What about Count Petofi? I'm not sure if "opportunist" is the right word to describe the Count--it does not seem sufficiently grandiose for that magnificent schemer and manipulator.

He did say "I have but one God, and his name is Petofi," and I don't think he was joking.

It's been over a decade since I last watched 1840. My memory is that when Gerard comes on, he is a charming rogue with some minor psychic powers (healing Flora of her headaches... that was such a trippy scene) who has spun a yarn to the family about his travels with Quentin. He definitely had his own personality, one which I would describe as deceitful and devious but not full-on malevolent. Wasn't Gerard initially a friend of Letitia's? I remember a couple of scenes between them that showed more of himself than he wanted to reveal to the family.

I thought James Storm did a good job, all things considered, in the role. I know people who live for Storm's unique enunciation of that fateful name... MIRRRRRAAAAANDAAAAHHH!

G.

The painting of Quentin's portrait is a significant element in the second half of 1897, the part where Count Petofi is the main villain.

MB I definitely agree that omitting Jason and those incredible episodes with those great scenes between him and Liz (which gives the lie to folks who say that Joan Bennett wasn't any good on DS) is unforgivable. I barely glanced at the article so did not really think very much about what they were suggesting.

G.

The 1840 storyline played out somewhat similarly to the 1897 one in terms of foreshadowing in "the present" that did not play out once everyone was back in 19th century times. In 1897, the discontinuity wasn't quite so blatant, in part because they spent eight months (or was it nine) moving through what they wound up with. Those in charge of the show simply presumed that the viewers at home wouldn't recall what had been shown during the lead-up in Dec. 1968-March 1969. In all fairness, they did try to explain some of the disparities, but at one point either Barnabas or Julia told one bewildered character "We can't answer ALL the questions now." And as usual when they told Professor Stokes or Maggie that they would "explain later"... they never did.

With 1840 it was a more compacted timeline that was complicated by some real life developments. David Henesy left the show, so the Tad character went off to boarding school or a relative's home (I can't recall which). Jonathan Frid ALMOST left. Grayson had to leave because of an in-law's death and I think she had minor plastic surgery at one point. But she did come back.

Fans were following all of it really closely and it was glaringly obvious to those of us watching that the various "clues" about the Java Queen, Rose Cottage, Gerard and Daphne's shipboard romance, etc. formed a trail that led to precisely nothing once everyone had arrived in 1840.

G.

I apologize to the moderators for how many times variations on the word "eye" appeared in my post.

G.

Thanks for looking that line up, MB! I do remember that scene now, but it's so long since I last watched those shows that I don't recall the line at all. I'm sure Grayson had fun with that bit of dialogue.

G.

Whether or not he "needs" to be a part of it, I don't think it would fly at all with the network or the backers without Barnabas.

I mean, to 99 percent of the population, DS WAS Barnabas Collins, full stop.

One reason why the show was canceled in the first place is that Frid no longer wanted to play Barnabas--or at least, did not want to play him as a vampire. I think Dan Curtis was ready to move on in any event but Frid's decision must have been a big factor in realize they'd reached the end of the line with it.

G.

I finally watched the entire third arc all the way through last year, in the Spring. I enjoyed it, but some of the Harding Lemay scripts were so awful. One of the worst was maybe 2 or 3 weeks before the end. Cosette Lee obviously needed to take some time off, so Lemay wrote this scene where Raxl became invisible. It was never explained or accounted for and after that episode, she simply did not show up until somebody (I think Jacques, possessing Jean Paul) "summoned" her to return. When she reappeared everything that had happened to her during the preceding one to two months had been wiped out and she was back to being utterly EEE-vil.

It made no sense at all, but Cosette played it all with ferociously committed elan. I think I only like the series so much because I enjoyed Colin Fox and Cosette in their roles, hugely. I don't think most people care for any of it very much. I noticed when Danny Horn did a week about SP, he despised Raxl and Cosette's performance. I figured he would not get very far with it given that he did not care for her work on the show.

G.

Mark Perry (if I've got the name right--I am not familiar with his work, because as we all know, I live in a cave) has the good taste to quote Grayson Hall. He gets a Steve merit badge for that.

Let's be real--whether the series appeals to old guard fans or not is a fairly minor point in the greater scheme of things. I don't know what the target demographic of commercial TV is now, but I'd guess the most important market share now is around 15 to 35 year olds. If a significant share of that group doesn't tune in, the show is unlikely to last long. It's the CW again and I for one will be surprised if it airs at all, but who knows.

If DS takes off the way recent cult shows such as American Horror Show and Sabrina have done, then it could go gangbusters. One way those shows succeeded was by doing shorter seasons of only 10 or so episodes at a time, and I'd think the same will be true of the new DS if it is ordered to series. Just seems to be how the decision-making players run the game now.

G.