Just popped in and read this - thank you Gothick and Midnite - It's on at 10pm tonight out in California - can't wait to see Denise say "The schnozberries taste like schnozberries..." Maybe a food judge who loves DS will ask her to recite an Amy Jennings line: "Mrs. Johnson, you're no Top Chef here at Collinwood"... or somethin'...

Pimps wore Ohrbach's in the day.

It seemed rare for Jonathan Frid to get much time off from the show. Even when he was sent off to Wyndecliff in the fall of '68 following Angelique's shenanigans, Barnabas was only off the canvas for 8 shows (2 weeks). He got a longer vacation from the series during the 1897 storyline (most of September '69), and in an interview he mentioned getting to go to Europe during the series' run - maybe this was when he flew abroad without his bat wings.
John Karlen went over to "Love Is A Many Splendored Thing" on CBS while Willie did his stint at Wyndecliff in '67-'68. Karlen's character was short-lived on the other soap, but Willie was MIA from the Collinwood action from late September 1967 until May 1, 1968, when back he came - to taunt a captive Adam with a chicken leg.

Julia may not have been a by-the-book doctor, but she sure never took any time off for herself, or at least by choice. She could have attributed her bad medical choices to lack of relaxation and rest (and lust).

Dear Midnite, Annie, Heather, Bette, ProfStokes, Josette and Lydia-

You are the Elizabeth, Carolyn, Julia, Angelique, Maggie, Victoria and Mrs. Johnson to me in my DS world! Thank you all for the kind birthday wishes.

-Sandor

Happy Birthday, MB
Happy Birthday, MB
Happy Birthday, MB
Happy Birthday, MB
(sung to the tune of "Happy Birthday To You" of course)

Sorry to be arriving so late. I must have been out celebrating your birthday. Cheers!

-Sandor

Glad to have stumbled onto this thread. Some extremely keen insights here - I never realized all the layers of subtext in the Reverend Trask character. I just knew he was one of the best-written characters on DS, and that Jerry Lacy played the role superbly.  As for Trask's abuse and Jamison's silence in reporting these deeds to his family - I can relate.
While Dark Shadows was still on the air in 1970, I was in the 3rd grade in Southern California - and my male teacher believed in corporal punishment, and would strike and spank the (mostly male) students for misbehaving - by bringing them up to the front of the class, telling them to "Bend over!", and then in front of all one's peers, swat the kid in the butt with an encyclopedia, dictionary or unsanded ping-pong paddle! I got swatted twice in that school year - and I never told my parents about it at the time. Good thing laws changed and kids in school had more protection going forward.

As for the b-episodes with no main characters, I actually don't mind those so much. They're infrequent, and the episodes that follow them are often chock-full-of main characters (episodes with a cast line-up of Jonathan Frid, Joan Bennett, Louis Edmonds, Grayson Hall, Thayer David and Nancy Barrett are choice) who push the story forward.

Happy Belated Birthday, Bette-
Hopefully you were wearing your scarf around your neck at dusk while wandering in the woods at Yosemite. Vampires will bite at night - ask Julia Hoffman: she knows!

-Sandor