Three Most Favorite John Karlen Characterizations

[PennyDreadful]

   I picked Willie, Carl and William H. Loomis (though it was a tough call between him and Desmond).

  Willie is a classic.  He completely enhanced the early Barnabas episodes and added a so much to them as the former creep, now-jittery and humbled vampire's servant.  Incredible performance.  His post-1967 appearances were also great.  His nasty taunting of Adam was particularly memorable.  He seemed to have gotten some of his heelish qualities back once he was free of Barnabas' powers.

  Carl.  I just love Carl.  The guy is the ultimate practical joker with the mind of a ten year-old.  What a nut!  When he brought in his love Pansy I cracked up.  Those two were meant for each other!  [spoiler]I was actually pretty mad when Barnabas killed off Carl.  Yeah he was obnoxious but he was kind of sweet in a nutty way, and it was so sad how he longed for Pansy after she died.  When Pansy possessed Charity, sadly, Carl was dead.   The poor lil' guy.[/spoiler]
   Willaim H. Loomis was my next choice but it was a tie with Desmond.  Both characters were very good.  What a desperate character William was, and played to perfection by Karlen.   Even though he was a writer, he really wasn't too bright to try keeping a friggin' VAMPIRE in his house just so he could get a bestseller out of it.  So whaddaya think?  Did that storyline influence Anne Rice to write "Interview With The Vampire" or what?     (Actually that might not be too far fetched.  I hear she's a DS fan).  Desmond was an excellent character as well.  Dignified and strong - very different from John Karlen's previous characters.

  PennyDreadful

[Maybellique]

I've always thought Ann Rice got her inspiration from that storyline. And you're right, she IS a DS fan. What year was IWTV written, anyway?

I also heard Ann Rice got a lot of her inspiration from personal experiences. I think that mainly pertained to Claudia, though.

And how do you guys DO that spoiler text thing? I'm new here so I'm almost afraid to reveal too much without knowing how to do that. ~DJ

[Midnite]

how do you guys DO that spoiler text thing? I'm new here so I'm almost afraid to reveal too much without knowing how to do that. ~DJ

Enclose your text in these tags: 

Code: [Select]

[spoiler]TEXT[/spoiler]

[PennyDreadful]

Thanks for fixing my post.  I wasn't sure how to do the spoiler text either.  Now I do!

[Maybellique]

[spoiler]testing 1-2-3[/spoiler]

Sweet. Where did you find that code? ~DJ

[Mysterious Benefactor]

A button was once available to automatically insert the spoiler tags into posts. But it's something that I came up and I haven't had the chance to add it to the new system yet.    So, for the moment, it's an "undocumented" code...

[Maybellique]

   You came up with it, MB? Very inventive. ~DJ

[Raineypark]

Willie Loomis....(big surprise to long-time forum members... )..... for reasons of my own.

William H. Loomis....because the role allowed Karlen to portray a completely different character....one who's demons were internal rather than external.

Carl Collins.....because it gave Karlen free reign to show us his exquisite sense of comedic abandon.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

1970PT is one of my favorite DS storylines and Karlen's William H. Loomis is definitely one of my favorite characters in it, so I'm thrilled to see him place third.

[Maybellique]

   Yeah, he definitely did a good job as WHL. I was just watching some of that storyline the other day... ~DJ

[Jackie]

Rats, missed this poll.  I think John Karlen was wonderful as Willie and all his characters just have the flair of intensity.  I heard an interview on one of the DVD and he said his favorite character was Willie.  I believe he just forgot the names of all the others.  LOL  That reminds me, I wrote the transcript of that interview onto a text file.  I'll post it under a new thread.

I have to say though.  I recently saw the earlier episodes of Willie before the influence of Barnabas.  Watching the first Willie [James Hall] made me really dislike that character.  JH, although not Willie in fans' eyes, did an okay job depicting a scumbag.  JK's version created sympathy for a man who was basically scum.  Here is a collage of the 1st Willie many fans may not have seen.  I know I didn't see JH until just a few months ago.

[Misa]

I saw James Hall as Willie, he played him much more creepy. I don't know if he would have been able to give the character the same transformation that John Karlen did. JK played Willie so well, I'm glad that James Hall left for whatever reason.

Misa

[Luciaphile]

James Hall's Willie was more of a registered sex offender type. He was the kind of guy who when he walks into a store--the security guards and more experienced clerks all sit up and take notice.

I didn't care for Hall, but that had more to do with the actor's line flubbing and apparent belief that he was playing in a rough trade version of Death of a Salesman as witness his repeated references to "Willy Loman."

Karlen wasn't quite so count-the-silver/keep-the-mace-handy scary. but at the same time I think he gave a much more nuanced performance.

[Patti Feinberg]

James Hall's Willie was more of a registered sex offender type.

lolololololololLOL! too true!!

(can you explain about the Willie Loman reference?)

Patti

[Raineypark]

Willy Loman is the main character in Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman"  It's considered to be one of the most significant characters in American playwriting.

Perhaps James Hall was engaging in wishful thinking about his future prospects on the stage...