Molly? Or Amy?

[BuzzH]

Just watched an ep the other night, before we see Amy for the first time at Wyndcliff, and Joe and Chris are calling her Molly.  Anyone know why they changed the name 2 days later?

[Sandor]

Not 100% sure, Buzz, but my thought was - Joan Bennett had played the character of Amy in "Little Women," so maybe it was a subtle gesture/homage from Dan Curtis to Joan. Just a theory, folks. Then again, maybe it was a flub on Joel Crothers' part - he said "Molly" instead of the scripted "Amy" in reference to Chris' kid sister - and the scene wasn't re-done, producers assuming "this episode will never be seen again anyway..."

[BuzzH]

Then again, maybe it was a flub on Joel Crothers' part - he said "Molly" instead of the scripted "Amy" in reference to Chris' kid sister - and the scene wasn't re-done, producers assuming "this episode will never be seen again anyway..."

No, Don Briscoe was calling her Molly too so it wasn't simply a flub on Joel's part.  For some reason they did a name change.  The theory you have of it being an homage to Joan playing "Amy" in Little Women is as good as any out there though. 

[Joeytrom]

I think the Dark Shadows Almanac has original synopsis for these episodes and Molly was indeed the original name for Amy.  Chris is also named "Bob" in these summaries.

[PennyDreadful]

I don't think they ever referred to Chris as "Bob" onscreen, but they definitely did refer to Amy as "Molly."  I always wrote it off as being Amy's middle name - Amy M. Jennings. A stretch, I know.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Molly was indeed the original name for Amy.  Chris is also named "Bob" in these summaries.

The initial publicity materials actually went out with Amy and Chris identified as Molly and Bob, and, strangely, even after the characters had appeared on the show, several magazines continued to identify them that way. Here are just three examples:

But then, quite obviously some of the magazines worked with very outdated info - in the top cast list, for instance, Thayer David is listed as playing Matthew Morgan even though by the time the list was published, it had been two years since Matthew had been killed off and David had subsequently played Ben Stokes and was currently playing Prof. Stokes! 

As for the reasoning behind the name changes, I've never read why it was done - but Amy isn't the only example of a character being renamed after having already been referred to on the show as something else. For example, 1897's Edward was originally named Oscar, and in Ep #643 Roger discovers a letter Quentin had written to Jamison about Oscar.

The DS writers have said that they often chose names for the characters based on what the name's meaning conveyed about the character, either as a way to convey the character's essence or simply as a joke (as is the case with Angelique, who could hardly be considered angelic  ).  I have no idea what the meanings of Molly, Bob, Amy and Chris are - but if someone does, it might not only be interesting to know, but it could possibly give a clue as to why the names were changed...

[MagnusTrask]

Maybe it was "Amy" an actor uttered incorrectly making someone then think a name change was necessary.

Maybe there's a third identical Jennings brother named Bob, who took the place of one or both of the others occasionally without telling anybody.   

[Amy Jennings Fan]

Amy means beloved. Bob is short for Robert which means  bright glory. Christopher means Christ-bearer.

Molly is diminutive of Mary which means bitter.

[Josette]

but Amy isn't the only example of a character being renamed after having already been referred to on the show as something else. For example, 1897's Edward was originally named Oscar, and in Ep #643 Roger discovers a letter Quentin had written to Jamison about Oscar.

And they were talking about a male Dr. Hoffman before Julia showed up.  I would have thought that once they changed and got a woman, that they could have changed the name of the doctor they had been talking about.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, at least in the case of Julian vs. Julia, it was an inadvertent typo (though I suppose there's no such thing as an advertent typo  ) on the casting sheet that caused the sex change. That incident was an extremely advantageous mistake because without it DS never would have had one of its greatest characters. The other name changes were deliberate.

And it's my understanding that the casting of Julia was practically down to the wire. One of the forum's Graysonphiles would probably be able to provide more details, but wasn't it the very next day after she was cast that Grayson had to show up for the taping of her first show? I'm thinking that the show referring to Dr. Hoffman as a male had already been shot well before that point, so there was probably no going back (not that, knowing how DC operated and how he thought the audience had short attention spans, he would have  ) to correct it.

[Gothick]

MB, many thanks for sharing those fascinating clippings about the original names of the Jennings children.  I don't recall having seen those before.  Never recall having heard of Chris being "Bob" originally.  Molly, of course, I knew about because it's in the show.

Do we have documentary evidence for the Julia(n) "typo"?  Bob Costello and Grayson Hall told conflicting versions of how Grayson was cast on the show.  In Grayson's version, she got a phone call, got dressed, and cabbed over to the studio for her very first episode, which was recorded the very next day.  Talk about instant casting.

G.

[Joeytrom]

Dr. Hoffman was referred to as a "he" for a couple of months before Grayson first appeared.

It seems they couldn't find the right person for Dr. Hoffman if Grayson got cast the day before taping!

I have original summaries for episodes that aired in early 1967 and from the first appearance of Barnabas' portrait up to the last pre-syndicated episode, Barnabas is not referred to by name.  Instead, they call him "young Collins" or "the young man".  For example..."Willie is staring at the portrait of the young man and hears a heartbeat coming from it", "Willie is once again looking at the portrait of young Collins and this time the eyes are glowing at him in addition to the sound of the heartbeat".

I have heard that the writers considered "Jerod" or "Jeremiah" before naming him Barnabas.

[Josette]

I thought it was just a couple of episodes where Dr. Hoffman was mentioned before the actual appearance.  My original comment was that since Dr. Hoffman had already been mentioned as a male, when Julia finally showed up, they should have called her Dr. Somethingelse.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Do we have documentary evidence for the Julia(n) "typo"?  Bob Costello and Grayson Hall told conflicting versions of how Grayson was cast on the show.  In Grayson's version, she got a phone call, got dressed, and cabbed over to the studio for her very first episode, which was recorded the very next day.  Talk about instant casting.

The typo story is recounted in several different DS books. For example, I'm pretty sure the DS Companion from PomPress refers to the typo changing Hoffman's sex and then segues into Grayson's remarks about receiving the phone call from her agent. I don't *think* I've ever heard a Bob Costello version that conflicts with those events. What did he say?

[Joeytrom]

I think Bob Costello said that at a convention in the 80's.  It was featured in The World of Dark Shadows around 1986 or 1987.  He sad it was "Julius Hoffman" and a typo made it "Julia".  He also made a mistake, at the same convention, by saying that it was Sheriff Patterson whose tombstone didn't have a first name.