“The only sedative I need is to get my hands around Stokes’ neck.”
Julia Hoffman follows the ghost of a young girl from the Old House to Collinwood and all the way upstairs to the mysterious playroom, where it turns out maybe don’t follow ghosts all over the place.
There, she comes face-to-face with the demonic supernatural force responsible for the destruction of everything she knows and loves; according to the credits, its name is Gerard. He’s a dark-haired scowling guy in his late 20s, plus however long it’s been since he died.
He glares at her from across the room, and takes a step forward. “Don’t come any closer,” she warns, looking around for an escape route, but she’s glued to the spot. “Stop looking at me that way!” she cries. “Please, stop!” He keeps on looking at her that way; looking at her that way is his entire strategy. She looks back, and then there she is, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gerard, LLC RIP.
Which raises the most important question of the 1995 storyline: Is Gerard hot?
Because it’s actually a tough call. You want to say yes. Like, when he approaches her, he has a satisfied smile on his face, and you think, yeah, look how cute Gerard is…
And then he takes a step closer, and his face settles into this, and you’re like, oh, maybe not. It’s a fragile phenomenon.
I mean, obviously, they’re shooting him in a way that makes him look powerful and evil, rather than approachable and cuddly. The next time we see them, Julia’s in the foyer, totally possessed.
And there’s a zoom up to the landing, where he’s scowling and underlit, and this, as you know, is an extremely scary way to look.
They actually do the Gerard-advances-on-Julia scene twice in this episode. Julia goes back to the Old House and says spooky things for a minute, and then Barnabas says he’s thinking about exorcising the ghost, so Julia trots back to the playroom to check in.
And from across the room, you get that same feeling that maybe he’s cute. Possession stories are sexy, in a fantasy vampire kind of way, but you need the powerful rape-demon to stand there and smolder.
But when they cut to a close-up, he’s doing this weird sneer, and it’s kind of whatever. It’s hard to get excited about this face, one way or the other.
Maybe. It’s hard to tell. If they stopped lighting him from below, and allowed him to have human facial expressions, and messed his hair up a bit, and unbuttoned his shirt a little, we might actually get somewhere. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.
Meanwhile, Quentin — who went through an unattractive period for the last several months — is suddenly the cutest that he’s been since his werewolf days. Partly it’s because he’s half-insane, having witnessed the terrible catastrophe that destroyed Collinwood twenty-five years ago, and as a result, he’s super emotionally available.
For example: Professor Stokes has come to the Old House to talk to Barnabas about their investigations into the great disaster, and Barnabas mentions something that Quentin had said about one of the ghosts that they’ve seen.
Surprised, Stokes gasps, “You talked to Quentin?”
And then suddenly Quentin is on the stairs, and angry. “Yes, he talked to Quentin,” he announces. “And now Quentin’s going to talk to Professor Stokes.”
Stokes is stunned. “Quentin? What are you doing here?”
“I was drawn here, Stokes, by an insatiable desire to put my hands around your neck!” And then he lunges forward.
It’s a fantastic scene, giving us new story information in the most emotionally charged way.
Barnabas has to pull Quentin away from the old man, and hang on. “Quentin, why?” he asks.
“Because he failed! Look around you, you can see for yourself!”
Stokes yells, “He’ll kill me! He’s mad!”
“Mad? Yes!” Quentin confirms. “But why, Stokes? Why? Because of you, and your phony exorcism! You said that you would rid Collinwood of the ghost, and what happened? You simply raised his wrath! If you hadn’t angered him, none of this would have ever happened!”
And then he lunges again, and Barnabas holds him back. “Let me get him!” Quentin screams. “I want to put my hands around his neck!”
So Quentin is perfect again, passionate and active and full of feelings. Plus, he’s grumpy and his hair’s messed up and everybody has to touch him. There’s something about Quentin that gets cuter the more you mess with him. Gerard has a lot to live up to.
Now, I know I’m being shallow, judging the current storyline on the basis of how cute the guys are, but this is an important question re: post-structuralist reception theory.
Reception theory was first developed by Stuart Hall in his 1973 essay Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse, where he suggests that understanding a message has two parts. The sender encodes the message, expressing it in words, images, sounds or actions, and the receiver decodes the message, understanding and interpreting it. But it’s not a simple linear relationship, in which the receiver understands the message exactly as the sender intended it to be understood — the receiver brings their own personal experiences, interests and cultural background to this exchange of information.
So each person in the audience is an active participant, and understanding the text is a negotiation between the person sending the message and the person receiving it. We don’t passively sit back and accept a book or a television show, we create our own understanding of it. The meaning of the text is created through the relationship between the creator and the audience.
Therefore, figuring out whether we think Gerard is cute or not is a legitimate area of academic interest, so shut up.
And Gerard’s indeterminate hotness is a crucial part of experiencing this storyline, because of Quentin.
Back in late ’68, the producers didn’t intend for the male ghost who haunts the children to become a main character; they were doing a Dark Shadows version of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, where the ghosts are silent and mostly offscreen. They called him Quentin, because that role was Quint in Turn of the Screw, and they figured he’d hang around being angry and scary for a while, until he got himself banished somehow. I don’t think anybody would have expected that ghost to take over the show for the next eight months; that happened because the actor turned out to be charismatic and gorgeous.
Here’s the first sighting of Quentin in episode 646, December 1968. They’re shooting him in a similar way to Gerard: grumpy, forbidding and partially-lit, with black eyeliner and makeup that makes him look gaunt and old.
But then he smiles at the children, and there’s Quentin Collins. This is supposed to be a satisfied smirk; he’s twisting one side of his mouth to suggest a sneer. But look how cute he is! They might as well have started printing up the trading cards already.
So they spend the next two months trying to find a way to make Quentin more scary and less cute. Here he is from episode 669, his second appearance, and he’s lit from below, Gerard-style.
He’s tormenting Mrs. Johnson in this episode, and concentrating a lot on the scary faces.
By episode 678, they’re really working hard with the makeup to disguise the hotness.
And they try some eyebrow manipulation to get the diabolical threat across.
But you can’t keep the hotness at bay for long. They let him smile again in episode 679, and come on. The audience is decoding like crazy at this point.
In episode 684, they give him a humanizing moment, expressing sadness over his dead child, and they’re still giving him the gaunt makeup and unflattering lighting, and he’s doing the eyebrow.
But by now they’ve definitely made the decision to send the show back to 1897, and make Quentin a lead character in that storyline, so they’re not afraid to show him smiling and having a good time in episode 693.
And by episode 699, just a couple days before 1897, they let him act seductive and exciting with Maggie, and pretty soon he’s the Large Teen Idol that we know and love, who escapes from mental institutions and strangles professors.
That was only a year and a half ago, at the height of Dark Shadows’ popularity, so everybody in the audience knows that the male ghost haunting the children is going to become something special. Traveling to 1995 is a clever twist, viewing the catastrophe from the end of the story rather than the beginning, but obviously this is two silent ghosts haunting a boy and a girl, and it’s Turn of the Screw again.
Nobody’s explicitly saying, we’re going to visit the 19th century in a couple months and meet the sexy young Gerard, and then you’ll fall in love with him and he’ll be on the cover of 16 magazine riding in an enormous green kangaroo’s pouch along with Davy Jones and the Cowsills, but the audience is decoding furiously as soon as we see him.
Gerard is the next Quentin, in the way that Quentin was the next Chris, and Chris was the next Adam. Actually, six months ago Jeb was supposed to be the next Quentin, but it didn’t work out, so now Gerard is the next Quentin. For Dark Shadows to survive the coming winter, Gerard needs to be hot enough for the next guy to be the next Gerard.
Tomorrow: Just a Girl.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
Barnabas lights some candles, shakes out the match and then drops it on the floor. I love when they do that.
Talking about the birthday card he found in the playroom, Barnabas tells Stokes, “The birthday poem must have had some meaning.” They didn’t mention a poem when they read the inscription in the card.
I cleaned up this quote above — what Quentin actually says is, “You said that you would rid Collinwood of the ghost in this house, and what happened?”
In the playroom, when Julia sees Daphne across the room, she turns to Gerard and says, “Someone else is here, I saw them.” Then she turns back, and Daphne is supposed to have vanished, so Julia can point and say, “Someone else was here!” But when the camera cuts back to where Daphne “was,” she’s still there, and we see her take a step off-screen while Julia’s looking at her. They try to cover this with a quick cut to another camera, but it doesn’t work; it just makes things worse.
There appear to be a couple “skips” when Quentin tells Barnabas about his headache — maybe tape edits, maybe some other fault.
There’s a sudden cut from Barnabas talking to Stokes to Julia and Gerard, which may be another tape edit.
The camera moves slightly when Daphne’s ghost appears to Barnabas, making it look like the ghost shifts to the left a little. Also, he’s not really looking at her; his eyeline is a couple feet to her left.
When the candles blow out in the Old House, it takes a second for the lights to react.
Behind the Scenes:
Oh yeah, also this is Kate Jackson’s first appearance as Daphne, the female half of the Turn of the Screw double act. She’s one of the few actors who become more famous after Dark Shadows was over, thanks to her co-starring role in Charlie’s Angels in 1976 and Scarecrow and Mrs. King in 1983. This was her first television gig; she was a student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when they cast her, and she had to stay mute because students weren’t allowed to work professionally until the course was over. Looking back, Jackson said that she learned more from the daily grind of making Dark Shadows than she did in school anyway.
Here’s a cute story from The Dark Shadows Companion: “After Donna Wandrey related to Kate Jackson her horror story about making a personal appearance at the auto show with a pig named Arnold, she casually asked Kate what appearances she would be doing. Kate went pale and ran from the dressing room in horror. Jackson would later have her maiden voyage in the midst of a particularly bitter Milwaukee winter, sitting atop an open automobile for six straight hours. Kate’s only comment to Donna upon her return was, ‘That was… really interesting.'”
One final note: Daphne was originally intended to be called Lavinia.
Tomorrow: Just a Girl.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
Personally I’d prefer to decode Daphne — ‘Hello Angel’…
Ultimately I think you hit on the reason this next trip into the past isn’t able to sustain the show–Gerard isn’t cute to look at or interesting enough to watch. Julia and Leticia carry most of the story once we get there, but that’s still a few weeks away. I had forgotten how much the show improved in 1995.
Gerard had a great smile and rockstar hair, but he wasn’t Charming, like say, a Nicholas.
Just wait for 1840 where he actually talks on a regular basis. Like Quentin in 1897.
He’s not funny. He’s smarmy.
What we love about Quentin is that, alive, he is a great guy.
Gerard couldn’t wait to steal his best friend’s wife….no redeeming quality at all.
Well, Quentin did steal his own brother’s wife. But he was a lot more charming about it.
Gerard was always a pale imitation of Quentin to me, but my friend who was just the right age in 1970 still swoons over Gerard anytime I mention the show.
The big difference for me as that Quentin was always having the most fun of anyone in the room, whether he was doing good or evil. Gerard always seemed to be holding back.
^ Very good observation.
Well, Gerard was supposed to be kinda brooding and all. Besides, Quentin had already filled the house comedian position. Gerard’s job was to bring the doom.
I thought he was Quentin 2.5.
Now, now, Quentin wasn’t all that selective.
Any pretty face would do.
‘post-structuralist reception theory’ …er… hrm….
On the other hand:
” its name is Gerard. He’s a dark-haired scowling guy in his late 20s”
– Is this a rerun? I thought daytime shows didn’t do reruns
“They’re shooting him in a similar way”
– I know I saw this before, last year was it? it’s just the same…
“this is Kate Jackson’s first appearance as Daphne, the female half of the Turn of the Screw double act”
– I knew it! This is a rerun. But I thought the woman ghost was a blonde, oh well..
Lets see what’s on the other channels.
The producers and writers watch the ratings slip, mop their feverish brows and shout, “It worked before, It’ll work again!!”
And the viewers keep tuning out.
How the Dark Shadows viewers in my Junior High School classes in 1970 decoded the Gerard character was undoubtedly influenced by the character’s name. The only person named Gerard most of us had ever known was one of the most amiable, easy-going guys in school. Our Gerard got along with everybody from the jocks to the nerds.
Hearing a Dark Shadows villain being referred to as “Gerard” made it hard for us to take the character seriously as a dastardly personifcation of evil.
Yeah, we’ve seen all this before. The only things new here are the year and the mess. I never could have anticipated that a show that wasn’t even on for five years would end up repeating itself so much.
I love this show, 65 to 70% of the time, but I must vent.
I’m tired of ghosts, seances, candles being blown out, doors slamming open and shut, hearing the word “must”.
I’m tired of the screeching and the screaming. I’m tired of babbling, incoherent nutjobs. I’m tired of people looking into flames and talking diabolical.
I’m tired of women and children being locked up. I’m tired of “look at me, look into my eyes”. I’m tired of incompetent law enforcement.
I will NEVER get tired of werewolves using doorknobs.
But holy cripes, enough. This show should be over by now.
All of that being said, onward.
“The only sedative I need is to get my hands around Stokes’ neck.” is one of my favorite DS lines.
When Sci-Fi aired the series back in the late ’90s, I’d taped episodes while I was at work (or, given that I was in my early 20s and interning and doing assorted odd theatre jobs, “work”). Usually, I recorded over them once I’d watched them but this episode was one I kept — particularly because of the Quentin/Stokes scene.
Gerard as a ghost never worked for me (though I enjoyed him as a scoundrel and/or warlock possession later). I think it’s because he doesn’t seem to be having any fun. Quentin laughing maniacally after chasing everyone out of Collinwood is a defining moment. There’s nothing like this. I don’t even know what’s keeping the ghost going at this point — whereas Quentin’s “goal” was to reclaim his family home and live “happily ever after” with the “spirit” of his nephew’s descendent.
I also would’ve preferred if Daphne — the governess gone bad — had been the evil spirit that was responsible for Collinwood’s fall. The playroom would make more sense. Gerard could even be a Collins who had fallen under her spell — subservient to her as Beth was to Quentin.
Even in 1970, that shouldn’t have been too controversial. Their greatest villain is still arguably Angelique from 1795. But after her “displacement” as primary antagonist during the Dream Curse disaster, no other woman was ever the Big Bad again. Yes, there’s PT Angelique but she’s a pale shadow of our Angelique in many ways. She also doesn’t get the big final moment of the storyline (that goes to PT Stokes).
I had never thought of that before — having Daphne be the big bad. I like it and I think Kate Jackson could have pulled it off.
Although I liked her as Daphne evolved, too.
In the 1840 storyline the playroom was never important. They never explained why Gerard and Daphne haunted Collinwood. Not much of the setup actually even made it to the storyline.
In 1840 Daphne, Tad and Carrie only had the one scene together I think, and that was more about the Quentin/Samantha relationship with nothing to do directly with Gerard. Tad made surprisingly few appearances at all. I’ll get into what think originally happened and what changed when we get to that arc.
I agree! Gerard seems to just be hanging around, twenty five years later, in the ruins of his supposed triumph, and just…not doing much as long as nobody wanders by under a marble bust. Quentin had his theme song and Ghost Beth and his scoundrel past to entertain himself with.
I vote for Gerard being the sexiest ghost ever. He definitely took an ugly turn when he was underlit with green light but that evil ugliness just amped up the attraction for the confused 12 year old that I was at the time..Clearly my attraction to Gerard explains a lot about my adult relationships.
Gerard gets my vote for Sexiest Man Alive or Dead, too!
Quentin is beautiful eye candy but, Gerard is the one I always look at in their scenes together.
I vote for Dameon Edwards.
(Snort!)
Didn’t mind Dameon, he was lots of laughs – it was that awful outfit he wore that gave me chills! I bet Parallel Ohrbachs had to put that line of suits on clearance…
We should have a poll for Worst Bit Part Player…..
Your layout of Quentin photos put an idea in my head (always dangerous). Was David Selby’s Quentin the inspiration for Logan/Wolverine? I don’t shite about Marvel (as many of my readers will tell you) but I’m getting a strong Hugh Jackman vibe from the above, sideburns and all.
Turn of the Screw 2: Electric Boogalooo
^ Evidence that you shouldn’t consume liquids while reading the blog or the comments. I JUST SPEWED!
Electric Boo! Galoo.
Loup-Garou. French name for a werewolf.
Electric Bougaloup-garou. Say that five times fast under a full moon!
Gerard’s hairstyle makes me think that he’s an Oompa Loompa. I thought he was sort of cute, but apparently the teen magazines didn’t think so: he didn’t seem to be featured at all. It was as though the decision was made: Dark Shadows is no longer hot.
I think Jim Storm appealed more to the grown-ups in the audience than the kids. He was smolderingly sexy while Selby was more cute and adorable and well, Tiger Beatish.
I could more easily imagine Jim on the cover of Playgirl than Sixteen Magazine with David Selby and the Osmonds.
To me, Gerard would be right at home on “Poldark” or some other 1800s period piece.
He definitely has an interesting look. Lots of hair.
I was thinking Bronte – Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre, or Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights. But for DS, we need:
1) lose the guyliner and the green uplighting,
2) let’s see if he can read lines,
3) wouldn’t hurt to smile occasionally.
He’s making plot happen, he’s practically all the plot, but he’s not making any jokes (unless dropping statuary on people counts), and he doesn’t seem to have any friends.
Good profile, though – mind you, head on is a bit less appealing.
Quentin had the relationship with Jamison to make him more sympathetic. Gerard didn’t have that, barely sharing any of the little screen time Tad and Carrie got.
Note to showbiz people doing car shows in the late sixties and seventies: At some point, you’ll work with not just a pig named Arnold, but the pig named Arnold (from GREEN ACRES), and realize he gets more fanmail than you.
(There’s a great story of some talk show appearance where Eva Gabor suddenly said “Arnold, what are you doing?” and they had to cut to hide the fact that the pig had lost control of a bodily function.)
Let me speak up for Arnold–and the show. Green Acres, though sometimes wanting in execution, was an ingenious idea done well. In some ways, the idea of a elite idealist’s comeuppance in the real world–rural America–has never been done better, although Albert Brooks did it beautifully, too. Arnold Ziffel was a product of the reductio ad absurdum of the farm family. He was pampered, deferred to, spoiled in some way but in others an ideal child. And the name Arnold Ziffel is a thing of beauty. I can understand Frid being slightly taken aback, but a nobody like Donna Wandrey should have counted herself lucky to appear in proximity to that royal pig.
I’ve always contended that “Green Acres” has been an underrated and slightly subversive comedy. In its own weird, rural way, it was edgy with sharp commentary.
Think about the androgynous brother/sister repair team, for one.
And all those crossovers with “Beverly Hillbillies” and “Petticoat Junction” (the most mundane of the three) were decades ahead of their time.
I’ve always contended that Sam Drucker was the most-seen character on TV of the era, always on GA, sometimes on PJ and cameos on BH, too.
Oh yeah – the Monroe Brothers – Alf & Ralph!
All the Green Acres characters were so outrageous and hilarious that I don’t think eddie Albert got nearly enough credit for playing the straight man. Well really, Oliver’s frustrated blustering made the show work! You kept thinking – WHY doesn’t he give up and go back the Manhattan.
But then, lisa would put on her black negligee and Oliver would forget all about that day’s “Hootersville” problems!
By the way – wasn’t Arnold the smartest kid in his class?
I’m not knocking stories like BABE (which I’ve never seen), but try to explain to someone how a pig can become nearly the star of a live-action show WITHOUT special effects, or dubbing to give him a voice, or anything similar. (They gave him funny subtitles a few times, but I think that was about it.) And yet, Arnold carried it off.
Not only that but what I loved about Green Acres is that Oliver wanted to move there, not Lisa. But her kookiness endears her, not him, to the Hooterville citizens. She gets them and they get her. They all think he’s the odd guy. Yes, Albert playing the straight man to all those lunatics was a feat. He definitely did not get enough credit for it.
I’ve always loved Green Acres! Oliver and Lisa we’re a lot like Gomez and Morticia to me; one of those weird couples who are so obviously head over heels for each other that it gives hope to all the weirdos in the audience.
^ You are so right. I never thought of it that way.
So true, and both Green Acres and The Addams Family were produced at the same studio lot: Filmways. They both had music by Vic Mizzy.
Arnold the pig was so cute, just like Babe the pig. Something about little piglets, they’re always cute. Grown up pigs are definitely NOT cute, and they smell! They get really big too. Too big for the average person’s home. Probably why people who get them for pets usually don’t keep them for long.
And don’t forget the wonderful Pat Buttram. I was a videographer/editor for a show on Alabama Public Television where we went to his house to interview him. What a cool guy he was!
Now here’s the Dark Shadows tie-in: He said that Kate Jackson ran over to him at some industry function and told him that she went to school on one of his scholarships and wanted to thank him. He continued, saying that the rest of the evening, all she did was complain about everything in her life. His summation: “It isn’t good when the come up so fast in the business. They don’t know how to appreciate their success.”
He also mentioned appearing on an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“The Jar”). He said that they were shooting a scene (Norman Lloyd was directing) and Hitchcock happened to be on the set. Buttram went up on his lines. Hitchcock said, “What’s this? We wind up the toys, but the toys fail to go.”
He also talked about the importance of stars not believing their own PR. He referred to it as “playing with the toys”; forgetting that acting is a job. He said that Elvis was a prime example of someone who started “playing with the toys.”
Lord yes, I remember Pat in “The Jar.” That was a particularly creepy and memorable episode!
The part I loved best about the Mr. Haney character was the way that no matter how worked up Eddie Albert got, Pat kept that impassive, deadpan expression on his face. Kind of a nod to all the dumb ol’ Crackers gettin’ one over on yet another BRILLIANT Yankee – to paraphrase Brother Dave Gardner!
And I’ll give a nickel to any of you youngsters who say you know who Brother Dave was!
While we’re all on a Green Acres kick, let me mention that Alvy Moore of Hank Kimball fame (“Good morning. Well, it’s not a good morning… but it’s not a bad morning either”) went on to co-produce and appear in a couple of extremely effective horror movies–vicious and scary. The Witchmaker and The Brotherhood of Satan.
Alvy Moore has one of my all time favorite movie lines, in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:
(The Olympic team males watch as Loreli and Dorothy go by.)
Team member: Suppose the ship sank, which one would you save from drowning?
Alvy: Those girls couldn’t drown.
Another thing that I noticed was that even though Green Acres was a rural comedy, only Pat Buttram’s Mr. Haney had a Southern accent. He told me that the setting was actually supposed to be rural Indiana or Illinois.
OMG I grew up in a tiny farming community, and let me tell you, Haney was one of the most authentic characters on TV. We had not one, but several Misters Haney in our town. Green Acres was one of those shows like Father Ted, where it’s funny and surreal, but sometimes it feels like a documentary if you’ve lived in that place.
I’m not good at impressions, but I do a pretty Mr. Haney: “Mister Douglas, have a got a deal for you!” It’s too bad you can’t hear it! LOL.
^ I mean pretty GOOD Mr. Haney. I type too fast.
Aw, I bet you’re very pretty when you do your Mr. Haney impression!
Another interesting crossover is that Bea Benederet (Kate Bradley in Petticoat Junction) played the Eva Gabor role (Lisa Douglas) in the original 1950 radio series Granby’s Green Acres.
I grew up on all three shows. It’s always amusing how in PJ Homer Bedloe kept trying to shut down the Cannonball and close the Hooterville railway branch line, but he’d always get thwarted. In those days, you rooted for the underdog.
It’s a show (Petticoat Junction) that could never be made today in the twenty-worst century, the Gilded Age for bland, vapid Yuppiedom.
I was wondering recently if it’s only my selective memory that insists current TV sitcoms are awash in what you call “yuppiedom” or the post-SEINFELD syndrome. TAXI and even CHEERS felt more “working class” than FRIENDS or WILL & GRACE. And MODERN FAMILY is steeped in wealth porn.
There is something identifiable about Oliver Douglas wanting a “simpler” life and fulfilling a childhood dream (as we see that his bullying dad forced him to be a lawyer). He is comically inept at it but he tries and he’s happy in the attempt. Lisa is rich, pampered but also kind. You couldn’t imagine Karen Walker doing what she does or deigning to connect with the small town residents. She’d just make fun of their outfits — again something the Douglases never do.
Wealth porn!
But Prisoner, here’s what’s weird about the crossovers. After the Hillbillies visited Hooterville, there was an episode of Green Acres in which Ebb (I believe it was) gave Oliver a glow in the dark picture of The Beverly Hillbillies. Sounds like something the DS writers would do.
Compare and contrast:
Julia being used by Gerard vs. being used by Tom Jennings (“Joooooliah! Come to me, Jooooliah!)
Gerard is not hot.
Just as Jeb was not. (Though heaven knows, Teen Beat tried and tried.)
Claude was hot (even as a bellhop in Hell).
Quentin was hot. (I never thought so, but several issues of Teen Beat say I’m wrong. No accounting for taste).
That day player deputy that vampire Angelique almost bit, also hot. (He needed more screen time, definitely could have been Collinsport’s best sheriff ever. EVER.)
Chris was hot. (And so was Tom – BIG mistake killing him off.)
Adam was hot. (C’mon, he SO was! Until he got all vengeful and crabby).
Nathan was smokin’ hot. ( Might have been the sideburns; and I do love a man in uniform.)
Barnabas was hot. (But not the same kind of hot.)
Joe was hot. (Clean cut, steady reliable guy, rocks a turtleneck, what’s not to love?)
Buzz was hot. (Bad boy, rebel, spins a crotch rocket, just what a girl needs on the rebound from a white-bread square like Joe Haskell.)
But right now, Gerard is not making the list. Doesn’t help that he’s just doing a rerun of Quentin – maybe if he was a werewolf or something. He’s hotter than, say, Peter Bradford. I’m still wondering why Dan Curtis didn’t have Roger Davis back to play Gerard.
As much as I’d like to say the potential for a revolt by all the young female stars kept him off, I think by this time he’d moved on to Hollywood and had gotten some parts in prime time, so he probably didn’t want to come back.
I love Kate Jackson. She’s a southern girl (Alabama) and she had that star quality. Loved her first on the Rookies, and ever since. Charlie’s Angels was never watchable after she left. Favorite Kate story is after Farrah left and producers were suing her, the actors were locked out. Jacklyn Smith (ex Mrs. Roger Davis told Kate her purse was literally locked in a room. Kate kicked the door in, and when Jacklyn looked at her stunned she said “Well you wanted your purse didn’t you?”. She would have made an excellent recast for Alexandra Isles.
She actually could have breathed a lot of life into Vicky. She was close enough in looks to be a smooth transition. But I think she would have put more oomph into Vicky’s stories.
I agree, but she was probably too young when Alexandra left. Since she was still student at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts when she played Daphne, she probably wouldn’t even have been considered for the part. Plus, I don’t think Dan Curtis wanted Vicki to have oomph. He wanted her pure and on a pedestal.
Agree on the timing at the time AM left. Miss Jackson wouldn’t have been old enough or available. Two years makes a big difference at that age. And I think you’re right on Dan Curtis, too.
But characters can leave and then come back years later. I still think Miss Jackson could have be a good Vicky 2.0.
That’s okay – she could have played Vicki now. Wouldn’t it have been cool for the ghost that Kate plays be the ghost of Vicki from 1970? That would have been a wonderful twist. And as I said in an earlier post, if I’d been in charge of writing the plot lines, there would be no 1840 tie in. Gerard would be a contemporary character who finds the head of Judah, and begins orchestrating all kinds of trouble for the Collins family. Perhaps he brings back Victoria (Kate Jackson), which throws a monkey wrench in Barnabas’ affection for Roxanne, Julia, and Angelique. Perhaps Gerard/Judah could possess Vicki for awhile and make her evil. Again…the possibilities are ENDLESS!
Jacklyn Smith was considered for Vicky after AM left but was unfortunately turned down.
Jaclyn Smith would have warmed up Barnabas’ cold blood for sure! I always thought she was the absolute sexiest of all the Angels.
Jaclyn (then Ellen) Smith, soon alas for her to marry Roger Davis of groper fame, reportedly had a strong Texas twang that she couldn’t get rid of and would have been a laff riot in Collinwood. Years of voice lessons would give her that velvety (although rather toneless) voice by which we know her now and acting lessons make her passable. I think if she’d been cast she would have been a deer in the headlights at that time, but she was apparently a nice girl. I agree that Kate Jackson would have been suitable. She could project intelligence under improbable circumstances, as fans of Sabrina, the “intellectual Angel,” well know.
And Kate had lost her Southern accent by this time. David Selby still has a trace of his when he’s not on camera, as I witnessed at the Paley Center’s Salute to Falcon Crest a few years ago.
Kate did have a twang in her interview on the DVD, and it’s endearing.
Oh, the HoneyWagon…..
Yeah, if the writing for Victoria had had more oomph (as it did in the early days, IMO), Alexandra probably wouldn’t have quit to begin with. I mean, she would still have taken mat leave, but she might have come back.
That’s not just your opinion, I think that’s everyone, and her too. In her interview, she said that she didn’t like her character, and it really showed towards the end, with her stare downs of the other actors, like, “If I can only get through this.”
Betsy Durkin was a good actress, just wrong casting.
And Carolyn Groves would have worked out.
But something called Dan ended that.
My understanding is that Moltke couldn’t have taken “maternity leave.” It was in her contract not to get pregnant, and she did, so she was let go. It is true that Dan Curtis wanted her back later, though, as “good Vicky” again, which she didn’t want to do.
If there is anything to learn from Dark Shadows about character recasting, it’s that the major core day 1 characters could never be recast because they each defined their respective roles. Recasting only worked for supporting characters, and then only up to a point. For instance, I think many here would agree that a third Dr. Woodard was one too many, as would have been a third Willie Loomis.
As proof that the major core characters could not be recast, take the case of Burke Devlin. In one episode (279), Anthony George’s Burke Devlin arrives at Collinwood calling for Vicki while wearing a Willie jacket.
Now that’s something Mitch Ryan’s Burke Devlin would never do, be seen anywhere in public or private wearing a Willie jacket. Willie jackets are for Willies.
Oh, I should mention that those two above screenshots were taken from an excellent Dark Shadows blog, Dark Shadows Before I Die. It started with episode 1 on June 27, 2016. And because June 27, 2016 was a Monday as was June 27, 1966, this blog covers one episode for every day an episode was broadcast 50 years earlier, “shadowing” the original 1960s broadcast schedule so to speak.
Here’s the link to the blog Dark Shadows Before I Die:
http://dsb4idie.blogspot.com/
Thanks; that blog looks like fun.
The recast was the least of Burke’s problems. There was just no reason for the character to be on the show. Once they saw that Louis Edmonds was the most interesting actor they had and decided not to kill off Roger Collins, the Revenge of Burke Devlin story could neither end in a dazzling climax nor lead to a reconfiguring of the relationships on the show. It could only end with the embarrassed clearing of the throat that we actually got.
So what was left for Burke to do? He was a Dynamic Action Hero. The first time the show had any use for a Dynamic Action Hero was when David had to be pulled from the burning shack in #191. But by that time, the only story on the show that’s working is the growing friendship between David and Vicki, so it has to be Vicki who rescues him. And of course when the vampire comes along, the last thing anyone wants is a Dynamic Action Hero who will drive a stake through his heart and send the show back to conversations about what’s going on at the cannery.
They try to keep Burke on the show as Vicki’s Boyfriend, only to find that there’s no reason for Vicki to be on it, either. She’s now befriended David, nobody wants to spend another minute listening to her trying to figure out who her parents were or why Liz sent for her, and Dan Curtis won’t risk committing her to a storyline that he might have to abandon in a hurry. So when the two of them have a scene together, it’s dead air. Really, Burke should have been written out of the show by episode 200 at the latest, and if Vicki wasn’t going to be Barnabas’ first female victim she should have as well.
Here is where you and I disagree. Mitch Ryan had charisma and that would have gone a long way in helping keep whatever character he played an integral part of the show. Plus 14-15 year old me BOUGHT the Burke and Vicki romance, which had been brewing for quite a while. One of the scenes I remember from before Barnabas was Burke telling Vicki that he intended to bring Collinwood down to the ground, but that he would try to leave a little piece for her to be safe in. Back in the 60’s to 70s the age difference was acceptable, not creepy the way it is today.
A sober Mitch Ryan would have had a more compelling Jeremiah and would have been able to keep the original Josette story line consistent, with her marrying Jeremiah, both stuck in a marriage without love with Josette in love with Barnabas and Jeremiah falling for Vicki. Having Mitch Ryan trying to defend Vicki then traveling through time to find her again, or having Burke be Jeremiah reincarnated would have kept Vicki more relevant. And we wouldn’t have had to deal with handsy, shouty Roger Davis.
Having a pretty compelling actor (Ryan) replaced by one who simply didn’t fit the character, or have chemistry with his girlfriend (George) submarined any chance for the character of Vicki to have a decent and integral role in DS. Losing Ryan cut out Vicki’s chance be written in a way that wasn’t stupid and inessential, IMHO,
Daphne IS Victoria Winters, reconstructed. I needed no further proof of this after I showed a picture of Kate Jackson, from this show, to someone, assuming that she would recognize her, and her response was “Yeah, Victoria Winters, so what?”.
I didn’t consider Gerard as sexy when i was 11 years old, and even less so now. But maybe that’s why the character could scare the bejebbers out of me. And still does strike me as intimidating. Like much of the DS storylines, it had great potential.
I saw an episode of One Life to Live at the Paley Center in LA in which Jim Storm was still playing Dr. Larry Wolek. He really seemed bored and maybe that’s why he so wanted to leave the show.
Good news! All the DS DVD’s streaming on Amazon are now free to Prime subscribers. Bingeing on 1897 as we speak.
That’s great! I bought the coffin set, but then I moved and haven’t dug them out. Now I can binge whenever I want.
This must have just happened. I was trying to see what I could watch the other night without paying extra, and only collection #11 was available with Prime. I have to go check right now! Thanks for the info!
Thanks for the 411!
It’s not all of them, but a lot more than they had before. They’re following the original VHS and DVD physical releases.
Darks Shadows: the Beginning
Episodes 1-35 (Collection 1)
Episodes 71-105 (Collection 3)
Dark Shadows (starting with Barnabas)
Episodes 210-898 (Collections 1-17)
TCM is showing “House of Dark Shadows” and “Night of Dark Shadows” on October 28th this year.
Yes Gerard was hot but not in a romantic, Quentin way. I was in early puberty back in ’70 and was turned on by a number of things. I was turned on by James Storm because he looked like he might have a sexy body under those clothes. Small waist, fairly broad shoulders & what I recall was a cute butt.
How do we know about his rear? It’s always covered by a long coat.
Instinct.
Yes. You’ve heard of gaydar. There’s also the ability to see through clothes
Half the men were gay. Sadly many gone. Now Selby ( though straight) has aged very well and seems like a mensch.
He’s a great hugger. And his sweaters are so, so soft.
James Storm wasn’t gay. He was embroiled in a relationship with a DS actress when she embarked on an affair with a married co-star (which has been covered elsewhere in these comments) and allegedly broke his heart. This also led to an estrangement between said married co-star and a couple at the heart of DS when said co-star returned to his wife, to whom he is still married.
Stroka was another DS-er that many people thought was gay but he wasn’t. He left us too soon as a result of cancer.
A certain cap-‘ass’-ity that some people have – thinking with the hind brain, one might say.
Also known as the Rear-View Mirror.
Gerard didn’t have a scruffy look Quentin sometimes had (usually after a hairy night). So while they both appealed in a Mr Darcy kind of way Quentin covered more ground in personal styles. Quentin actually dressed down from time to time, whether is was to his shirtsleeves or ripped.
I think Claude North and Gerard Stiles are both attractive, sensual men, but neither are my cup of hotness. Jeremy Grimes (1840), on the other hand, is kind of cute, if underage. Of all the men and women on DS, it’s petite, exotic, haughty Julianka whom I would like to meet for drinks at the tavern in Collinsport.
Dark Shadows simply ended its run too soon before daytime TV started hiring more hunky actors and giving viewers more shirtless scenes. Before I had VCR to record soaps I had to watch intently for appearances of hot guys. There was Brad Davis on Another World. James Parker on One Live To Live, Christopher Reeve on Guifding Light and later David Sederholm on Ryan’s Hope, Paul Keenan on Days of Our Lives to name a few
Yes, Julianka was a most intriguing, compelling character, who would have spiced up an already very good storyline if only the writing team had decided to better develop her character. I’d have enjoyed seeing Julianka’s role elongated much more than just the few episodes she was permitted. Had she not been killed off so quickly, who knows where it could have gone?
Julianka (Diana Davila) was already the sexiest gypsy in town, and could even have upstaged Magda Rakosi (Grayson Hall) to become the outstanding gypsy woman in the story arc. However, Magda might have disliked the idea of a rival gypsy gal hanging around the woods of Collinsport for more than a few episodes, getting the chance to play scenes with hot young characters such as Quentin, and may have been secretly quite glad when the writers killed her off.
😉
Agree about Julianka. I feel the same way about Suki Forbes — I think we missed another great chance with her.
Grimes. Great looks, but it falls apart when he speaks.
Julianka. Great looks, and it only gets better when she speaks.
Bit players poll? He’s the bottom. Below Dameon, even.
She’s near the top. With Suki Forbes, who could steal a scene from Nathan in an instant.
Some favorites….
Elder Edith Collins
Buffy Harrington
Original Matthew Morgan
And strangely….Leona Eltridge.
And the not….
Sky Rumson.
I liked elder Edith Collins and Buffy Harrington as well.
And let’s not forget the explosive force that DORCAS TRILLING could have been.
Also, let’s not forget Wanda Paisley – and her hat.
She was one of the most comedic female characters of DS.
But that is a separate category.
Nancy Barrett and Suki Forbes own that one.
But as for victims, Marsha Mason is my favorite.
Suki, second.
Bathia Mapes Forever
I’ll drink to that!
I stopped just short of Mapes. A perfect cast that could not deliver.
But Edith did, like there was no tomorrow, and I admire that.
I think that we all have a moment in our lives when we are surprised by the sharpness of old folk.
And then, hope that we can be that.
When we get there.
Notice how when Danny doesn’t post for a while we HAVE TO fill the enormous vacuum. Hence, long discussions of Green Acres.
Yep.
I very much enjoyed the “Green Acres” retrospective. But I am ready to return to the musings of young Mr. Horn myself!
You can also Google the entire site for new comments on previous blog entries. When people discover this blog they often start reading from the start to catch up (I did) and leave comments as they go. It takes a couple of days for Google to index, but a search using the Google tricks below will turn up some new posts on old posts every few days. Three days ago there were comments added to posts for episodes 258, 370, 663 and 830:
Google Search (the quotation marks and colon are required):
“august 30, 2017” site:darkshadowseveryday.com
And then try “august 29, 2017” and “august 28, 2017” (there were a lot of comments on past posts on the 28th, actually).
By the way, we also are starting to sound like a bunch of eighth-graders talking about butts and stuff. That’s not to say we should stop doing it, though.
And here’s the 100th comment: Prof. Stokes should have had his head examined, bringing his niece to live at Collinwood after every thing that’s happened there. (I know that isn’t explained until a few episodes later; why doesn’t he say something about it in 1995? It’s as though he completely forgot about Hallie. Must have been all her whining.)
He never said she was his favorite niece.
Snort!
That’s great, M.
Score two.
Of course, a NORMAL person would think
that a house with a closed-off wing is just begging
For new victims.
But he ain’t normal.
Me and my ain’t , I ‘ve been watching Firefly.
Damn.
That was the best show.
Damn.
And everyone else is talking Green Acres.
Now, I love both of them.
What are they,
45 years apart?
Still, Eva’s comedy timing was some of the best of the 60’s.
The writers were so happy, and you could tell.
See, what’s hot or not. I don’t care.
But then, there’s Julianka.
Man..
Another non-talking character?! Pretty soon it’ll be like watching a goddamn silent movie – maybe they’ll take pity on us and add some title cards.
Julia is handing out sedatives again, despite the fact that she doesn’t even have her purse, much less her doctor bag. I guess she just conjures sedatives out of thin air, like some sort of medical leprechaun.
A definite “No!” from this heterosexual male observer in answer to the question “Is Gerard hot?” Too weird looking and that harsh lighting does his complexion no favors.
“…she had to stay mute because students weren’t allowed to work professionally until the course was over.” Seems to me that if they were paying her then she was “working professionally” whether she spoke or not.
Gerard would be a whole lot cuter if he smiled once in a while….
I think I’d be rich if I had a dollar for every time
Julia tells some overwrought character they need to rest
Barnabas exhorts some spirit to “appear to us if you can”
Some Collins family member takes a swig of brandy or sherry