Daytime Gothic Volume 2

[Uncle Roger]

The second issue of Daytime Gothic is now available for purchase, just in time for the 60th anniversary of DS. One of the highlights is probably what is likely the final interview with Lara Parker, conducted by TLATKLS. There are rare photos from Jonathan Frid's 1968 publicity tour. There's also an unpublished interview with Dan Curtis, as well as a look at his "unproductive biographical screenplay."  The book also includes a look at the chaotic backstage drama during the production of the DS clone Strange Paradise. Our own Penny Dreadful has contributed an article as well. And the entire publication was edited by DS fan and cousin Stuart Manning.
If this is something that you find interesting, I recommend that you order it ASAP. Too many people vacillated on the first book and found themselves shut out. Also, bear in mind that the book is shipping from the UK, so it might take a while to arrive.
I think that it will be worth it.

[Gothick]

Yes, I'm excited to see the book! I wrote the article on the first six months of Grayson Hall's work on DS for it back in early 2024. And my friend Curt Ladnier and I collaborated on the piece about Strange Paradise. We had a lot of fun with that since we're both huge fans of the show. For years, the only references one ever saw to SP in DS fannish publications were brief and derisive, but in recent years I have seen more positive comments about the show, perhaps because most of it is now available for free on YouTube.

Link to order the new volume of Daytime Gothic: https://tenacrefilms.bigcartel.com/product/daytime-gothic-ii-celebrating-tvs-supernatural-soap-opera-dark-shadows

And link for Curt's Strange Paradise blog. The most recent entry is from over a year ago and includes a memorial I wrote for series star Colin Fox.

https://maljardinblog.wordpress.com/

cheers, Gothick

[Uncle Roger]

Gothick, I was looking forward to reading the piece on Strange Paradise. Even moreso now that I'm aware that you had a hand in it. Here's some SP trivia for you. Tudi Wiggins did move to America and spent quite some time on the CBS soap Love of Life. She was involved in a romantic triangle with our own Jerry Lacy and her character's daughter. Her son was initially played by Christopher Reeve. After Love of Life was canceled, Tudi moved to All My Children. Not a show that I often watched so I can't say if she had any scenes with Louis Edmonds but her character did lock horns with Susan Lucci.
Bruce Gray who played Tim Stanton later appeared on Edge of Night during the Mansion of the Damned sequence. His character was married to Kim Hunter who would become a nemesis to Joel Crothers.
Jack Creley who played Laszlo Thaxton popped in the Cronenburg film Videodrome as Brian O'Blivion. He also had a small part in Dr. Strangely very
And Colin Fox made an appearance on an absolutely horrendous Canadian series called The Trouble With Tracy. One of the local NYC stations showed it for awhile. It made My Little Margie seem like Restoration Comedy.

[Gothick]

Thanks, Uncle Roger. I knew of some of those appearances, but not all. The Mansion of the Damned sequence on that one series sounds funny somehow. I have no idea what it was of course. DS and SP were the only daytime dramas I ever watched regularly. I did sometimes sort of watch Days of Our Lives in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I'd be visiting my parents and my Mom were take me to see my grandmother (her Mom). Granny loved DoOL. It was her "story." In one episode (I have no idea which year this was), there was a character who seemed as if he would have been right at home on DS. He was some kind of mad scientist on a lab set of some sort. I was startled to see material of this sort on Days which I always thought of as quite banal, but then, when it was on it was mostly my eyes glazed over listening to Granny and Mom discuss things.

Best, Gothick