Innovation's '91 DS Comic, Book 4, The Book That Never Was

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm sharing this from May 1995's SG #72 for two reasons. This was the first we learned of his passing - and because Damion is so infamous in fandom, well, his leisure suit is. 

I wonder when he was a regular on Merv Griffin's show. I don't remember ever seeing him on there or any of the other talk shows mentioned. But perhaps he was on before he did DS. And the fact that Steve Allen is listed could point to that...

[Uncle Roger]

I do remember watching him as Brian Blake on Another World after he appeared on DS. Blake was an unscrupulous attorney involved with resident vixen Rachel Davis, then played by Robin Strasser.
He was responsible for one of my all time favorite bloopers. I may be off on the exact wording but it went somewhat like this: Steve is the mother of Rachel's baby. Bad enough, right? Then he corrected it by saying that Rachel is the father of Steve's baby.
He was written off the show shortly after that.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

'91 DS actor info from SG #72:

What a hoot that Jim and Julianna got to work together again.

Apparently THE FRIGHTENERS opened in July of 1996.

And something that's funny is that I faithfully watched STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 when it was originally on, yet I have no memory of Juliana being on it. There's always the chance that I didn't recognize her in all her Cardassian make up - but I would think I would have recognized her voice - and I certainly would have recognized her name in the credits, well, unless I was distracted when her name went by. However, I looked up her credits on IMDb and she is indeed listed for DS9, and not for just 1 ep but 3 - one in 1995 and two in 1999 - in which she played the same character. I'm definitely going to have to track those eps down on CBS All Access...

And then there's:

I've shared this because of the vampire angle.

I never watched THE WATCHER. I would have watched if I'd seen Ely Pouget's name in the TV Guide, but I'm guessing either I didn't see it or it wasn't listed.

There seems to be some question as to how many eps were made or aired. In the cast list on IMDb they indicate only 9 eps. But in the eps section IMDb lists 11 eps and has aired dates for all (Ely's ep was entitled The Human Condition and was the 8th ep of the series). However, the link that leads to the eps section indicates 12 eps. Who knows?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And something that's funny is that I faithfully watched STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9 when it was originally on, yet I have no memory of Juliana being on it. ...  I'm definitely going to have to track those eps down on CBS All Access...

I did indeed do that and here's a screen cap of her character, Mila:

She's seen on a video communication device.)

Not only don't I remember her character, I didn't remember anything about this first ep. But that's probably not as unusual as it might sound because recently I've been revisiting Star Trek: Voyager, I'm in the middle of the 3rd season, and with the exception of one ep, I haven't remembered any of the others. (And the weird thing about the one I did remember is that I recalled every scene in it. I have no idea why that particular ep and only that ep so far originally made such an impression on me.)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

MTW's Current Events section from SG #72:

More about Jeffrey in SG #73 - and agreat deal about it in SG #74...

Jeremiah's portrait, which SG #72 featured on a page of photos of Adrian Paul:

And a small bit of an article about Joseph Gordon-Levitt that talked about his recent credits:

Might that pilot have been 3rd Rock from the Sun? I think we can be pretty certain it was...

And this is the last I'll be posting from SG #72. Coming soon, SG #73...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

... he simply wrote it on his own and then tried shopping it around with the hope that some entity would make a deal. But in almost two years that still hadn't happened. And it's certainly hard to let go of hope when you badly want something to happen. But at this point, the longer time passed with no developments, the less likely there were ever going to be any developments. which, as we know, turned out to be the case. So, will SG #73 come to that conclusion? Again, I suppose we'll see...

Apparently the conclusion was indeed finally come to because August 1995's SG #73 is the first issue since the premiere announcement of the proposed film(s) was made in July 1993's SG #65 that there's no mention at all of the proposed film(s)...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

August 1995's SG #73's Sci-Fi Channel report:

As I said last time, Barnabas would indeed begin on August 24th. Who knows why SG originally thought it would be in September?

It's great to read that the '91 Series did well during its showings - and no doubt that's why Sci-Fi was planning to run it again...

And who knows what was up with the SG promotion on Sci-Fi? But then you know who was no doubt involved in some way with it, so that's probably all one needs to know...

Very interesting to read that Sci-Fi had a big audience among women 18 to 49...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

August 1995's SG #73's Fest preview:

It's interesting that both DS VAMPIRES & GHOSTS and DS RESURRECTED would preview at the Fest yet at least one of them wouldn't be sold at the Fest. In fact, it wouldn't be sold until months after the '95 NY Fest. Apparently they could be screened for the public whether they were available to the public or not. Although, screening DS RESURRECTED would certainly generate interest for it. And one does have to wonder what those who would watch DS VAMPIRES & GHOSTS would think after seeing that there wasn't any "never-before-seen bonus interview footage with Lara Parker" as had been promoted...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Jeremiah's portrait, which SG #72 featured on a page of photos of Adrian Paul

Oops, I forgot to mention that there's a color version of the portrait on page 72 of PomPress' DS Resurrected book. Though that version doesn't include the frame.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Normally I only share bits and pieces, if even that, of the following section of the SGs - but the installment in SG #73 has enough interesting bits to share the whole thing:

Plus it also includes this candid from behind the scenes of the costume party:

[Uncle Roger]

I had to look up Mojave Frankenstein. It underwent a title change to Frankenstein and Me, though it still remains pretty obscure. Which is kind of surprising, since it starred a young Ryan Gosling and featured Louise Fletcher and Burt Reynolds 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

   Yes, given the cast, that is surprising. It's also surprising given that apparently it was honored with Best Director at the International Fantasy Film Awards.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And again, normally I only share certain parts of the following section of the SGs, mainly the parts that relate to the '91 DS in some way. But I'm sharing the entire installment in SG #73 just to show how in August of '95 so much merchandise was already or soon would be available for DS' 30th Anniversary:

The deal just keeps getting better for the Abbelaire watches.

The Ben Cross Barnabas model really was discontinued.

And the Imagine card set was still available through the Fest. And one thing that's quite interesting about that is that, unlike the watches, I've just realized that the Fest's deal for the card set seems to have gone up rather than down. As you may recall, as part of the Fest's '94 mailing (reply #52:

Ads from the mailing for the '94 LA Fest:

) the Fest was selling the regular card set for $14.95. But as per the '95 Fest mailing and SG, the set went up to $17.95...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Hmmm - I wonder if the next section from SG #73 should have been called "PUBLICATIONS OFFER FACTS, FUN & FLAWS"    Well maybe not because not all the books were from PomPress and not all of them have errors (I'm simply sharing what's said about two and editing out several others):

The offers referred to for the DS Alamanc were shared by SG #73 on its back inside page. In effect they printed both pages of a flyer similar to what's shared in reply #111 with the exceptions that instead of "Kathryn Leigh Scott" emblazoned across the top of the first page, it reads "THE DARK SHADOWS ALMANAC" - and instead of being dated "June 1, 1995," it's dated "July 1995." And also, just as with the version in reply #111, the "Special Hardcover Collector's Set IV" offer, which is part of the flyer shared in reply #113, is not offered. Thankfully the offer of that fourth set was included in the flyer in the mailing for the '96 LA Fest. But that mailing went out in November of 1995, so I suspect anyone who might have already taken advantage of one of the first three offers from the earlier flyer but would have taken advantage of the fourth had they known it existed might have been quite upset when they saw the updated flyer.

And I own the DS Music Book (how could I not with that beautiful cover photo from the NoDS deleted piano scene?!) But I have no memory of ever ordering it from MPI. Also, it's a PomPress book, so it seems odd MPI would have seemingly been the exclusive seller with no offers from PomPress. Perhaps SG #74 will make things clearer.

Also, and this will surprise no one, but the DS Music Book would not be published until June of 1996. And the book that was published is 112 pages, not 80. But again, perhaps things will be made clearer in a future SG...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here's SG #73's video report:

Yes indeed - even just six years earlier than this SG the idea would have been unimaginable that so much DS would be available on video for home viewing. We are certainly spoiled.

And gee, what a surprise that the DS RESURRECTED VHS was delayed, AGAIN. Uh, not! I was heavily involved in online DS in 1995 and fans of the '91 Series were getting extremely frustrated with the delays. We had yet to realize that when it came to all sorts of DS merchandise, delays were going to become the norm rather than the exception...

And considering what a huge gasket Frid blew when he discovered you know who had used his one man show footage on the 25th Anniversary VHS without Frid's permission, it's also no surprise that the original version was deleted. Though, given that the original version had been out since July of 1993, it's not like myriads of fans didn't still own it.