Discuss - Ep #0301

Robservations - #301

The battle has begun. Barnabas and Burke have both decided to get rid of one another. Barnabas more violent, than Burke. Just think that it is all over Vickie. 

This at some point was supposed to be the beginning of the end of Barnabas, but we know what happened there. I think the writers are trying to decide what to do?? :-

These shows just get better and better. JF and AG did great.  

Vicky is so old-fashioned about the marriage proposal!  "Oh, Mr. Devlin, this is so sudden!"  And she never imagined she'd get married?  I'm ten years younger than she, and I always assumed, when I was growing up, that I'd get married.  Later I imagined a blissful existence in a huge house, with me at one end of it and my husband at the other end, and still later I decided that I wanted to be a divorcee - I get the house and the dog, he gets the kids - but the initial assumption remained that marriage was unavoidable.

If I were to ask somebody's advice on marriage, I'm not sure I'd ask Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.  She smiles benevolently, but her own choices in the field of marriage haven't been ones that I'd care to emulate.

Is there a known joke whose punch line is "I'm calling you from Paris"?  I seriously thought about requesting lead-ups to that line in the Games section.  Which reminds me, totally OT, that I've never heard the one about the travelling salesman.

And so we come to the conversation in the Blue Whale that Jonathan Frid remembers so fondly.  I like Barnabas when he's being deviously bad, but if he wants to kill Burke, shouldn't he be a little more careful about not arousing people's suspicions?  Well, yes, of course he should, but self-control was never one of Barnabas's strong points.

Be sure to check out these (hopefully  ) humorous topics related to this episode:

From "Caption This!":

From "Complete This Phrase / Fill In The Blank(s)":

I always assumed, when I was growing up, that I'd get married.  Later I imagined a blissful existence in a huge house, with me at one end of it and my husband at the other end, and still later I decided that I wanted to be a divorcee - I get the house and the dog, he gets the kids - but the initial assumption remained that marriage was unavoidable.

Is there a known joke whose punch line is "I'm calling you from Paris"?

if he wants to kill Burke, shouldn't he be a little more careful about not arousing people's suspicions?

(A)  You imagined eating dinner at one of those extremely long, narrow tables, with you at one end and husband at the other end, right?    The duvet arrived today dear, whatver that is...?

(B)  Is there?    Now it bothers me that I don't know that one.  I never actually heard the one about the travelling salesman, either.  However, I do now know that if I could walk that way, I wouldn't need the talcum powder.

(C)   You can't sacrifice style and an appreciation of the moment, for mere safety and practicality.    Come now.

Hey, the quote button works for me again....thanks MB!

vicki is old-fashioned but...

having grown up in an orphanage she probably felt that she lacked what it took to make a "respectable" wife in those days.family name,pedigree,some financial security.still there was a certain snobbishness about her that made it hard to see her ever marrying "down".

gaining employment with a wealthy family elevated her social status somewhat but she must have been resigned to her "lot" in life as a domestic servant.a lifetime of squat shoes and shapeless dresses.her "modesty" made her perhaps oblivious to the fact that she was impossibly beautiful and would have attracted the attention of numerous eligable men.

but yes her thinking by 1967 standards was at least a decade behind the times.

I love the exchange between Barnabas and Burke! The metaphor that Barnabas used was obviously more violent. I prefer Burke's harmless card-playing metaphor.    JF and AG were wonderful in that scene.

I agree that this was probably the point in the story when the writers were trying to decide whether or not to keep Barnabas.  That scene could have been the beginning of the end for him.  Luckily for us, Barnabas stayed!

I agree, Vicki was incredibly old-fashioned!  I always thought I would get married, too.  I could see how this quality would make her very attractive to Barnabas.

----- Sally -----

I agree that this was probably the point in the story when the writers were trying to decide whether or not to keep Barnabas.

Nope - still not it. They were still very much planning to do away with him. Their only concern at this point was how to keep him around longer to milk the storyline, yet not have it appear completely ludicrous that no one suspects what/who Barnabas actually is. And whether they managed to totally succeed with that or not has been a matter for debate for years in fandom. 

Nope - still not it. They were still very much planning to do away with him.

Thanks MB for the background.    I have to think gears were turning in some writers' heads though.    I mean, watch that conversation, and who do you want to win?    With a bad guy that good and a good guy that bad, I think we have to guess that Victoria would be better off as a vampire or Josette clone with BC than as an 'ordinary wife' with Burke.

I have to think gears were turning in some writers' heads though.

If they were, they weren't telling Frid. His letters to his mom (which are an invaluable information source as to what was going on behind the scenes at this time) indicate that he was still expecting Barnabas to be killed off and to be done with the show because that's what DC was telling him. And Frid continued to have that belief for weeks to come...

Where do you see these letters, when do they decide to keep Barnabas?   There had to be some planning before 1795.

Back in the '90s Frid decided to make the letters available, and soon thereafter they were published on the Internet (on AOL's now defunct Dark Shadows Online forum) and in a fanzine called The Collinwood Collection (the first book - not the second or third) which was put together by Bobubas. The fanzine may still be available (check out his Web site). If not, they will appear in the forum's Members' Archive once that returns.

As far as the 1795/96 storyline goes, you'll be surprised how quickly that all came about...

But why are Jonathan Frid's letters to his mother out in public?  I wrote letters to my parents from camp, and I don't think I'd want to see them in print.

...Oh, I didn't read the full post.  Oops.

Actually, when Frid decided to make them available, they were auctioned off at a Fest - with Bobubas being the winning bidder. 

I think we can't let go of this discussion without at least mentioning John Karlen's remarkable performance in this episode.  I doubt he has ever been better than he is here, sincerely and logically pointing out to Barnabas the absurdity of his plan to do away with Burke.  It's a great switch to at last see the pupil teaching the teacher, so to speak.

A truly riveting scene!