if i may go off on something of a tangent so much of what made the show work(or not work)was the chemistry between the actors involved.
for what it's worth despite their being partnered up as the show's marketable "antiheros" in later years i never cared for scenes between frid and david selby either.
Really? I absolutely adored any scene between Barnabas and Quentin, 1897, 1840 or present time. I felt that those two had a real great chemistry between them, whether they were friends or adversaries, same with Barnabas and Julia. No matter what the circumstances they just clicked well together.
I agree that the chemistry or non-chemistry existing between actors depended on the actors themselves. James Hall the original Willie, played the creep brilliantly, but to me he never clicked in well with Dennis Patrick. John Karlen did.
John's Willie I could see Jason having somewhat a bit of a leash on....I could never imagine how Jason and Hall's Willie ever got together without eventually killing each other.
I loved Alexandra and Kathryn's scenes together as Vicki and Maggie, their friendship was completely believable due to the fact, well they just clicked together. However, once Betsy Durkin took over the role of Vicki, the Vicki/Maggie relationship lost its appeal, at least for me. I always felt that Betsy did simply did not have that special connection with Kathryn or with any of the other actors that Alexandra did. No disrepect to her, as I hear she is a very nice lady in real life, but in my humble opinion, Betsy simply did not fit in the Dark Shadows universe.
There are many other examples I could cite but I won't go into them now. I will just finish by saying that chemistry between actors as well as the writing does play a large part on how well a story can turn out.