Great shot of PT Tim Stokes. Another brilliant characterization from Thayer David.
I was very happy with how that screen capture turned out. And here it is for anyone who may have missed it:
Somehow that one yellow tooth, whether Thayer's own or something in some way he added, manages to contribute just as much to Tim Stokes' sleaze and the mustache does.
![Snowman Winking [snow_wink]](http://www.dsboards.com/SMF/Smileys/classic/snow_wink.gif)
Thayer's acting and Violet Welles' writing in the Count Petofi storyline in 1897, which I have been revisiting, has me regularly offering all involved a standing ovation. It's mindblowing to me that material this sophisticated was produced for a daytime TV series in 1969. Of course the ratings began to decline, a combination of the storyline getting TOO complicated or so we were told, as well as Frid insisting on taking some substantial time off.
"Or so we were told" is the perfect way to phrase it, Gothick. I've often wondered if the ratings going down during 1897 has any validity. And the reason I say that is because the
DS Companion, which was well researched, says that at the end of the 1897 storyline "the ratings were at an all-time high" and nowhere in the book's 1897 section does it mention an 1897 ratings dip. In fact, it would seem to indicate that the ratings just continued to increase. The too complicated/ratings drop notion may have originated with a faction who doesn't like Count Petofi (something hard for me to imagine because Petofi is such a fascinating and intricately written character and Thayer plays him to such perfection), but they are out there. And as we all know only too well, when claims are made on the Internet, regardless of whether or not they're accurate or not, they can take on lives of their own. I'm not saying that for certain the 1897 ratings never dipped, but whenever that does come up I've yet to see a reputable source cited by the ones making the claim.
I'm so grateful to whoever saved all these shows.
That would be ABC - they definitely had a great deal of foresight...