indeed!

some of us are in league with the devil,others pray to the great god ra,while i personally pledge allegiance to an indian warlock i met in barbados.

considering that a major department store furnished the wardrobe it's surprising that they didn't get more clothing to wear...some ensembles got years of use.

elizabeth's insane chartreuse "hostess gown" thing makes it's first appearance in 1966...and it's still being worn in the h.o.d.s. movie in 1970.

julia's green tweed suit gets a good four year run.

they did seem to update the wardrobe periodically.during the 1966 episodes they seem to be wearing one set of outfits.in 1967/68 another.for late 1969/70 another.after each trip through time(where the actors don historical costume)they get a few new things.carolyn and maggie both got almost entirely new wardrobes after 1897.they splurged on 1970pt also...the outfits there from what i recall were never used in the "present" which is saying something since as a general rule they didn't think these episodes would be watched more than once and they could have saved here and thought no one would notice.it was a nice touch.

patti,

you're right about maggie...she was indeed "flawed"(especially in 1966 when she was collinsport's town gossip).

but at heart maggie was essentially a "good girl" as was vicki.carolyn got to be downright nasty which they never really did.

it's true that for whatever reason the writer's decided that of the three "ingenue" actresses nancy barrett's characters were allowed to be "flawed"...and for a particularly scrumptous period in 1967 carolyn was a royal b*tch!

where as alexandra and kathryn always played the goody-two-shoes.

nostalgia can bring with it a rosy glow...

in her interviews on the new dvd collections alexandra speaks in glowing tones of how unique and creative dark shadows was.she also speaks very highly of her co-stars.joan bennett like a "second mother".nancy barrett a bridesmaid at her wedding.louis edmonds a "drawing room comedy".very high praise for jonathan frid and john karlen and mitch ryan and thayer david and clarice blackburn.after she left the series she speaks of missing the "camaraderie".

so it's too bad that(roger davis aside)she couldn't have found in that a way to make her time on the show a more positive experience for herself at the time.

i agree with gothick about the diner set...i miss it too once it departs.funny but that set is the first place barnabas meets maggie and whenever i go back and re-watch that scene it's strange to see him sitting there when we come to associate him with much more gothic environments.i would like to have seen maggie go back to work at the diner too.i like that "sassy waitress" element of her persona that gets lost over time.

i'm on the fence about kathryn leigh scott being "phased out" at some point.

there is something of a disconnect between kls the actress and her importance on the show and the character of maggie evans.while it is true that if maggie had never taken over as collinwood governess her importance in the "present" might have been limited(it often was)kls the actress' association with josette was so strong that she would have continued to figure prominently in the time travel storylines.

and of course this all depends on what her contract looked like.

ironically while i can picture victoria continuing on as collinwood governess in the present i can't picture alexandra factoring into many of the time travel storylines after 1795.the opposite goes for kls.she had more of a role to play in the past.

i did once read an interview with alexandra where she said that she was having a "difficult" time with her pregnancy...so maybe that meant morning sickness.

as far as alexandra "refusing" to wear make-up i think that lara parker was probably just spinning a yarn.the producers probably would not have stood for such childish nonsense and i can't recall ever seeing her onscreen looking un-made-up.

b.t.w. on dvd collection 23 they interview sam hall who goes on to say that jaclyn smith...roger davis' then wife...auditioned for the part of vicki when alexandra left but that dan curtis did not like her readings.that would have been interesting.

i've been looking at besty durkin in this week's slide show...

i never saw her episodes.i skipped ahead because i just couldn't handle a "fake-vicki" and i hated the adam storyline and didn't care about it's conclusion.

however i've come to understand that she proved an unworthy successor to alexandra and thus she,and subsequently the character of victoria,were written out of the show entirely(enter kathryn leigh scott in the role of collinwood governess).

so just how bad was she to prompt this drastic move?

did the producers know that the character was going to be written out anyways and thus just hired miss durkin to finish out the vicki/jeff storyline?was she just intended to "fill in" for alexandra during her maternity leave with the thought that she was going to return?if the writers decided to write the character out anyways couldn't they have persueded alexandra(who was under contract after all)to stick around for a couple more weeks and play out this storyline(those a-lines would more than cover up a growing tummy)?

also,if the character of vicki never left than kathryn leigh scott's maggie would never have taken over as collinwood governess.what kind of storyline would have been in store for maggie?