The week of Cassandra's arrival on the scene is one of my favorite parts of the show.  They give us lots of tense, dramatic scenes--the ones involving Liz and Roger are particularly sharp.  Lots of bitchy moments with a smug Cass twisting the knife in Liz and the Mistress of Collinwood firing back.  I love the scene where Liz coldly informs the new Mrs. Roger Collins that her husband doesn't have a penny to his own name.

G.

Just thought I'd poke my head in the door to say that I'm more or less equally fond of the present day storylines and the time-travelling ones.  I have a special fondness for the pre-Barnabas 1966-67 shows, and for the Cassandra Collins/Nicholas Blair 1968 storyline--as regards the latter, mainly because I started watching DS during that period so it was my introduction to the series.

I haven't watched the episode in quite some time, but as I recall it, when David and Amy are exploring the West Wing in December of '68, they pass a portrait of a mutton-chopped gent of the 1860s and David solemnly informs his new friend that this is Thaddeus Collins, an ancestor who fought in the Civil War.  I realize I'm imputing WAY too much power of recall to the writers but I like to think of Thaddeus as the child Tad grown up and doing his bit during the War Between the States.

G.

Heather darling, you really know how to ring my chimes!

Hope Julia enjoys these upon her return!

Thanks,

G.

Quelle spectacle!  C'est l'anniversaire extraordinare de Julia99!  Oo-la-la!  Quelle drolerie, ca serait bien sur tout-a-fais divine!!!

Je m'en fiche!!!

xoxo G.

PS Happy Birthday sweetie!!!

My thoughts--

Joan Bennett:  in the books about the show's history, it is stated (originally by KLS, I believe, in the first edition of My Scrapbook Memories of DS--a wonderful book just for the photographs; I cherish it for the series of Thayer David in the antique store alone) that Joan insisted on being given a six week vacation every year.  So, it was built in from the get-go that Liz (or whoever Joan played) would have periods of being "away" in some form or other.  I do think that Joan has some of her best moments post-Barnabas.  The whole Jason Maguire thing is concurrent with the original Barnabas storyline and I actually find it very effective now to watch the two storylines switching back and forth.  The Judith Collins story in 1897 contains some of Joan's best work on the show (and may I just mention here, since I seldom here anyone else voicing this opinion, that I love watching Joan work opposite Jerry Lacy and that I think that for once, the showdown of the whole Judith/Trask storyline packs quite a punch on DS--where storyline payoffs all too often ended with a rushed fizzle).  For some reason, after Parallel Time 1970 Joan got very little good material to work with.  I did hear a fan report about a ca. 1972 talk show appearance (I have no idea which one) in which Joan stated bluntly that she was relieved that Shadows was done with because she was tired of it and had not had a very good time.  I suspect this reflects (if anything more than a passing mood on that day) her experience on hoDS and the decline in the material she was given in that last year.

Louis--I don't think he really cared one way or the other so long as he got his own share of work.  Unlike Joan, Louis did get some more substantial material right through to the end of the series.  I thought the aged Daniel was a fantastiic tour de force, and Brutus was great fun.  Louis was a champ!

Nancy, as Michael and others in this thread have implied, did continue to have central importance throughout the Barnabas era.  We got to watch Carolyn grow up, and go through some remarkable experiences.  As for Alex, I give her credit for bringing depth and plausibility to the work  even when Vicki goes way out on a limb (that whole Jeff Clark/Peter Bradford thing--let's just not go there).  I so wish she had come back in 1897 to play a darker more sinister role, as I've read she had requested from DC.  Of course the fans probably would have sent in hate-mail as they did when Barnabas was made evil again during the Leviathans (I think the real reason why the Leviathans story was so reviled at the time--the teenybopper fan base couldn't deal with seeing Barn go bad).

Missed opportunities:  I would have loved to have seen Frank Garner become a regular on the show as Vicki's love interest.  I think that would have added a different twist to the whole dynamic of Barn's courtship of Vicki.  And I wish that Ned Calder had come to Collinwood.  In Sam Hall's notes on how the story might have continued, I like to think of the man that Liz brought in to help with the business as Ned, although I think that Sam described him as a younger man and very brilliant.  In any event, I like to think of Liz having some happiness in her life after all those "dark shadows."

Just my two drachmae--

G.

I did think that a connection between Roxanne's story and the main Gerard story was *implied* in the Summer of 1970 storyline--if you watch carefully, there are snippets of dialogue here and there that imply this.  But in typical fashion the Roxanne storyline was just turned into a dead end like so much else from this period.

G.

I keep seeing this topic and mis-reading it as "Dark Shadows Curse" and hearing Julia scream:  "WILLIEEEEEE!!! get me the stake, NOW!"

*cheeky grin*

G.