Watching the final 1970PT episodes dealing with John Yaeger, it was intriguing to see how his obsession with Maggie mirrors Barnabas obsession with her 1967RT counterpart. But what really struck me was the idea that perhaps the way things played out with Yaeger might have been the way things would have played out with Barnabas had DC gotten his way and the writers had stuck to the concept of Barnabas as the epitome of evil with very few, if any redeeming features. At last DC would have gotten to tell the story the way he wanted it, albeit with a totally different character...
It's also interesting to wonder if Barnabas would have caught on with the audience as much as he did if his original characterization had run the same course as Yaeger's did. While it's apparently true that vampires are seemingly inherently more sexy and intrinsically more appealing to an audience than, say, a Hyde-type might be, if Barnabas had been as all-out an evil villain as Yaeger was, would the audience still have felt a draw to Barnabas? Would anyone have really cared that Barnabas was gone after he was ultimately dispatched at the end of his storyline? And might he now garner about as much fan interest as Yaeger seems to command with us, as in, yes, he might have been an interesting villain but certainly not the most identifiable character many seem to associate with DS?
Also, given how much Yaeger resembles DC's original concept of Barnabas, [spoiler]how ironic is it that Barnabas ends up being the one to kill Yaeger?[/spoiler]
