I know it is OT to this thread, but I have been re-visiting Parallel Time and I personally think Parker was never better in the series than as Angelique Stokes Collins--totally out-of-control, round-the-twist, borderline-psychotic eee-vil for evil's sake.  Let us just say that there's a real sense of commitment from the actress in this role, and a full-blooded relish in how she enacts each crazed scene the scripts demand of her.  There's something inspiring about such unbridled lust for all-out pandemonium.

I do have to wonder just how Parker thought she could get away with saying she thought Grayson won the prize for extreme acting in the series... perhaps she had simply forgotten about large stretches of her own work on DS at that point (1986)?

cheers. G.

MB, you know I *adore* today's shot of Cassandra in all her bewigged glory putting Tony Peterson under her spell.

One of the iconic moments of DS...

G.

I find Bramwell in PT 1841 and Quentin in PT 1970 almost equally one-note.  They're both epically self-absorbed men.  In PT 1970 Quentin's case, the emotional cause of his personal dysfunction isn't revealed till nearly the end of the story, but with Bramwell, it's obvious from the get-go--he is the poor relation, a male version of Balzac's Cousin Bette, scheming to revenge himself against his uppity relatives in the Big House.

I think Melanie, Kendrick, and Julia are my favorite characters in this story.  Melanie's story is based on the real-life story of Mary Lamb (Charles Lamb's sister), and Nancy plays the role with such such poignant clarity and a tragic air that contrasts painfully with Melanie's girlishness.  Flora is always a pleasure but doesn't get that much to do apart from looking stately in Mary McKinley's beautiful gowns.  My main problems with Morgan are the character's arrogant sense of entitlement and the fact that Keith Prentice needed more coaching with his diction and line-readings.  His speech patterns just don't fit in with a Collinwood inhabited by Bennett, Selby, Pennock et al.

G.

Cute!  The teeth make me think of Austin Powers.

G.

I loved Marion Ross in the 1970s telefilm Midnight Offerings, in which she played a White Witch.  Marion had some hysterical dialogue in that one about "Hekatite Witches."  My friends and I just love to scream over this kind of thing.

G.

What a fab shot of Louis in Langley mode and the ever gracious Ruth Warrick.

G.

Hi Taeylor,

I don't know whether this helps, but it was reported in one of the magazines in early '71 that Keith Prentice had been signed for a five year contract.  Given that DC was notorious for stringing longstanding players along without any set contract at all, I am unsure how to evaluate this statement, even in a magazine publication.  (It may have been that Prentice told a reporter he had been told he would probably be on the show at least five years and this was interpreted as his having a contract.)

Sam might have suggested killing Julia off because I can imagine that by 1970/71, Grayson was starting to complain frequently about how bored she was with playing that "straight-ass," Julia Hoffman. 

I do think it's fascinating that after all this time and the deaths of Norma and DC, it's still not clear that DC must have made the decision to pull the plug on the series.  But to me, that is the only interpretation of the events that makes any sense.

G.