whenever i watch these episodes one character i find endlessly entertaining is maggie evans.

later on she becomes something of a generic d.s. ingenue but here she's such a tough-talking little cookie.and a gossip to boot!

she's something of the proverbial "working girl with the heart of gold" or the "good girl fron the wrong side of the tracks".

she's a nice alternative from the high-strung carolyn and the virginal vicki.

i recently completed the 1969 "present day" episodes and had to make a choice...

did i want to continue on to the 1897 storyline or do something else.having watched 1897 relatively recently i decided to go back to the beginning and watch the 1966 episodes.i haven't watched these episodes in their entirely since i first watched them about seven years ago.

so i'm sort of with you arashi.

personally i adore the pen plot.in some ways it's more surreal that what comes later on.in a program that will come to be defined by vampires,time travel and parallel worlds a major storyline focused on something as ordinary as a fountain pen(be it as it may a gorgeous and rare silver filigreed fountain pen!)is pretty far out if you think about it.

in retrospect these episodes take on a flavor all their own.

it's true that the original characters were much more well defined and,in many cases,quite nasty early on.later on they become more neutral,in effect "blank slates",for the supernatural storylines to be projected onto.

i'm with profstokes on this one...

i have always found quentin's stratospheric popularity among the fanbase to be somewhat disproportionate.i don't quite get it.

i guess the character is inextricable from the devastatingly handsome and charismatic david selby.

like alot of us i feel like i know what makes the characters on this thing tick.i understand their modus operandi.their skewed logic.as insane as many of barnabas and julia's shenanigans are i get it.they're doing this to prevent that from happening.

not so with quentin.i don't understand what makes him tick.first he's mean as a hornet,then he's dull as dishwater.he lacked the inherent vulnerability that enabled jonathan frid's barnabas to be recast as the series "hero" and get the audiences sympathy.why would anyone root for this this guy?

he's great as the malevolent ghost in 1969 and as the early villain of 1897 but after that then what?in the present he is very poorly incorporated into the existing framework of the series.his presence at collinwood is inexplicable.why is he there?

and grant douglas is just sort of a warmover of the peter bradfor/jeff clark storyline i think.

o.k. now i'll shut up.

i just watched this episode again and i agree it's as close to perfection as the series gets.
it's in the pantheon of my top dozen or so favorite eps.

there are times when i'm watching and i'm aware of the fact that these were,after all,just actors who showed up for work and read the scripts that were written and handed to them.
there are other times when i lose track of that and become so caught up with the sweep of it that it approaches something "real" if that makes sense.this episode and much of this storyline approach that for me.

that it prominently featured three of my favorite actresses...joan bennett,clarice blackburn and kathryn leigh scott...made it all that much more dreamy.liz and mrs.johnson clutching each other in fear as the music swells...goosebumps!

a young and willowy mia farrow...i am so there!

i've always been curious about this show and look foreward to seeing it.

i almost started a topic like this so i'm glad someone else did.

what i think is funny is when other,less well versed,people "tell" me about the show.

not everyone possesses our encyclopedic knowledge of the series(read:less obsessive)but i have some older coworkers who watched as kids and "tell" me about what they remember from the show...

one fellow "tells" me about the time that the smoke machine ran into overdrive and the actors were choking(never happened),about how barnabas cussed on air(nope),another insists that the town he grew up in in connecticut was where collinwood was(exteriors were filmed in newport,RI)and so forth.

i really don't have the patience to sit and bicker with these guys over such trivialities so i just sort sigh and say nothing.

i could not for a moment forget about buzz.it's one of my favorite subplots ever if for no other reason than introducing us to "drunk carolyn" in one of nancy barrett's finest interpretations.

but for me buzz reads more as a late 1950's/early 1960's type of character.i'm thinking more "rebel without a clue" than "easy rider".he's not giving me woodstock but more of a poor man's hell's angel.or at the very least "beatnik".

jeb and bruno seem to me to be more of an(weak)attempt at representing the late 1960's hippie counterculture.the writers got it wrong in so many ways but i think they were attempting to work that type of character into the plot and to come across as more "with it".as with most mainstream television's attempts at "grooviness" at the time it reads as really corny but that's what i'm thinking.