Wow Wow Wow!  This one is awesome, though it takes awhile for them to get organized for the performance.

Jonathan and Lara reciting Poe's magnificently strange poem,"The Bells," at some DS event:

https://archive.org/details/09FridWithLaraParkerTheBellsByPoe

Doctor and K-9, is this from one of your recordings?

G.

In the 1983 tape, Ron says he found the name Barnabas in "an old whaling book." I remember reading in the first KLS book (published around '86) that Bob Costello found the name on an old tombstone. Who knows, maybe they both saw the name, and it came up when they were having the script conference and that was what they settled upon.

It's certainly a name that packed a punch!

G.

Ron also mentions that Joel Crothers got sick of playing Joe Haskell and begged to be allowed to play a villain. Interesting because that's what Alexandra wanted to do, as well. Ron also said that everyone liked John Karlen so much that after Willie was written out of the story, they put it on their list of things to do to find a way to get Karlen back.

For those who get to the very end of the tape, there's a surprise. That's all I will say for now. (It doesn't involve Grayson, though--I wouldn't be able to get such a momentous event under my hat!)

G.

Interesting to learn that Alexandra Moltke's husband had to arrive at the studio with a court order, in order for Alex to be released from her work on the show. I'd always wondered if she'd just left one day and telephoned to tell the front office she wasn't coming back.

Ron does say here that it was a conflict with Dan that led to his own departure from the writing staff.

This is a fascinating tape. Thank you again, Doctor and K-9, for sharing it!

G.

Regarding the professional use of "cover dates," see the section on comic books here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_date

Interesting that the practice goes way back to the 1930s. And of course, Marvel has abandoned it altogether. Just to be different, no doubt.

G.

Aren't comic books routinely post-dated? It seems to be a thing within the business, and I think that's been the case for many decades.

Thank you again for all your work on this project. It was interesting to have such a detailed look at this comic book.

Best, G.

Interesting concept. I did not care at all for the excerpt, however.

The most interesting Dracula pastiche I have read in recent years was in French, and began with the proposition that the SECRET journals of Jonathan Harker revealed the true story of the Count as the eternally rampant High Priest of a gay vampire cult. It was outrageous, but great fun, and told with great vigor.

G.

Dear fans,

Last night, I watched a couple of episodes of Strange Paradise written by Ron Sproat in 1970 after he had left DS.  I think the one I saw last night may have been the last script he wrote for Paradise--it was a well written script but had a huge continuity gaffe, I think because the show had no script editor (which was, I believe, also a problem on DS).

Anyhow I looked at Sproat's Wikipedia entry hoping to see which soap he went on to write for after he finished up at Paradise. A foolish place to check, as there was no attempt to provide any detailed chronology for his career. Though they did mention Love of Life, which also became a home for Paradise veteran Tudi Wiggins (an excellent actress nobody really remembers any longer). We are told (footnoting an article by Ann Wilson in one of the PomPress books) that Ron left DS in January of 1969. In another source, he stated that he departed due to conflicts with boss Dan Curtis.

The big surprise in the entry provided for the online encyclopaedia was the bald statement that Sproat "created the vampire character Barnabas Collins."

I am trying to remember now just HOW MANY of the writers--or other personnel--at DS have claimed, or been said, to have created Barnabas. I remember in one of the books Bob Costello said he came up with that name, but so did Art Wallace in an interview somewhere. A year or two ago we had articles posted here where Malcolm Marmorstein said he did the work of actually creating the personality of Barnabas, eternally craving to be reunited with his lost Josette (a character who originally had a completely different backstory on the show).

I wonder if Joe Caldwell (who may have been the best writer of them all until Violet Welles stepped onboard) has claimed to have created Barnabas somewhere??

Regardless of who did the work, I think only Dan Curtis actually made any real money off the character.

cheers, G.