Re Dirk... exactly.    I love the moment when Dirk is gradually clueing Judith in on how their "relationship" is about to "change".     RD obviously relished playing crazy, obsessed people, and as for it being absolutely intolerable for an actor's enthusiasm for a role to show, loosen up, I say.    I have little  tolerance for shallow, melodramatic overacting, and I've never found anything to object to in Davis.    Another great moment is approximately 100 year old Tate in 1970, with his crazy laser light show and department store dummy stand-in.    Subtlety is not called for when playing unsubtle characters.

His reputation at conventions may be coloring people's responses to his acting.    His acting seems average for DS.     Not the best, not the worst, with an enjoyable individual personality to it.   I've never once looked at DS and thought, "That damn Roger Davis touches his hair all the time."   Now, the next time I watch, I'll end up fixating on it only because everyone here talks about it.

I'm pretty much with you here Magnus T. I never thought of Roger as accomplished as say I do John Karlen or Thayer David, but I never really found him one of the worst. I think he does shout sometimes too often when he attempts to emphasize. I could easily name a few other performers who I thought were less interesting or as annoying to me as Roger appears to many on the board. (I won't name them here as it seems everyone on the show seems to have some kind of loyal following on some level.) I like him the most when he's doing more ernest scenes like when Jeff Clark is asking David to be in the wedding, or when he is in 1795 going to the gallows.
     I think you are dead on about the fact that as Roger has gotten on people's nerves at the festivals, that this colors their impressions when they watch him on the show.  I can't say all of his remarks or actions at shows are appropriate or even at times defensible. But again, I will say he's always been nice to be personally.
     I will also agree with the person who suggested he's more suited to westerns, which may be true overall. "Alias Smith and Jones" is probably his best work. I liked Roger in the seldom seen "Ruby" and for that matter, his old "Busch Gardens Williamsburg" spots.
      
Michael     

I liked Violet Welles' stuff too.

I'm a big fan of Francis Swann and I'm really coming to appreciate Malcolm Marmorstein's material.

When I watch DS now, I play a little game where I try to guess the writer (and lately the director). I've never been able to get a handle on either Ron Sproat or Gordon Russell's style. They're both very generic for some reason. I have come to dislike Sam Hall's scripts (please don't stone me).

I've played that game too. I think sometimes you can tell when Violet ghost wrote  for Gordon Russell. My way of telling Gordon/Violet/Sam is that Sam Hall's scripts focus on moving the plots forward, Violet's scripts are very character focused and they  have character's talk about how they feel and Gordon's scripts have elements of both, ie plot but with some character exploration. I couldn't put a style to Ron Sproat off the top of my head. 

One thing Lela Swift likes to do is set character's around mirrors. She does this more than anyone. She's often less frenetic than Henry Kaplan.  (I enjoy reading Chris Pennock's hilarious comics for insights on their styles on directing actors.)

Now, if we can just figure out why there's so many times we go to "bongo man" instead of full Cobert music. 

Michael

Question then, how come everyone else's are nicer?  Is there some way to "clean up" the pic once it's been taken off the TV?