And Even Yet Another New Slideshow

This is just too cool!  I don't even recall the shot of the portrait from my one viewing of the pilot, so had I been admitted to the mansion, I am afraid I wouldn't even have recognized that.  It is bizarre that WB never claimed their property.  I wonder if it's still there?  You know that painting would fetch a pretty price at a Festival auction.

Even though the date is given as 1788 to my untutored eye it looks more early 1800s.  Certainly very Byronic.

Thanks so much to Midnite and MB!  Happy Holidays!

G.

Some years ago, I took the VIP tour of the Warner Brothers studio (Highly recommended by the way), I spotted the Barnabas portrait in the prop department. It was difficult for them to store it because of its size. Pictures were not allowed in this area and I wasn't able to sneak one. When I went back a few years later, the portrait was gone
 The tour guide knew what I was talking about but couldn't say where it had gone

I don't think this contradicts Midnite's seeing it at Greystone. It may have been there for another film or TV project. And the tour guide did indicate that there was more than one copy.

After today's quote -

Page 32 - Vampire: 'My apologies for the hour, but I couldn't resist any longer.

- (as we've already surmised) the script goes on the explain -

The Vampire turns as Roger and Elizabeth comes down the stairs, gaping at their visitor. He is, in fact, a DEAD RINGER for the man in the portrait.

- however, in the pilot 1) Roger and Elizabeth don't come down any stairs - they simply enter the room, and 2) the "vampire" doesn't actually deliver that quote quite yet. And the explanation of why he doesn't will come up once tomorrow's quote comes up in the slideshow...

(And, yes, "comes down the stairs" is the way it's written in the script.  )

Wow, that's cool!!!! But I think I must have missed the portrait shot. Oh well. Thanks as always for your herculean efforts!

The portrait post is reply #404 back on page #27. 

The reason why the "vampire" hadn't delivered yesterday's quote quite yet is because in the pilot the line is placed after today's quote -

Page 32 - Barnabas: (taking Elizabeth's hand) 'I'm Barnabas Collins.'

- as in "'I'm Barnabas Collins. My apologies for the hour, but I couldn't resist any longer."

O. M. G. *thud*

Again I must thank you, MB, for taking the time out to transcribe all of this.  I wish I had any memory of this current scene.  I do remember how handsome, dashing, and poignant Alec's performance was in the role.

Best,

G.

Re: today's quote: I'm staring too!

Thanks yet again, MB.

For the most part the recent quotes in the slideshow have been delivered as scripted. But it wouldn't hurt to add a few notes about them:

As for July 6th's quote -

Page 32 - Elizabeth: 'Barnabas? You even have his name?'

- Liz puts a strong emphasis on "You" when she delivers the line.

With July 7th's quote -

Page 32 - Barnabas: 'A tragic lack of imagination on the part of my parents. (kissing her hand) You must be my cousin Elizabeth.'

- Barnabas delivers it exactly as suavely as we've come to expect of him in such a situation (but in the pilot, rather than kiss Elizabeth's hand in the middle of his delivery, he kisses it at the end). Though after that line the script indicates that:

While Elizabeth is taken with Barnabas, Roger is suspicious.

And of course Barnabas takes note of this and with July 8th's quote makes a point of remarking -

Page 32 - Barnabas (CONT'D): (to Roger) 'And you... are staring.'

- but in the pilot it's delivered as "And you are... staring" - and that seems to be a much more appropriate delivery in the situation because it more clearly makes the line both a question as to who Roger is as well as a remark that Roger is staring.

And when it comes to today's quote -

Page 33 - Roger: 'Roger Collins. You're in from...?'

- Roger says it exactly as dryly emotionless as we'd expect.

As for the latest two quotes, yesterday's -

Page 33 - Barnabas: 'England. I tried to get a message through, but I understand there's been a family emergency.'

- and today's -

Page 33 - Elizabeth: 'My daughter, Carolyn. She was... injured. Bitten by some sort of animal.'

- they're delivered pretty much as one might imagine and as scripted. However, beginning with tomorrow's quote changes will again surface between the script vs. the pilot, with parts of quotes or entire quotes being dropped and the order of others switched around. But more on that beginning tomorrow...

I presume in terms of running time of the finished pilot, we're now at roughly the 20 minute mark.  It's odd that I have total amnesia of the scene of Barnabas' arrival at Collinwood.  The dialogue at this point is really well written.

Thanks again, MB!

G.

I didn't get the chance to point out yesterday that with yesterday's quote -

Page 33 - Barnabas: 'My... condolences. But the girl, she's recovering?'

- the "But the girl, she's recovering?" part was dropped in the pilot. And also, before Barnabas delivers yesterday's quote, the script makes an important point in that:

Barnabas tightens with surprise and regret. He had no idea Carolyn was a member of the Collins family.

I presume in terms of running time of the finished pilot, we're now at roughly the 20 minute mark.

Yes, Barnabas begins his introduction to the family in the first few minutes of the second half of the pilot.

I'm finding this re-boot pilot fascinating.  It appears so well written with a great cast.  It's a shame it was rejected.  It's also extraordinary that with everything we've seen so far (not counting un-shot or cut scenes) has elapsed in only about 20 minutes.  My one criticism, regarding the storyline, is having Barnabas show up at Collinwood in just a few hours after his release with full knowledge of everything going on, including, apparently, much of 21st century goings-on.  I always counted the rather rapid appearance of Barnabas introducing himself to the family one of the major illogical things about DS, in whatever version.  The '12 version handled it the best.  The '66 and '91 versions did wait for a couple days or so (still not enough time for our favorite past-dweller to make himself inconspicuous), but - if my timing is right - having him show up in a few hours.  Maybe I'm wrong about that timing.  It does become confusing trying to understand its passage when dealing with what was in the script but re-written; what was in the script and not shot; what was in the script and shot but cut; what was not in the script but shot.  Maybe a day or more has passed.

Kinda along that line, I think it would've been interesting if the powers-that-be saw the completed pilot (meaning really completed) and liked it enough to run with it, had said "it's good, but it needs more fleshing out - put the cut/never-shot scenes back and add a few more and expand it over several episodes."  That was done with Lost In Space back in '65.  The original pilot, an hour long, was packed with lots of adventure that spanned years in the passage of time (much of it taken up by the Gemini XIII [later Jupiter 2] space ship drifting through space until it crash-landed on a hostile planet).  There was no Dr. Smith or the robot.  The suits at CBS wanted it "fleshed out" to promote character development, so new scenes were shot, Dr. Smith (who was originally a totally evil character that was suppose to be offed after no more than six episodes) and the robot added, and the one-hour original pilot was expanded into four episodes.  The series became a cult-classic and a part of television Americana.  Of course, TV suits don't do that anymore.  They don't want to invest in working and developing a series.  They want it all now, and if it doesn't work right now, it's history.  There's no opportunity to work out the kinks, allow for development and find the audience.  Many classic TV shows from the past wouldn't be around if broadcasters "back then" followed today's make-it-rich-quick mentality today.  If that had happened, we wouldn't have such critical/viewer smashes like The Dick Van Dyke Show, All In the Family and Cheers.  All debuted to extremely low ratings which today would've had them trashed after a few episodes.  But the networks held out, found ways of making them work and without these classic series, we'd have no TVLand today.

Gerard