The Creepiness of Anthony George

[tragic bat]

I've been watching the Viki/Burke romance storyline for the first time, and find it kind of disturbing.  First of all, I can't imagine Mitch Ryan's Burke ever saying most of the things that Burke #2 does.  But this revised character is sending up all sorts of red flags for domestic violence in my view.  There is a deep conservatism and smarminess beneath his romantic gestures.   He is possessive, controlling, agressive and creepy.  He tries to tell Viki where she should and shouldn't go, condescends to her about her 'vivid imagination' and wants to decide for her who she should be friends with.  He has a fit when she doesn't do what he recommends.

When he proposes, she says she doesn't know if she should accept not knowing her identity and he tells her, "you'll have an identity, you'll be Mrs. Burke Devlin."  Which is so sexist and creepy that I imagine if Joe had said it to Maggie she would have screamed her head off.  Then he tells her in a passage that is supposed to be sweet that "I'll ask you again tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day until you say yes..." which is ultimately harassment, proven by his continued impatience in waiting for her answer.  She asks about his past, and he refuses to tell her anything about it, saying it is none of her buisness and he is only interested in the future.  Right after she accepts his proposal, he demands she never go to the old house again while refusing to tell her why (this is as far as I've gotten.)

Burke #2 really seems like the kind of guy who the day after they're married and she refuses to follow some order of his, will slap her in the face hard enough to land on the floor and then later come back crying, begging for her forgiveness (this is how most marriages on Dark Shadows end up, really).  And Viki likely wouldn't know what to do, because her own past as an orphan has blinded her to this guy and how messed up he really is.   Mitch Ryans Burke painted himself as someone too ambitous to go after an orphaned governess, but Anthony George's seems to see as her easy prey, much more 'managable' then someone like Laura or Carolyn.   Just like Barnabas, he wants to feed off her vulnerabilities and use her, isolate her in a barren old house by the sea and cut her off from her support network.    I wish Frank Garner had stayed around, he would be so much better as a love interest.  But I absolutely hate Anthony George's Burke, I can't wait for him to [spoiler]take his plane ride[/spoiler] (though sadly jeff clarke isn't much better.)

[michael c]

like victoria's "clueless" gothic ingenue role the burke devlin character has not help up well in the post-feminist age. he's a throwback. a world class male chauvinist. but in 1967 pretty par for the course in the world of daytime television.

i didn't see him as wanting to cut vicki off from her "support system". not liz or carolyn or maggie. and when david was going off the deep end he allowed(unwisely, in retrospect)their wedding to be put off indefinitely so she could stay at collinwood and care for him until he was well.


what burke objected to, quite correctly, was vicki spending time around barnabas and at the old house. where, it should be noted, there was a coffin in the basement with her name on it. he suspected barnabas was a liar...and he was. he thought that he was involved in maggie's kidnapping...and he was. all of burke's insticts about barnabas were, at the time, correct. it's easy to forget that because of his domineering personality.

it was not until burke's departure that barnabas gradually became the series' doomed romantic antihero. but during the devlin era he was pretty much rotten.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I have never cared for Anthony George's Burke Devlin.  I like his scenes with AM as much as I like those AM shares with Roger Davis.  Nearly every one of them is uncomfortable to watch.  I really wished that they would have killed Burke off when Mitch Ryan departed.  He got what he wanted.  He could have left.  It would have made these episodes much more bearable.  Another thing that bothers me is how the writers view the Burke Devlin role as the male lead.  If anything, there was no male lead after Burke's initial storyline wrapped.  He was a secondary character, yet Anthony George got star billing.  There's nothing interesting about this Burke Devlin.  He doesn't have a story or a cause.  He's lost in a vampire story that doesn't involve him.  His presence just bothers me.  I am glad I am not alone. 

[MagnusTrask]

(**Applause for tragicbat**)  I need not make specific comments, because I agree totally and completely.  Well done.

[michael c]

he was the rival in barnabas' romantic pursuit of vicki...


he played a very important part during that period.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Well, I understand that, but the move was unnecessary.  As tragic bat points out, Mitch Ryan's Burke would probably never have been able to settle down and live a normal life.  It's like the character did a 360, and I would have rather had a new character or Frank Garner fill the role of Vicki's love interest.  The decision to keep the character after his purpose was fulfilled, after the show had moved into a new direction, and after the first actor departed was a poor one.  The fact that we are left wit these uncomfortable scenes is evidence of that.   

[michael c]

for what it's worth ryan's departure was very, very abrupt. at the very least they had a storyline to finish out.


and i believe at the time of his departure frid/barnabas was still on the 'thirteen week' cycle. barnabas was the one who was supposed to end up with a stake through his heart.

it was a very uncertain, up in the air time on the series and the producers did what they thought best.

[David]

Part of the problem was George himself, who admitted that he hated doing DS and considered it a comedown, especially after starring in primetime TV & having been a contract player at 20th Century Fox.
I don't think he put his "all" into Burke.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

for what it's worth ryan's departure was very, very abrupt. at the very least they had a storyline to finish out.


and i believe at the time of his departure frid/barnabas was still on the 'thirteen week' cycle. barnabas was the one who was supposed to end up with a stake through his heart.

it was a very uncertain, up in the air time on the series and the producers did what they thought best.

All very true.  But Ryan had had his big scene.  The storyline was no longer focused on Burke.  It had gone off the deep-end into supernatural territory, regardless of the longevity of the Barnabas character.  The family competition, the cannery, everything was gone, and Burke didn't seem to serve a useful purpose after Ryan left.  In all likelihood, I would have been better able to accept the new Burke had they had the character leave for several months and then return.  It was a poor decision to immediately recast imo (just as with Vicki, though Vicki's case was a little more pressing), but that's hindsight. 

[Gothick]

A few comments:

Anthony George did not get "star billing."  The only actors who received special billing on DS were Moltke and Joan Bennett.  In the final few months Jonathan Frid finally got the special billing he had deserved since 1967.  Everyone else on the series was just billed as name and role.

I agree with michael c--Burke's instincts about Barnabas WERE correct, and he had very good reasons for trying to get Vicki not to go to the Old House. 

As far as acting goes, I thought George wasn't right for the romantic stuff, but some of his antagonistic scenes with Barnabas were really well played, particularly the "I thrust, you parry" scene in the Blue Whale.  At least, that's how I see it.  If you don't like the actor from the get-go, the guy could cry real tears while delivering a Shakespeare sonnet and your reaction is just going to be "feh."  And frankly, if Roger Davis declaimed from the Bard, *my* reaction would be "feh."  I just happen to think George was better than most fans seems to feel.  I also love the scene where Burke and Miss Hoffman have a deliciously man-to-man talk in the drawing room over cigarettes.  Just grand stuff IMO.

The Burke character was, as michael c points out correctly, a holdover from Shadows' origins in the realm of paperback Gothic novels.  The aggressive, controlling, demanding mystery man who both intrigues and repels the heroine.  It's kind of frustrating to think that if Conard Fowkes hadn't asked DC for a pay raise, Frank might have been Vicki's love interest and Barnabas' rival in 1967 and we might have had a very different story.  I presume the Burke character was retained because he was established and for whatever reason a re-cast of Frank was not considered.

G.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Anthony George did not get "star billing."  The only actors who received special billing on DS were Moltke and Joan Bennett.  In the final few months Jonathan Frid finally got the special billing he had deserved since 1967.  Everyone else on the series was just billed as name and role.

But Anthony George was billed first when Joan Bennett was not in a show and second when she was (just as Frid was after his departure.)  I consider that, in terms of the DS universe, "star billing," because that's just how the cookie crumbled in the credits.  The biggest "star" in any given show was listed first. 

[Gothick]

Cousin B, I've heard that theory, but I don't know that I'm convinced. 

It may be that George got listed first because of his starring role in the early 1960s series Checkmate (which also starred Sebastian Cabot and an incredibly young Doug McClure).  Maybe.

Being listed first in the scroll hardly equates to star billing IMO.  Just how I see it.

G.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

I've spent a good deal of time studying those credits, and it's the only plausible theory I see.  It's especially interesting to watch the climb of Jonathan Frid's name.  If not for the "biggest star angle," why else would Frid be given first billing, Grayson second, etc. for most of the run of the show (discounting Joan Bennett)?   (I suppose this is another thread.  )

But regardless, George received first billing (again w/o Joan) from his first appearance, just as Ryan had since the beginning of the series. 

[arashi]

I agree with michael c--Burke's instincts about Barnabas WERE correct, and he had very good reasons for trying to get Vicki not to go to the Old House.

I agree with Gothick and michael c, but I also agree with tragic bat. I don't see Burke as physically abusive, but I do see him as incredibly controlling. Everything will be his way and no other way, save for a few other circumstances (such as David, because he does care for the kid). I hate they way he talks to Vicki sometimes, as if she is a child and everything she's interested in is beneath her time and most of all, his. It's frustratingly insulting. I thought AG was much better as Jeremiah.

[Lydia]

arashi’s response prompted me to spend some time wondering why this topic was entitled “The Creepiness of Anthony George” rather than “The Creepiness of latter-day Burke”.  Anthony George was given some disturbing lines to act; although I can't remember the episode, I do remember thinking once that Vicky should steer clear of Burke.  But would Mitchell Ryan have delivered those lines in a way that made them seem OK?  If the answer is “No, the lines were intrinsically creepy,” then the next question is: Would these lines have been written for Mitchell Ryan?  And also: Why wasn't Jeremiah given creepy lines?

I do remember noticing that Jeremiah was a more authoritarian character than pre-vampire Barnabas was, and I thought it could cause trouble in his marriage to Josette somewhere along the line.  Maybe if Anthony George had stayed in the show, Jeremiah would have ended up seeming just as creepy as George’s Burke.  But that's something we can't know.

I think Anthony George has a weak-looking demeanor.  Is that why the writers thought it was OK to give him control-freak lines?

And yes, I agree that Burke's instincts were right about Barnabas, but doesn't make Burke himself any less unpleasant.