i was watching some early 1968 episodes.

there was a scene in which maggie evans comes to collinwood to see vicki and is greeted at the door by the new mrs.roger collins...who is of course duly stunned by miss evans' resemblance to her former mistress.

so anyways maggie enters the foyer(daintily removing white kid gloves mind you!),is briefly made uncomfortable by cassandra's incessant staring(you know that look),is then joined by vicki and the two retreat to the drawing room.cut to commercial...

when we return vicki is pouring tea.she inquires to a distracted maggie if she'd like "lemon or cream?" with her tea.
because,you know,here are these two refined young ladies with bows in their hair sipping cream tea.one of whom had quite recently spent several weeks enslaved by a vampire,the other sent two hundred years into the past where she was hanged for witchcraft,meanwhile there's a witch skulking around just outside the drawing room doors who wants to drive them both insane with a dream.

this scene reminded me of why i love this show.dan curtis and the writers made a wise move in tethering all of this insanity to the day-to-day lives of an upper class family and their friends and servants.it's what makes it so distinctive.it could have easily devolved into a 'monster show'(and it sometimes came close)but with scenes like this it comes very close to the top without ever truly going over it.

"lemon or cream miss evans?" "cream and thank you miss winters." love it!

i also was paying some attention to the shoes of all three ladies during this exchange.as usual it was a low,squat heel with a squared-off toe.the kind of shoe that makes some here seeth with rage(wink*midnite).but are they really that bad?i wasn't around so the fashions hold a certain novelty for me but are the shoes really that ugly?

as lydia mentions all of those interviewed for the dvd's speak of ms.bennett in glowing terms...even people like kate jackson,whom if i recall,actually shared very little screentime with her.

even when her characters were not on the front-burner joan is for me one of the perhaps dozen or so touchstone actors on the show.when i think about d.s. liz is one of the first characters that comes to mind.

i was watching dvd collection three and they had an interview with writer sam hall.

he said a few things about the show that i disagreed with.

one,he refered to the show during the time before barnabas and his tenure as writer as being an "aimless gothic".i thought the show was off to an interesting start.different than what it became but not without merits.

also he stated that before he came on that joan bennett's elizabeth had been an "ill-defined" character.that i disagree with more.if anything joan"s first year on the series was her best and liz got her best material and later on became more more poorly defined when she became something of a backdrop for all of the supernatural characters.

mysterious,

i'm considering the federal witness relocation program.

midnite,

your assessment of vicki's worldly goods is truly hilarious...but you forgot to mention a trunk full of falls and green coats.oh,and the portrait of betty handscomb and that doll that ina o'donnell from the foundling home gave her.

i always liked this batch of episodes.when nicholas was summoning vicki and she was silhouetted coming down the stairs it was quite dramatic.at a time when the character was rather wishy-washy vicki was given some good material.

i was handed a flyer for this event on the street in new york yesterday.

kathryn leigh scott's name was absent but the guy handing them out assured me she'd be there.

i'll definitely check it out.a couple of years ago when i attended this event(and some here may remember)marie wallace,diana millay and nancy barrett were also on hand but it doesn't appear that they will be there again.

i wonder what ms.scott is pitching this time.does she have anything new out?

i'm ashamed to admit this however...

i never watched the late 1968 fake-vicki episodes and thus missed the conclusion of the vicki/jeff drama.

so i always thought that jeff clark was in fact peter bradford.i didn't know that once peter had disappeared back in time that jeff still existed as a seperate entity.

it's so weird to think that jeff clark is still wandering around on this earth somewhere.i wonder where he is?

i wonder if he feels strangely every time he sees a woman in a sleeveless dress("something about you is so familiar...").