I'd personally call Seaview Terrace Queen Anne with some French features, but let's face it, the house is a complete hodgepodge architecturally.  Of course that just makes me love it all the more.

I'd forgotten Stokes's remarks about the Old House.  Maybe an excuse to revisit the early Stokes episodes...

Best, G.

Hi Patti,

This is a cool article on the history of Seaview Terrace. The existing structure combines two houses.  One house was originally built in Washington DC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaview_Terrace

I think there is a web article somewhere on the Spratt House as well.  Ruins reportedly are still visible on the site.  It is somewhere away from the main grounds I think.

Yeah, here's one page for that house:

http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/spratt/spratt.html

In the original DS backstory, Barnabas, Josette and Jeremiah were all living at Collinwood in the 1830s.  For some reason the date 1837 sticks in my head for when Barnabas originally became a vampire.  I don't know why.  It might have been mentioned in an episode.  The style of Collinwood does not fit at all the period of the 1830s, but I think the style of the Old House does.

Best, G.

Thanks for those notes MB.  I know I would enjoy watching it again, especially because I have near total amnesia of anything in the plot.  No spoilers but if you do watch to the end, you'll see that had the show gone into production, it would most likely have shared even more plot points and setpieces with DS... I can't recall specifics, just that there were a couple of surprises.

G.

Stanley Adams was fabulous.  He was also in STAR TREK as the guy who got the whole "Trouble with Tribbles" started...

G.

Thayer David was a really busy actor.  Around that time, again without checking references, I think he appeared in the stage production of ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN and a short lived musical version of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (he played Rusty Trawler, if I remember correctly--a very minor role) and a TV staging of THE CRUCIBLE as well as an episode of the fabulous Peter Falk series TRIALS OF O'BRIEN, on which Grayson also appeared (they were in separate episodes, and I wish to Hell the series would come out on home video--it's an important slice of TV history).  And that's just what I can recall off the top of my head.

It's kind of ironic that so many of us remember Thayer from DS because it was really a fairly minor episode in his career.

G.

Fans,

This morning over breakfast I happened to stumble upon some clips from 1960s underground film schlockmeister Andy Milligan's 1969 film TORTURE DUNGEON.  This one in particular made me think somewhat of DS, I guess due to the baroque set and costume designs and acting techniques:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlNfT5vXEw&t=4s

I always knew that line about being a "trisexual" was really old--it was interesting to see actual documentation of this.

If you check out other clips from this epic on youtube, there's one that was included in somebody's vlog where the guy recounts meeting John Waters and discussing Milligan's work.  Milligan was the subject of a book length biography, THE GHASTLY ONES, which provides an interesting glimpse into 1960s NYC sleaze culture and how this actually intersected occasionally with the avant-garde. A lot of these films were shot in various locations on Staten Island or elsewhere.

Not really related to Dark Shadows but it all makes me think of the milieu of the time--I am not sure that younger fans may comprehend why I think this way...

Best, G.

The last time I watched the film (which was many years ago now, on my VHS tape from the old Laserdisc--a friend made the tape for me since I have never owned a laserdisc player), I noted one moment when Joan is turning to look at Daphne where she gave one of those looks that made me think of the old Liz from '66-'67.

Wonderful captures MB!

In one of JF's interviews from the 1980s--I think it was the one that was published in a Baltimore weekly which I used to read when I was a student at Hopkins--he referred to hoDS as "practically pornographic."  I think he found it all really distasteful.  My perception, rightly or wrongly, is that JF's career went into hibernation for several years because he really did not want to do horror projects or be associated in any way with the genre and that was the kind of work that would have been available to him.

I'm sure most have heard of this, but Malia Howard's career biography of JF has been reprinted now.  For those interested in finding out more about what he did after DS, I am sure it is the best source available.

G.

Roger Davis must have found his role in RUBY (1977) reminiscent of his days on DS.  I found this trailer for the film.  It was directed by Curtis Harrington who did some excellent TV films in the same era, including THE CAT CREATURE with Gale Sondergaard in the kind of role Grayson might have played, and THE DEAD DON'T DIE.

The trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De7es8HMevw

G.