Back during the original broadcast, I was always feeling sorry for Barnabas.  I missed both 1968 and 1795, and when I first saw him, he was the hapless victim of Cass/Angelique, stuggling to redeem himself and live a halfway decent life.  Even as an adult when I see Barnabas' shortcomings with a much less bedazzled eye, Jonathan Frid's performance often wrings my heartstrings.

Willie is one of the finest tragic characters in the entire series.  I really wish they had resolved his storyline towards the end and allowed him to go off with his Roxanne and enjoy a happy married life.  Over the period of the series, he is definitely a man who gets way more misery to endure than he ever deserved.  And, of course, John Karlen's wonderful acting imbued the character with a lot more than was there on the printed page.

Some of the characters that people can't stand, such as Count Petofi, Cassandra Collins, and Jeb Hawkes, are among my favorites on the show because the actors portray them so magnificently and really show the charisma that these evil supernatural beings possess.  

Magda is another wonderful tragic character.  Even though she is responsible for nearly everything that happens to her, I find myself riveted every time I watch the episodes where she encounters yet another layer of tragedy in her life.  Even though Magda was larger than life, I felt that Grayson played her with wonderful subtlety, and I think there was more of the real Grayson in Magda than in Julia.

I could go on and on ... wonderful topic ... but the last one I'll mention is Buzz Hackett.  Well, if I had been living in C'port back in the glory days of '67, Miss "Poor Little Rich Girl" Carolyn Stoddard wouldn't have had 5 seconds to jerk Buzz around on the love-chain, because I would have nailed that boy and made him forget Blondie ever existed!

It's a big job but somebody has to do it,

Gothick

One of my all time favorite scenes in all of DS was this conversation from about halfway through the 1967 storyline where Barnabas is scheming to make Vicki his new Josette and he's fretting about just what Dr. Hoffman is up to.  He regales Willie with his plans and gloats about how when Vicki becomes his bride, she'll be free of the petty chafings of mortality, untouched by time, untouched by anything.  "Yeah ... cept loneliness," Willie comments bleakly.  It's such a wonderful moment ... and a wonderful scene for WILLIE to have the last word.

I'm sure that one reason why I cherish that scene is because it was on a little cassette tape I carried around the world with me in my travels in the 80s and 90s.  That tape contained scenes I taped during the syndication of DS in 1976. Since I didn't have any tapes from the original broadcast, for nearly 2 decades this tape & one other were all that I had to remember my favorite TV show by.

Gothick

Connie, my dear, you've outdone yourself!

Here's the dialogue to go with the photo:

QUENTIN: (staring at Chris' nether regions) Chris, you're an ANIMAL!!!

CHRIS: (slowly raising head with an evil leer) Is that the pot calling the kettle beige?  Here, let me rip off some more of that shirt for you.

Oh those Collinses, keeping it in the family ... gotta love 'em!

Gothick

When I look at Don's hair, I just want to run my fingers through it, and that thought invariably leads to others, not really suitable for family viewing.

What a beautiful man.  I taped Dawson's Crack last night to watch Sebastian Spence. (Sadly he only appeared for about 2 minutes.)  5 seconds of shirtless Briscoe is more exciting to this old fogey than hours of heavily primped teens lounging about on their cell phones with their $200 Hollywood Boulevard hair cuts.

Hey Raineypark, is there enough room up here on this soap box?  I don't wanna be crowdin' you, girl.

Gothy

Good to see you back, Jon.  Will be nice to see you posting here more often.

Best,

Gothick

Wow, Scout, I'm sorry I missed reading your erotic dream about Julia.  Have you ever seen Satan in High Heels?  Grayson Hall proved in that just how erotic she could be.  Those cat-like smiles of hers were pretty incredible.

Then, there's her cameo in End of the Road, where in the role of sex-starved "spinster" Peggie she makes out like a bandit with Stacey Keach, clawing at him and frantically licking his chest!  There's a magazine interview at the time where she comments something along the lines of "I defy anyone to say I'm a dyke after they see End of the Road!" (she wasn't quite that blunt about it, but I don't have time right now to go look up the actual quote).

The most vivid dreams I had about DS were back when I was a kid and I dreamt a couple of times about living at Collinwood.  In more recent years, whenever I've spent time working intensively on my Grayson Hall project, I've had dreams where I visit Grayson or she visits me and we discuss her career and her interests.

The Frid-tones--LOVE it!  You know he went to Yale ... that sounds just like one of those endless Yale glee clubs (the Whiffenpoofs are just the tip of the iceberg, darling).

Best,  Steve

Dear Criseyde, thank you for sharing the news about Mr. Selby's work on Lincoln & James/Better Angels.

I wish the play could be filmed for presentation on Great Performances (the PBS series).  Its message is more timely than ever, and it should be seen by all Americans, in my opinion.

In an era when taping a US flag to any spare surface and adding some slogan to it passes for patriotism, it is inspiring to see an actor give so much of himself to put forward the kind of vision that is what our country was supposed to foster, or so one would gather from reading the documents left by the people who were on the spot back in the 18th century.

In other news, I wonder whether the science fiction film Mr. S did back in the 70s will ever see the light of home video/DVD?

I'm still looking for at least one photo of Mr. S with Grayson Hall in the play they did at Manhatten Theatre Club together back in the 70s, Ribcage--he must have liked it because he did several other productions of it besides the one with Grayson.

Best wishes,

Steve

Mame is one of my favorite musicals (i. e. it is one of the few whose songs I can actually bear listening to more than once in a given day, week or year) and I look forward to hearing reviews of David's work in this.  I wouldn't have envisioned him as Beau--not a very substantial role for him and not at all his type, but I'm sure he'll put a special spin on it.  He'll definitely infuse the role with his own fabulous courtly charm.

I cherish the memory of seeing him as Lincoln in that wonderful play at the DS Festival some years back.  What a great role for him, and he played it beautifully.  It may be the best thing he's ever done, of the work I have seen of his, certainly.

Steve