the logistics of putting together a daily serialized show...with it's dozens of characters, multiple writers, numerous sets, and armies of costumers, hairdressers, makeup artists and all of the technical people(cameras and lighting and sound and special affects)plus the producers and their staffs has to be daunting to say the least. and expensive no matter how many people are watching.

the show's that have replaced the soaps are awesome in their cheapness...one cheap, crappy set. a couple of annoying hosts. a studio filled with an audience of shrill idiots that come to it for FREE.

it's unfortunately hard to beat the economic of that.

and unlike a soap that can take years to gather a regular following these types of shows don't require any investment on the part of the viewer or the network for that matter. if they're poorly rated they can just get replaced with something else of the same genre.

except we never found out what quentin had been doing in those intervening year. the writers didn't even TOUCH upon it. they never bothered.

to me there was nothing fascinating about quentin in 1969-70. the writers threw in the towel. it was as if, aiming the series heavily at the preteen audience by this time, they just thought they could call him "quentin", give him those sideburns, stick in him that victorian room with that stupid gramophone, and nobody would notice how badly he was written or question what he was doing in that house.

just have him fight the monster like he did in 1897 and the kids will come running. a comic book character. lame.

this reminds me of why i was somewhat dubious when "new" rare photographs were mentioned as part of the new KLS/Pompress book on the film.

if you think about it, with the exception of frid at the height(68-69)of barnabas-mania, there are remarkably few official shots surrounding the series at all. they only gathered the entire cast together TWICE during the five year run resulting in the now-famous 1967 drawing room shot(recreated for the film)and the classic 1968 staircase shot. that ain't much.

no one knew at the time that the program would be aired, and discussed, and dissected into perpetuity. it was meant to be seen ONCE and of the photographs taken they were largely intended for soap-trade weeklies and tiger-beat type teen rags.

still crothers is notable for his absence in the cast shots and individual shots too. there are the nice 1968 one of him and kathryn. ironically they look like they were taken shortly before their characters broke up and joel left the series.

they seemed to do the barnabas and his current damsel-in-distress-love-interest setup on the collinwood staircase twice. once with alexandra(in the plaid dress)and later with kathryn. there are some similar poses with both.

as for david ford what i think is interesting is that while he was not included in any official cast photography they sent BOTH actors playing sam evans(ford and mark allen)out to essex to shoot exterior shots in 1966. notable for a secondary character.

if i recall in the 1991 series only ben cross, who got "top billing", and jean simmons, who got the classic "and..as" billing, received special mention. the rest of the cast was alphabetized.

on the original series only joan, alexandra and later jonathan got any special billing but how the rest of the cast got billed is anyone's guess. it seemed to be almost based on some sort of seniority after the first year. actors who had been with the show longest got "top" billing if joan wasn't in a given episode. it occasionally made for strange credits. for instance there were some 1968 episodes where joel crothers got "top" billing because he had been with the show longer than say, jonathan or lara parker, but they were obviously the episodes' "leads" in terms of plot. it had to have been political or contractual.

there also seemed to be a bit of male chauvinism going on with the original series in terms of the credits. again, if joan was not in an episode "top" billing almost always went to the next senior male member of the cast. this was notable during the laura collins storyline when diana millay was clearly the episodes "star" but got second or third billing after the men in the cast.

KLS was only onset for two days when she filmed her cameo and obviously she's not involved in any of the film's editing or postproduction work. so even though it seems as if she's read the script i'll bet her insights are minimal.

NONE of the film's key participants are mentioned as being interviewed or involved with the book at all. just "anecdotes" from the OS actors on their cameos. anecdotes on a two day cameo shoot.

again, this is likely just another variation on KLS/Pompress books we've all seen. and you can bet your bottom dollar she'll be seated at a table with STACKS of them at next year's fest.

interesting bit about the girl on the train...

given the plot outline we received it would seem that the film was going to open with barnabas' backstory and the stuff about his family leaving england, not vicki's arrival in collinsport in the present day(and i speak of 1972 as the "present day").

still, that opening voiceover(..."my journey is beginning"...)would be dreamy.

atwood's remarks certainly validate alot of speculation about depp's strange attire in those paparazzi pics...

that's he was heavily covered up to protect himself from exposure to sunlight. probably at some early point in dr.hoffman's treatments. and that he would not look so strange for the bulk of the movie.

how he's explaining his ghostly white appearance is still a mystery but some sort of illness would be the likely cover story.