applcin

I watched parts of it because I didn't want to be spoiled much with stories I haven't seen yet, although I did have a question. The actor that played the first Willie (James Hall?)...did he return to play another part? If not, he was on the show so briefly. Mitchell Ryan looked so frail. I didn't even recognize him right away and I have seen him through the years. David Henesy was a pretty good child actor. The stuff they gave him to do was pretty out there and, when he was involved in story and not MIA, he had a ton of dialogue. He did better than some of the adults. Heck, I wondered what he and his family thought when David had to climb into a coffin, lol. Unless I missed it, which is possible, did he mention Louis Edmonds at all? Everybody seemed to really love Louis and they did play father and son. I'm up to Oct. 67 now, Burke's plane crash. This show has so few younger men or romantic potentials anyway, age appropriate or otherwise, and they keep killing them or sending them away. And the way they play out time is funny. On the one hand, Maggie's "two week" disappearance (that made no sense at all even in their time frame) to me seemed like it took a couple of months, at least. (It may have, I didn't track start to end.) At other times, characters jump from one location and time of day to another in the next scene. I don't remember who it was (or even if it was about DS or The Doctors) who said on one of these interviews that there are only 5 of the main players on per day and I find myself sometimes counting them, lol. I was researching a bit and read about the NABET strike that resulted in the departures of Robert Gerringer and the first actor playing the cemetery caretaker. The new caretaker looks like Larry Hagman in old man makeup. And why did they have him play Woodard's ghost instead of that actor? I've been wondering, for anyone in the know, with some of these fairly long (by today's standards, at least) periodic absences from the screen of the various actors--Louis Edmonds, Joel Crothers, David Henesy, Nancy Barrett--was that more often because the actors were involved in other projects or because they just weren't being written for at the time? BTW, I love Julia showing Vicky Barnabas in his coffin while Vicky's hypnotized: "never forget and never remember." So, basically, be creeped out by the guy but have no idea why!

I've been watching it for the first time myself. I, too, first saw the 1990s version with Ben Cross and enjoyed it. Wish it had been given more of a chance. As others told me, it does sort of drag along in the beginning, very repetitive and slow-moving. But it picks up eventually. I've been alternating binging it along with The Doctors. Since we're at Halloween, I've been doing more DS this week.

Tom Kennedy was foremost "Name That Tune" for me. That was a fun game. I often play a kind of mental game of it with myself when a song comes on as to how fast I recognize it and the artist.

RH - Richard Muenz, Sarah Felder, Andrew Robinson, Kate Mulgrew

I'm in August 1967, where Maggie has re-appeared, much to everyone's surprise. I understand Jonathan Frid became something of a sex symbol. I find him as Barnabas interesting but I wouldn't say sexy. 😄 So...they (well, Barnabas, really) recently threw a costume party and nobody invited or even mentioned David. Hard to believe he wouldn't have been pleading or throwing a fit to attend. Hard to believe this kid was on so much before and now he's barely around. Jason's story, thankfully, has come to an end. I think Jason was indeed the epitome of "one-noteness" but my observation is that many of the characters thus far in the show are close to one-note as well. They seem to be written to fit certain molds and seldom deviate far from those molds...I'm speaking solely writing-wise, not acting-wise. They have their roles to play in this gothic tale. Anthony George is playing Burke now. I remember him as Will Vernon on OLTL. He's not bad but the character is still being wasted as a sounding board and would-be rescuer. You never even see this guy actually go to work. I'm a little confused about Willie's personality change, though. I get that he's the vampire's slave and rightfully scared. I just don't know where his compassion for the safety of other people came in. He went from practically wanting to rape women to risking his own life to help them as far as his possessed soul allows. And Roger went from scoffing at the idea of seances to conducting one. Guess that's what happens when they give him nothing else to do.

Lost all 3 in 2020.

I just read that Pamela Toll died several weeks ago after battling Alzheimer's. ☹️ https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stardem/obituary.aspx?n=pamela-toll&pid=196778016&fhid=7877

Yeah, I had heard the beginning was slow moving and it did seem to drag and repeat for some time. Even when Laura Collins came along, that seemed to consist of a lot of the same type of scenes played out over and over. As a result, some of the characters got annoying at times. That's what I'm feeling with Jason now...I didn't really like him to begin with anyway but these constant rehashes of his reasons for even being there are tiresome. Although, I"m at a point in the story where I'm thinking maybe some foul play is coming his way as it looks like he's getting in Barnabas' way. Now after a year the focus has shifted to Maggie. I was actually kind of bored by her all along as a supporting character and sometimes ff-ed the Evanses and Joe. I can also see Roger has been so back-burnered he's practically off the stove. As for Burke, he's like a floater. It now feels like he's propping stories rather than driving them; he's being used to search for the missing or to have a drink/dinner with. And they had him in this weird harem....dating/using Carolyn, having a soft spot for Vicky, rekindling his love for Laura. It just feels like the character's potential is somewhat wasted at this point in the story.

I've been streaming the original for the first time recently. I'm now into 1967. Barnabas has started coming to Maggie's room and she's been feeling weak. I've noticed a lot less Vicky, David, Carolyn and Roger at this point. I'm finding the Jason McGuire character rather grating and the dialogue/blackmail between him and Elizabeth pretty redundant and I tend to ff a bit with those scenes. It also seems, and maybe this sounds contradictory, that the younger or less experienced the actor, the more natural or less theatrical he/she tends to act.

For NYC fans...it seems we now have a working, strong-signal, over-the-air channel for Retro TV. I'm picking it up on 33.5, which used to be Court TV.

I'm missing Dr. Pimple Popper. I've watched some of her youtube videos the past few days. I'm getting quite knowledgeable about cysts, lipomas, blackheads and steatocystomas. I like the supernatural/mystery/paranormal/scifi stuff so also watching Beyond The Unknown and The UnXplained (Bill Shatner's latest show).

AMC's Eva LaRue has been having to deal with John Callahan's identity, possessions and money getting stolen after his death. https://people.com/tv/john-callahan-ex-wife-eva-larue-claims-someone-broke-into-home-stole-identity-death/

I just joined and clicked around a bit. There's free stuff available. As expected, the older stuff I clicked on (Carol Burnett, SNL) was free. This Is Us was free. Everybody Hates Chris. Some newer shows have the first episode free only. Some things are free for a limited time. I think the interface could be a little clearer about what's free vs. not. I'm probably not going to use it much (just yet anyway) because they aren't on Roku yet and it's easier to watch some of this stuff that's already available via my Roku channels, cable on demand and Amazon.

https://www.gateworld.net/news/2020/07/stargate-sg1-robocop-actress-galyn-gorg-dies-at-56/?fbclid=IwAR0FBDA1zj6VGQOSbbEF8YjR6ZJQki5Xk6HVXke92cvLLpx-iInKML-KUgc Galyn Gorg

He also was Sulu in the online Star Trek Continues series.

Yeah, I also thought that blog seemed kind of out there but people were replying to it as if it is factual. Plus, some of those people are still alive, particularly the "victims." Wouldn't the blogger fear a lawsuit, or several?

I've recently begun watching it for the first time myself, up to Barnabas about to debut. I had done some googling a while back, curious about the Sam change myself and came across a site blog that has a rather lengthy, descriptive explanation. The original actor, apart from just plain sucking in the role, was a creep who made vulgar advances to Moltke and Scott, and hit David Henesy when the kid wrote a nasty note on his dressing room door. It's here if you want to read it: https://darkshadowsfromthebeginning.com/2017/12/09/episode-20-out-of-his-mind-the-perils-of-mark-allen-continues/#more-4484 Seems like some of the behind-the-scenes stuff was crazier than the show.

Taye Diggs' (Sugar Hill, GL) episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories with psychic medium Kim Russo aired last week.

600-lb Life had a disappointing season, I think. Most of the participants weren't really committed and either ungrateful or outright rude. I think the best one was at the start of the season, with the 2 brothers, one was a hairdresser. They were basically nice guys who were trying. Now they're doing the "where are they now" episodes and those, overall, haven't been too great either. I originally liked Erica, though I questioned her looking up the long-lost boyfriend that early in the process...now he's gone and everything is "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy." People thinking the scales are wrong. Lot of delusion out there.

I think the pandemic put the brakes on a lot of things for the company Reach High Media, like being able to digitize the rest of the episodes from 1979-onward. For instance, they mentioned all this extra content (earlier episodes, trivia contests, message board, I think) that the website and/or apps were supposed to have and that's not there yet. I also get the impression that there's still trial and error as they're building these platforms, that things don't always happen smoothly on the first try, like when they tried to show the "Where Are They Now?" show as a Facebook watch party and it didn't work.

Have you thought about getting a Roku? They have the channel on there.

Andrew got an Emmy nom during his brief tenure. Ironic, not in the sense of skill because he's a talented actor but because he was let go for other reasons. DId any of the other Franks get Emmy noms? Another thing I thought was kind of funny was that Frank was basically supposed to be, I think, in the mold of JFK and Andrew later played JFK in a tv show.

I liked AR more so in relation to being a Ryan than in being Frank, if that makes any sense. In other words, I liked his camaraderie with the other family members and thought his chemistry with Kate as brother/sister was terrific. (From what I read they have remained friends. He's also godfather to one of Nana Visitor's sons, although I think that's more from the DS9 friendship than RH.) The relationships with Jill and Delia, on the other hand, didn't have that chemistry. No fault of Andrew's, really. I just enjoyed him more as Frank, the brother, or Frank, the lawyer than as Frank, the lover or triangle focal point. I know DHK is the definitive Frank but my first impressions of him from my school-age intermittent viewing was as Rae's boy-toy and that kind of put me off him and the character. At the time I hadn't experienced AR and MH. It's hard to believe Kate was on so short a time...they crammed in a lot of story for her that makes it seem considerably longer.