Discuss - Ep #0001

[Watching Project]

Robservations #1

[Lydia]

Episode 1 of a shiny new series, although of course everything looks old.  Elizabeth's earrings sparkled, though.

Vicky doesn't impress me much.  She drops everything to go off to a job in the middle of nowhere, sight unseen.  In her shoes, I'd be sort of nervous about it even before Burke Devlin and Maggie Evans started talking.  And then she talks too much to Burke Devlin, a complete stranger, and gets into a car with him, too.

When the old lady on the train (Jane Rose was wonderful) asked what Vicky would do for fun, I remembered my grandmother telling about how she arrived in a new town to teach English and Latin in 1920 and looked around for some fun by going to church.  The first Sunday she went to Church A and they said, "You can teach Sunday School!" and that didn't sound like fun, so the next Sunday she went to Church B and they had something else she could do to help them that she didn't care to do, so the next Sunday she went to Church C, and so on.  But with the way the old lady on the train was talking, there may not be all that many churches in Collinsport for Vicky to try.

I kept thinking, as Roger held his brandy glass, "Did they have to use a glass that was so obviously plastic?"  And then Roger crushed it in his hand, and I understood why the glass was plastic.  We should be impressed by the tension that enables him to break glass in his bare hand (ouch!) but what if it really is a plastic glass?  In my family we have tons of lovely old dishes that have come down through the generations, but very few glasses, because those were more likely to get broken.  Maybe the Collinses have broken all their old glasses and don't care to spend much money on more.

Did "jerk" ever mean what Maggie apparently intends it to mean?  I think she meant "fool".

If I were watching this episode as a new show today, knowing nothing more about it than what I saw today, I think I wouldn't be terribly tempted to watch tomorrow's episode.  There's the misuse of "jerk", there's Vicky being not terribly bright, and there's that plastic brandy glass.  But I do know more about it than what I saw today, and I enjoyed seeing the beginning of what turned into something wonderful.

[DarkLady]

My goodness, Lydia, you've already jumped in with both feet! 

To paraphrase Vicki, "Our journey is just beginning." When episode 1 aired, I wonder if anyone--DC included--could have imagined what that journey would be like and the places it would take us.

I've always been struck by Joan Bennett's beauty and the regal dignity she brought to the role of Elizabeth from the very beginning--I never could think of her as Liz. Everything about her sparkes as far as I'm concerned.

Vicki is very immature and naive, even for 1966. I was a teenager myself at the time and was totally absorbed with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, etc.--in other words, the larger world. The orphanage is supposed to be in New York, but it must have been quite a cloistered community. Even Mrs. Mitchell (yes, Jane Rose was terrific) seemed more worldly wise, and she must have spent most of her life near Collinwood. I hope that nowadays the writers wouldn't have Vicki get into the car with a complete stranger. And in those days, "jerk" was used to mean "fool" or "idiot." Love Maggie's brassy blond wig!

I suspect there was only one church in Collinsport and that the Collinses did not attend it, although I'm sure the front couple of pews were reserved for them and paid up. I also suspect Roger has had enough practice that he's figured out a way to crush glass glasses without severing an artery. 

I love those last shots, when Vicki arrives at the Great House. She can see only Elizabeth's silhouette, but Elizabeth has a clear view of Vicki as she stands in the brighly lit foyer and gazes about her, looking very small indeed.

[MagnusTrask]

Yes, that actually is an old meaning for "jerk": someone who allows himself to be taken advantage of.

"Yes I'm here, what do you want me to do?  I can't see the slate..."   Words of announcer beforehand.   This is take three.  I just watched "Scarlet Street" again, and I cannot imagine Liz saying, "Jeepers I love you, Johnny!"   Are they making a special stop at Collinsport for Victoria and Burke?   The biddy (I don't intend to be disrespectful; I think she was hired to be a "biddy") said the train hasn't stopped at Collinsport in five years.   Wait, five years?!  But then, I'm getting ahead of myself....

The biddy was a regular on the short-lived "Phyllis" TV series starring Cloris Leachman, an MTM spinoff.   She tended to say off-color things one wouldn't expect to come from the mouth of a biddy, hence the comedy.

Sorry Lydia, while I was bored by VW as a child, now she strikes me as a very grounded and intelligent character.   It seemed completely natural to me to feel Burke out by volunteering information and seeing how he responded, but then a lot of people over the years have probably thought that I'm too open with people.

I was going to say, not that much fun to be found in churches, but then again, Bramwell and Catherine had a nice experience at one.   By the way, where's Bramwell, and what happened to all the color?

[DarkLady]

I was going to say, not that much fun to be found in churches, but then again, Bramwell and Catherine had a nice experience at one.   By the way, where's Bramwell, and what happened to all the color?

If I remember right, [spoiler]Bramwell made Catherine MISS going to church that day. I think we can also be pretty sure he wasn't on the way there himself either. [/spoiler]

And as for all that color, it kind of takes me back to see that glorious black and white!

[Janet the Wicked]

Sorry Lydia, while I was bored by VW as a child, now she strikes me as a very grounded and intelligent character.

Agreed. For quite a while Vicky knows the score in these early episodes. Unlike later in the series when she is completely clueless.

Here is the big intro to brother and sister. Already we are made fully aware just what an ass Roger is.
Here is bitter Burke at his very bitterest.
Maggie, the bewigged town gossip.
These are the episodes I have been wainting for. The location shooting... Yummy!

[MagnusTrask]

Your wainting is over, Lydia!!   Experience early DS in all its bewigged glory!!   Forgive me please, I'm just trying anything available to entertain self....

[Janet the Wicked]

Your wainting is over, Lydia!!   Experience early DS in all its bewigged glory!!   Forgive me please, I'm just trying anything available to entertain self....

Is that why you called me Lydia?

[MagnusTrask]

Is that why you called me Lydia?

I guess... or else, I had a brain fart of some kind.   Sorry!

[Gothick]

I just love Maggie's line to Vicki about that lovely hair of yours turning "one glorious shade of grey" after her stay at the Great House.

What a wonderful start to the series!  And if asked why we're still watching forty-five years later, we can all quote the Mistress of Collinwood:  "Because I *choose* to do so!"

cheers, G.

[Lydia]

And in those days, "jerk" was used to mean "fool" or "idiot."

I think you'd have to go back further than 1966 for that to be the mainstream meaning of jerk.  I still say the writers should have used another word.

Vicki is very immature and naive, even for 1966.

Oh, bless you, DarkLady!

[Midnite]

Are they making a special stop at Collinsport for Victoria and Burke?   The biddy (I don't intend to be disrespectful; I think she was hired to be a "biddy") said the train hasn't stopped at Collinsport in five years.   Wait, five years?!

Yes.  And she said it hadn't made a regular stop there in maybe that long.

I not only had no problem with Vicki approaching Burke or getting into his car, I thought both were smart choices.  With all the time Liz spent contemplating her arrival, did she ever once consider sending a car for her?  (Anyone but Roger?)  If Burke hadn't happened along, would the poor girl have been stranded on the platform all night, waiting and wondering if a taxi was going to show?  How safe would that have been?

The actor playing the conductor returns in the 1897 story as a doctor tending to Barnabas.  I'd totally forgotten that Bob O'Connell/Bob the bartender was in the first ep!

[DarkLady]

I think Collinsport was what is called a "hatl" in English train parlance--in other words, you have to make a request (to the engineer or conductor?) for the train to stop there. I suppose now that Burke is so wealthy, he can stop the train wherever he darn well pleases.

[michael c]

in 1897 amanda harris rather derogatorily calls collinsport a "whistle-stop town" meaning it was such a backwater the trains didn't stop there unless signaled to do so...

69 years later apparently it still was. so this begs the question when was collinport's "heyday" so to speak. when was it at it's peak? the eighteenth century?

it's clear that by 1966 it had seen better days as mrs.mitchell makes loud and clear.

[Uncle Roger]

Did anyone see any characteristics of Eve Arden in episode 1's Maggie?