Fans,

A short (all of 3 pages!) chapter on DS is included in a new academic publication, The Cult TV Book, edited by Stacey Abbot and published in London and NY by I. B. Tauris (not a press I had previously heard of).  The volume is part of a new series which will include both monographs and edited volumes devoted to such specific series as Farscape and Dexter.  The DS chapter is written by the volume's editor, Stacey Abbott, and leads off a section of the book entitled "The Cult in Cult TV." Embarrassingly, Abbott mis-spells the series protagonist's name as "Barnabus" throughout her short chapter.  I did like this comment towards the end of the short piece:  "Although less visible than Star Trek fans, Dark Shadows fandom rivals the Trekker community for its commitment and endurance, reminding the modern cult TV scholar that longevity remains the ultimate test of cult fandom."

G.

I would love more info about Barbara Steele's participation in one of these.  Looking forward to hearing details.

G.

What an odd capture of Barnabas today.  He looks like Mr Rogers about to tell a story to the kids about his own special neighborhood... heh, heh.

I call this the "pointless" look because of what's going on--or rather, not going on--with the hair...

G.

Julia and Quentin both look as if they're recovering from the most deadly hangovers. And is Julia guzzling that coffee, or what?

That "lemon or cream" scene between the two young misses of Collinwood is priceless.  I love the slumber party sequence at Maggie's a little later on in that storyline, too.

G.

It's "Home Alone! the Collinwood Edition," starrrrring Mrs Maggie Collins!

Thanks for a good giggle, MB.

G.

Fans,

Katie Scott had a fairly substantial guest role (as the Duchess of Fitzhugh--shades of Lady 'Ampshire!) in the episode "God save the Queen" in the short-lived series Tales of the Gold Monkey (originally broadcast 1982-83, with a regular cast including Stephen Collins and Roddy McDowall).

According to regular industry sources, the series will have a commercial DVD release this June.  A friend had given me several discs with episodes of this program last year and I watched Katie's episode earlier this week.  It's a good time for fans of her work and it seems as if she must have had fun doing it.  She gets to do a couple of comic touches which I know from reading her books is something she wishes she were allowed to do more often.

Katie doesn't come on until around the 20 minute mark in the show, but once she appears, she's on quite a bit.

G.

Lydia, I disagree that Julia would have had a chat with Quentin about the necessity of destroying Barnabas.  I think, if anything, she would have grown all the more fanatically devoted to him and there might have been a repeat of the dynamic towards the end of the 1967 storyline, only this time with the backdrop of a growing emotional closeness between B & J--whether Lela Swift (who was I think then the de facto head writer) would have taken this into a romantic relationship between the two is hard to know.

I personally think the main drive to move into PT was the need to come up with a way of maintaining production on the series while most of the main actors were working on the movie.  I've often thought that the series might have had a longer life if it had gone on hiatus periodically--I realize that soap operas never go on hiatus, but since when did Dark Shadows follow the rules of others.  This would have give everyone a break from the relentless pressure of producing the show, would have given those who wished to do so the chance to pursue other projects, etc.

I still think that DC was behind pulling the plug for good on the show in March 1971 simply because he did not want to have to deal with another situation like what happened in the Spring of 1970.

G.