Review of DS Revival Series DVD as seen in 2006 Videoscope

[jimbo]

Thanks Midnite for posting that article and I wish you a Happy belated New Year! I like David Nahmod's writing style. Not afraid to hold back. Just wonder if MGM/Sony is now second guessing themselves on releasing the DVD as they did with all its faults and associated criticisms in the press and media. I would also be curious to know if the DVD's sales exceeded their expectations-only from an intellectual point of view. Part of me wishes that it sold well. However, to think they made a profit from this butchery should be classified as a criminal act.

[BuzzH]

Grayson "frumpy"??  I think not!  David Nahmod seems to forget that Grayson hated the wardrobe she had to wear on the show as Julia (she once referred to those suits as 'goddamned tweed') and offscreen she prided herself in being stylish.  Plus, she deliberately played up the camp element, as she couldn't take the stories seriously. The Frid-Hall chemistry was a big factor in the rise in the show's popularity in 1967-68.  I don't know if the same would've happened between Cross and Steele had the '91 show continued, but who knows?  The mere fact that Grayson Hall still has a loyal fan base 20 years after her passing proves the power of this gifted actress

Here, here!  I agree whole-heartedly!  I've long said that Grayson deliberately camped it up because let's face it, they *did* have some bizarre plotlines/dialogue.  I've seen her act in other things (Night of the Iguana, That Darn Cat and One Life to Live) and she was COMPLETELY different in those roles, not a trace of 'Julia' anywhere, or that style of acting.

As for her wardrobe, I said in another post recently that I never thought her 'present' day clothes were that bad, and she looked fabulous in all the 'period' costumes!  Regarding her chemistry w/Jon, those two had some of the *best* 'buddy' chemistry on TV.  As strong as any pair of characters out there (Malloy and Reed, Starsky and Hutch, Friday and Gannon or Johnny and Roy).  Those two are *the* reason DS survived as long as it did, hands down! 

[Raineypark]

Starsky and Hutch?
Barn and Julia in a red Gran Torino?
The mind boggles.......

[BuzzH]

Starsky and Hutch?
Barn and Julia in a red Gran Torino?
The mind boggles.......

LOL!  What boggles it more is who would be the OWNER of the red Torino? Barnabas or Julia? 

[Raineypark]

LOL!  What boggles it more is who would be the OWNER of the red Torino? Barnabas or Julia? 

Actually, I'm more inclined to wonder which one of them is going to wear those funky sweaters....

(Ooops......there are folks around here who remember those sweaters fondly.... )

[BuzzH]

Actually, I'm more inclined to wonder which one of them is going to wear those funky sweaters....

Or the bell bottoms and Earth shoes, LOL! 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

(Ooops......there are folks around here who remember those sweaters fondly.... (lips resealed) )

Indeed there are.    And I picture Barn as the one who would wear them as the perfect replacement for his smoking jackets. 

[PennyDreadful]

Stylistically, isn't it possible that Grayson & the DS directors were simply attempting to capture, on some level, the heightened acting style found in the classic Universal horror pictures and other early horror films?  I don't feel Grayson was trying to be campy.  She was playing it "big" but not for laughs.

  Unfortunately, the grand stage actors of yesteryear would be considered "hams" if they tried to make a movie or TV show nowadays, but this stylized form of performance seems well-suited to classic "spooky" movies and shows when done well.  It can come off sort of goofy when pushed TOO far though.  For example, I think Tod Slaughter (old-time British actor) is loads of fun, but man that guy just goes WAY over the top sometimes.

[Misa]

Grayson said in an interview, that no one on the show played their role campy. She said that the show was done seriously. I don't remember what magazine this interview was in. Does anyone else remember this interview?

Misa

[MsCriseyde]

Think the DVD set is bad with no extras and incorrect widescreen framing?

It gets worse.

In a stunning screw-up by a usually top-notch tech services department, the telecine department inadvertently 'corrected' all the filtered day-for-night photography.

So, any of the exterior scenes of Barnabas outside Vicki's window or wooing Daphne, or Daphne attacking David all take place DURING THE DAY in broad, sunny daylight!

I just got a copy of the first disc of the set this week from Netflix. The end of the first episode is rather maddening. There's Vicki, back in her room after dinner at the Old House, looking out on the grounds before she closes her window and goes to bed. She fails to see Barnabas standing right in her line of sight in the daylight. Then Barn goes off chasing Sarah through the woods, passing through direct rays of sunlight streaming down through the treetops.

I thought the screwed up aspect ratio would bother me, but this takes the cake.

[D_Friedlander]

The aspect ratio doesn't really bother me because I didn't see this series originally, and have nothing to compare it to.  It appears that enough of the important stuff is there.  The daylight WAS disconcerting, but accomodating another bunch of bulky vid cassettes is out of the question right now. So I bouth the DVDs, yes, and the 3 VHS episodes with extra footage which were recommended here a few months ago to supplement.  That much having been said, I will just have to IMAGINE being "seduced by the DARKNESS."

[Gothick]

Re Grayson's work as Julia on DS--

A friend of mine suggested some years ago (she had watched DS faithfully as a youngster and was watching it again on Sci Fi) that the style of Grayson's characterization as Julia was something Grayson may have taken from observing a friend (or possibly a once-upon-a-time mentor) who may have been a professional woman of some sort.  My friend thought Julia's odd way of speaking, occasional twitchiness, abrupt mannerisms. throat-clutching etc. could well have come from a real-life professional woman of, say, the 1950s, who was to some degree not quite at ease with her own sense of self.  The odd way of speaking is something I have observed myself in academics who seem to imagine an invisible podium propped up whereever they happen to be sitting or standing.

I mention this because so many of what people think of as Grayson's mannerisms or over-acting in the part of Julia seem to me a self-conscious effort on her part to create a character who was much more "straight-assed" than the actress was in real life (to severely understate things).  I think this is particularly obvious if you watch the shows where RT Julia is confronting one of her PT counterparts.

The one mannerism I've seen in several other Grayson performances is that thing she does with clutching onto the phone with both hands.

G.

[Jackie]

The end of the first episode is rather maddening. There's Vicki, back in her room after dinner at the Old House, looking out on the grounds before she closes her window and goes to bed. She fails to see Barnabas standing right in her line of sight in the daylight. Then Barn goes off chasing Sarah through the woods, passing through direct rays of sunlight streaming down through the treetops.

WOW I thought it was a very BRIGHT moon.     I know what you mean and that annoyed me too.  Too much 'daylight' for a vampire to walk around in during the night, supposily.