Joel Crothers truly got to SHINE in the 1795 storyline!

I can imagine when he was playing Joe Haskell he was basically collectingn a pay check...but when they cast him as schemer Nathan Forbes in 1795 they really struck gold...

He  had a lot of charisma as he was charming Millilcent Collins all the while plotting his windfall. Forbes was a true highlight of that storyline and I can imagine it was tough for Joel to go back to playing the somewhat bland Joe after it was all over.

The treacherous Nathan Forbes was one of the best parts of the 1795 story line. I know he was in other soaps, but I don't know if he got such plum roles on those.

Crothers took a lively interest in his work, and if you check out the earlier 1966-67 episodes you'll see more layers to Joel Crothers' portrayal of Joe Haskell  than you may expect.

One of the fans who moderates these boards has a scan of an interesting interview Crothers did after he left DS in which he reveals he wrote some scripts when he was on.  Unfortunately he never received screen credit, and the fact does not seem to be mentioned in any of the books published by the Pomegranate Press on the series--I haven't seen it mentioned, in any event.

G.

It's lovely to know he was so creative. And I always thought there was a lot more to him that Carolyn ever realized--until too late, of course.

Joel Crothers was such a versatilie actor to go from playing the good-natured Joe Haskell, to the scheming scounderal Nathan Forbes.

Yes, the pre-Barnabas episodes show that there is more to Joe than you might have expected to have seen from him judging from the Barnabas era. Although he did have some juicy material to work with during the Nicholas/Angelique [spoiler]as a vamp[/spoiler] saga and of course...[spoiler]once he found out the truth about his werewolf cousin Chris Jennings, which led to Joe's going off the deep end.[/spoiler] As tragic as it was, it did allow Crothers to really shine.

He was always one of my favorite actors on the show, and moved between Joe and Nathan with surprising ease. His portrayal of Joe allows us to see that [spoiler]there's a lot more to him than Carolyn--to her later regret--ever suspects.[/spoiler]

I'm watching 1966 now, and apparently there's more for an actor to do with the part of the "nice guy" than I'd have thought.   When Joe's suffering, Joel can do some really good acting.   Once Barnabas arrives, not just Joe but most of the established characters have their personalities and life-situations "neutralized".   They become generic bland protagonists, who have to stand in the background wondering what's going on, while the new characters handle the real business.   I don't think any actor can make that interesting.

Forbes Part One was a nice guy too, so the transition was easy and gradual.   Later Forbes and 1968/9 Joe let Joel do a lot more of course.   

I've been rewatching the episodes from the introduction of Barnabas on recently (while tethered to the sewing machine) and I am just on the verge of hitting 1795, Joel's performance as Nathan Forbes is one of the characters and performances I am really looking forward to rewatching!

I think I remember reading somewhere that he lamented he didn't get to play a character like Quentin, I always wondered what he meant by that because Forbes and Quentin were both such scoundrels (and great characters!)

I'm rewatching the very beginning leading up to Barnabas.   The Joe Haskell character is certainly one of the main characters, what with his relationship to the Collinses and Burke Devlin.  He was quite good at portraying a nice guy getting the shaft from the snobby rich girlfriend.  I understand that he graduated school with a very high standing, which the name of escapes me now.  He was outstanding as Nathan Forbes.  However, I do think that his portrayal as the victim of Angelique wasn't quite up to snuff.  He seemed very uncomfortable IMO.

Nathan was so much fun as Nathan.   He was an amazing actor.   I really enjoyed him in The Phoenix storyline as well.  As for him talking about Quentin. If I recall correctly he thought he must have had "too honest a face" to play Quentin.  I have to say though I am glad David got the role.  I can not imagine anyone else playing him in the original.

PS...AC I am not for sure if you are a newbie or just have only posted a handful of times.  If you are new...WELCOME. I noticed our numbers have increased around here. It's nice to see!

They needed a new actor to play Quentin, it's more mysterious that way.