there wasn't that hunger, that dependence upon making the career work financially.  Their fellow cast members would hardly have been human if they hadn't somewhat resented or been intimidated by the thought of a person with an independent income choosing to do the show as an experience--and then choosing to walk away from same.

While sorting stuff out of one of my boxes Sunday evening, I came across a line in the Grayson Gazette issue from late Summer 1970 stating that Clarice Blackburn had been offered the role of Mrs J in hoDS, but she had refused it.  I'd always thought that she simply had other work to do during the tight window of the hoDS shooting schedule.  It's interesting to think that from this report, she may simply have chosen not to do the movie.  I think she only appeared in one or two episodes during Leviathan (although one of those shows is a humdinger!).

G.

I wonder whether Alexandra started having bouts of morning sickness?  It just may not have been physically possible for her to continue doing the show if she was having a rough time of it.

Either that or she had had about all she could take of being mauled by Roger Davis and phoned DC and announced "That's it, Bob, you ain't seeing me again, I'll look for my severance in the post."

I actually thought Durkin was competent in the role of VW.  It was just very jarring to have somebody with such a different temperament in the role.  Fans "hated" her interpretation but I think what they "hated" was the fact that she wasn't Alexandra, hardly something she could rightly be blamed for.

I imagine you also missed the two episodes with Carolyn Groves, who I thought had more of the temperament and feel for the character of Vicki.  Again, by the time she appeared on the scene, fans simply threw their hands up in the air.

I remember Lara Parker's comments about Alexandra's final months in the show and how she kept repeating that AM "refused to wear makeup!!!"  She repeated that again at another festival two years later.  For some reason I found that comment VERY entertaining.

G.

Hi MSC, I believe that in Sam Hall's article based on his notes for what would have happened with the storyline in 1971, he mentioned the arrival of Tracy, to be played by Kate Jackson, a new governess for David and presumably Hallie and a new love interest for Quentin.

I hope you have had the chance to read David Henesy's brief essay in one of the recent Pom Press books.  It would be really great if he wrote a book length memoir about his time on DS.  He said in the earlier piece that was published that he has crystal-clear recall of those long-ago days.

G.

Jackie, honey, your new avatar is TOO PERFECT!!!!

Many thanks for the smile you gave me just now!

Best, G.

I just saw an announcement about this on the DVD Talk site!  I had somehow missed the original announcement last week.

Happy shopping to all!

G.