One of the ironic things for me is that 1841 is the only storyline I did not see in its original run. During 1840, the 2 local ABC affiliates in central and eastern Virginia took it off the afternoon slot and ran all 5 episodes together weekly at either Friday night at 11:30 pm or Sunday afternoon, respectively. At age 10, I rarely made past all 5 episodes on Friday night and I was at the whim of my family's plans on Sunday afternoons. With that said, I finally saw all of 1840 and 1841 on SciFi in
1997.
On the down side, I agree with many of you that Morgan is not one of DS's stronger characters. [spoiler]The only real good thing is that the character does not start out as a villain, but grows into one.[/spoiler]Nonetheless, I find Keith Prentice's style to be playing Morgan one step away from throwing a 3 year old's tantrum; he constantly looks like he has a full bladder with no relief in sight. (Insert your favorite "there are no bathrooms in Collinwood" joke here.)
Likewise, there is the obvious point of having none of our real favorite characters actually carried over, only a "what if" story to epilogue the series with.
On the positive side, I think that not only Frid get to show his skill playing a very different character, but this is one of Lara Parker's shining moments on the series. She is my favorite performance here. She looks radiant throughout the story. She shows a genuine range that makes you wonder why she never achieved stardom in prime time.
Now, I don't find that Daphne and Bramwell to really have the chemistry that Lara and Jonathan always have, but I think Kate Jackson shows a good actress in the making by selling the character of Daphne with sincerity. I do believe Daphne loves Bramwell.
Now, neither David Selby or Chris Pennock have as much to work with in the story like in 1840. Perhaps since this was designed as a last hurrah for Jonathan and David's sudden exit due to appendicitis.
I have begun to wonder if the story could have been better with Jerry Lacey as Morgan, which would have been a nice triangle after the Barnabas/Angelique/Trask history. Obviously, the Trask corpse event would have had to have been written quite differently. Imagine though, how curious it would have been for Julia and Flora to have found Morgan's double dead. Or would Trask have been passed over into 1841 at all? The hiring of Keith Prentice sometimes makes me wonder if the definite cancelation of Dark Shadows was determined at the start of that story. It makes me wonder if they, if only briefly considered going on without Jonathan.
The last thing I really like about 1841 is that the writing is still very strong. I think the plots and scripting are still very good. The post complaring this to a Price/Corman/Poe film are apt. Now if ONLY they had gotten Vincent Price to play Justin!!!!!! Hey Dan, couldn't you have afforded him for just 3 days??? :-
I think John Karlen and Nancy Barrett made a great couple in this story as well. That's why I certain they also were cast as a couple in NODS.
Gotta go, Christmas dinner is ready. Merry Christmas!!