Joan looked fabulous in the scene where Minerva's spirit was driving her insane. If you're going to go bonkers, be sure to wear your finest drop earrings!

Love today's snapshot of "Kitten" with Uncle Roger, too!

G.

MB, that's a riot!  I wish we could have had at least one episode of Willie as the hairdresser. They could have intercut footage of Mrs. Stoddard running the vacuum cleaner at Collnwood while in full evening dress drag.

Needless to say, I adore today's shot of Colin Hamilton with Thayer David! As you know, I'm quite a fan of Tim Stokes, mad scientist.

cheers, G.

Gosh, MB, I did play the restored version of episode 1219 once, but had completely forgotten that Colin appeared in it. Thanks!

Love today's shot. That might be my favorite of all the seances--Frid talks French, supported by Grayson and Thayer. I might have to get that episode out again over the holiday...

Best, G.

LOL, MB! For some reason I've always thought of that as Barnabas' Grandpa Munster hairstyle. Quite an odd decision to make and I've wondered just whose idea it was. The really weird thing is he suddenly looks like that, but nobody comments on it? In the early 1967 episodes, Vinnie would doll him up with special vampire makeup for certain scenes, but then he'd be back to normal once he was in his "dear Cousin Barnabas" mode visiting the family at Collinwood.

G.

Nice to see Mr. Wells today! Poor guy... he wound up being eaten by the werewolf!!! (Recalling the story amusingly told by Conrad Bain--thankfully he was captured on video talking about this!)

Interesting that the DS Wiki says Wells was known as one of the most notorious gossips in Collinsport. I don't recall that side of the character. Sounds like something Roger would have insinuated while reaching for the brandy decanter.

G.

That was a great scene between Barnabas and Will. Payback! Great dialogue.

Lovely to see Samantha today (with the back of Quentin's head turned at a really odd angle). Virginia Vestoff was superb--one of the most talented artists ever to work on the show. She was so believable at portraying Samantha's complicated depths and general unlikeableness that I don't think Vestoff has ever been very popular among fans. But whenever I get around to watching 1840 again, it is to her performances that I will look forward among the more memorable, and successful, elements of this troubled storyline.

G.

A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who was involved in the production of the 2004 pilot. (Due to the need for confidentiality, I am unable to say more about the person's identity.) He told me that the original director assigned to the production had to bail at the last minute, and the new director they brought in knew REALLY, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about Dark Shadows--or seemingly anything horror related. To give examples, the new director, who evidently had not read the script, was under the impression in an early production meeting that Willie and Angelique were both vampires. When brought to a meeting with Alec Newman in costume, the director snapped "get rid of that stupid cane and that ring." It was the task of some supremely tactful individual to explain to the director the significance of these accessories in the Barnabas costume.

My friend said that working on the pilot was very frustrating--and the director was not good even in what he demanded of Blair Brown (and we've seen the results of that). On the up side, my friend did quite like Alec Newman, both as a person and what he did in the role.

He also shared some insights into the makeup and costuming of the 1991 series--he agreed to me that the Barnabas makeup was awful, both Vampire Barnabas especially in the 1790 scenes, and Old Barnabas. He said the makeup people assigned were not up to date and did not know what they were doing.

G.