Just a note to Thom ... nice to see you posting here ...

And to RP:  darling, you should see MY candle budget. Does the term "looney tunes" mean anything to you???

Gothick

Wow, Evil Butterfly Dress, I hope you make it!  You're one of the chosen few to really "get" just why Cassandra's nightmare butterfly peignoir RULES.

I have a tale in mind about that dress, btw ... perhaps this Summer I'll finally write it.  It is something that needs to be written during the Summer ... Cassandra feels like a creature of Summer to me.  Capricious, glamorous, dazzling ... and ruthlessly cruel.

Gothick

Oh, I *love* that shot of Nicholas and Cassandra outside the house.  I majorly groove on the psychedelic color scheme of Cassandra's nightmare butterfly peignoir (of course, I LOVE IT that she rematerialized still wearing that thing--can't you just hear all the demons snickering away down in the Inferno when she turned up in that outfit), especially as imprinted upon the weird electric blue color scheme of the house.  It's really trippy!

My nomination for the worst special effect on DS has to be the use of a still of Dennis Patrick having some sort of bizarre fit which was inserted at a key moment because the actor was not available for the episode.  That was one script that needed a rewrite because the work-around they came up with was simply ludicrous, even by DS standards.

Robin's right, though, that a lot of us kids who watched the show believed EVERYTHING we saw way back in the day.  It didn't take much to impress us back then.  My sister had nightmares for weeks because of the scene involving the spell Nicky puts on Cassandra's hand, mentioned in a post above.  

Thanks to Raineypark for the fascinating post about conditions inside a typical TV production studio of the 1970s.  Great stuff!

Steve

Yeah, that was a great scene.  Too bad they didn't show Julia tapping the steering wheel impatiently, a lit Marlboro's clenched between immaculately glossed lips.  I imagine her wearing dark slacks, Cuban-heeled boots and a windbreaker for the drive.  I wish they had let Grayson wear slacks on camera once in awhile.

Gothick

More delectable scenery-chewing today from fab Jerry Lacey.  Does anybody else LIVE for the moment when the fly lands on his nose and he spews it forth with cross-eyed fervor, arointing those mean old divvils with ferocious zeal?

This was the second episode of DS I ever saw, back in the halcyon days of June 1968 (interesting how close to the original broadcast date they are with it).  About 2  minutes into the show, watching Cassandra rave over her potions in that spectacular buttefly peignoir, I knew I would be a fan for life.

Imagine being exorcised while wearing a buttefly peignoir!  I can imagine the snickers when Cass turned up back in the old Flaming Pit Lounge wearing that thing.

Gothick

Mark:

These chapters are wonderful work.  Really quite good. I thought the second one was just a bit better than the first because the mood was so sustained and focused.  The first one dragged a bit for the first 4 pages (forgive my bluntness--I'm rapidly turning into a crotchety old New England curmudgeon).  Great writing for Julia, btw, and that's not a compliment I pass out readily.

Too bad the series was canceled.  You've really got me wondering just where this story would have led.  Haven't a clue at the moment! Thanks for sharing the bit that did get written.  That's such a generous gesture on your part.  I figure since you are putting these up on the Net, it means it's highly unlikely you will ever write anymore.

I hope you and your wife enjoy your cruise.  It sounds very romantic.

Best wishes,

Steve

Although I have nothing new to contribute to this discussion, I must say I find all of this fascinating.  I hope you will all continue to share information here in this public forum.  It makes for sad but instructive reading.  

Darren, have you tried getting any Catholic friends of yours to say a prayer to St. Anthony of Padua for the hoDS footage?  I've heard that if it is anywhere, St. Anthony will find it!  

Best wishes,

Steve

Hi R. P.,

Herbs only pop up every so often on DS.  I remember Aunt Hannah and Angelique using mandrake to enchant Quentin during the Parallel Time storyline.  In 1795 it seems as if they started out trying to depict Angelique's powers a little more authentically in terms of island cunning woman type lore and practice.

Another great herbal reference is Julianka and her gathering the "blood" of the orris root--which actually IS a powerful binding agent used to give many spells an extra "kick."  I'm pretty sure Violet Welles was responsible for that--she seems to have been more enthusiastic about research than the others.

I helped a friend plant his herbal seedlings the weekend before last.  He had a couple of good books, one of them by an old-school hard-line gardener who made very strict recommendations about the distance between plants for the herbs.  Many of them do better planted in pairs, and she also mentioned about that.  I can't recall this particular author's name--the book was of the "Herb Gardening Made Easy" type, and the original publication date was ca. 1976.

What I do remember is that taller plants like fennel and rosemary should ideally have 2 feet of room between them.  You may not need to worry about this, though, since the plants will not survive the winter.  Unless you save the pots and transplant them out of the garden and bring them indoors in Sept.  I guess there's a chance you could keep them going if you did that.

Good luck!  Isn't gardening the best?

Gothick