ATWT: Discussion Thursday, August 23rd
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I think the pre-Barnabas episodes are very underrated both for dialogue and character. They're slow but they really create a world and fill out the characters, imbuing them with heavy dimension that ultimately will have to sustain them for years as the show largely stops writing for character after it returns from 1795. What we know about them by then is what they have to power them. (I don't think the show was bad after, I actually love it in '68 and often in times after that, but it was very different.) I think the B&W episodes with Barnabas' early days are especially frightening - they terrified me as a kid - but the color stuff in '67 is also very strong, especially in the stretch where Julia is on the run, Carolyn is under Barnabas' control, and you get the sense that events have gone off the rails for the regular characters and anything goes. As a child viewer seeing it in syndication on the Sci-Fi Channel, who had no idea who lived or who died, it was a lot. Mitch Ryan is especially powerful in the early pre-Barnabas era as the sort of Byronic Burke Devlin character. You knew they had to kill him once Barnabas comes in, despite Ryan's alcohol problem making it impossible to keep him at the show - Burke dominates the first year or so as the fulcrum character, he's incredibly magnetic and charismatic. You couldn't see him becoming a dupe for Barnabas and Julia, as Anthony George's more benign, mild version briefly does before getting unceremoniously killed off. I always found Burke's offscreen plane crash death very eerie and suspicious, and I think the show does toy with the question if Barnabas' powers somehow got him on that plane and if he took it down. I had always wanted Burke to return one day, in any revival project, as a kind of vengeful power broker and puppet master, driven by Vicki's inevitable demise to get revenge on Barnabas and co. I still have Art Wallace's "Shadows on the Wall" DS bible somewhere. IIRC in the earliest versions of the plot Vicki was going to somehow be tied to the butler or his daughter - Betty Hanscomb or something. I don't remember the exact details. I do know there's all sorts of raised and dropped plotlines and characters offscreen in '66, like Ned Calder, the man they clearly intended to pair with Liz and so on. I've always found '66 very rich, but I don't begrudge the show after for it because it's still awfully well-written, specifically the early Barnabas stuff. -
By Ryan Mason · Posted
I totally agree with this, as most of you seem to. Mary Carney was at least competent and reasonably likable; I just feel like she barely had anything of substance to do before she was abruptly given the hook. And I get the backstory of Kathleen Tolan having done a play with Helen Gallagher, but...at any point did they ever actually READ her before they greenlit her? Because...OOF. First time I saw her on SoapNet was right when this GODAWFUL actress named Charity Rahmer played Belle on Days of Our Lives for all of three weeks before she was mercifully recast; her line readings were straight out of a Charlie Brown special. I remember thinking Kathleen Tolan could have played her mother! In the Frank/Jill/Delia triangle, Delia WAS the one who was cheated on, so I got why she was upset and thought it was perfectly valid in theory at least, but of course it was blown up to Wagnerian proportions including falls involving staircases and tricycles. But with Pat/Faith/Delia I had no sympathy for her...especially because it was mainly with Catherine Hicks's Faith and I really liked her. -
I was going through those episodes from 1984 and early 1985 before they were taken down. Some of the older characters, like Don and even Tom, looked a little out of place, like they were on the wrong show. But the newer characters were fun. It's too bad they lost the character of Melissa. I guess Jennifer took her long-term place on the canvas. -
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The black and white episodes of the show are very special. An atmosphere the color run loses. Dark Shadows was filmed live-on-tape. They could do a retake but it would be very expensive. I think there was a claim that if actors wanted a retake they would curse. There was also a rumor that at one point Joan Bennett accidentally said "Hollywood" instead of "Collinwood" and that necessitated a retake.
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By BetterForgotten · Posted
Loved this IG post from Ambyr about how she and Trisha work together. You can tell these ladies go above and beyond the script, and that they really trust and enjoy working together. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJpJufFPOQ2/?igsh=MXBmcWs0YzIwaXVhNA==Please register in order to view this content
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It is a shame that more characters didn't go the ATWT-Barbara route and make the ingénue into an antagonist. Sort of like they did with Liza/Hogan/Sunny, less successfully. It is a credit to ATWT's creativity that breathed life in that character for years after she was fighting off bulls in Spain. But, a character like Liza can only have so many true loves and high jinks on the high seas. They need another reason to be in the story. Liza's wealth, as well as her acumen to see through fraud, was fertile ground for tons of stories. But, I feel like the business stories for Liza were always about her being easily overwhelmed, rather than exploring things like her leadership and managerial skills. -
STFU!! Dante!!! This nonsense of blaming Gio is just ridiculous! Alexis and Lucky are becoming so unlikable. Why are the writers writing these characters so poorly?
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Keith still comes off younger to me. I thought he wasn't that bad for his first day.
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