A few evenings back, I treated myself to some 1897 episodes.   Among them was the notorious scene of Minerva visiting Collinwood, jar of damson plum preserves in hand.  I must say, Clarice Blackburn took my breath away in that scene.  She was so incredibly nuanced and wonderful a performer.  After Mrs J, Minerva is my favorite CB role.  Even though she has fewer scenes than did Abigail in 1795, I think Minerva's jealousy makes her more interesting psychologically and allows CB to show more of her range.

One of my regrets about the later years of DS is that they never gave Mrs J another storyline comparable to what she had during the Bill Malloy period.  Clarice is one of my personal favorite actresses on the show, and she's definitely getting a vote in the prenoms for the Emmies from me.

G.

But Jean-Claude, you're so cuddly and cute exactly as you are!

And that's not YOUR drink, Cinderella!

Paul-ette

Cassandra appeared very briefly in issue one of the Gold Key comics.

One of the DS fans did an M. A.thesis on the Dan/"Marilyn" Ross books back in the Eighties and wrote an article about the paperbacks which I read.  (Frankly, I was stunned to think of any academic worthy of the name signing off on such a thing, but since then, we've had cartloads of scholarly books published on the postmodern polsemy of Xena and Gabrielle, etc.).   IIRC, Dan only ever received the script for episode 1 of DS.  In the very first book, the first few pages are fairly close to some of the narrative of episode 1.  I don't think he ever watched the show because he was too busy.  The article mentioned him typing the final chapters of one of the books in the back seat of his station wagon while his wife drove them to the publishers because he was so close to the deadline.

To call them "pulp" fiction would be a kindness.  One of my friends used to read them on the beach, a convenience because they have those big barrels in which you could toss the completed, sand-encrusted paperbacks once you were done.

They're worth having for the cover photos. The early issues of the comics had some nice photos.  Apart from that, I can't imagine anyone wanting to have them around the house.

Some of the other characters did turn up in the Ross books, notably Quentin, of course.  The appearance of the characters was often wildly at variance with how they appeared on the show.  Quentin, I think, spent a lot of the books as a mendicant hippie adopting various outlandish disguises.  Chris Jennings appeared in one book as a cold-blooded, calculating fiend. Angelique showed up as an olive skinned beauty from the West Indies, and Dr. Hoffman had an entertaining cameo in a couple of the very last books.  Dan Ross also got the job of writing up the original screenplay of hoDS in novel form (it included several scenes that were deleted prior to filming), and his depictions of Julia and Professor Stokes were influenced, I think, by his work on that.

G.

There's a fairly short list of the bloopers most DS fans cite when the topic comes up.  Some of the ones that come to mind:

Roger's line about his "incestors" being buried in the Eagle Hill mausoleum
An undertaker arriving at Collinwood and asking to see "Mr. Jonathan."
Jonathan Frid walking through the foyer while the closing credits play, carrying his costume over one shoulder.
A stagehand scuttling out of sight as Barnabas and Angelique carry on a heated conversation in the Secret Room.

There's lots more.  I am convinced that in one episode from 1897, Edward's moustache fell off while he and Quentin were arguing.  I really wish they had left that one in.  There's a definite cut on the tape.

Since you're a fan of Grayson Hall, I hope you've been able to see the "blooper" that went out on a local feed of her and Jerry Lacy starting a scene (in 1967) and being told "cut" by the Director.  And Grayson imperiously demands:  "WHY?" (I believe an important prop was missing for the scene.)

G.

Interesting poll--I missed this one too.

Julia, darling, you've NEVER seen Hoffman???  THIS we must remedy.  And at once!  We MUST!

I personally put the film work (on hoDS and NoDS) in a separate category from the work on the TV series because film requires such a different kind of technique from TV.  I do agree with MB, however, that Carlotta is one of Grayson's best performances.  I also agree with Barbara Steele that she was "excruciatingly good" as Julia in hoDS--just so many marvelous moments.  I die to think of what we missed because of all the cuts.

G.

Oh boy!  Grayson's face in that picture perfectly captures my typical 'tude around "the Holidaze."

Fabulous work, Darling!  You're so good at the Evil Work you do, Evil Woman!

G.

Oh boy!  In that second picture, Tom Jennings looks ready for just what I have in mind for winding up the Old Year... and, uh, something else, too, in the wind-up department...

leering evilly,

Gothick

DS to DA,

this is all very exciting!  and I just love the Xmas video you did--lovely and heartwarming.  (I didn't see a separate topic for it here.)

Thank you for the RESPECT you are giving to the Leviathans storyline.  However, regardless of what people think of it, it covered roughly 4 months of the show, so one couldn't very well omit it altogether!  (It ties with Cassandra's storyline for my personal favorite DS story.)

Just as a sidenote, I don't think any one storyline was uniformly brilliant or dreadful.  Robert Rodan and Marie Wallace both had some wonderful moments in the Adam and Eve stories.  As for Cyrus and Sabrina, I blame bad writing plus the fact that there was really no chem between Pennock and Richards--the latter seems to have done better with Briscoe.

You deserve a gold star for featuring romantic scenes with R Davis in your Xmas video in such a tender way that I did NOT find myself tossing my cookies!  Way to go!

Gothique