Rainey, that's interesting that "hootchie-koo" dates to the Twenties.  I thought it might go back to the music halls of the 1880s-90s.

"I wanna dance for you," the tune, was, I believe, originally composed for Dan Curtis' adaptation of "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" which aired on ABC in 1968 and starred Jack Palance (who later performed as Dracula in DC's film of that book).  The words "hootchie-koo" and "tara-ra-boom-de-ay" (the latter is the first words of a nonsense patter song) are, I think, meant to evoke the atmosphere of an 1890s London music hall with their talented tease dancers and mentalists such as Miss Faye.

Some of us here are into another 1960s cult TV show, The Avengers, which was English and aired in the evenings on ABC in 1967-69.  In 1969 the new character was Tara and when she told Steed (the other main protagonist) her name, he said "Tara?" and she said "Raboomdeay!"  or something like that... it always makes me smile.  Sort of like Pansy Faye popping in on another favorite show of the period.

As for music, I prefer the background cues to the theme songs, although I am very fond of "Back at the Blue Whale" with its raucous, hippie-chick tambourine.  I also like "A Darkness at Collinwood" (I think of the beginning part as "Theme for Barnabas,") Liz's special music, the glass-armonica and theremin piece that I think has Roxanne's name on the CD, etc. I have all 4 CDs issued by MPI plus the special ones for the movies, etc issued by Rhino and Varese Sarabande.  The music was always one of my favorite things about DS.

G.

Just a line to share just what a KICK I'm getting out of these.  I do hope you can continue.  Day Two lasted even longer than I remembered!  I seem to recall noting that Art Wallace was writing the shows in Real Time, apparently as some kind of weird experiment, because I remember noticing that Liz said that something that had happened 4 episodes previously was 3 hours ago, or something along those lines... that blew my mind! Especially given the cavalier way they treated time, on *every* level, subsequently in the series.

I do hope you have the stamina to continue slogging through Day Two!  Here's to the wittiest of all our Cousins.

your fan, Gothick

Jean-Claude, it's not even our wedding night, and you're already fulfilling one of my most deeply cherished secret fantasies!

Keep. It. Up!!!!

G.

That finall episode really is DS at its best. The pacing of it is wonderful.  In the later years, they often messed up the climactic episode of a storyline.

However, *my* favorite part of the end of the Laura storyline is the episode where Liz returns to Collinwood and she and Roger have a private talk in her bedroom.  I saw this again a few months back and it made me realize just how much the show lost when Liz and Roger's relationship was reduced to a little packet of wooden cliches.

G.

Thanks, Nancy.  Everything you wrote pretty much follows my understanding of the situation.

That's very unfortunate about that site putting up all those photos from the book.  Makes it more difficult for anyone else who wants to use just two or three photos on a site.

btw--Happy New Year!

Steve

Tempted to just reply "anything with Roger Davis in it," but I'll restrain myself...

The Adam storyline happened at the same time as the Cassandra story, which is my very favorite part of DS (maybe because it was the first story I ever saw--I started watching in June '68).  And practically a tie for my favorite storyline is the Leviathan story, especially the earlier weeks of it.  So, I think Raineypark makes a good point here--even if you think the basic concept of Leviathans is a load of hooey, you'll miss some wonderful performances.

G.

Probably the best spell was one of the very first ones in 1795, because they actually showed her gathering herbs, and she needed to get someone to steal an article of clothing for the link to make it work.

In the later storylines, she evolves into Superwitch, and does a lot of the usual TV-witch silliness.  One thing about Lara Parker that I like is that she emotes the energetic conjoining of passion and will in Angelique's spellcasting really well. 

I really liked the spell she put on Laura Collins at the end of Laura's story in 1897 (just watched that one recently).  Another 1897 spell that's really cool is one she performs with the aid of a "jewel of antiquity"--it looks like something from Ohrbach's costume jewellry department, but I love it anyway.

Do you want episode numbers or DVD set information for these?  Or are you just generally curious?

G.