Today is DON BRISCOE'S BIRTHDAY, so in honor of such, I am screening a Dark Shadows "Jennings-a-thon" - his best scenes as Tom & Chris. A vampire and a werewolf, they laugh alike, they walk alike, at times (once?) they're even in the same scene together (10 points for the true Briscoe-holic who can name where that scene took place). Maybe I'll throw in a quick Tim Shaw fix too.  It's March 20! Happy Birthday, Don. 

Favorite character, female: MAGDA (because she "was" such a character, though the possessed CHARITY/PANSY runs a close 2nd).
Favorite character, male: PROFESSOR STOKES (he was so fearless, without ever losing his wry sense of humor).

I'm right there with you, Gothick. Bless Angelique's heart - she gets all the action. And with a hottie like Tom, why'd she have to go and kill him off right away - couldn't she have snacked on his tasty neck a little while longer, and have strung him along as she did Joe, Jeff and Barnabas? You realize we had to wait until the House Of Dark Shadows movie to see Briscoe in pajamas again!?

Love the scene in early '69 where a possessed David is playing a game of rubber darts in the Drawing Room, purposely annoying the hell out of Barnabas, who attempts to read the inscription on a pentagram: "To guard you from Cerberus." When Barn explains to an inquisitive David that Cerberus "was a wild dog who guarded the gates of hell," Carolyn enters (carrying a tray) and quips, "My, what cheerful conversation."
Other moments of levity were guaranteed when Magda was disgusted with someone, and Grayson would make one of those "hock a loogey" spitting sounds.
Don Briscoe's W.C. Fields impersonation was worth a chuckle (when he wasn't sounding like Gary Cooper), and let us not forget the classic Willie/Adam "taunting with a chicken leg" chase scene.

MOST VALUABLE ITEM - in my dreams:
1. The butt of a cigarette smoked by Grayson Hall (w/ lipstick traces).
2. Nancy Barrett's boa when she portrayed the possessed Charity Trask/Pansy Faye.
3. The hand of Count Petofi.
4. Don Briscoe's underwear, and speedo.
MOST VALUABLE ITEMS - in reality:
1. My JULIA HOFFMAN coffee mug & T-shirts
2. My DON BRISCOE mouse pad
3. My Milton Bradley DARK SHADOWS GAME from '69 (everything's there but the original fangs, darn it)
4. Photos and memorabilia from my 1st DARK SHADOWS CONVENTION - great time, great people

Found a fun article about Don Briscoe in an old 16 MAGAZINE from 1969. Check it out:
FULL REAL NAME: My full real name is Cecil (after my dad) Donald Briscoe, but everyone calls me Don.
BIRTHPLACE & DATE: I was born on March 20, 1940, in Yalobusha County, Mississippi.
PERSONAL DATA: I am five feet and eleven inches tall and weigh 160 pounds. I have medium brown hair and hazel eyes.
HOME INFO: I live in a bachelor pad on the East Side in Manhattan, New York City.
EDUCATION: I studied Comparative Literature at Columbia University in NYC, where I received my bachelor's and master's degrees.
MUSIC INFO: I've studied classic guitar, and I'm a dedicated shower singer!
FAVORITES--
MUSIC: The Mamas & Papas are my favorite group, and Bob Dylan is my favorite individual artist.
ACTING: Peter Sellers is great.
TV SHOWS: I enjoy most shows on NET, the national education station, and The 20th Century.
COLORS: I like "all" colors.
FOOD: I could eat breakfast three times a day--I really dig orange juice, eggs and cereal.
HOBBIES: Reading is my hobby. My favorites are the works of T.S. Eliot, The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell, and The Book of Tao.
SPORTS: I love water sports, particularly swimming and diving. As a matter of fact, when I was in school I won several diving competitions.
WHAT LOOKED FOR IN A GIRL: I like a girl who is aware of herself as a person--someone who has a pretty good idea of who she is and where she's going, and who tries to express her "real" self.
WHAT YOU LIKE TO DO ON A DATE: Dance the night away at a discotheque, or go to a movie or play.
PLANS & AMBITIONS: I'd like to be secure enough financially so that I wouldn't have to plan--I'd like to just improvise my way through life, taking things as they come.

Just caught young Denise Nickerson (circa 1974) on an old episode of "The Brady Bunch" - and in the spirit of "Fashions By Ohrbach's", the producers had her dressed in a hideous polka dot jump suit (actually a snug tunic with matching slacks), with white Peter Pan collars and strawberry decals! They featured her awkwardly dancing in the Brady family room with Peter (Brady, not Bradford), prompting me to cry out, "Put on 'Quentin's Theme.' She can dance to that one!"
It took me years to realize it was DS' Amy on that  Brady Bunch show. Was it the glasses? The puberty? The lack of handsome brother Chris? Anyone else familiar with the episode?

Edge of my seat during the "Adam" storyline, when both Barnabas and Angelique/Cassandra confronted each other - both as human at last:  Barnabas wasn't a vampire at the time, and Ang had just been stripped of her witchly powers by Nicholas Blair.  So she arrives at the Old House, sporting cloak and pistol, angling for an old fashioned Collinwood Corral showdown, right out of the Old West (well, West Maine anyway).
Barnabas survived, but each day thereafter,  I wondered if, when and how Angelique would return to wreak more havoc.
Honorable "edge of seat" mention to Grayson Hall's superb work in much of the Leviathan storyline. Her Julia Hoffman was so intensely determined to uncover the sinister truth, each day I feared for her life - particularly when she'd go antique shopping.