Hooray for Love at First Bite!  She made it!

Happy Happy!

I think the motif of the Peter and Vicki love story across the centuries may have been inspired by a movie I've never seen with Leslie Howard called Berkeley Square, from the early 1930s.  I don't think it is available in any format, however.

Berkeley Square has the distinction of having been H. P. Lovecraft's favorite film, as well.  (His most deeply cherished desire was to live in the 18th century.)

I know I've posted about this before...

G.

mscbryk, I thought what you wrote about Burke as the forgotten hero of the show was very interesting.  He was so central to Art Wallace's original concept, but at this stage of the game, when the old chestnut of a new DS gets trotted out, we NEVER hear fans discuss what should be done with Burke, who should play him, etc.

Even less remembered by fans is my candidate for Vicki's fiance, Frank Garner.  Apparently Conrad Fowkes' request for a raise led to DC ordering the character to be written out of the series, according to reports of Mr. Fowkes' statements at the last Festival (I missed him, unfortunately).

I first encountered Burke Devlin in one of those silly "Marilyn" Ross novels.  At the time, I assumed that Devlin was a creation of Ross.  It wasn't until 1976 and the airing of the original Barnabas storyline in a local syndication market that I got to see the Anthony George version of Burke.  I think my first exposure to the Mitchell Ryan characterization (apart from brief clips on the original Ressurection of Barnabas Collins MPI videotape) was in the late 1990s when a mysterious, kindly gentleman sent me a package of 1966 tapes from his remote estate in the countryside.

Like Adam, Burke was a character defined initially by a pronounced streak of monomania.  Unlike Adam, the writers actually allowed Burke to grow and change.   Perhaps the character was too realistic for the "wild and woolly" tone of post-1795 DS.  Had he remained involved, his romance with Vicki would have at least given Moltke a little more to do than stare at Cassandra and complain that she didn't understand.

I do love this scene where Burke and "Miss" Hoffman are talking turkey in the drawing room.  There's such an old boys night out atmosphere in the way that scene is written and played.  This was in the era of Anthony George, who was a friend of Grayson Hall's in real life.

G.

Last weekend I happened to be viewing some scenes from the shows from the week that chronicled Amy Jennings' arrival at Collinwood.  Grayson and Joan had several scenes together; Grayson in one of my favorite dark blue suits of hers, and Joan in a regal power red number accentuated with a magisterial gold brooch.  Not for the first time, I reflected how much I have enjoyed watching these two divas mulch scenery together on the show (though a waggish friend of mine insists that their contrasting acting styles makes the experience similar to "a 78 played alongside a 16 1/2 rpm speed disc"--this analogy will be lost on younger viewers, alas).

I think my favorite of their scenes together comes during the Leviathan era--I've written about it too many times to repeat myself again, but it involves a somewhat tacky gold shopping-bag with something special Liz has tucked away for everyone's favorite houseguest...

Anybody else care to share their favorite Joan/Grayson scene here?  The technologically advanced should feel free to add photos!

G.

Didn't Adrian Paul also play Jeremiah on that show?  I don't think they were planning on duplicating all the storylines of the original series, but given how they whipped through the "1790" sequence on that show, who knows.

I only watched the whole thing once and don't know that I could ever stand to watch it again.

G.

I would LOVE to have Michael Hadge visit and share his memories with us  I know he was scheduled to attend some years back but couldn't make it.

Buzz, have you ever seen Hadge's all-too-brief cameo as a philosophical coffeehouse waiter in Mister Buddwing(1966)?  The same movie also includes a fun cameo by Nichelle Nichols.

I wish my memory weren't so tattered.  I'm delighted with the snapshot of "Mrs Purdy" in today's slideshow and trying to recall the name of the wonderful actress who portrayed her.  She also had a brief role during Leviathan and, of course, appeared as Mrs Pettione in hoDS.

G.

Hey Buzz, I watched Gore de Vol's show Creature Feature almost religiously back in the Seventies.  Unfortunately, let's just say I was NOT a fan of his various routines, though in memory they seem quaint and even a bit amusing.  The rubber chicken stuff did really get to me (and I wasn't even a vegetarian back then--it's just, nothing makes one quite so tired as an attempt to eke humor out of a latex fowl).

The other show I used to watch regularly was Ghost Host, which was hilarious because it was the same little videotape of the guy mucking around with his test tubes with a voiceover tailored to whatever film was running. As I recall it, Ghost Host came on at 1 a.m. right after Creature Feature but on a different station--Channel 45, maybe?

I very occasionally watched Sir Graves Ghastly out of Philadelphia and was delighted to see some old clips of his show on his website.  Come to think of it, nearly all of the surviving Horror Hosts seem to have web presences now.

cheers, Gothique