true,

but after the writers decide that vicki and barnabas become "friends"(at least in her estimation)she becomes unable to recognize any of his numerous glaring peculiarities.more than just that but when burke rightly points them out to her she refuses to hear it and goes so far as to threaten to call off their engagement is he persues the topic any further.

so with this one change in the direction of the storyline the entire nature of this character goes from being inquisitive and a sharp judge of character to almost pathalogically naive.

P is for the Pudding recipe that roger brings back from boston for mrs.johnson.

i guess the reason that i've always been resistant to the "liz is vicki's mother" theory is the age thing.

if we are to assume that the age of the characters is close to the age of the actors who played them then liz would have been in her late thirties at the time of vicki's birth...not some young frightened girl who found herself "in trouble" but a mature,wealthy,married lady.so what's all the fuss?

i also like to think that liz was a woman of enough character(yes,i know these are fictitious people)that even if she did find herself in a situation where she bore a child that for whatever reason she was not able to raise herself she would have found a better solution than sending the poor thing to a distant orphanage and sending a measly monthly(weekly?)check(was it for $100.00?i haven't seen these episodes in ages).

that said it apparently was a private decision on grayson hall's part to have her character(julia)fall in love with barnabas as a point of motivation for everything she was doing(with thanks to julia99).this added alot of nuance to the way things played out.i can certainly see how joan bennett acted on a similar instict because her attitiude toward vicki was certainly maternal even if that was never spelled out in specifics.

like i said it's been a long time since i watched the early episodes but i vaugely recall liz mentioning a butler named "hanscomb" who i think was supposed to be the father of the subject of the portrait "betty" who so greatly resembled vicki...perhaps there was some "upstairs,downstairs" type action going on at collinwood and betty was vicki's half sister.

jason as much as tells vicki that he's just trying to hurt her by implying he knows something about her origins.
it's unlikey jason "knew" the answers to this mystery because i don't think anyone including the writers or even dan curtis himself actually knew how this plotline would have been resolved and then it was dropped anyways.

i read somewhere(he we go with gossip and speculation)that the idea that vicki might have been elizabeth's daughter was not even part of the show's original plotting.it was noted during auditions how closely alexandra moltke resembled joan bennett and then it just added another layer to the storyline...which of course went unresolved.

liz as vicki's mother is certainly the sentimental choice in hindsight but i'm of that rare camp that doesn't buy it.the numbers just don't add up.i think the abandoned portrait of betty hanscome was where this was heading before the storyline moved in a completely different direction.

i love a good d.s. showdown.

i just watched the jason mcguire blackmail storyline and it concludes with a sweet one between everyone's favorite seafaring rogue and goody-two-shoes governess.

jason has been given his walking papers by the collins family as well as the police.he makes a final stop by the blue whale when vicki comes in to look for carolyn(who took-off after the wedding fiasco).jason decides to have a few words with miss "prim and proper" whom has been something of a thorn in his side since this little caper began.it's one thing to be treated with disdain by members of the family but quite another by someone who is really just a servant in the house(albeit one treated as a family member).

they really go at it.vicki...who by the way is acting very self-rightous in this scene...lashes out by chastising jason for ruining the life of a "wonderful woman".jason counters by taunting vicki with the revalation that very soon she may have a price fixed on her head(we know what's coming here)and how disappointed he is that he won't be around to see it.ouch!he finishes with a little zinger about how he wonders who she is and where she comes from...and then implies that since he was around collinsport eighteen years earlier perhaps he knows something and with that the wounded girl departs(this is i believe the last major reference to vicki's origins).

vicki functioned in an interesting role during this storyline.she wasn't yet that involved in the barnabas plot and wasn't herself being victimized.like during the laura collins story she was a voice of reason and actually helped other people out.needless to say this is about to change in a big way.

as far as the "no actor guests at all" part i don't think we need to fear this much.

even if the "offical" d.c.p. festival is discontinued i'm sure any other organized fan gathering will be seen by numerous actors as an opportunity to push their own businesses.

as long as lara parker has books to sell,kathryn leigh scott cds and diana millay trips to outer mongolia it's in their best interest to attend this type of event.lara probably sold 300 copies of her book at this year's fest if not more.much more than she likely sold doing promotions in book stores across the country.this event guarentees a density of fans they are unlikey to encounter elsewhere.

i know many of the actors attend other types of horror/sci-fi/comic conventions that are not specific to d.s. but they see them as good business opportunities.

in other words invite them and they will come.

i agree it's really sad the way the character of joe haskell was handled after a certain point.

i'm rewatching the early episodes and as much as i came to enjoy some of the later parts of the show i can never get past the first year cast.for some reason that dozen or so characters really found a place in my heart.
when characters like burke,vicki,sam and joe departed it was never quite the same for me.

it's true that the show moved in a vastly different direction than it began but i think they could have found a place at the table for everyone.