Innovation's '91 DS Comic, Book 4, The Book That Never Was

Well, look what made the list of The 25 greatest ghost films - "The Frighteners" (1996)

And Jim Fyfe is in the photo to boot!!

And another example that quite often box office isn't everything...

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.

Loved the stuff on Clarice. I have a big soft spot for her. I so very much enjoyed when she'd show up in an MPI bonus interview at the end of a video.

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?

No kidding!    And apparently they figured out it wasn't really working because just as suddenly, after Barnabas emerges from his coffin confinement in 1970PT, all trace of Pepe is gone.

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.

It wasn't until years later while watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I explained away all that to myself as Barnabas showing his true self but then figuring out how to control it. Though don't ask me why that theory doesn't apply to him first being a vampire in 1796. Though just maybe back then Barnabas wasn't as crazed as he was in 1967 after being released from a coffin after being chained in it for 172 years, so that form of his true self never really emerged. Though back in 1796 there were certainly eps when Barnabas was extremely pale.

Loved the stuff on Clarice. I have a big soft spot for her.

Yes, that was nice. Though it was also sad. 

I so very much enjoyed when she'd show up in an MPI bonus interview at the end of a video.

Although, I wished she'd showed up more often - and I suspect you might too...

Here's what MPI's 1996 Catalogue had to say about the DS TRIBUTE VHS release:

I watched it the other night and, unlike my initial suspicion that I did watch it back when it first came out, I now have my doubts. Nothing about it seemed at all familiar like I'd seen any of it before. However, it was well worth the wait because there were actually some things I was happily surprised to see.

Among those things were several versions of the bumpers that would come up during commercials in DS' earlier period to say DS would return in a moment, some of which were even voiced by Alexandra and Grayson (which was a big shock!) and how the show was being presented in color. With the exception of eps that have their commercials intact, it's really too bad that all of those bumpers weren't ever included on the video releases like the slates are for the pre-Barn eps.

And while I've read it in a few places, it was fantastic to get video documentation that it was indeed the Laura storyline that saved DS from cancellation because the show was renewed due to how much the ratings went up during the Laura storyline and before Barnabas made any sort of an appearance. (Though, of course, there's no taking away that Barnabas' success totally cemented the show's popularity.)

And the footage of Grayson at home was a hoot and fun to see.

And one thing that at first I thought was funny is that during the footage of Frid's interview on The Merv Griffin Show in 1969 Merv mentions that Joan Bennett had been on the show, but while I have vivid memories of her having been on The Dick Cavett Show and The Mike Douglas Show, I have no memory whatsoever of her ever having been on Merv. I couldn't imagine that I would have thought there wasn't anything memorable about her appearance so I'd completely forgotten it. But once I checked the list of talk show appearances in the DS Almanac I saw that she had been on Merv on September 25, 1967, just a couple weeks after I'd started to watch DS, so most likely I never saw her.

But what was very interesting to see with regard to all this -

SG #74's video reports:

...

It would have been interesting if we actually saw Barbara Steele interview people but I suspect we don't because that would have been engaging enough for me to remember. But who knows? I'll have to revisit it one of these days...

I wonder how far that Barbara Steele project got before it was dropped altogether. As well as the status of the footage.

- is that there's a section in the credits of the compilation that reads:

New York Segment Producers
DAVID DELVALLE
BARBARA STEELE

So apparently the interview footage with fans and perhaps some of the candid footage of some of the stars came from what Barbara Steele had shot at the '95 NYC Fest.


Now, what will be extremely interesting to see is if the tape came out in November of 1996...

It would seem as if yet another mention might mean that hope is almost bordering on eternal...

It's still alive and well in SG #75 from February of 1996:

And since hope is still alive and well, I figured I'd share what Debbie Smith, DC's then assistant, wrote in the DS Almanac about the proposed film(s) for those who may not have that book or who may have forgotten what was written because, well, that book was first published over 25 years ago (back in August of 1995):

I joined Prodigy a few months after the discussion there about the proposed film(s) had begun. It was quite interesting to read fans' ideas and to know DC was actually interacting with fans. Though one thing Debbie Smith did not mention in her piece was that the main reason DC chose the Prodigy DS bulletin board was because Melody Clark, who had been the co-editor of SG and the co-writer of the DS Companion, was the moderator there.

And for those who weren't online back in 1994, that was the Dark Ages of the Internet, nothing was graphical like it is today - everything was text and only text. Though thankfully the Netscape browser and graphics were less than a year away. Though even at that, graphics would be in their infancy - nothing like what we've come to expect today.

And while we're on the subject of no developments:

But as I said last time, if this is the deal with Harper Collins, Angelique's Descent wasn't issued until December of 1998, so there must have been some delays along the way. Just par for the course when it comes to almost all DS merchandise...

I've never shared an editorial from SG before because normally they're not anything like what follows - but this editorial from SG #75 is worth sharing:

It's interesting that David Henesy (with his last name spelled wrong  ) and Mark Allen were listed in TV Guide considering neither of them appear in the first ep.

And for a better version of the TV Guide listing for the premier ep of the '91 Series, click here for a 548X787 version.

And originally I wasn't going to share a larger scan of the rehearsal photo because I thought it was probably in one of the PomPress books, but I checked and it isn't. In fact, I couldn't find this version in any of the possible places I could think of so it's possible that it hasn't ever been published anywhere except this issue of SG. So, click here for a 877X696 version.

A couple more headlines from SG #75:

First up:

And I thought this info regarding the novels was quite fascinating, especially the part about the first novel:

But where did they get that there are 33 DS novels? Well, unless they're counting the house of DS book - but generally that isn't included...

And the second headline:

I'd completely forgotten that she'd done those Lincoln-Mercury commercials...

Well, look what made the list of The 25 greatest ghost films - "The Frighteners" (1996)

Anyone who might want to buy this may be interested to know that as part of their Black Friday deals today, Target has the DVD for $9.99:

The Frighteners (DVD)(1998)
("This item isn't sold in stores")

Jim Fyfe is on the cover...

Another section of SG that I've never shared before because normally there really isn't news in it - but this from SG #75 is worth sharing:

Who knows who produced the Sc-Fi commercial for them to have given the wrong address for SG? It would seem like anyone actually connected to DS knows the difference between the SG address and the Fest address. Though at least they should.

And since we're already on the subject of the Sci-Fi Channel, here's its report from SG #75 from February 1996:

I'm a bit surprised that SG didn't mention that in February Sci-Fi would be ending 1795/96 and beginning 1968. Granted, that wouldn't happen until the 27th when Sci-Fi ran Eps #460 & #461(Joshua orders Ben to chain Barnabas in his coffin/Vicki is hanged; Vicki returns to the present), but it's not like SG #72 didn't herald Barn's arrival or SG #74 the start of 1795/96 before they began airing...

And when I read about the 30th Anniversary segment of Sci-Fi Buzz I wasn't sure if I ever even saw it. My copy of SG #75 didn't mail until February 12th, which was after the show has both originally run and repeated. And even if it was promoted during DS, which was the only show I watched on Sci-Fi, I recorded a week's worth of eps and watched them on the weekend, and February 9th was a Friday, so the first showing would have already happened. Even the repeat on the 11th might have happened before I got around to watching because I tended to watch my recordings on Sunday nights. About the only way I might have seen it is if anyone mentioned it online before it was on. But if I did see it and yet I don't remember it, it couldn't have been too interesting. But then, sadly, a few of the DS segments Sci-Fi Buzz did were easily forgettable...

SG #75's 30th Anniversary Celebration in LA preview:

The reason this is so detailed regarding Fest events must be because of all the new SG subscribers alluded to in the "FANS SHARE TOGETHER" section posted in Reply #176.

It will definitely be interesting if there are any future reports of the '91 Series stars having appeared. None were mentioned in this report and I don't recall that any did - but that doesn't mean that it might not be that I've simply forgotten because nothing much was made of it in SG. We'll see...

I have a CD entitled "Music Inspired By Dark Shadows" that contains Angelique - but it's attributed to a group named Majenta Jets not The Barking Spiders. It will be interesting to see if that gets cleared up in a future SG...

I noticed the same thing about the bands, so I did a little research. The Barking Spiders was an alternate name for an Australian band from the early 1980's called Cold Chisel. The band was entirely male, while the Majenta Jets were predominantly female. The most interesting thing about them is that a barking spider is Scottish slang for flatulence.