My roommate still uses the rabbit ears.  I've officially given up on broadcast TV although a friend of mine has been taping the new Dr. Who which I watch (I'm still halfway through Christiopher Eccleston) so I guess I'm cheating.

Thanks, Buzz, for posting this.  I'd figured out that the shift was to Digital, not HD, but in running a Google search I discovered that a lot of the consumers who are aware of the 2009 cutoff date are confused on this point.  Since it's Digital, that means that old shows on video will still be available to broadcasters, so long as they are in digital format--like our DVDs from the Dark Shadows master reels.

G.

Greetings, fans,

I've read that the US government has passed legislation requiring all broadcasts in the US to switch over to "HD" standard by 2009.  Given something Darren wrote a couple of weeks ago about the basic requirement for content broadcast in HD, I'm wondering whether this means that old shows that were done on tape will no longer be able to be transmitted because of the low grade of their video bands.  I can't recall the numbers but I have read that old video is WAY below the acceptable numbers for HD.

If this is true, I am presuming that as of 2009, there will no longer be any prospect of DS broadcasts on ANY channels in the US.  I am quite curious as to what the results of this shift will be.  I always said that if you took television away from the American people, revolution will result.  As of 2009, from what I can understand, non HD sets will no longer be able to receive any signal whatsoever, which will cut out a sizable chunk of the US population that either can't afford to purchase HD equipment or refuses to do so for whatever reason.

cheers, Gothick

I don't think it's been posted here, but Jack Palance's characterization in Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde strongly influenced the whole Cyrus Longworth/John Yeagar scenario on DS in the Parallel Time 1970 storyline.  Of course, Chris Pennock brought very much his own energy to the role, but I seem to recall the Yeagar makeup being a pretty clear variation upon the makeup Palance was given for Mr. Hyde in the 1968 video.

I believe,too, that besides Quentin's theme, one of Pansy Faye's theme songs was first heard in the soundtrack of Jekyll/Hyde.

Jack Palance did a fun film in England in the early 1970s called Craze.  I think it was directed by Herman Cohen and was sort of a remake of Horrors in the Black Museum but with a voodoo twist--and there's a gay subtext, too.  It's very over-the-top and really does not make any sense but it's a lot of fun for a rainy night.  The immortal Diana Dors has a small role in it, too.

G.

For reasons unknown to me, I got an email a few days ago about Amazon (which I prefer to call amazombie--it's what Quentin Collins was heard chirping outside Rachel Drummond's window during a certain storyline:  "amazombie! amazombie! amazombie!" yeah, I know I have WAY too much time on my hands) starting up a "store" on their site where one could "buy" episodes of Star Trek for upload onto their laptops.  I have a friend who has been watching a current series called Heroes this way, buying episodes at the Apple Store and then watching it in his car in the bumper-to-bumper traffic of the LA mega-glopolis.

I can already foresee classic TV shows such as DS getting this treatment.  If I had access to the software to do it, it would depend upon the fidelity of the upload.  I am of the opinion that a lot of the stuff that's shared online winds up looking or sounding utterly wretched.  Maybe the quality of the hardware you play the thing on enters into all of this.

G.

Hey MSC, I got the tape out last night just to watch that scene between Laura and Magda again.  It's better than Special K!

I'll look next for the other scene you mentioned.  I recall roughly when that happened.  Pistol-packin' Magda!  As I recall it, both Grayson and Joan chewed the scenery with maximum elan!

It's not so much catty as an example of extreme complacency, but another fab scene around that time involves Laura and Minerva Trask comparing notes on their favorite topic of PROPER child-rearing.  Hysterical!

G.

On the topic of catty scenes, another marvelous one is between Magda and Laura in 1897 when Magda was "helping" Laura clean up the cottage and the Phoenix demanded a tarot card reading.  The facial expressions of the two actresses as they play out this little scene are beyond priceless.  And Grayson Hall must have dealt one mean hand of poker, judging by Magda's dexterity with those cards.

G.

Watching "Miss" Hoffman slam the phone down on Carolyn when she's in the middle of making her latest date with hot lawyer-hunk Tony Peterson, and then Carolyn's icy reproof to Julia to "dress for dinner because we expect a certain standard in our GUESTS," is WAY  better than any drug you can get on the street, IMNSHO.

At the same time, it strikes a poignant note a couple of episodes later when [spoiler]Carolyn tells Barnabas she thinks he's being very cruel to Julia.  That interjected a more human note into the proceedings which had reached a fairly baroque level at that point.  Of course, Barn's response to Carolyn's admonition is a fairly telling one ...[/spoiler]

I also, of course, love the Laura/Liz showdown scenes in '67.  Another memorable, and delicious, series of showdowns, is between Dr. Hoffman and Nicholas Blair in 1968.  As far as I'm concerned, those scenes more than compensate for the endlessly dreary stuff with Adam and Jeff Clark that make up the bulk of that period of the show.

G.

That column seems more about the author's cultural illiteracy than anything else.

The fact that Lugosi was laid out in his coffin in his vampire cape was a far more significant Goth element at his funeral than the mere fact of his death.  (In fact, a few years before on a television appearance, Lugosi had uttered the fateful words:  "Dracula never dies.")

No mention of Nick Drake, one of the great misbegotten bards cherished by the more intelligent segments of Gothiana (yes, they do exist).

No mention of Montague Summers, failed Roman Catholic Priest who stalked London in the late 1920s and early 1930s in a long black cape, almost invariably seen scowling over a huge blackbound volume of incunabula.

No mention of Vampira, aka Maila Nurmi, whose horror-host show in 1950s LA was the original definition of the Goth chick aesthetic.

Venus in Furs was an allusion to a novel by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the man who gave Masochism as a sexual fetish its name.

I would go on, but after awhile, what's the point?

cheers, GOTHICK.