Boardindex Page Montage/aka 'Book 1'?

[Gerard]

Palm trees! Palm trees!  Palms Trees! PALM TREES!!!!!!!  This is the big one, Elizabeth!  I'm coming!

Gerard

[Gerard]

Guess I never noticed the palm trees before, but even so it puts Dan Curtis in classic company. In the Bond movie, You Only Live Twice you see a supposed Russian spacecraft launch but there are palm trees in the background. Lol.

In DePalma's Carrie, even though also set in Maine, there were palm trees, palm trees, palm trees, PALM TREES!!!!! And Carpenter's Halloween, set in Illinois, the vehicles sported Californian license plates, California license plates, California license plates, CALIFORNIA LICENSE PLATES!!!!!!

Gerard

[Midnite]

When production of the series began on July 23, 1990, it actually began at Ports O'Call and Fisherman's Wharf in San Pedro, CA. They served as settings for Collinsport and the water just beyond it. In order to help to curb high production costs, DC directed scenes there for multiple eps.

As a native San Pedran, I can tell you that DC did all of that filming within a very tiny part of the harbor.  (If you go to that spot now, there are hardly any fishing boats left.  It's all about the marina now and the private boats.  Very sad.)

Anyway, there's a huge parking lot between the narow channel seen in the capture and the palm trees, which surround the main entrance to Ports O' Call.  So it's not like the trees were right next to where Joe kept his boat, and you'd have to focus on the distant background to notice them in the shot while filming.

At the beginning of David Selby's movie "Raise the Titanic" (made before evidence was discovered that the ship was not intact), a spy on a frozen island north of Russia comes upon the famous Arctic Pine Tree.  He is right next to it.  What were they thinking??

[Gothick]

As someone who's lived in New England most of my life since 1986, it's always so blatantly obvious when a film or TV show is supposed to be set here and it's so obviously either Southern California, or Vancouver.

I love it in the old 1940s movies when we're supposed to be in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and I'm wondering if it's Topanga Canyon, Laurel Canyon or somewhere similar...

G.

[KMR]

And, of course, there's the palm trees that make periodic cameos.

Oh yes! While everyone seems to remember seeing them at the harbor, that's something I don't remember. BUT, I do recall palm trees on the Collinwood grounds in a scene or two. I want to say they were in the duel sequence, but that might not be where I saw them.

[Gothick]

I'm curious about the site of the currently depicted action in the story. I'm wondering if this is meant to be the 1991 version of Wyndcliffe. I don't recall this setting in the 1991 episodes but, again, it's been a long while. I saw most of them once when I collected the videotapes sometime around 2004, then got rid of them all after I'd viewed the shows.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While everyone seems to remember seeing them at the harbor, that's something I don't remember. BUT, I do recall palm trees on the Collinwood grounds in a scene or two. I want to say they were in the duel sequence, but that might not be where I saw them.

I've never noticed them, but there might be other scenes where palm trees are seen in the background. However, it's not likely that if palm trees are seen that they're on the Greystone grounds. And I say that because of this:

Southern California offers a seemingly inexhaustible supply of homes -- old and new -- for film use. Typical is Greystone Manor, part of Greystone Park and onetime Doheny estate lying above Sunset Blvd. in Beverly Hills. Now the berth of the American Film Institute, Greystone offers an opulent appearance for exteriors and interiors.
One of its chief assets, unusual for its Southern California locale, is the total absence of palm trees on its 18 1/2 acres, making the Manor a likely stand-in for luxurious European residences. Originally constructed from 1925 to 1928, the house cost $4,000,000.
The interior, which the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce Visitors' Bureau is helping to refurbish and refurnish by conducting weekend tours, has 55 rooms and includes marble floors, hand-carved stairways and handrails, and rare woods which studio technicians would find impossible to duplicate.
The forecourt, which has been used for innumerable commercials, particularly automobiles, is sturdy and in keeping with the rest of the Tudor edifice. An episode of "Columbo," which went to England for exteriors, used Greystone for many interior shots.
A part of the Beverly Hills Park Dept., the handsome structure and grounds are available with a permit at all times for filmmakers. A split-fee arrangement between Beverly Hills and Greystone can be arranged, and the interior of the mansion must be returned to its original condition by the filmmakers.
Formal gardens, a swimming pool, wooded areas, orchards, lawns and walkways offer superb scenery for films requiring luxurious settings. And there's a minimum of telephone poles.
Greystone is accessible, and its unique appearance suggests faraway places with sweet sounding names. "We did 'The Woman I Love' locally, and that had an extremely good look," says Universal's Frank Price.
Despite the difficulties involved in filming the exterior -- the trees and foliage are all but impenetrable for the lens, so the magnitude and the handsome architecural advantages of the house are lost behind the greenery -- there are good vistas and excellent interiors useful to the creator who seeks European elegance on the palace level.

If anyone can pinpoint scenes other than the one at the harbor where palm trees are seen, I'd love to hear about them because I've never noticed them.

At the beginning of David Selby's movie "Raise the Titanic" (made before evidence was discovered that the ship was not intact), a spy on a frozen island north of Russia comes upon the famous Arctic Pine Tree.  He is right next to it.  What were they thinking??

LOL! That actually reminds me of an article I read several years back and I'm shocked I was able to find it again:

Palm Trees in Ireland?

Who knows - maybe the Collinses brought some of the trees in the article with them to the New World, or maybe they had them brought? And like many other things in Collinsport, they mutated!! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm curious about the site of the currently depicted action in the story. I'm wondering if this is meant to be the 1991 version of Wyndcliffe. I don't recall this setting in the 1991 episodes but, again, it's been a long while.

The site was never seen in the '91 Series and was simply dreamed up for the comic. (On the series, Julia did all her research in her lab at Collinwood.) It's mostly obscured by a dialogue bubble, but what is shown of the title of the building is:

I quite honestly think that something that Julia keeps at this other lab is one of the chief reasons why the comic gave Julia a second lab. It would have been hard to explain why Julia would keep them at Collinwood. Plus, there will be a rather gratuitous event taking place soon within the comic's story which also requires an alternate location to Collinwood...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the eleventh page -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version)

And note that this page contains dialogue and panels (one featuring some rather significant artwork) that were not featured in the slideshow...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I forgot to mention that eagle-eyed fans of the '91 series will no doubt notice that something is missing in this drawing -

- though it's not the type of thing I was referring to when I mentioned goofs earlier because those are all storyline continuity goofs. Here I'm referring to a setting goof...

What's missing? Well, isn't it obvious:

Though it might be forgivable. And I don't honestly recall if they make the same mistake again. I suppose time will tell...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

On the other hand -

One of today's drawings definitely feels like a continuity error. I don't recall Barnabas's hands sporting those Nosferatu-nails when we saw him take out the hidden coffer of jewels in the original 1991 episode.

There's also an even bigger continuity error between the show and the comic. Some might even say a huge error. Does anyone else remember what it is?

- the comic presents everything that it depicts as transpiring between Barnabas and Willie in the secret room after Barnabas has attacked Willie as having taken place all at one time. Barnabas questions Willie and right after that questioning Barnabas also removes the jewel chest from its hiding place in the wall. However, in the actual pilot, after we see Barnabas grab Willie's throat, when we next see Barnabas he's out and about in Collinsport where he attacks Daphne at her car, and it isn't until well after that attack, the police have responded to it, and Daphne is being treated at the hospital that we then see Barnabas go back to the mausoleum's secret room to remove the jewel chest from its hiding place. We also see Willie, quite obviously in shock, on the floor of the secret room -

- and looking like he wouldn't have been able to put even two words together, much less hold a conversation - but that's another story...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Here's the twelveth page -

(Click here for a 1328X1996 version (without any of the artifacts that the forum's system created when downsizing the image))

And note that this page contains dialogue and panels that were not featured in the slideshow...

[Uncle Roger]

No One thought to write a line about hating those meeses to pieces?

[Gothick]

I think the comic book may have already jumped the shark. The dialogue exchange in the past two days has been absolutely painful. Though there's a kind of ironic appropriateness to Julia telling Barn he's "sanguine" on V Day...

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Even though they set up the trip to the lab as going somewhere to discuss Barnabas' treatment, quite obviously the real reason is to show vampire mice and to have Barn attack and kill the cleaning lady.    Julia and Barn will, however, have their discussion of his treatment down the road in this issue, and in a location that's always made perfect sense in every version of DS, so it only calls more attention to how needless an excursion going to the lab is. And what's interesting is that, unless I'm forgetting, I don't think they ever go back to that lab.

As for jumping the shark, well, just wait because IMO there's an upcoming plot development in Book One that jumps a lot more than a mere shark. Thankfully, though, as things progress there are other aspects of the plot that are quite interesting and almost make up for it...