Dark Shadows

[DRW50]

Sorry to hear about John Karlen. He was electrifying on Dark Shadows, which they clearly knew, since he went from being in a punk, likely short-term role, to playing multiple parts, and by the end, he was one of the main leading men.

He was also sexy as hell.

I think KLS wrote in one of her diaries while filming House of Dark Shadows that she and Nancy Barrett both wanted him as a love interest.

Edited July 13, 2013 by DRW50

[Vee]

I guess you could say he was one of the leading men, yes, although he was always the second banana in those last storylines as Desmond or whoever. Ultimately his characters were either Renfields or someone else's buddy. He did wonderful jobs with those parts, but you would never have seen a more cultured, smarter Willie romance anyone in the main timeline a la Will Loomis or Desmond.

[DRW50]

He was, but then, he'd played quite a few character parts, so I didn't mind. I enjoyed seeing him as the straight man after bores like Roger Davis had inherited that role. And his OTT acting when possessed by Judah Zachary still haunts me today. He and Grayson Hall chewed every last bit of cheap scenery left during that part of the story.

My favorite stuff was Nancy and John as Carolyin and Will Loomis. It was like Virginia Woolf at Collinwood.

[Vee]

There wasn't enough of it, but I enjoyed it.

I liked the Parallel Time world a lot. I had a terrible story idea for it when I was very, very young many, many years ago. I'll always remember the last week of shows for Carolyn Loomis where she wandered drunk and crazy chewing through basically every inch of the town before being killed in the tower. Good times.

[DRW50]

The immortal line, I think it was, "Every closet has a skeleton...and BABY, COLLINWOOD'S GOT A LOTTA CLOSETS!!!"

(as did Dark Shadows...)

The parallel time story petered out toward the end and everything with Quentin/Maggie was dull, but there were some great moments. My favorite was the nightmare scene where Sabrina saw her own corpse laid out on the lab table. Lisa Richards terrified me more than almost anyone ever has on soaps.

[EricMontreal22]

Dan Curtis was probably afraid to do that--as his movies show, he was hardly one for restraint. The show started off as a gothic, Rebecca-esque story and ratings were flat. The more supernatural they had the more the ratings and particularly demos climed (apparently for a while it was the top soap among women 14-34--which seems an odd demo to me, but...)

[Vee]

The most fun portion of Parallel Time for me was the early period when almost all the superstars were off filming HODS. They were basically putting any old [!@#$%^&*] thing onscreen, and anything could happen - Hannah Stokes! More and more Cyrus and Sabrina! John Yaeger! Elizabeth Eis! Dameon Edwards, the most evil publishing executive in history! He's returned to destroy us allohwaithesgonebye.

And don't forget Mr. Trask, the evil butler! That was great.

Edited July 13, 2013 by Vee

[DRW50]

I'd rather forget Yaeger...

I loved Elizabeth Eis. She was gusty, and raspy, and so different from the typical soap actress of that period. I hated that Buffy just vanished.

Trask vanished too - I think they may have said briefly he got another job. If even that. I guess Lacy was busy elsewhere.

One of the best parts of the last year of DS was how the women took over the show. They had a wonderful, wonderful female cast (aside from Kathy Cody) and they were the ones who kept everything going. I'm just sorry they didn't use them even more. Virginia Vestoff had such chemistry with David Selby. Daphne was such a bore in comparison.

[Vee]

I missed Hannah Stokes desperately when she was gone.

Jerry Lacy actually did appear as Mr. Trask once or twice more, in the final weeks as they revealed who killed Angelique. I believe he was on during the Carolyn Loomis Death Tour - him and Amy together. I believe it was both his and Denise Nickerson's final appearances, his in Parallel Time, hers on the show entirely. I was surprised he turned up just for that.

I actually really loved Kate Jackson on the show. I thought she was already excellent and that both she and Vestoff were great with Selby. When they very pointedly had Daphne wear Vicki's old clothes - going so far as to mention it onscreen - I held out hope that had the show continued, they might have even recast Vicki with Kate. That would have worked too, IMO.

We don't talk about Kathy Cody.

Edited July 13, 2013 by Vee

[DRW50]

I remember that appearance - it was random as hell. I don't even know why they were there, especially Amy.

The woman who played Hannah (who seemed to struggle with her lines...) was on ATWT as a nosy guest at Bob and Kim's wedding reception. Nancy kept cutting her eyes and desperately trying to avoid her. Hilarious.

[DRW50]

Ugh this promo.

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[Vee]

Oh, my God.

[amybrickwallace]

Were David Selby and Kate Jackson the only cast members who were on hit shows post-DS?

[amybrickwallace]

Oh, I forgot to add John Karlen, who spent most of the 80s as Tyne Daly's husband on Cagney & Lacey and won an Emmy. Then there was Louis Edmonds, who spent many years as Langley on AMC.

[danfling]

These were not television shows, but Kathleen Cody had a movie contract with Walt Disney Pictures, and Marsha Mason was a successful star who was nominated for an Oscar.