Hi A. C., Welcome to the Boards!  You'll find plenty of fans of the Jason storyline here.  Several of us rate it as among the very best of the entire series.

I agree that a lot of the Jason shows are more compelling than the Barnabas/Maggie kidnapping shows, and I'll give you my personal reason why.  There was more scope IMO for dramatic tension between Jason and Liz, and Jason and the rest of the crew at the Big House, with the way Jason's scheme played out.  Joan and Dennis had some tremendous confrontations and the material required Jason to be quite devious and think his way out of the various attempts by Liz to sabotage his plans.  It felt as if the two were more evenly matched, and there was also the material from the responses by Carolyn, Roger, Vicki et al to the unfolding situation.  With Barnabas, Maggie and Willie it was pretty much the three of them engaged in a war of nerves in which Barnabas' supernatural powers kept trumping the situation.  There was certainly some fine writing AND thesping in this story but a lot of it also felt repetitive and less dynamic, over all, than the Jason scenario.

Another factor to consider is the shift in Burke's role during this time and the eventual [spoiler]writing Burke out of the show altogether.  Presumably this was done because the writers felt that if Burke remained on the scene, he would sooner or later, in any remotely plausible scenario, have learned Barnabas' secret.  Perhaps DC was also thinking of having a stronger romantic relationship between Barnabas and Vicki than was eventually the case--something more along the lines of the 1991 story.  For this to happen, Burke had to go.  It's significant that by the time Burke was written out, in, what October of '67?, it was obvious to all that Barnabas was here to stay.[/spoiler]

Just some thoughts.  Again, welcome!

G.

In looking at the ratings between the Fall of 1969 and the Spring of 1971, folks have to take into consideration the fact that several ABC affiliates were either dropping DS from their afternoon schedules or moving it to evening timeslots during this period.

I was thrilled when I discovered during the last month or so that channel 7 in Washington D. C. (I believe) was running it around 11 p.m. every evening.  Before the arrival of the videotapes at the end of the 1980s, this was the only time in my life that I was able to watch some of the episodes twice!  Channel 13 in Baltimore was still running it in the afternoons until the very end.

I don't think D. C. "sabotaged" the show.  I do think he had had enough and the need to go into production with Night of Dark Shadows gave him the perfect excuse to end the series.  I do wish they had had the presence of mind to provide a solution to the Stella Young mystery...

G.

"I was a very nervous person on that show..." Priceless!

I was surprised to see David Jay ("Leviathan Boy") come up and give JF a hug at the very end.  Do we know whether he ever attended another DS event after this?

G.

Darren, I've never seen They Saved Hitler's Brain, but I think it now qualifies as must viewing, thanks to that hysterical still!  Thanks so much for sharing it!

Penny Dreadful, oh how I wish you could talk Zack into doing it! Especially if Judith Zack were given some of the dialogue of our own beloved Judith Collins!

cheers, G.

Thanks for that correction, Mark.  I was actually thinking of "The Haunter of the Dark."  I realized last year while looking at a Lovecraft anthology given to me by a friend some years ago that I had NEVER READ that tale, so I promptly sat down and read it.  I absolutely adored it so you would think I would have been able to remember the title!  Love the notion of the Shining Trapezehedron which seems to have been "borrowed" into the Buffyverse, as well...  (I had to find the proper title of this tale by running a google on Shining Trapezehedron.  Yes, I could remember that unwieldly phrase, but not the title of the story.  My mind is an odd place to live.)

As for that other incident, [spoiler]I know it's mega-naff but I like to imagine that clever Julia had designed a cross that was friendly to Barn but repelled all other vampires![/spoiler]

Cheers, G.

I thought there was a slashy component (no doubt this existed only in my own twisted mind) in the scenes between the original Reverend Trask and Nathan Forbes that were featured in the slideshows a couple of days ago.

Between Trask's HEAVY eyeliner and his sweaty-palmed "enthusiasm," and the Bad Lieutenant's lecherous swagger, I really was ready to see Trask get down on his knees for my OWN idea of "that old time religion" and a little "divine" service (um, not so little when you realize what was inside those "vulgar" trousers).

Perhaps the scene could have played to Dusty Springfield's recording of "Just a little lovin', early in the mornin', beats a cuppa coffee for startin' out the day..." Oh, my bad, Dust did not record that song till the 1968 Atlantic "Dusty in Memphis" sessions.

cheers, G.

I'm very sorry to hear about his fall.  Glad to hear he is healing, though.  The back can be a very troublesome area, once anything goes wrong; so, if he is already feeling in less pain, that's a very positive sign.

I am sure Sam must have been QUITE startled when it happened--maybe even more startled than JF was himself!

Best wishes,

Steve