Just a couple of historical comments on this thread...

I believe the decision not to SAY "vampire" on the air was a conscious strategy on the part of DC and the writers to try to make the first Barnabas storyline more realistic.  You'll also note that before 1795, they never confronted Barnabas with a cross.  I think that was deliberate--to try to create a new space for a new kind of Undead that would owe less to the existing portrayals and more to the imagination of the viewers.  Of course they did use quite a lot of traditional "Gothic" iconography in the physical portrayal of Barnabas... so there was a give and take between the traditions and something that was new.

ABC had an office called Standards and Practices that was internal to the network and I believe all the scripts had to be stamped by that office.  In a book that came out several years ago about the first Barnabas storyline, the editor reprinted a memo from the S & P office which was, I believe, addressed to the producers and directors and had to do with scenes involving Willie, Jason and Barnabas.  They were concerned that Jason not be insinuating that he thought Willie and Barn were a gay couple in a scene with Willie in which he had some smirking dialogue about his former playmate's "light housekeeping" duties in the Old House.

I think the business about a male vampire not biting another man in the throat, etc. also came from S & P or from a presumption about how they would react--so, if this was censorship, it was more or less self-censorship.

The Bible-thumping crowd did conduct campaigns against DS but I think it was all too small scale for the network to bother over.  I never heard about it at the time.  I have to say I get a giggle out of the idea of DS as "the devil's favorite TV show."

G.

Oh, I simply revel in my chosen role as a sick freak obsessed with the occult, the dark side, and Grayson Hall's culinary adventurousness.

If anybody tries to hassle me about it, I pull out this little wax doll I always carry and a black pin and say something like "You know what your problem is?  You have too much time on your hands.  Well, that can be remedied...  but perhaps not as you would have chosen."  By this time I'm cackling quietly with this really demented look in my eyes, and the poor imbecile is whimpering as he crawls towards the nearest exit.

I find that that stifles any adverse comment quite efficiently...

G.

I'm really enjoying what you're writing about Burke in this current series of shows.  I'm afraid Burke never really moved me one way or the other.  It's interesting to see that you, as a viewer who started out sympathetic to the character, now regard his actions as way beyond the pale.

I've been thinking about Sarah's wig and I've decided that (unlike Cassandra's) it was MEANT to be a wig.  Premature hair loss could have something to do with why a woman in her early 40s regards herself as an "old lady."  Only being able to afford a bottom-of-the-line hairpiece would certainly help fuel her resentment, particularly when she visits Collinwood for the first time and gets a gander at the range of wiglets Liz gets to sport.

"The Wig as an Object of Pity, Revulsion and Envy on Dark Shadows." I hear a dissertation calling...

G.

It was used to drive Jonathan Frid nuts, I'm sure, in taping many episodes of DS. "Here, Jon, don't forget the cane!"

There's a cute photo of Grayson (wearing one of her caftans) holding the cane on the Eagle Hill cemetery set.

G.

Wow, Adrian, those are fab!  Did you ever do one for Cassandra?

Welcome to this Board.

Gothick

It's so cute how they always say "I MUST" or "You MUST."  A couple of fans and I talked about that during the Festival last year.  You hear that line on DS but I never hear that in what is rather hysterically called "real life."

G.

Belated birthday blessings to one of my favorite people!

xoxo Steve

Grayson could have become a fixture in supporting roles in Seventies H'wood films, but by the time 1971 rolled around and DS was finished, she'd already had it with all the Hollywood bullshit.  I think the fate of Night of Dark Shadows was the last straw for her--a film she'd done a couple of years previous to that had had what she regarded as her best scenes left on the cutting-room linoleum.

I think the same thing goes for Frid.  He did not have the temperament to deal with the inflated egos and PNP (play-and-party) culture in H'wood.  I do think that his roles in Seizure and The Devil's Daughter show he could have done stellar work onscreen--regardless of what one thinks of the films themselves, his work in them is very good.

The actress I think should have done more in film is Nancy Barrett.  I think for personal reasons she chose to remain in NYC and do soaps.  Thayer David *did* have a very busy career in film and television in his few remaining years, and had he not died when he did, Nero Wolfe could well have been picked up as a regular series with TD in the starring role he so richly deserved.  I'm really sorry Clarice Blackburn chose to go more into writing in the Seventies as I think she was so wonderful--really one of the best, most subtle actresses on the series.

As for Karlen, I thought it was very revealing that he recently commented that he often had more to do, as an actor practicing his craft, on a given episode of DS than he did in all his years on Cagney and Lacey.   He was not very well treated on the West Coast and I've wondered whether his agent might have been partly to blame for that.  who knows.

G.