Hi Bryce, we've all noticed what you're saying.  When I first started watching the show in the Sixties, I found the putative resemblance of Maggie to Josette's portrait very puzzling because the two simply do not look at all alike.  I think the portrait may have been a thrift-shop purchase which also seems to have been the case for the "Isaac Collins" portrait and some of the other "ancestral" (or is that "incestral" since we just enjoyed a wonderful image of Louis doing that line) portraits in the Great House.

My least favorite thing with Josette's portrait was when during one of the last storylines the date 1797 was added to the portrait in garish red paint.  It was so awful it practically looked like vandalism.

There's another thread from recent days here where fans talk about how in the original 1967 storyline, Barnabas did not actually believe Maggie to be the reincarnation of Josette; he simply wanted to brainwash her into his new "Josette."  When Maggie didn't work out, he turned to Vicki.  I think the original storyline was heavily influenced by a 1965 noirish film from England called The Collector. 

So, there actually wasn't supposed to be a resemblance between Maggie and the portrait--and the original story had Barnabas and Josette's doomed love affair taking place in the 1830s which accounts for why the clothing on Josette doesn't look 18th century in the portrait.

Of course, after they rewrote the storyline to have Josette living in the 1790s and portrayed by KLS, fans understandably got the impression that there was a link between Josette and Maggie that existed in objective reality, not just a deluded psychotic fantasy in the brain of the more than half mad Barnabas.  (In those scenes when he is holding Maggie prisoner and terrorizing her emotionally, I swear it is some of the creepiest material ever presented on television--both Frid and KLS do a great job with this unsavory tale--spinechilling!)

G.

Love the two-shot of Stokes and Julia from episode 835 (1969) posted on Robservations today in the slideshow (you have to click all the way through the arrows to get to it).  Not only is it an atmospheric shot of the two (although the lighting and angle could be improved for Stokes), it somehow sums up a lot of what so fascinated me about the series back in the day.

G.

Glad I was able to catch tonight's exquisite, mystical portrait of Carlotta Drake in the NoDS slide show.  I used a very similar shot from this scene in a collage I did in Grayson's honor last year.

Also love the snap (and the dress she's wearing) featured immediately above.  One year, I think it was 1999 or 2000, the DS Festival calendar had a gorgeous still of Grayson from that scene--it was a shot or a moment that wasn't used in the final edit of the movie.  I've always wanted to have that picture framed because it just captures Grayson so beautifully.

Off on vay-kay and unplugging from the Internet for a week--enjoy Dark Shadows, everybody!

cheers, Gothick

Not making any comment at all on the quality of Jonathan Frid's performance as Barnabas (which I think was extraordinary) but can we please move beyond the myth that he "rescued a failing show"?  From posts shared here long ago, I recall that the ratings were pretty healthy during the Laura Collins Phoenix story and on into the run-up to the introduction of Barnabas.  I think the dramatic spike happened in 1968--"that year of insanity" as people on the ground at the time remembered it.  Or am I wrong?

I think a lot of actors don't care about videos of public appearances because they regard the distribution of same as free publicity.  That clearly isn't the case here.

G.

I remember even back during the original broadcast thinking that burying someone fated to become a vampire wouldn't make any difference.  With all the research Julia had done on the lore before meeting Barn, one would have expected her to have realized that.

G.

Best of luck to you, Victoria.

G.

I think the moral world of DS, such as it is, is a very different place from these more recent productions.  It's also a very grey terrain where relationships shift.  The most blatant IMO is Barnabas' attitude to David.  They never explain or reconcile how he goes from wanting either to drive the child insane or murder him outright, to pretty much going to Hell and back to protect him.

Barn feels compassion for Chris long before he ever knows Chris is part of the family.  He feels compassion as a fellow sufferer under a curse.  Quentin starts out as an adversary but eventually Barnabas also tries to help him, not only because he feels compassion for him but because Quentin's survival is key to the future of the family.

In the case of Laura, there is pretty much unmitigated animosity because of her plans for her child/ren. 

I personally don't care for the metaphysics that declares an entire race of beings "good" or "evil."  It smacks too much of racism to me, at least in outline.  Perhaps the way it is portrayed in these novels or games introduces more gradations of ambiguity.  We are talking about fantasy cultural production here, after alll...

G.

Sheer delight.  And how very appropriate that QUENTIN has the last word!

G.