1966 Season

[Miss_Winthrop]

Thanks for the early picture of Mark Allen. May I ask where you got it from? I do remember George Mitchell especially as the Pepperidge Farm man in commercials.

There was also a blooper audio of Mitch Ryan walking into a room, throwing his keys on the table and announcing that he had to take a leak. Naturally, being easily amused, I laughed my rear off on that one. 

[Patti Feinberg]

A fan who knew the people involved claimed that Nancy herself was going to leave at one point in '68, but Grayson talked her out of it one night over dinner.

[size=10]AAAAAHHHHH!!!!![/size]

Just another reason to love, love, love Grayson

Patti

[Gerard]

One thing I much preferred about the first season was how much more "normal" things appeared via sets and scenes.  Of course, this was before the supposed "five-a-day" limit on the number of actors and actresses.  At the Blue Whale, the place was always filled with customers, including the classic scene in, I believe, the second episode of Carolyn dancing wildly on the floor, other hot cats and chicks packing the space and doing the monkey while the juke box rattled out drums and electric guitars.  Later, when some business had to be transacted between main characters at the pub, you were lucky if you got to see the bartender and maybe one extra customer.  How did the place stay open?

And then there were the scenes (usually involving Vicki with Frank or Burke) in a restaurant in Bangor.  The set was highly detailed, all the tables filled with diners engaged in eating and carrying on off-microphone conversations, waiters moving to and fro.  Even the Collinsport Diner always had an ample amount of people enjoying their burgers or blue-plate specials.  Later, it would just be Maggie, pondering how she would be able to buy the newest Petula Clarke record album from the lack of tips.

And don't forget the marvelous set of the Collinwood kitchen, where we'd find family members having breakfast, or Mrs. Johnson taking a coffee-and-cigarette break and - absolutely marvelous! - Carolyn busy at an ironing board.

Then, as monsters proliferated, the sets and background folk vanished.  The sense of the bizarre, mysterious and macabre amidst normalcy was gone.  To me, something was lost from that very first season.

Gerard

[Mark Rainey]

I'm absolutely in agreement with Gerard. The portrayal of conventional reality in the show made the bizarre aspects of the story all the more effective. Such a shame that this element diminished so drastically over the years.

--M
http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey

[stefan]

Then, as monsters proliferated, the sets and background folk vanished.  The sense of the bizarre, mysterious and macabre amidst normalcy was gone.  To me, something was lost from that very first season.

I have a sense of what you're saying even though I never watched most of the pre-Barnabas shows. But there was a gradual change even from when he first appeared up to the dream-curse series. I, too, prefer "the sense of the bizarre" admidst normalcy but feel this still could have been accomplished with Barnabas and even Angelique.

[Philippe Cordier]

One thing I much preferred about the first season was how much more "normal" things appeared via sets and scenes.

...

Then, as monsters proliferated, the sets and background folk vanished.  The sense of the bizarre, mysterious and macabre amidst normalcy was gone.  To me, something was lost from that very first season.

I agree that the earlier part of the series was much more grounded in reality.  It was so fascinating to see those early kitchen scenes -- and especially the location footage in the town and at Seaview Terrace.

On the other hand, one could make the argument that as the show became more fantastic in plot, the settings and surroundings became attuned to that, becoming more abstract and removed from reality.

Hitchcock's films are sometimes criticized for their sometimes "fakey" aspects -- rear-projection, silkscreen or matte backgrounds (not sure of my terminology here), even in such late films as "Marnie."  Others argue that Hitchcock deliberately wanted to set certain scenes against a slightly unreal, perhaps expressionist, background.  One might say the same of Dark Shadows ...

Even in some contemporary, art-house type films (usually European) the artistic vision of the director is one of stylized sets and unreality -- just off the top of my head, I can think of "Edward II" (Derek Jarman), "Querelle" (Fassbinder), "Suspiria" and "Inferno" (Argento) ...

It's interesting because I've seen customers/viewers reviews criticize the "cheapness" or "fakiness" of some of these films, where actually the look of the film -- the removal from the mundane and ordinary -- is deliberate.

Whether the artistic vision in the case of DS was deliberate or a matter of economics, it's clear that the end result has a distinct effect on the viewer ... and we're certainly forever tied to the visual and visceral effect we've received whenever we think of the show.

(OT - It could be fun to think of contemporary movies that were shot entirely on soundstages, no location shooting, and how that creates an imaginary world -- Victor/Victoria, Sleepy Hollow (which I haven't seen -- did the recent Moulin Rouge do this?) etc. ... )

[Raineypark]

When Stephen King first came on the scene, one of the things most remarked about his stories was his use of everyday pop culture references.  The names of TV shows and movies.......the titles of recent books.......the names of real towns......and recent current events.

Up until then, if a book opened in a derelict castle, you KNEW it was a horror story.....but if it opened in a hardware store on a busy Saturday morning, with people buying Miracle-gro and joint compound, you weren't expecting Hell to show up momentarily.

I think King's way works better......and I think DS lost something when it gave up even the appearance of normality.  But if the economic alternative was to shut down the production altogether, then I'm glad they stayed on the air, albeit with a very small number of performers.

[Joeytrom]

Once the show returned to the present from 1795, they seemed to have lost the reality part of it altogether.

I think the last time we saw a live sequence (though stock footage) was after Adam jumped off Widows Hill and we see the waves footage while Langs tape message plays.  That was like a last hint of realism.

They did a good background in 1795 when barnabas is after Jeremiah and Josette with the road to Collinsport.  They used a large photo of the woods in the background.

[Devlin66]

IMO, and i have seen the series back and forth all the way through.....if one really wants to see what makes Roger, Liz, and to a large extent Carolyn also tick, you have to watch the collectors series-i.e. pre barnabas......i feel like some of the prior posters that due to plot incentives for viewership numbers that each of those above mentioned characters loses some identity, whether it was from the fact we would go weeks without seeing Roger, or Liz being buried alive, or Carolyn trying to care for Adam...etc.....i appreciate MPI for having the foresite to release all the early eps just for that reason.......to truly appreciate those early characters and really seeing gothic drama at its best......still unequalled over all these years.

[michael c]

the last time i remember seeing the diner set was shortly after maggie was first bitten by barnabas.does the diner set ever appear in the color eps. or did it disappear?  btw,the ep.2 scene iof carolyn gyrating at the blue whale is priceless.

[Gerard]

When Stephen King first came on the scene, one of the things most remarked about his stories was his use of everyday pop culture references.  The names of TV shows and movies.......the titles of recent books.......the names of real towns......and recent current events.

Up until then, if a book opened in a derelict castle, you KNEW it was a horror story.....but if it opened in a hardware store on a busy Saturday morning, with people buying Miracle-gro and joint compound, you weren't expecting Hell to show up momentarily.

I think King's way works better......and I think DS lost something when it gave up even the appearance of normality.  But if the economic alternative was to shut down the production altogether, then I'm glad they stayed on the air, albeit with a very small number of performers.

That's one of the reasons why I enjoyed the Parallel Time 1970 story - because it had elements of normalcy in it that fell away from Normal Time stories after the first season.  They were just hints, but they were there, such as seeing Quentin and Maggie in their New York City hotel suite upon their return from their extensive honeymoon.  Alexis making reference to sailing across the Atlantic in friends' private, posh yacht from Genoa to New York City; seeing the Loomis House (aka the Old House) with more contemporary furnishings and - egads! - electric lights!  And - the "normal" capper of them all - Buffy's apartment with a...a...television set!  I can just imagine that the last thing she watched on it before being done in by madman monster John Yaeger was The Brady Bunch (although in PT, Jan was the popular one and Marcia the jealous, second-rate sister)  They were all small, subtle touches of the everyday, but to me they added a sense of the here-and-now, of regular life, waiting - as in Stephen King novels - for the other shoe to drop.

Gerard

[stefan]

On the other hand, one could make the argument that as the show became more fantastic in plot, the settings and surroundings became attuned to that, becoming more abstract and removed from reality.

Was the above a conscious decision or simply due to ...perhaps budget constraints such as higher salaries etc. Though I read salaries were low throughout. In any case, in the early years after-Barnabas, DS managed some highly interesting concepts and situations within, and I agree, abstract minimalist settings that gave the show it's distinctive and probably never to be copied, poetic dark gothic claustophobia. I keep thinking of scenes within the Collins' family cript as examples (i.e Barnabas and Ben, Naomi and Joshua). All great BUT I wonder if this was the reason DS eventually went off the air because honestly, that kind of creative output and artistic consciousness (if that were the case) is too hard to sustain year after year. Even though I hear DS was originally going to be cancelled I wonder IF they had kept the original "soap opera" tone the show might have lasted longer (with some modifications) and might have been easier to manage.

[Luciaphile]

The 1966 eps are my alltime favorite. I loved the quirky New England flavor that imbued the show. I loved the writing, the acting, the character development. There was so much more depth to the show then. I agree that some of the plotting was way too slow, but watching the nuanced performances of some really excellent actors, I often don't care anymore.

What always strikes me is that if they'd kept that depth going when they'd brought in the supernatural plots in a big way, the show could have gone on to be something even better than what it was.

[Devlin66]

Does anyone know why Sam was recast so soon in the series?.......i thought the other chap was doing a fine job....and seemed to fit the bill as troubled, starving artist with a drinking problem.

[Gothick]

Interesting that you mention Stephen King's use of up-to-date brand names and such in his horrors (I have always found King unreadable--deadly dull stuff).  One of the most jarring aspects of the TNWBDS treatment that was briefly available on the Barnabas Undead site, to me, was the use of jokes about Keno, IHOP and other 2004 commonplaces.  Guess the writer (have we been told just who wrote it?) is a King fan.

I've never heard why the roles of Sam Evans and Matthew Morgan were re-cast.  It may have been that the actors, again, were working without a contract and found other work.   No idea.  I still prefer Thayer David as Matthew to the original actor.  I liked that actor in the original concept of Matthew but don't think he would have gone off the deep end so terrifyingly as our Thayer did.  Plus I'm damned loyal to Thayer David--God I love that guy!

Sentimental Gothick