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.

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.

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.

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.

Madonna is my age, which means she's about 25 years too old to play Angelique.

Of course, they could still let her try to play Julia.  Or Liz.  *ducks*

*cue music*  "Like a ma-a--a-triarch ... with my hairpiece ... primped to shine, whoa-oh-whoa-oh..."

It's nice to see such appreciation for a period in the show's history that used to be routinely dissed without defense because nobody had ever seen it (yes, that's how long in fandom I've been around).

I'm glad the DS reviews on that site have, on the whole, been of such good quality.  I just read the two Peter Gunn reviews on the site, and it sounds as if the reviewer hardly even bothered to watch more than a few moments of one show on each set.

G.

The first thing that comes to mind is Nicholas' satanic giggling as he tells Cassandra, "Look at your hand, my dear!" and she looks in horror at the THING that lives where her hand should be ... the next day's restaging of it was even better than the previous day's cliffhanger. 

I laugh when I watch it now, but this scene actually gave both me and my sister nightmares back in 1968.

G.

It says on Amazombie that Cousin Bette with Margaret Tyzack was released in Jan. of 2007 in this country.  I hadn't heard this exciting news ... thanks again to MSC for letting us know.

G.