Today's Robservations Slideshow

[michael c]

maggie abruptly goes from bright red to dark brown hair during this moment.

"ultra phantasmagorical" is certainly a colorful...and generous...way to describe this period on the series. i actually found these weeks to be so schlocky and juvenile as to be almost unwatchable.

the storyline was in it's last dying gasps but it wasn't going down without making alot of noise first. adam and nicholas were on their way out and with betsy durkin hanging around as vicki it was a very odd little moment.

but the show has a way of turning itself around and just a few weeks later the quentin storyline wiped the slate clean and returned the show to it's rightful self.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The answer to that will be coming very soon - like the Robs slideshow after 7pm ET/4pm PT tomorrow.  

Just for everyone's benefit, here's the actual evidence:

And believe it or not, Liz is featured actually wearing the jacket for four slideshows in a row (12/5 - 12/8). I know - shocking, huh?! For a long while there it really did look like Liz would only throw the jacket over her shoulders and never actually wear it.  

[Mysterious Benefactor]

LOVE tonight's snapshot of Julia and Maggie from '68.  I always enjoy that scene; part of it is the irony, which truly is "the elephant in the room," that Julia's giving Maggie the message that she's lost an entire day.  It would have been cool if the writers had included dialogue for Maggie along the lines of "oh no, not again" but of course they didn't.  I just really like how that scene is played by the two actresses.  It's a moment of something approaching human reality in the midst of what has been an ultra phantasmagorical period in the storyline.

And here it is:

1968: Ep #638 - Maggie is upset to have 'lost' a whole
day of her life, but is relieved to learn that Nicholas is
gone.

Actually, I'm always saddened when the latter half of the 1968 storyline ends because, while I cannot stand Adam, I love the whole Ang-as-Vamp plot and everything associated with it.

[Gothick]

There's something quietly heartbreaking about Vicki's "sad plaid" little suitcase left abandoned in the foyer.  I seem to recall mscbryk writing quite an eloquent post on that suitcase.  There's such an air of "second hand Rose" about it.

Great captures from today's 1966 show.  On another topic, I agree with MB about the end of 1968.  I'm always sad to see that odd little batch of episodes come up.  There's something so jarring about these--the writing is for the most part horrendous, the direction for Rodan just doesn't work and poor Betsy Durkin sticks out like a sore thumb (not her fault).

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The "sad plaid" suitcase in question:

1966: Ep #117 - Joe has discovered that Vicki's suitcase
is still there.

[michael c]

i don't recall my whole commentary on the "sad plaid" suitcase but one poignant thing that comes to mind is that it was MONOGRAMMED.

i mean it's not like vicki went to louis vuitton and picked this up. so it's sort of bittersweet to think of her having this very cheap piece of luggage monogrammed with her initials. almost as if she was trying to prove to others,and to herself more importantly,that she did indeed have an identity. that she was someone.

another sad thought. that it was a gift to vicki from the foundling home's administration.

anyone trying to assess vicki's status via her worldly possessions(to paraphrase midnite "a handful of dresses,some ugly shoes",and this sad,cheap suitcase)would have an inaccurate view of her entirely.

[michael c]

a few more words on the "sad plaid" suitcase and today's slideshow...

i read somewhere that budgets were so tight for the pilot episode that for the scene where vicki meets burke at the collinsport train station alexandra moltke and mitch ryan were asked to supply their own personal luggage.

in later years vicki tends to travel with the tiny blue suitcase that all the ingenue characters carry.

on to today's slideshow funny that during the leviathan episodes the writers acknowledged that david had indeed "grown up" and was a teenager only a few months later during the summer of 1970 storyline to have him revert to a "child" with a nanny and a playroom and a dollhouse.

[Lydia]

on to today's slideshow funny that during the leviathan episodes the writers acknowledged that david had indeed "grown up" and was a teenager only a few months later during the summer of 1970 storyline to have him revert to a "child" with a nanny and a playroom and a dollhouse.

I don't think that's quite fair.  David was the one who said he had grown up.  Nobody else said it.

[michael c]

i'm sorry but i'm not really seeing your point lydia,

david was not a real person,just a character,and the actor playing him was just reading lines given to him by the writers. thus the writers had acknowledged that the character,and the actor,were growing up. yet in the next storyline he was written as a "child" again.

i'm not seeing what's "unfair" about my remarks.

[Gothick]

Today's 1795 episode slideshow is really diva-rich, with a classic scene involving Abigail, Natalie and Naomi--three of the strongest actresses in the series all together in one scene, and how beautifully this snapshot from that event captures the iconic energies of the moment.  And I do love the dramatic horror of the expressions on Grayson and Clarice's faces as they act out the shocking discovery of Vicki's charm bracelet.  Fabulous stuff.

Great shots of Clarice and Joan together in the drawing room in the 1966 episode, too.

Thanks, MB!

G.

[Lydia]

i'm not seeing what's "unfair" about my remarks.

I'm sorry I was unclear.  What I meant was: Just because David said he had grown up did not mean that in fact he had.  Kids always think they're more grown-up than they are.

Also - a couple of things that I didn't comment on in my previous post - there was no nanny, only a governess, which is a different thing, and Tad, when he was occupying David once, commented that he was getting too old for the playroom.  But again, that doesn't mean that he was.

[michael c]

boy is today's slideshow loaded with moments to cherish and remember. great stuff from joan bennett from all four years.

gothick i knew you'd be impressed. love the scene with liz and mrs.johnson from 1966. i recently watched the scene with naomi,abigail and countess dupres and i'm always mesmerized by the virtuosity of that trinity. alexandra later joins joan,clarice and grayson in this episode and as lovely as she is she's totally outmatched by these thoroughbreds. she almost disappears.

of the scene during the quentin storyline one thing i love about that period is that after having handed the show over to adam and company for most of 1968 the core collins family reclaims their rightful place at the storyline's center. great stuff.

and really, what can one say about liz's leviathan dream? it defies accurate description. it truly must be seen to be believed.

[Gothick]

I remember the last time I watched it, I was able to kind of figure out an explication for Liz's Leviathan dream.  I can't recall now just what it was.  I wonder whether this was one of the instances where they were improvising on the spot... the only dream sequence I can recall that was creepier was the one from 1897 where Jamison dreamt that he was David in 1969 being given a fake birthday party because he was about to die or already dead.

Love today's shots of Diana Millay's big entrance in 1966.  This may be my favorite introduction of a new character.  Interesting how both Diana and Grayson played their first introductory scenes opposite KLS.

I always thought Laura's lunching hat was too offbeat for Ohrbach's; could it have been from Diana's own wardrobe?

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Today's 1795 episode slideshow is really diva-rich, with a classic scene involving Abigail, Natalie and Naomi--three of the strongest actresses in the series all together in one scene

And here it is:

1967: Ep #382 - Natalie tries to persuade Naomi to question
Vicki about the recent events.

And I do love the dramatic horror of the expressions on Grayson and Clarice's faces as they act out the shocking discovery of Vicki's charm bracelet.  Fabulous stuff.

I love that scene too.

1967: Ep #382 - Natalie and Abigail are shocked to discover
Vicki's bracelet with signs of the Zodiac and a charm of the
Devil himself.

Great shots of Clarice and Joan together in the drawing room in the 1966 episode, too.

Classic Mrs. Johnson - always the optimist - not! 

1966: Ep #121 - Mrs. Johnson believes Matthew will get
what's coming to him, but fears how many he may take
with him.

[michael c]

the "diva-rich" nature of this week's slideshow certainly continues with la millay's diner entrance as laura collins. one of my favorite character introductions too.

even before the whole pheonix thing got going i was hooked. diana's delivery was so odd i was just mesmerized by this strange woman and storyline.

as for the hat i suppose it could have been diana's own. note however how trim diana's suit is here and how increasingly blowsy her outfits get as the plot progresses. mostoller was certainly creative at disguising her "condition".