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Messages - Gothick

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4216
Good luck and best wishes.

G.

4217
I'm not an Aries, but I *am* a huge Emma Peel/Avengers fan.  I'm also a huge fan of Honor Blackman and have been revisiting some of Linda Thorson's shows recently and finding them better than I had remembered (both in terms of Thorson's performance and as shows).  I also recently discovered Julie Stevens who appeared as Venus Smith in a few episodes during the 1962-63 season.

A friend told me that there are discussion boards where you can write reviews and share chat with fellow fans on A & E's "Original Avengers" site.  If I have the chance to check it out, I'll post the link in this thread.

I think that although the Avengers had a much more substantial budget and much glossier production facility than DS, both series share a number of attributes in common, including the ability to deploy distinguished veteran character actors in juicy guest roles and a look, sound, and style that become iconic.  Each in its own way, both also were definiing exemplars of facets of the mid to late Sixties cultural ethos.  I'm very pleased to see that both shows continue to find new fans!

G.

4218
Current Talk '08 I / Big Lou and Mighty Mitch, vintage '66
« on: April 04, 2008, 07:07:30 PM »
Fans,

Yesterday, I revisited the DVD Talk review of DS The Beginning collection III to help out a friend who's hoping to rent some Laura Collins episodes soon on his new Netflix account.  (From what I can determine, the third set ends before the introduction of Laura Collins in December of '66.)  Despite the hyperbolic language, I enjoyed the writer's description of our own beloved Big Lou, Louis Edmonds, and Mitchell Ryan in these classic shows.  A couple of corrections:  Louis WASN'T closeted (read the excellent biography of him, Big Lou, by the late, much lamented Craig Hamrick, to get more details about how blisteringly honest Mr. Edmonds was about his sexuality and every other aspect of his life), and however fey Roger's wardrobe may have occasionally seemed to the eye of a 2008 viewer, he was NEVER in drag.  (I sometimes think that Roger's PT 1970 counterpart occasionally sported invisible drag--but that's another story for another time).

The passage:

[...]episodes 71 to 105 truly belong to two people. The first is Big Lou - Louis Edmonds. A closeted homosexual in the days when being gay meant possible physical harm (not to mention industry blackballing), his Roger Collins is nothing more than a drag version of a spoiled rotten dandy. With a voice so clipped he could cut glass, and a mannerism so foppish he practically channels Oscar Wilde, Edmonds owns this storyline - and with good reason. Roger is the center of all the intrigue. He's the supposedly guilty party Burke is trying to blame. He's the source of young son David's ongoing homicidal streak. He uses Victoria as an alibi and then turns around and threatens her. And he pitches one mean hissy. Indeed, Edmonds makes many of these early installments, saving us from otherwise drab line readings and strained New York stage acting. The other creative catalyst is Mitchell Ryan. As the conniving and scheming Devlin, he does everything except chew the scenery - and that's only because Big Lou leaves very little backdrop behind when he finishes with a performance. Ryan is the manlier yin to Edmonds yang, and together they create an engaging cat and mouse.  (end)

The other thing that I would add is that as far as I'm concerned, all the members of the regular cast did stellar work in this part of the story.  I would particularly mention Joan Bennett who has some of her best scenes, and Alexandra Moltke who gets to play a much more knowing, thoughtful Vicki than we get to see later on.

Have a nice weekend, fans!

cheers, G.

4219
I really wish the episodes of Virginia Graham's Girl Talk show with Grayson Hall and Joan Bennett from 1970 would surface somehow, someday...

G.

4220
Many happy returns to Humbert Allen Astredo!  One of the true greats.

G.

4221
I saw a few minutes of a couple of episodes of Passions during the first year or so that it was on, just out of curiosity.  In one of the episodes. Timmy was naughty and the Juliet Mills character stuck him in the washing machine to "cool off."  A bubble opened up as a "Timmy doll" spun around and around in the machine advising viewers not to "try this at home."

If the show reminded me of anything from the Sixties, it was the Witchiepoo segments of H. R. Pufnstuf.  And then some vaguely pornographic hunk in a uniform would wander into camera range and read some really stilted dialogue off a cue card.  I'm really surprised it lasted as long as it did; the show did not seem to be directed at all and apart from Mills, none of the performers seemed to have had any acting experience or training of any description.  But, as I said, I'm making those observations based  on a couple of brief sequences I watched before switching off the series because the proceedings were too preposterous even for my looneytunes taste.

G.

4222
Current Talk '08 I / Re: Count Petofi
« on: April 03, 2008, 08:21:21 PM »
Mysterioso darling, Grayson Hall (Praise be upon Her Name!) mentioned in a fan interview tape recorded in March 1973 (btw, this is the same item that has circulated for years on the fan bootleg market as an interview taped in '74) that the ratings started to go down during the "Quentin/Petofi mind-switch thing."  I think she actually uses those words to describe it.  I can't recall whether she mentions that they received letters complaining about it or simply that the monthly figures were down during that time--probably both.

All sorts of arguments keep being mentioned about DS and the ratings and I have come to take all talk of such matters with more than just a scattering of salts.  I seem to recall years ago someone trotting out figures that showed that during the early 1967 Laura Collins storyline, the show actually had very respectable viewing figures, which calls into question the notion of the introduction of Barnabas saving a foundering show that had barely registered on anyone's radar theretofore.

Let the Count Petofi lovefest continue!  I just love the episode where Beth blurts out to the evilly gloating Count "you're mad!" and without missing a beat, he ripostes, "Perhaps so, but at the very least I am most far-sighted in my madness!"  Gotta love Petofi.

G.

4223
Current Talk '08 I / Re: Count Petofi
« on: April 03, 2008, 02:25:55 PM »
What a great topic!  It's interesting to see favorable discussion here of Count Petofi's return on the show.  The perception among the writers and the crew was that the Petofi storyline in 1897 dragged on way too long for the patience of viewers--this was blamed for a perceived initial drop in ratings.  The Petofi/Quentin body switch storyline which lasted a month and featured some really way-out plot twists (and one of my personal all-time favorite moments on DS--that shot of the DS skeleton tarted up in Wanda Paisley's tea-gown, wig, and big feathery aigrette--not to mention the whole return-of-Judith storyline, which I LOVE) was blamed in particularly for turning into a major turn-off for much of the viewership.  From what I can determine, it seems to me that they received a lot of hate-mail from the fans complaining about this, and the root of the complaints may have really been Jonathan Frid's one month vacation from the show, not the Petofi story and character in particular.

Anyhow, I definitely agree that a return of Count Petofi during the never-produced 1971 storyline would have been most welcome.

G.

4224
It was nice to see this yesterday.  Thanks so much for sharing it.

I'm really sorry that we never got to see Prentice in a different role and setting on the show.  I don't think Morgan was the best showcase for what he had to offer (apart from those trousers, of course--lol!).

cheers, G.

4225
Current Talk '08 I / Re: the dinner party
« on: March 25, 2008, 02:09:26 PM »
I think it's worth remembering just how much time the special effects took up in the seven or eight hours they had between arrival at the studio and taping at 3:15 ... MANY of the actors have commented upon how setting up the FX (primitive though they look to today's viewers) resulted in considerably less rehearsal time.  Actors did their best to make up for this by going over scenes on their own, but obviously this didn't always work out given the exigencies of blocking, the cameras, etc. all of which of course came into play with chromakey FX.

I got a couple more of the MPI DVD sets in the recent amazon sale (sets 3 and 4, specifically) and in one of them there's an interview with Nancy Barrett and at one point she just laughs and says "well, for one thing, you have to understand that it was all INCREDIBLY under-rehearsed!"  I'd rarely heard that point argued so bluntly but I think this has a lot to do with that air of barely controlled insanity we associate with certain episodes of the show.

I love it how in the various sequences in 1968 where Angelique and Nicholas pay calls upon Diabolos, the entire set fills up with mist from all the dry ice and smoke machines... I think this happened with a couple of the Maggie-wandering-around-Eagle-Hill scenes in '67, too.  That studio really was a tiny little thing.

G.

4226
Just to follow up ... I did order the Best of Checkmate season one collection, with Anthony George (co-starring with Sebastian Cabot and a youthful Doug McClure).  I watched several of these last weekend and they're great fun.

I checked the cast list for the episodes on the season 2 set and noticed another future DS alumnus, Dennis Patrick, on one of the shows they'll be releasing this week.

Best, G.

4227
Current Talk '08 I / Re: the dinner party
« on: March 24, 2008, 02:16:54 PM »
I remember those episodes well.  I particularly enjoyed the shows where Maggie had Joe over at the cottage and was more or less courting him, impressing him with her knowledge of nautical argot.  I believe the reviewer of the DS: The Beginning set 3 on DVD talk complained that he found these scenes boring, but I thought they were among the highlights of that period because both Crothers and Scott were so good at what they were doing with these scenes.  In the later years, we never got to see them act this kind of scene.

G.

4228
Current Talk '08 I / Re: Barnabas and Sabrina Stuart
« on: March 24, 2008, 02:13:52 PM »
Hi Gerard,

First, a thank you for your many witty posts here.  I've lost track of how many times you've lightened an otherwise dreary day with your hysterically dry sense of humor!

Consistency is the last thing I have learned to expect on DS, but I do recall that Angelique (probably the most vicious of all DS' vampires) lost interest in Joe Haskell once Nicholas gave her permission to "visit" Barnabas (as a child, I was always intrigued by this particular euphemism on DS).  Poor Joe still craved the kiss of Ange's fangs, and we all know what her response was. 

So, I would tend to agree with other fans that once Barnabas was in Parallel Time, his power over Sabrina was either broken altogether, or weakened sufficiently that Chris was able to talk her into leaving town with himself and Amy.  I would imagine that Quentin gave them some help, practical as well as financial, given his avuncular interest in Chris towards the end of the Leviathans story.

G.

4229
Calendar Events / Announcements '08 I / Re: OT (Semi): The Wolfman
« on: March 21, 2008, 09:31:04 PM »
Golly.  There sure are a lot of BUNNIES on here!!

If folks out there who enjoy Werewolf stories ever get the chance, check out this short lived series from around 1990, She-Wolf of London (also known as Love and Curses).  The first fourteen episodes of that show were produced in England and I think a lot of people here would enjoy those shows.  The remaining six were done in LA and weren't as good although I still enjoyed them (a law firm that turns out to be run by vampires ... who'd a thunk?? *rolls eyes*).

The show starred Kate Hodge as an American overseas student in the UK who gets bitten by a werewolf on a camping expedition.  Neil Dickson plays her mythology professor who decides to try to cure her of her curse.  Does this premise ring any bells for y'all?  *grins*

For Bewitched fans, in a two-part episode the pair do battle with a vicious department head by the name of Dr. Samantha Stevens.  In the LA episodes there's also a really whacky Star Trek spoof called Beyond the Beyond.

G.

4230
Calendar Events / Announcements '08 I / OT (Semi): The Wolfman
« on: March 21, 2008, 04:36:01 PM »
Fans,

there's an IMDB page for a remake of the 1940 classic Universal film The Wolfman:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0780653/

Cast includes Benicio del Toro in the role of Lawrence Talbot that was poor Lon Chaney Jr's most iconic achievement; Emily Blunt plays the Sabrina Stuart role (if you'll pardon my conflation), and Anthony Hopkins is on board as another member of the Talbot family.  According to IMDB, location filming included work on the Chatsworth estate in England (I wonder what the ghost of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire thought of the proceedings?).

As most fans are aware, the Curt Siodmak screenplay for the original Wolfman was mined by DS writers for a number of features in both the Chris and Quentin storyline, including the Pentagram appearing on the face of the Wolfman's next vicitm, the use of a Pentagram charm to repel the beast, and the involvement of an unflappable gypsy crone in the tale (no sign on IMDB of who's going to play the Maria Ouspenskaya role).

G.

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