Question For DS Viewers who watched first run!! :)

I was just wondering what some of your reactions were when[spoiler] Barnabas was staked on camera in 1897 (so Jonathan could go away on vacation) by Charity? [/spoiler]  I was looking at the front page and it got me to wondering!  It must have been one LONG month!!

By that time I already  caught on to the formula. I knew he would be back. Just a matter of how they will do it. Although I kept waiting for Maggie to come back. I knew we would never see Alexandra as Vicky because my mother read it some soap magazine.

I also figured he would be back, that it was just a part of the plot-line, so it really was no big whoop to me.  Even my DS-watching friends knew he would return.  I have to admit, though, that I did miss him when he was gone for that month and happy to see him when he came back.

Gerard

I also knew he would be back.  Killing off Barnabas would have been suicide for the show.

I pretty much figured he'd be back. But as the time went on
and we watched each day, we did begin to wonder.
There was much excited when Barnabas again appeared. 

I knew Barnabas couldn't have been killed for good. But I was counting the days.

I used to keep track of the days that JF was on.

Yeah I guess you KNEW in your hearts he wasn't gone.  I always thought this was a great plotline though [spoiler]and I loved the work Julia, Barney and Angie did together[/spoiler]  I am sure the suspense was killing everyone though!

I just don't remember specifics, just a blooper in 1970 and the last minute of the last episode.   I know that when I watched again in 2002, it had impact.   They were willing to go on all sorts of unexpected twists and turns in stories... 1897 spoiler:[spoiler]case in point, zombie Quentin, then revived Quentin...[/spoiler] So, while I knew Barnabas came back somehow, anything really could happen in the meantime.   I even managed to suspend disbelief a little, and wonder if he really was a ghost.

Not that I didn't like anyone Else's reply but I appreciate that one.  I wanted to kind of get the feeling everyone had even though they knew B would be back!!   I have done the same thing Magnus with shows when I was spoiled on certain subjects!! 

YAY! I cannot believe I have reached 800 posts!  Seems like yesterday I was a wee lad of 20 posts! I know I get excited over silly things!

congrats!

I think I must have read in 16 magazine (it was my religion back then, lol) that Jonathan Frid was taking a vacation to Barnabas would be "absent."  Even so, the staking was SHOCKING, particularly given how gruesomely they staged it... at least, by the standards of 1969 television, it was an extreme sequence.

The scene the next day where Pansy staggers into the Blue Whale and confesses what she's done rates as a high point in Nancy Barrett's work on the series, IMO.

Congratulations to Taeylor on 800!

cheers!  G.

Well, I didn't watch the show in it's original run (reason being I wasn't even born yet), so this post doesn't really apply to me, but I would still like to comment. My mom watched the original run - is that close enough?

Barnabas' staking in 1897 is, in my opinion, one of the best plot twists the show ever turned up. Even though I KNEW he wasn't really gone, they made me believe that he was. I watched in suspense for several episodes, thinking "Oh god, Barnabas is really dead! How will I live without him?" Then when he came back... Wow. I was shocked even though I knew it was coming. It was that believable to me.

Congrats on 800 posts, Taeylor!

Of course JOY.  I mainly posted it toward those who watched the original run because I figured they didn't have access to spoilers like we do these days.  Something that I think in a way has ruined television!  Thanks for the hug.  I needed that!

When I saw this post, I thought you all were talking about the ep where Willie discovered Barnabas. I must have missed something. But when I was sweet sixteen, Channel 56 was airing DS nightly. I fell in love with Willie and Barnabas all over again. We made fun of Miss Hoffman's hair and Doc Lang's foolish whims. I have no recollection now, or then of Barn being staked. So fill me in, will ya...

I watched the show too in reruns many years later after it went off the air. As a 8 year old girl, I was HORRIFIED when Barnabas got staked (or so I thought). I couldn't believe my favorite character was gone for good. The way they filmed it, it made Barnabas' 'demise' seem so final, at least to me.

You can just imagine how I was when he turned up again a few weeks later....I was thrilled. Watching the show from an adult's prospective, I picked up more readily on the little clues that Barnabas would be back.

[spoiler] The fact that Kitty continued to be drawn by the portrait of Barnabas, continued to be haunted by the memory of Josette, putting on her wedding dress and such, Jeremiah's ghost appearing to her.... [/spoiler] they all pinpoint to me now that Barnabas wasn't really truly gone.