Midnite darling, thanks so much for doing the detective work of going back to those video interviews.  I don't think I"ve even played them yet.

That's pretty outrageous about Frid, since it is documented from multiple sources that not only was DC in England at the time of the casting and set-up for Barnabas, but when he came back, he actually thought they had "cast the wrong guy" since he had supposedly sent a different head shot back for the guy he wanted. (I've always wondered whether they did a reading with that guy and found out he just did not have the goods, at all.)

I've been watching Mad Men, season one, over the past couple of weeks, and a lot of DC's behavior seems rooted in the "executive culture" of the Sixties.  But he obviously was quite the maverick and had his own very strong personality... I am definitely of the school of thought that DS turned out to be an underground classic *despite* DC's input!

Thanks again!

G.

Ah, and so it begins--Love of LeviaLife!

From the point of metanarrative, this episode is very cool (or maybe it was the one before?) because we finally get a Jonathan-on-Grayson fanging sequence.  Love how the actors played it, even though I'm sure Frid, at least, was squirming (given his oft-stated objection to the fanging scenes on principle--and the outrageousness of this particular setpiece in specific).

I would LOVE to know where and when DC claimed to have "hated Leviathans from the beginning just as much as the fans did."  Even for him, that's EXTREME revisionism of established DS history.  About on the level of Mao having Liu Shao-ch'i erased after his fall from various group photographs recording certain Party functions.  But then, there never seemed any limits to DC's personal megalomania, particularly in the sphere of DS.

I love the design elements in our introduction to Haza, Oberon, and the Leviathan altar.  (or the "cairn," as Julia always, rather oddly to my mind, called it.)  Thinking of them now, I wonder whether Haza and Oberon were the actual ancestors of Uncle Fester Addams.  I'd know that pasty skin, those sunken eyes, that crazed leer, and those long snake-like robes anywhere.

The aesthetic atmosphere here always makes me think of the drawings of Edward Gorey.  Particularly in this scene with Barn in that gorgeous 1790s cape.

Angelique has a line in a later episode in which she describes the Leviathans as "creatures of the Underworld."  That element is certainly present in how Haza and Oberon are depicted here.  Their makeup may also hint at an episode in Lovecraft's tale, The Whisperer in Darkness.  I think the main story that DC read to help fill in the elements of the Leviathan narrative must have been the Dunwich Horror.

vile serpentine hissing,

G.

No NoDS photo/caption today, 11/17?  I see only an empty little white box with a red x...

G.

Sad news indeed; the Widows wail again for one of our own.

Besides DS, Ron Sproat also wrote for Strange Paradise, a personal favorite series of mine.

May he rest in peace, and may his spouse find comfort in memories of happier times that were.

G.

Counter-culture?  Don't forget Buzz, Collinsport's very own answer to the Beats, Hell's Angels and Easy Rider:

"If ya feel it ... SIT IT!"

G.

Wow, MB, I know I've never seen either of those two stills!  Truly way out!

This really seems to emphasize the "Witchy" aspect of the thrall Angelique held over Charles...

Love it!  Thanks for sharing!

Best, G.

Well, thank goodness for that!

I mean, bits of rotted carrion-eaten flesh littering the front lawn are one thing, but any "scandal" in the local press would be absolutely unacceptable.

Once again the Collinses prove their fealty to the family motto--"hypocrisy above all!"

I'm glad it's getting close to the time when I do my annual drive-through of my favorite highlights of the Leviathan story...

cheers, G.

Hi Patti and MSC,

It's not really remotely spoilerish to answer these questions, so, in brief:

Sarah in the NoDS story was Sarah Castle, the daughter of the Collinwood housekeeper in 1810 (a character played by our beloved Clarice Blackburn).  Sarah does not exist as a ghost in the 1971 sequences, but she is linked to the "present day" in a way that's explained at a pivotal moment in the story.

Selby has a dual role in NoDS:  in the present day he is Quentin Collins, an avant-garde Manhattan painter who inherits the Collinwood estate after the death of Mrs. Stoddard.  And in 1810, he is Charles Collins, who was romantically involved with a lovely woman named Angelique (who may or may not have been a Witch).

NoDS is often shown on one of the cable channels at this time of year, so perhaps you can catch it at some point. 

G.