true,

as fond as we all are for the show it's important to remember that for the actors involved it was,at the time at least,just a "job" even if they liked it(and some did not).

and how many times have we all gone into work tired,or cranky,or just not "into it" or even said "i hate my job".

yes lacy's "bogie" shtick was cringe-inducing.

he must have been an off-contract player because he often disappeared for months.

if i recall it was a very long time between his 1897 trask and his next character in 1970pt.
incidentally i found that character to be somewhat unnecessary...he was sort of involved in the forgettable demeon edwards subplot but not really important to the storyline as a whole.

i wasn't born when the series orignally aired but i'm sure i would have been devastated by it's cancellation had i been a fan at the time.

however i have to say that as a contemporary viewer i have found the five year cycle to be quite satisfying.1200+ episodes of any series is hard to digest.to tell you the truth by the time of the 1840 storyline the series was losing steam for me and had begun to feel like a rehash.i grew bored.

i'm not sure how much more i could have watched so the five year run works for me.

i'm currently watching the 1966 episodes and i had forgotten what a steamroller mitch ryan was as burke...his devlin owned this show.

by the time of the anthony george replacement the character,like everyone else,had become a supporting player in the barnabas saga.i can't see ryan playing second banana.

that barnabas somehow "caused" burke's plane crash is one of the series' great misconceptions.he didn't.

sarah warned david and carolyn that someone was going to die.they heard it in the music.no one would cause it and nothing could stop it.then vicki heard the wailing of the widow's...goosebumps!

it's been several years since i sat down and watched the 1966 episodes in their entirety...

i had completely forgotten about the opulence,the splendor,the lusciousness that is the "bangor pine" restaurant.it's the creamiest set ever!

it's so swank,so mechelin 3 star.

i love that it's bustling with waiters and maitre d's.so many extras.

burke and carolyn make a rather plebeian meal of salad and steak but it seems like the kind of place that would serve lots of things flambeed.perhaps they ordered crepes suzette for desert!

it's funny that they went to the trouble of such a nicely detailed set that only got one or two uses(i seem to recall vicki and frank garner there at some point).i'm trying to figure out the pattern on the wallpaper.sort of palm fronds and ivy.very 1940's.it sort of suggests that even at this juncture the old bangor pine was already a bit of a dowager.a bit passe.but i'd so love to dine there!

apart from everything else this episode(#42) is notable for another very signifigant reason...it is here that burke first gifts carolyn with THE PEN.we'll be seeing alot more of that for sure.

my mother lives in portland maine and there is a local place called "jay's" that's a bit blue whale-ish.

the maine part of the place is a bar but they serve awesome,fresh seafood...lobster,steamers,fish chowder,oyster stew and an amazing seafood casserole.
they probably serve steak too.

during the summer it gets a bit touristy but in the winter months it's all locals.we go every time i visit.

however unlike the blue whale no dancing(sorry carolyn).

dan curtis seemed keenly aware of how to "brand" certain elements of this series in immediately identifiable ways.

with barnabas it was the onyx ring,the wolfhead cane and that inverness cape.he's wearing them in virtually all of the publicity photos even though much of the time the character was just seen wearing a suit.they're part and parcel of the character's "brand".

with quentin it was those sideburns,the gramophone and that funky victorian room.one of the many things that irritated me about quentin after 1897 was that they stuck him back in that room.it never made any sense plotwise but it was part of the character's "brand" and curtis seemed to want to market the character in as an arresting a way as possible and that was it.so i'm not surprised to hear that he was the second biggest player in the marketing juggernaut.

i think that's why david selby's characters were always called "quentin" whether or not series continuity backed that up.it's also interesting that the character was continually marketed in the werewolf guise given that after 1897 he was never in that form again.

julia appeared in far more episodes that quentin ever did and was more important to several plots but i guess a middle aged suit wearing lady doctor is harder to market and not as easily identifiable...especially to those kids that you know what.

are we talking about the ross novels here?i'm very surprised to hear that angelique only appearred in one.she was a pretty major player but thoses novels were pretty loosely connected to what was actually happening on the series itself.

oh oh!

i think we might have yet another case of d.s. "false memory syndrome" here.

because the person in question certainly does know what he's talking about...it's writer ron sproat who penned the foreward to this book.

he says he came onto the show thirteen weeks into it's run "after wallace had left" and that he had had a hard time connecting with the material wallace had "left behind" concerning the intrigue at the cannery.

perhaps he just doesn't recall that wallace was still around for several months.