^{from IronBitch}        Switching reels, CyrusL, were you the fan at the DS Tribute in Hollywood that said you incorporated some DS music into your wedding, to which Cobert joked about not getting any royalties?  It was a very cute exchange.                                                               

   Yes, you have me. That was me. As I stated, my wife and I met at the 1998 DS convention in Las Vegas. We will celebrate our 3 anniversary next week. 

BTW, I also consider myself lucky in that I got to meet Lela Swift at that show. She is one of the most unsung heroes of DS and to my knowledge either has never or not in a long time attended a DS convention.

CyrusL aka Michael

A Cousin from Virginia

  Hello,
         Not having cable, I wasn't able to catch the cable version of Jekyll and Hyde. If they are doing it as analogous to drug addiction, that's the wrong track. Nor was it intended as a story of alcohol addiction. Most scholars agree it was an early psychological story more related to schizophrenia and bipolar disorders than substance abuse.
    Anyway, I haven't seen the Spencer Tracy version very many times. I do know they did few changes from the Frederic March script. I do enjoy the March version quite a lot. The director chose Hyde's look as a degeneration into a more primal man. He becomes neanderthal-like as the film progresse. Barrymore's version is more closely based on a pure good and evil. Barrymore had Hyde becoming more like a human spider as he regresses. Dick Smith based Jack Palance's look on bust of Pan from a piece of classical mythology statuary.    I always like Dan Curtis' production. I once read it was the only version in which Jekyll has extensive makeup, as they wanted Palance to look more aristocratic. As a matter of fact, I like this much better than either the Dan Curtis Frankenstein or Dracula. Despite how much Dan loves his Palance Dracula, I think the script is one of Richard Matheson's weakest with several flaws and leaves Dracula without enough to do. The sets look way too cold, they have the bleak austerity of what looks like and probably was Cold War era eastern europe. On the other hand, Curtis's Jekyll and Hyde was shot on video on studio sets and has more of the same feel as DS did. Even moreso as Robert Cobert overlapped music between the two.
   I have seen Mary Reiley too and while John Malkovich is always interesting as he's always so intense, it was a little too graphic for me. I heard Al Pacino was offered the role before Malkovich. 
    Okay, I love the classic horror films. One last piece of trivia,
David Lynch used a few film references to the Tracy version in "Fire Walk with Me." Most especially where Hyde envisoned the ladies as horses he was whipping. 

CyrusL, aka Michael

your cousin from Virginia

When in New York , be sure to visit the Jekyll and Hyde club, uptown near Central Park, and downtown in the village.

Hey,
      I did find the date for the feature on Jonn Jonzz. The date in the Oddball Comic Book Archives is 9/22/2003. Here's a link to that page.
 
http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/oddball/index.cgi?date=2003-09-22

Again, readers of the old Gold Key Dark Shadows comics may want to check this out as the artist for Jonn Jonzz was Joe Certa who drew the Gold Key series. On that page you can click and get panels that have Jonn with a similar grim expression you may remember on Barnabas during his Gold Key stint.      Joe had a pretty distinctive heavy dark line style. I always found the DS Gold Key comics more mrobid and other worldly than the TV show in many ways. Especially the one where the plague spread.

Your Cousin from Virginia, CyrusL aka Michael   

Hello,
      I agree with many of the ideas you have going here. I have often thought the writers had seen "The Thing that Could Not Die" and used elements as a touchstone. At the point they are at now, it's also not hard to think of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with its Headless Horseman as an influnce too. Even moreso, since North Tarrytown where the story is set, which has renamed itself Sleepy Hollow, is next door to the locations of the films as well as where the Old House was.

[spoiler]
    I think that the evil influnce of Judah Zachary is not only behind the problems of 1970/1995/1840, but possibly even part of 1795 and 1897 in retrospect. If one concedes that Judah's curse on the Collins family affects this story, could it not have also been the reason the family had such supernatural misfortune in 1795, 1897 and 1966-1970? Especially since we learn that not only was Amadeus but Angelique/Valerie/Miranda was so closely involved. One of the reasons I like 1840 so much is that it does tie together so many of the themes throughout the series bringing us to a new conclusion.
   For sheer visceral thrills, the Headless Body and the Head were very scary to me as a kid, and I also found the idea of Quentin's stairway through time fascinating. I wish we got a little more into the alchemy of how it was supposed to work.
    While I always feel a little sad when I reach this part of the story, I enjoy the whole of 1840 itself, just sad that we lose our original characters, especially since we see only Elizabeth upon their return. I must say though that Stokes line about the refrigerator being full of food, being a good sign takes some of the sting away.
    Last thoughts too, its a very romatic storyline. Not only with the triangles, and switches, but if you think about it, Quentin and Daphne have perhaps the best happy ending of all. Likewise, Virginia Vestoff is one of the most underrated performers on DS. From listening to David Selby speak of her at conventions, I get a sense he and others held a great respect for her talent.
[/spoiler]

          Michael aka CyrusL

A Cousin from Virginia

Good afternoon,
          As a long time DS fan, I am happy to join this forum. I look forward to sharing opinions and discussing my favorite series.
          A Cousin from Virginia,
                       Michael aka CyrusL