That's so cool.  I friend was just asking me about THE CRIMSON CULT, so I will let him know it's being shown on this channel.

A friend who knows more about video technology than do I watched some of the Poltergeist broadcast and commented that Comet's degree of video compression is very high. (The correct term may be signal compression.)  I asked what that meant and the response was very technical, but I think if I had seen it, I would just say that it looked more like a Youtube upload than a regular TV broadcast.  A low level of what I could fidelity in sound and video.

I'm so glad I no longer rely on broadcasting for entertainment purposes.  The industry is just really going down the tubes.

G.

Fans,

A friend apprised me earlier this evening that episodes of the 1990s series POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY have started airing on Monday evenings on the Comet TV network.  I checked google and I found a site for this network:

http://www.comettv.com/about-comet-tv/

It appears to be like Me TV in that access is often (or perhaps only) through plugging in an electric antenna on your TV.  There's a gizmo on the site to find out if where you live is in range of one of their transmitters (or whatever it should be called).

TV seems to be entering a phase reminiscent of the ham radio craze of the 1930s-1950s (and beyond) with all these little channels that offer programming that has been discarded by more orthodox channels.

POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY had, to me, at least an occasional DS flavor.  The stories revolved around Gothic horror themes but a lot of the writing focused on personal dynamics between the established characters who lived in a huge, gloomy mansion on isolated Angel Island (in the San Francisco Bay) and concerned themselves with occult relics, succubi, ancient curses and similar matters.

I also had a major crush on series regular Martin Cummins.  It also helped that series stars Derek de Lint and Helen Shaver had a chemistry at least occasionally reminiscent of Barnabas and Julia.

The website offers a list of films being screened on the channel.  Their series programming is quite eclectic as well. 

G.

I've always wanted to see again one of the few episodes of LAND OF THE GIANTS I watched back in the day.  It featured Jonathan Harris as the Pied Piper of Hamelin.  It was really quite trippy.

I always thought it was funny that the two time travelers somehow managed to get back into that ratty 1960s off-the-rack crap they had been wearing when they were catapulted into the time tunnel at the start of the series.

G.

I'm pretty sure one of Jonathan Frid's favorite scenes was the one in the Blue Whale where Barnabas and Burke are crossing swords and Barnabas has his speech where he says, "I thrust, you parry."  I remember hearing that that was included in the BEST OF BARNABAS compilation (when the VHS tapes began coming out) because Frid like it so much.  Of course, my memory could be playing tricks on me again.

I know Sam and Grayson were very friendly with Anthony George and I think Frid found him much easier to act with than had been the case with Mitchell Ryan. 

All of this is to say that although Ryan was undoubtedly the stronger screen presence, Tony George may have been an improvement in the eyes of at least some of the cast members.  Don't know what Mrs. Isles thought of him.

Best, G.

Interesting if true that James Hall was kept on for a few days after his re-cast had been planned.  On DS, re-casts normally happened over at most a 24 hour period--sometimes more like 12 hours, or less.  I think that was the case when Craig Slocum left (or simply failed to show up for work).

I wish I trusted KLS's memories more, but she's told us so many things over the years that are documented to have been not at all the case.

G.

THE PEN edged out Bleedervalvulus Collins for ultimate Dark Shadows Superstar. 

G.

Looking at today's Burton/Depp image, I was reflecting that Depp Shadows was the only version of the story where Barnabas didn't prey on Carolyn.  But then, I don't think he went after her in the WB pilot.  It would be interesting to know if they were planning to do that storyline.

In the Burton/Depp project, it would have been so very icky if he had attacked Carolyn since to all intents and purposes, she was still a child--albeit, a very precocious one.

G.

Jessica Chastain was almost shockingly brilliant in CRIMSON PEAK.  Hiddleston and Mia (I have given up trying to remember how to spell Mia's last name) are both very good, but Jessica steals every scene she's in.

My criticism of the movie, for what it is worth, is that it was overproduced to an absurd degree.  I told a friend after I saw it last November that it would have been much better if del Toro had spent 30 million less on it.  I could make the same comment about the Burton Depp Shadows disaster except there wasn't all that much to salvage from the latter.  A vast improvement would have been made if Depp had never appeared onscreen.

And that's all she wrote.

G.