Discuss - Ep #0500

[Watching Project]

Robservations #500

[Lydia]

It's wonderful how much more I see upon re-viewing.  All I saw last time was Adam feeling hurt because Barnabas caned him.  This time I saw Adam watching as Barnabas treated Willie like dirt and treated Adam with respect.  And then when Adam followed Barnabas's lead and treated Willie like dirt too, Barnabas beat Adam.  No wonder Adam was traumatized.
 
I'm not impressed with David Ford's attempt to act like a blind man.  Once upon a time fifteen or twenty years ago, I tried walking around my apartment with my eyes shut.  Not just for a minute or two, but for several days, off and on.  It's surprising what you don't realize you're seeing until you shut your eyes and no longer see it. Sam bumped into some things, but I still thought he made being newly blind look too easy.
 
Does your average general practitioner carry an ophthalmoscope in his medical bag?  Ophthalmoscope, stethoscope, sedatives, hypodermic - what else is in Julia's bag?  Not an original question, I know.

[MagnusTrask]

It's wonderful how much more I see upon re-viewing.  All I saw last time was Adam feeling hurt because Barnabas caned him.  This time I saw Adam watching as Barnabas treated Willie like dirt and treated Adam with respect.  And then when Adam followed Barnabas's lead and treated Willie like dirt too, Barnabas beat Adam.  No wonder Adam was traumatized.
 
I'm not impressed with David Ford's attempt to act like a blind man.  Once upon a time fifteen or twenty years ago, I tried walking around my apartment with my eyes shut.  Not just for a minute or two, but for several days, off and on. 

We present kids with all sorts of logical and moral contradictions while they're developing, and then we wonder why they have problems... those contradictions lead to disconnectedness I think.

Interesting that you did that, simulating blindness.

[IluvBarnabas]

Willie pretty much asked for it, getting strangled by Adam, taunting him with that chicken leg. No wonder Adam tried to kill him....Willie treated him just horribly.

It's a good thing Maggie didn't wear the earrings when she went to the Old House....I have a feeling Barnabas would have looked even less kind on Willie (if that's possible) knowing just WHO he gave Josette's earrings to.

I felt sorry for Adam when Barnabas caned him....he had loved Barnabas in his own way up to this point, and the person that he loves is beating the crap out of him and he can't understand why.

[MagnusTrask]

Willie pretty much asked for it, getting strangled by Adam, taunting him with that chicken leg.

Never taunt a guy with a chicken leg.  That's my new motto.   Artificial life is no exception.   Never taunt with poultry.

Seriously, why are we condemned to imprint upon the best available (sometimes only) parent figure, feeling we have to please or live up to the standards of her/him, even if he/she has no interest in our existence?   I suppose because a parent figure is a basic need.    Too bad that we aren't emotionally free to ditch imaginary pseudo-parent figures when they cease to be relevant or useful....

[Nancy]

At a festival, KLS brought up the fact that the character Sam Evans was made blind so he could wear the glasses and read the teleprompter more easily.  Jonathan Frid's response to that factoid was: "WHY DIDN'T THEY DO THAT TO ME!?"

Nancy

I'm not impressed with David Ford's attempt to act like a blind man.  Once upon a time fifteen or twenty years ago, I tried walking around my apartment with my eyes shut.  .

[michael c]

since the character of sam evans only appeared in four or five more episodes once he'd been blinded i think the old teleprompter story is a case of kls spinning a yarn to entertain the troops.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Are you implying that KLS' mind sometimes plays tricks when it comes to her recollections? Perish the thought!    (Case in point: the whole Sam sits up bolt upright in his bed during his death scene and wonders where the teleprompter went. Never happened on camera, which is indeed what she implied in My Scrapbook Memories.  )

But then, seriously, she's not exactly the only one to whom that sometimes happens...

[MagnusTrask]

Sam was blind because he was supposed to be the blind old man who befriends Frankenstein's monster.

[EmeraldRose]

This was the first time Barnabas lost his temper and beat Adam. Barnabas had lost his patience, and Adam would become a changed man. I agree, it was sad.

But Willie had it coming to him, because he treated Adam so horribly. It struck me how big Adam's hands were - that chicken leg looked rather small! I bet Adam had a big appetite. I never saw them bring him much food; he must have been hungry all the time. 

(WARNING: SPOILER)
Unfortunately, this is the beginning of the end for Sam. I will miss him when he's gone.

----- Sally -----

[Roland]

It's funny, but I never felt that David Ford was one of the more egregious examples of actors on DS who had trouble reading their lines, but he always seems to be singled out for this failing (I think there were actors who were MUCH worse in this regard).  I just always thought that he got something of a bum rap here.

[MagnusTrask]

I just remember "Barnabas Conrad".

[Lydia]

Roland, I agree with you, David Ford didn't seem to have more trouble with his lines than the other actors did.  Two mutually exclusive explanations occur to me:

1) My understanding is that the source of this story is Kathryn Leigh Scott, who is not an infallible source.  The story is so widespread, however, that there may be other sources that I don't know about.

2) Alternatively, it could be that Ford was very good at hiding his lapses, but that the lapses left plot holes that had to be filled in by other actors in the scene, if they were nimble enough - but I have not watched Ford's scenes with that in mind, so I have no idea whether that's a plausible theory or not.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

1) My understanding is that the source of this story is Kathryn Leigh Scott, who is not an infallible source.  The story is so widespread, however, that there may be other sources that I don't know about.

I've only seen the story in KLS' My Scrapbook Memories or attributed to that book. And you're right that it's hardly an infallible source.

I just wish that KLS would have made a distinction between what might have happened during rehearsal and actual taping because some of the things she writes about [spoiler](like the incident with Terry Crawford supposedly bouncing up off of the mattress during Beth's fall from Widows' Hill)[/spoiler] certainly never happened on camera. And what's extremely unfortunate is that countless articles have picked up on anecdotes like that as though they actually did happen on camera and made it to air - and far too many have used them to deliberately make DS look ridiculous. Though, of course, if KLS actually thought that incident did indeed happen on camera and made it to air (like she supposedly did with the incident involving David Ford and the falling teleprompter), well...