DARK SHADOWS

I don't know whether you know this or not, but there is an upcoming movie based on the series.

The movie starts Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, Helena Bonham Carter as Dr. Julia Hoffman and Michelle Phiffer as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. The Movie is projected to be released May 11, 2012.

Here is a picture of the cast (in costume) from the on-line version of the magazine EW (Entertainment Weekly):

For more on the cast you can read the story from EW here:

EW: Johnny Depp's 'Dark Shadows' vampire revealed...

...and you can find out the premise of the movie from here:

Wikipedia: Dark Shadows (film)

SIDE NOTE: IT was announced at San Diego Comic Con the four of the actors from the original series will have cameo appearances in the movie. The four are Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), David Selby (Quentin Collins), Lara Parker (Angelique) and Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans, Josette DuPres, and others).

I did know about the movie but this is the first real cast photo or photo I've seen from it: plus I went to the sort of dissapointing DS con in Brooklyn in August and saw nothing about it. The night before they showed the WB Unaired Pilot...which I missed. Thanks! This photo has me a bit worried as they all look a bit TOO ...uhm, camp. DS wasn't really so much camp...Depp looks sort of lost among the others really. Time will tell.

12

      This episode is much better, mostly due to Vicki being back. Sorry to say

      that Maggie, although another much loved character and actress is not my

      favorite. I think Kathryn is not very good throughout the series with some

      exceptions. At this time, the show became more like a stage play. The

      enlivening thing here is Widow's Hill scenes with great sound effects,

      great music, and good acting from Roger and Vicki. The Burke stuff is not

      downplayed but is not totally the focus. Roger's mentions of the Widow's

      is mostly grim and grisly. There are some real good outdoor scenes of

      Vicki on the hill and approaching. Other than that, there is not much

      more to this ep. There's more of Sam and Maggie, Sam not wanting to answer

      Roger's phone, Sam wanting to go lie down, Sam wanting to leave and

      truthfully Sam and the whole Burke thing drag the show down. It SHOULD

      have focused on the other mysteries and ghosts...but that is in hindsight.

      Even so this ep is much better than 10 and 11.

13-14

      A lot of interesting things to note in these two episodes. Let's get Burke

      out of the way. I wish the show thought like that. Burke seems to be a

      hero but then again in these two episodes he seems to be embracing this

      kind of nice menace. It gives an added difference to him and to his

      storyline...when Vicki finds him in the garage seemingly tinkering about

      Roger's car...he seems almost threatening but in a nice way, a subtle way

      and a way that seems like he almost isn't. Which of course he isn't as we

      find out MUCH later. David in 14 tells us that he thinks he could be good

      friends with Burke and this is foreshadowing. Yes, there is a large

      Collins' garage with a few cars in it and tires and what seems like a

      stereo and other things. It should be noted that this seems like it is

      both on film location and interior set...also of note is that Vicki walks

      across a great deal of Collinwood and moves to Matthew Morgan's cottage

      which seems attached to Collinwood. This might be Lyndhurst in upstate New

      York near Sleepy Hollow. Some of the exteriors for the Old House (not yet

      seen) were filmed there but this seems like part of it. It is either that

      or the house that they used for other exteriors in Rhode Island I think.

      Which was a girl's school at one point in the 1980s or 1990s. It's all

      very atmospheric. Matthew's door is HUGE, almost two people's length

      upward. Inside it is sort of...bare...the cupboards seems like they have

      cardboard over them from the inside.

      Matthew is a strange character and Liz is stranger for keeping someone on

      that can become as she says, violent. Everyone on DS lies, even Vicki and

      for some reason she tells Matthew that Liz knew of her being there. In any

      event, she doesn't tell Roger that Burke was in the garage and doesn't

      tell Liz either. Why?

      Carolyn: there's a nice person under there somewhere and I suppose in a

      long long time she comes out in the show later on...only to have it all

      switch to a parallel time or the past. Frankly, Joe Haskell (who here meet

      Vicki for the first time as she answers the door---in such a big house how

      do they hear the banging?) should dump her NOW as he does later. She

      treats him terribly, sets up their date to the Blue Whale instead of going

      to the movies...one of the first and only times someone in Collinwood

      mentions something normal and a normal activity...we also get Joe talking

      about spooks...in a few eps before Liz was admonishing someone about

      talking about goblins. Ghosts are almost always discussed and here they

      are too. David believes in them, Joe does not. We leave Carolyn and Joe in

      the Blue Whale with Devlin joining them at their table...as they await

      Roger!

      Roger: his loyalty to the family is a nice touch and makes him at least

      somewhat likable and less cowardly.

      Vicki finally gets to...it's only been about two days since she arrived in

      ep1!!!?!??!!!...get to bond with David somewhat. He seemed to be hiding a

      spark plug in her drawer but then he fakes that he was giving her a

      seashell as a gift and he's so strange in these two ep, he might just be.

      He's nice and he's not. He talks a lot about people hating each other and

      ghosts hating everyone in the house. Vicki, like Joe, does not believe in

      ghosts. She tells David so, feeling sorry for him. David also reads

      Mechano Magazine which is 35 cents! We see his room for the first time.

      Also for the first time, I think there is a thunder/lightning storm.

      The start of ep14 has the moon in it, either it's stock footage, location

      work or a studio light...it's hard to tell but it's effective. The

      openings are almost always stylish and effective. Vicki narrates each

      episode at this point in character.

      What else? Unless David is very good at magic or something else...there

      ARE ghosts in this episode. The locked door to the closed off part of the

      house (east wing? but not mentioned as such in this ep) opens by itself,

      makes noises from within, and then closes again by itself...! And David

      appears in the hall. Perhaps we find out later...I can't recall...that a

      secret passage from his room leads to the closed off wing...but I'm not

      sure about that.

      There's some really relaxing, nice music...no REALLY...in this stage of

      DS...and it and all the music have been released on various CDs and ALL OF

      THE MUSIC was re-released with stuff that was never released in one big

      pack a few years ago and it has everything on it. Some of it is really

      nice to listen to.

      We also have a closing credit blooper (the first?) as in ep 13 or 14, the

      screen goes black and then comes back on as the credits roll...eps 12-14

      are much better as things seem to move a bit more...and Vicki might start

      tutoring some time this century!

      What is with the dancing at the Blue Whale. I often don't think of DS as

      campy...certainly they weren't trying to be campy unlike BATMAN which was

      deliberately campy...but one look at the dance of the time (and Joe's

      calling Carolyn Cookie) makes it dated a bit and/or campy. Or at least

      very funny.

      On related unrelated notes: Either the pre Big Finish one off audio or the

      newer BIG FINISH audio series tells us that David (spoilers!)

      is missing in an avalanche or a ski mission or some such nonsense....and I

      hate that as much as Vicki's end...although I don't know if they redid a

      Vicki storyline. Frankly the first batch were a bit...disappointing so I

      haven't the heart to listen to the rest yet and have no real desire to

      listen to stories set in the Barnabus kidnaps Maggie storyline (didn't

      that go on long enough!!!!)

15--16

      In 16, we hear about Roger's doctor Reeves and Jim Hardy from the

      constable's office; also in 16 I have to say that Joan Bennett, despite

      having a hair out of place for most of the first half of the

      episode...does a terrific job of acting. I really believed Roger was on

      the other end of that phone as she talked. Despite some flubs from her,

      Bennett does a great acting job in this.

      In 15, David and Vicki share a number of scenes, some in her room, some in

      his as he is in his night robe. They DO have a great chemistry. I don't

      know but I felt the writers and producers of the show...again it could

      have been a ratings thing or maybe they all just got bored...but I don't

      feel the writers and producers of the show appreciated that core group of

      the family...somewhat cowardly Liz and Roger yet both being loyal and

      strong in their own ways, quirky Carolyn who could muster up some

      goodness in her when needed, creepy but troubled and somewhat naive David

      who later on was usually the one in on the REAL goings on in the plots,

      and sensitive and innocent Vicki and later to include Mrs. Johnson. These

      core cast of characters should have been given more respect as the stories

      took on a blatant supernatural tone and in a way they were given

      some...but almost completely forgotten about by the time the series went

      into the past so much and almost totally by the end plotline. We don't

      even see them in the last episode.

      At the same time, I have to admit that David is probably my favorite male

      character in the show. Yeah, I was his age about, maybe a bit younger when

      the show came on and that helps. Despite his being somewhat creepy in this

      ep and others and very troubled, David usually had an inside scoop on

      things that were going on. He and Vicki are probably my fav characters.

      Barnabus wasn't very likable for a long time and even after Sarah sort of

      set him straight, he was intent on killing David and Maggie and sometimes

      even menacing Vicki and definitely being cruel to Julia. Quentin wasn't

      very likable either at the start of his storylines, thus I always felt

      David should have had more in the plots and that Vicki should have stayed

      on.

      In any event, there is location shooting galore in ep 15 as we see Roger

      leave Collinwood, get in his car and drive out of the large parking area

      and under an alcove of sorts into the roads! Then we see from inside the

      car, Roger at the wheel, and his POV from looking out of the windshield

      and a sort of crash imagined. Also David is seen as the camera pulls

      back...from outside we view David at the window of his room watching Roger

      pull away. Enjoy that then and there for there will be little of that in

      future. Amazing.

      Carolyn is a jerk in this episode (16) as she favors Burke over Joe. Joe

      leaves them to it but to Burke's credit, he takes Carolyn to go in search

      of Joe. The juke box music is interesting too.

      In 15, David is told a story by Vicki about hate and friends in what seems

      to be a message...from DS! David, of course, turns the message around to

      reveal that the girl in Vicki's story (Vicki herself, I imagine) should

      line up all those people that she thought hated her and pow pow pow...as

      he aims at the imaginary haters with is toy gun!

      All in all these are two good episodes and the interplay between everyone

      good and the tensions Liz faces (Carolyn not growing up to be a good

      person; allowing Roger to bring David to be raised in a creaky old mansion

      that is for the decaying and old; having Matthew hate Roger) well

      established. We see the kitchen area again and this time a great deal of

      it including a very old fashioned telephone on the wall. Speaking of

      phones, the one in the hallway entrance rings and rings and rings over and

      over and over! Then the one in the drawing room rings, too! We learn the

      Collins family is important to the newspapers...Vicki tries to get through

      to David and seems to have made some great headway.

      One thought about these days in DS...was Roger really David's father? In

      some ways, I wondered if they were going to present us with the fact that

      David was or might have been Burke's son due to an affair between David's

      mother and Burke...I believe I even read that this was on the back burner

      for a plan but didn't happen. There's no doubt that nowadays Roger is

      David's father but...is he? In any case, the event of the car crash adds

      another...and welcome mystery. There's also a tension between Matthew and

      Vicki that will come to a head some time in the future...and a giant fly

      in the drawing room or kitchen in a blooper or two. The credits to one of

      these eps (16) are off center at the end credits.

      Not much more to add except that these are faster paced than the others

      and a welcome relief.

17-18

      First thing to notice is that Liz is prominent in 17 and then in the middle

      of the Roger returns thing, she vanishes for 17. The reverse is true of

      Vicki...she's apparently asleep for 17 and then woken up by Roger in 18.

      In 17, the music for the dramatic shift scene continues well into the

      theme song credits in the opening. The narration for 18 continues well

      into the opening...in fact it stops and then recontinues about 40 seconds

      or so in. In 17 we meet one of many old codgers that apparently populate

      DARK SHADOWS and Collinwood...Dr Reeves...these old actors can't really

      act but that gives them part of their large charm. Parts of what he says

      sounds wrong in the dialog and somewhat...illogical. Bill Malloy walking

      up a hill? What's that got to do with killing him? Did he have a heart

      condition? And how does that relate to the man he treated years ago...I

      guess, knowing more...that I should not yet...that Roger must have hit a

      man who was walking up the hill. It's amazingly apparent that killing

      Roger off would have been a mistake. Louis Edmunds puts such charm into

      him and in his early scenes with Reeves and his later banter with Liz as

      he tries to make her feel less worried...his obvious charm and value as a

      character is apparent.

      In the doc's office, the doc talks about one Lucy Cameron being pregnant

      and he exits later on ..on his way to deliver the baby. This gives a

      feeling of life beyond Collinwood and in Collinsport, something that did

      not happen often enough later on the series. Nice that the Doc also

      mentions eastern folks always covering up their true feelings and

      conversations go south whenever anything worth mentioning is starting to

      be discussed...and oh, yeah, what doctor that you know keeps a half skull

      on his desk??? It's also amazing they even had a doctor's office appear.

      Bill Malloy is a much involved character and loyal to the Collins family

      and to be frank, he's quite good, a good nice man, so few in DS.

      David's at his creepiest and most disturbed here...hiding in the shadows,

      something that will be reserved later for Angelique and Quentin's ghost

      and David is most effective here even if at times in ep 18 it is apparent

      that David Hensey is reading off a teleprompter or cue cards or something.

      He just makes it work. Oh by the way, if you were Liz, just after you

      found David looking as if he is ready to jump from the window...would you

      leave him alone again so soon after? Despite that, both Liz in 17 and

      Vicki in 18 show real concern for the boy and the actresses make you

      believe it as much as Louie Edmunds makes you believe that Roger cares

      only a little for the boy's feelings at the moment. It's obvious that

      David tampered with the car.

      Did Vicki go to the car for time tables? I already forgot. One thing is

      that: why didn't she tell Roger about Burke being in the garage earlier?

      One noticeable error or maybe a ghost is that Vicki lays down in her

      bed...and we hear a knock on her door. Then we see Roger moving down the

      hallway, not yet knocking on any door. Then he knocks on the door!

      Something beat him to it! In 18 it seems Roger was or rather Louie was

      looking at the camera for his cue to start shouting at Vicki.

      I really love Louie's error in ep 17 when he's describing the car crash,

      "It was about 100 miles..." when it should have been 100 feet down the

      hill. He realizes his mistake and admonishes himself, sarcastically

      saying, "100 miles! It seemed like 100 miles," expertly covering his

      mistake. This also gives Louie and Roger their charm and obvious staying

      power. I think more about David's mother is discussed in ep 17 AND in ep

      18 there is a really prophetic shot of David sitting in the drawing room

      in front of the fireplace as a huge fire is in it and backlighting him.

      Really eerie in light of what will come.

      There's probably more I wanted to discuss about these two eps but I'm

      tired. I must admit these two went fast and were NOT boring at all, mostly

      due to the acting and David's strangeness. A mention about Liz: her not

      being out of the house in some 18 years or so is still a mentioned plot

      device. I knew but forgot when she eventually does leave it again and it's

      not too far off from this but not too close either. Oh and Vicki, knowing

      Roger, basically one of her bosses, has woken her up in the middle of the

      night (forgot the time but it was on the grandfather clock I think) takes

      time to get dressed..fair enough but later on we see her sitting and

      relaxing as she combs her hair! While Roger waits for her downstairs and

      then David comes in and keeps her LONGER!

      A mention about beds in DS. We rarely if ever see two people in one

      bed...I can't recall a single scene of that but maybe? The bed in DS seems

      to be a place of comfort and safety...mostly. A rare thing in DS. Of

      course, later on that would change as there is hardly any place safe and

      vampires would get you in bed and nightmares would literally kill you.

      THIS might be the first episode, ep 17, where a nightmare occurs and it is

      talked about in 18 as David feels guilty. IF he even really had a dream or

      was even asleep. It's almost a comedy routine as Liz watches over him and

      he keeps trying to go to sleep but keeps getting up and asking questions.

      Joan B is just as charming as the boy and Roger in these scenes with both

      of them.

      Despite, at times, there being some focusing issues, in general all of

      these episodes have some interesting use of camera angles, zooms, fade

      outs and encompassing characters, one such being the scene of David and

      Liz waiting in the drawing room with him in foreground and her in

      background.

19

      Your basic filler episode. This episode could be skipped almost completely

      and nothing would be missed. Of course Liz goes and confesses some of the

      issue to Carolyn: that Roger witnessed a car accident in which Burke hit a

      man who was walking and this is why Burke wants revenge. Liz thinks Burke

      is back for revenge and set up Roger's accident. Other stuff happens: Sam

      and Bill drink at the Blue Whale, Carolyn has caught up with Joe thanks to

      Burke (unseen Burke) and they go for a hamburger and cheeseburger at the

      hotel restaurant (Maggie has gone home sick, also unseen). Sam finds them

      and phones Bill. You see Sam and you kind of sigh, oh not him again. This

      Sam is a big man and kind of like someone you'd not want to meet in a dark

      alley. Bill phones Liz and tells her not to worry. Oh and earlier in an

      ep, someone, probably Liz, tells Vicki that Roger came back to Collinwood

      fairly recently...like six months ago. There is a fly in this episode and

      one great big giant camera crane or mike crane or something or the shadow

      of it rather...on the drawing room doors as Carolyn and Joe talk in the

      hallway at Collinwood. Liz pumps Joe (!) for info and gets some on

      Carolyn's Burke obsession. Really why does she favor him over Joe? Joe

      should dump her already. Again, despite Liz's revelation not much happens

      here. Carolyn does worry about her uncle Roger and finds him gone. NEXT!

      Oh and there is a new element to the theme song at the end of the show...a

      new tune or perhaps this was always part of the original music but never

      used until now, there's a deeper sound to a part of it. It sounds good.

20-21

      Faster paced episodes. I couldn't believe how fast. This is the first ep

      we see Maggie with very dark hair and longer than before. In fact, it

      might be the first that we see Carolyn, Liz, Vicki and Maggie in one ep.

      Louis Edmunds is particularly good in this episode, being both the hero

      and the villain it would seem; as is the actor playing Burke Devlin

      (Mitchell Ryan). What is he up to? a times, he is very pleasant.

      I was just thinking that Sam menacing Vicki in the hotel restaurant was

      just the way to use Sam but then they go and have a late night encounter

      between Maggie and he and it is tense yet...the two have obvious affection

      for each other as daughter and father and it shows. Sam even gets one good

      line ("Collinwood, a nice place filled with nice normal people...of

      horrors" or something like that) and one really funny flub (Roger...he's

      gone up there to see Roger ...hasn't...Burke, hasn't he?"). On the subject

      of flubs, I imagine the actors have been just trying to get through the

      work day like everyone else but they can be uproariously funny at times.

      We see more flies in both episodes.

      In 20, we get to see Roger and Vicki pull up to the outside of the hotel

      in his car and get out and go inside. I'm not sure Roger had his cast on

      in the location stuff but it is dark. It's annoyingly funny that Roger

      pulls Vicki out of Collinwood at almost 12 midnight and then ep 21 goes

      into the morning and we see the kitchen again.

      21's opening narration plays over a stock of the sea, something quite

      pleasantly jarring and attention getting. There's not much to 21 except

      that characters slated to die talk a lot, including, I think Sam but

      definitely Burke and Bill. Bill shows his loyalty, Burke seems to be lying

      but isn't or something...and he's pulling something, something down to

      mere desire to get Roger to confess the truth I guess. In one scene, Vicki

      talks to Liz and Carolyn and a light literally goes behind her head on the

      wall...chalk it down to Collinwood being haunted.

      Liz tells Carolyn about the times when kids taunted Carolyn calling Liz a

      witch. Burke mentions Logansport and wanting to buy a cannery there. And

      Liz is directly questioned by Vicki quite directly about her covering up

      something about her past at the orphanage and Liz denies it and walks out

      on she and Carolyn...and it is clear that she was covering something

      up...but what? I always just took it as the fact that Liz was Vicki's

      mother. Despite the fact that casual viewers wouldn't know if Burke were

      guilty or not...he sure looked guilty...the hit em on the head stuff with

      David (who is not in either ep20 or 21) really kind of gives it away.

      Still these two eps are rather good even if the plot of Burke is getting

      annoying, here, it kind of moves along and has the added dimension of the

      who sabotaged Roger's car plot tangled into it and is better for that.

22-23

      One word about the sharp clear focus in this episode: terrific. One word

      about the first few seconds: FOCUS! We see Burke in the cottage point to

      and refer to Maggie's mom's portrait. Another few words about the camera

      chart that is shown on these dvds: sometimes we see the background of the

      set and the actors readying to act, sometimes not, once we saw a man

      smoking. In actual ep bodies, we see Burke sometimes awkwardly smoking in

      the ep itself. I wonder if Ryan smoked for real. In this ep's camera chart

      I believe we see Mark Allen (Sam) holding the chart. It looks like his

      shirt, belt buckle and hairy arms. 22, is, I believe, Allen's last ep. Not

      sure how I feel about that, I was just warming up to him but he does jar

      with the rest of the cast. Here he goes to paint at Widow's Hill but we

      don't see it, darn it. One could almost imagine this Sam leaping off the

      hill or just as easily smilingly painting a picture of the sunrise. At one

      point, I thought they mentioned something about a sunset. Suzie, Maggie's

      fill in when she's not working, is seen working at the hotel restaurant.

      When we first see Maggie there doesn't appear to be any liquid in her cup

      of coffee but she's sipping and trying not to spill it. In the cottage we

      see a shadow of a camera or mike. Roger calls Carolyn Kitten many times in

      this ep, possibly for the first time. I can't recall but this might be one

      of the first times we see them together with just each other in the scene.

      He takes his sling off the puts it around Carolyn's neck but she later

      gives it back to him. Constable Carter is mentioned again and actually

      appears in 23. There's a strange portrait under Maggie's mum's (mum's is

      on the easel). Below the easel looks like a blond woman who could almost

      be either Laura or Angelique, I kid you not. There seem to be strange

      knocks and at least one cough during scenes in this ep.

      In 23, there's a lot to mention: David reads Night Crawler or Night

      Crawlers Magazine and we actually see a tutoring session. In the pre

      credits sequence, in David's room there is someone in the mirror that

      should not be there and then he or she (looks like it might be Vicky)

      moves and the mirror goes black...and Henesy is watching the person as well

      as the camera, waiting for the light to go on. Watch his eyes. As good as

      he is, he's still a kid.

      Carter actually appears and mentions a town county meeting, giving

      Collinsport some life beyond the house and cottage and hotel. Carter seems

      to flub about the missing bleeder valve, saying something about the mixed

      missing bleeder or something like that but it might not be a flub. Roger

      then tells him, when Liz leaves the room, "My sister has a whim of iron."

      Shouldn't that be will? Carter also has a deputy named Harry who calls NY

      to get info from a Frank Palmer, a policeman or detective in NY homicide.

      David is reading a novel to Victoria about a girl who ran away but is now

      with her father, one Mr. Johnson. He balks at this that the girl's story

      was not even elaborated on, "They don't even tell you what happened to

      her." I wonder what this book is. It's thick and if anyone knows, let me

      know. Vicki tries to teach him about the history of Maine, telling him

      that in 1604 the first Xmas Tree in the US was here.

      There's a huge host of Liz flubs: she stumbles over a few lines including

      something about the accused him of himself or something like that. Worst

      is this: Roger, Carter, and Vicki move out the doors and Liz seems to

      follow to the doors and begins to shut them. Roger turns and asks her,

      "Are you staying here?" Liz says, "No," and then Roger leaves and she

      closes the door, staying inside! And of course finding David, once again,

      once again David hiding in the hallway/vestibule area. She almost repeats

      her line to David, "You're not going to try to..." stops and says

      something else instead. There is a huge camera shape shadow on the walls

      briefly as David is skulking about.

      The credits: for some reason the credits for all the characters EXCEPT

      Carter's character are in lower case. His are in upper case all the way.

      More interestingly, the credits are of the excellent David room set and I

      don't recall seeing two windows but there are. But and this is funny...as

      the credits go on, someone walks past David's left hand window...but on

      the outside! We see his or her shadow from inside the room...and it was

      supposed to be on the second floor!

      All in all, these episodes are really not that great but there's been

      worse ones. They move fast and are entertaining enough but the whole thing

      seems bogged down. I can understand why people may not want to watch this

      without knowing that soon, the characters will be plunged into vampires,

      witches, flame creatures, demy gods, and time travel and parallel worlds.

      It's kinda...boring.

24-27

      24

      In general these episodes are much better and quite good. We hear Joe talk

      about a Jerry Gets ( a pal of his at work who married his love and wants

      to buy a boat with Joe or has bought his own boat already?) in ep 24 as he

      mentions once again to Carolyn that he wants to marry her but she puts him

      off. I really want him to leave her flat...totally. She just doesn't love

      him. At all. There are general flubs in all four episodes (Carter stumbles

      or stutters about committed). We see Burke eating in his hotel room and

      it's not a pretty sight. For God's sake, why did they allow that to go

      through to air? Speaking of eating, in these early episodes, there's more

      eating than in the last four years combined. In fact, I can't recall much

      eating going on once they went into the past. 24 also has the line from

      Burke to the Constable Carter, "Have you ever sat on a wrench?" Burke

      calls Carolyn in to verify that it was she that convinced him to go to

      Collinwood but Carolyn finally catches on that she was being used. Did

      Burke tell Carolyn the truth about his "short" visit? I don't think so but

      he seems so honest and truthful here. A Mr. Bronson calls Burke.

      25

      Okay there are flies and there are flies. TWO of the biggest ones menace

      Joan Bennett in this episode and like a trooper she carries on despite

      having to blink and having one land on her hair and belittle her eyelids!

      How annoying that must have been for her. Still, most of the stutters and

      flubs are for Roger and David this time out. While the production has the

      musical cues during the eps down pat, during the beginning theme and end

      theme, the music cuts out and then waits before going into the credit

      theme even as the waves silently crash...and a few times during this time

      and during this ep, the end credits start silently...and then the music

      comes on really low...

      26

      We see the police station for the first time and on the wall is a WANTED

      poster which looks like Wo Fat from HAWAII FIVE O or maybe it's Oddjob

      from GOLDFINGER. In any event, Roger comes to the Constable looking to

      spill out his anger that he hasn't arrested Burke yet and to chew out and

      threaten the job of Carter...who orders food to eat and when it arrives

      later, begins to eat it and complain about it not having any mustard or

      that he forgot to ask for it. He keeps ignoring Roger's taunts and

      criticisms and wants with comments about his food in what must have been

      seen and used by the writers of the Sly Stallone vehicle COPLAND. In that

      1990s movie, when Stallone's cop character finally decides to turn

      evidence against his fellow cops (murdering cops who murder cops and

      others) Robert Deniro's character, who practically begged him to do this

      earlier, ignores him to focus on his food, knowing the time has passed. A

      great scene in a so-so movie.

      Carter also gets a call from a Mrs. Turner about her lost dog returning

      home so Carter won't have to go look for it. Carter also coughs something

      fierce en route for some water. And stumbles for info about a Burke

      Deblin, then corrects the name.

      Of note, Liz has been outside. She has her coat on as she enters the

      Collinwood doors. It is not mentioned where she had been nor if she just

      walked the grounds or went to Widow's Hill or where. Thing is: she has now

      gone out of the house after 18 years. I thought later on in either the

      Laura storyline or the Barnabus sees the sun storyline a big deal was made

      of her going out of the house ...for the first time.

      The fight between David and Vicki is stunning in its intensity just after

      they had made friends and just after Vicki ignored his stealing of her

      letter and his taunts to fight with him, he calling her a liar and being

      paranoid. Then the fight. The bleeder valve, even if we knew David was

      guilty, being found is eye widening shocking. Truth is that this is before

      THE OMEN and other dozens of murderous little children movies that

      followed (most recently the disgusting kids kill animals and adults HOME

      MOVIES) in the 70s, 80s, 90s (MIKEY) and 2000s. David is at his most

      menacing here and most disturbing. And Hensey plays it for all it's worth.

      27

      Liz is annoyingly scary and menacing in these episodes. She seems to be

      almost villainous and wants to disbelieve and blame Vicki and to side with

      David and Roger for various reasons and in various events. She's almost

      formidable and scary as any DS villain later on minus the magic to back it

      up. As Roger says Liz can manage people quite well, including him, getting

      him to lie to Vicki about the person that recommended her and Liz is

      definitely keeping something secret. Truth is, in 2010 it is difficult to

      understand how and why Liz would want to keep an illegitimate daughter or a

      daughter born before marriage secret. but back in 1966 it was still very

      much a taboo. I just wish Liz would tell Vicki the truth but truth is that

      everyone, even Vicki, lies in DS.

      Seeing Carolyn once more talk about the "little monster" David and that if

      she saw David she's get on the other side road to avoid him made me

      realize that I don't think Carolyn has yet shared one scene with the boy

      at all. We also get the Bangor Pine Hotel where Burke meets MR. MERLIN

      himself, Bernard Hughes, who plays Bronson, a man hired to get financial

      info on the Collins family. They appear to own several other houses and

      streets and areas in Collinsport. It took Burke an hour to get from

      Collinsport Hotel to Bangor.

      Of note is that Louis Edmunds stated that he loved Roger during this

      storyline and loved playing a villain. He never felt that Roger was ever

      again used as well or as involved even though they tried different things

      in future. Vicki's story becomes harder and harder to believe and David

      grows more and more panicked, even sneaking out to Burke's hotel room...and

      stealing the bleeder valve using Carolyn's key!

      All in all four good episodes.

28 and 29

      Everything really seems to work in these two episodes.

      28

      David turns up in the hotel lobby so Maggie takes him in with her and

      befriends the boy, treating him nicely and giving him ice cream sundaes

      and even having him make one. In this and 29 David does some things that

      seem almost child like and like a normal boy. Yet Maggie betrays him and

      calls Roger at the office. I'm surprised they didn't...or maybe later on

      they do...make a fuss about David being betrayed by Maggie. In 29, he

      urges Burke not to call his family so Burke does not. David is terrifying

      in a way and his hiding in the telephone booth from Maggie as Roger comes

      in is quite creepy. Especially as he leaves it.

      One thing to notice is that at least 4 minutes before Roger enters the

      lobby door at the hotel and while Maggie and David are having a nice

      talk/relationship, we see Louis Edmunds as Roger standing outside the door

      waiting for his cue. He even jobs in place and jumps up and down, perhaps

      to get the jitters out! This must be the first time David and Maggie share

      any scenes.

      It's interesting to note that Roger isn't all that worried about "The

      little monster" and doesn't even look for him. If he had, he might have

      found him. He just...leaves and goes back to his office, and only with

      prompting from Maggie does he suggest she call him if she spots David,

      having previously hoped that David will find his own way back to

      Collinwood! Gosh!

      There's a great big shadow in this episode in the kitchen and one in the

      constable's office! Of note, the Constable is now called Sheriff Carter in

      the credits and it seems that his name (I think, I kind of forgot) is now

      having a capital letter and the rest is in lower case.

      29

      A good episode. One thing to notice is the camera angle from the window in

      the drawing room all the way to the doors out of Collinwood as Liz looks

      out the window (AGAIN!) and Carolyn comes into the doors. At one angle it

      looked as if the drawing room doors were closed (They may not have been it

      might just have been that angle) and that Carolyn approaches them and they

      are then just open OR it might have just been the angle changed. It's hard

      to tell but either way it's interesting angles and one that is not often

      repeated in later years. Liz is worried about David but Carolyn calls him

      a horror. Liz admits she loves David in what also must be a first and a

      last: someone declaring familial love and meaning it without any ulterior

      motive. Carolyn makes her see how unfair she's been to Vicki but agrees to

      go out and look over the grounds for him. As she leaves, another first and

      last happens: Liz seems to be praying to God for something sincerely,

      "Please God, let him be all right." Again, this did not happen often in

      future. We had charlatans like Trask or ministers to marry people but no

      one ever seemed to acknowledge that God might just help them if they

      prayed sincerely. I mean with all the supernatural stuff even hinted at,

      you would think someone would turn to the force of good but alas, this is

      a horror show...so Liz declares that she, David and Carolyn and the house

      itself will have no peace. She is a pessimist.

      In any event, Liz comes off well as she apologizes to Vicki in really well

      directed, written and acted sequence. We also see Carolyn and Vicki as her

      window and a storm comes up and Carolyn mentions that this is Vicki's

      first storm...only, I don't think it is.

      Liz stumbles over saying something about David hurting my father, his

      father, her brother. We also get a mention of Carolyn and how she feels

      about her father having left her mother in this big house and that if she

      could, she might just kill him! She also gives David some credit that at

      least David did something about it!

      In another set of well done scenes, David sticks his foot into and gets

      invited into Burke's hotel room suite. There, the two relate well and have

      a real good relationship. David seems like more a boy than ever before, a

      normal one. Burke teases David about what everyone thought Burke really

      was: A or THE devil. David joins in on the fun, too. Burke promises not to

      call the family and in this episode he does not. He DOES smack David on

      the butt to get him to go wash up. That's when he finds the bleeder valve

      that David hid under Burke's couch seats!

      There are some minor flubs here, a shadow there, and "where we want"

      instead of "who we want" or something like that but none of it matter.

      This is a good episode. It's odd that Burke wants David to rush home

      before the storm even as thunder has already started but I think he then

      says he will take him.

30

      There are some minor sound issues in this episode. Now I don't scare

      easily from supernatural threats. They are so common place in movies and

      TV these days but even then...witches are kind of scary...ghost can

      be...but I tend to be scared more by natural disasters (TOWERING INFERNO

      terrified me, POSIDEN ADVENTURE made me nervous, DEEP IMPACT was scary as

      hell, and DANTE'S PEAK terrifying!) and somewhat by serial killers (I

      can't watch SAW and find the Hannibal Lectors more real than any Freddie,

      Jason and Michael, HOSTEL is a real life scare) and MILLENNIUM has to be

      the scariest show on TV (plagues and blood diseases scare me to heck),

      apocalyptic stuff scares me (2010, THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL,

      OMEGA MAN), anything that has a strong real content to it scares me. But

      vampires? Werewolves? I guess isolated they can scare in way but not me.

      That said, I think the scariest ep in DARK SHADOWS ever is when Maggie is

      being stalked by the ghost of Quentin while she's looking for the two

      kids, David and Amy...while they are possessed and taunting her. THIS

      episode, 30, has a small bit of that...and is probably the scariest thing

      up to this point...

      Vicki finds herself alone in the house during a storm and then locked in

      the drawing room and then the lights go out. She moves to a far wall and

      then the doors blow open by themselves and a shadowy figure stand

      there...to me it looked like Mrs. Johnson or maybe a Pilgrim...we can't see

      it but see some light from behind. THAT is scary or at least as scary as

      DS has been up to now. It all ends quickly when Vicki calls to it and then

      it is gone again...I can't recall but maybe the doors shut again and the

      figure is gone. Roger later says he was probably what Vicki saw and maybe

      it was his with his jacket open and spread out. But then I have the same

      question Vicki does, "Why didn't you answer me when I called out to you?"

      David gets his comeuppance and it's both easy and hard to feel sorry for

      him, at intermittent times. David Henesy does a marvelous job in this

      despite really forgetting his lines in the scenes in the drawing room. It

      seems he's being fed his lines or maybe he's feeding Louis Edmunds but I

      doubt that. The conversation like so many others in DS across its history

      seems...a bit strange. Lines are repeated, there are long pauses as they

      try to remember who says what, and the overall effect is that it doesn't

      make much sense but you get the gist of what they are or what they were

      trying to say. Which, of course is part of DS's charm.

      We see Burke and David in Burke's car and David, now firm friends with

      Burke, wanted to go back and get the steering piece he took from Roger's

      car so that Burke wouldn't get framed as he planned. Thing is Burke

      already has it and doesn't tell David...or Roger ...OR Vicki until next

ep.

      At this stage of the game there are no real reprises of last week's

      cliffhanger or at least no real repeated bits. The pre credits teaser is

      usually very different or at least new stuff. In the foyer, where come to

      think of it most DS stuff happens, Burke admires the grandfather clock,

      probably one of the first pieces of furniture put in the house. He says of

      it, "What strange sights it must have witnessed in its day."

      Another good ep and for that haunted Vicki scene, a great one.

      31

      During this ep, we hear voices when we should not. Back crew? Stage crew?

      Production people? In effect, later on, Roger basically throws Vicki out

      of her own room TWICE so he can talk to David. He really does seem to hate

      David. For his part, David does still long for his father's love though.

      Uhm, even though he tried to kill him! Late in the ep, Vicki looks up at

      the foyer landing toward upstairs as if she sees someone and indeed,

      someone is up there...it looks like Louis Edmunds again but we see a

      shadow of someone who shouldn't be there. Lots of repeating here: Burke

      urges Vicki to leave again; David tells Vicki he hates her. Still even for

      that, this ep was enjoyable. More David getting his comeuppance and Burke

      lying to protect David despite the fact that David tries to blame Vicki

      AGAIN! David, scary, vows to get even with Vicki...

32

      Liz and Roger. Roger calls David. Someone flubs with flishing fleet. There

      is a lot of talk about Bill Malloy and Matthew Morgan. Roger talks about

      David, calling him charming. Laura is mentioned. There's some talk about

      Roger being David's father in a very skeptical manner. David and Roger

      have been in Collinwood for two months. My notes say something about

      giving him the happiness and attention he deserves, so it's probably Liz

      defending David. There is also a deputy. My notes also have something

      about a Jonas going to the movies with his wife?

      33

      Shots of steps and scaffolding. Liz is brooding. Carolyn teleprompter. The

      last four eps seem to have been all the same night. Andy is the name of

      the bartender at the Blue Whale where there are two dancer. Joe's friend's

      wife is having a baby. Vicki and Carolyn or someone mentions Jack the

      Ripper. Liz lies. Roger may be flubbing. Two couples are dancing strange.

      "You're potted," Carolyn says to Joe. Someone says, maybe Joe to Vicki or

      Burke to Vicki, something like, "You stay here, you'll be as nuts as the

      rest of em." Liz is brooding.

      In one of these Carter questions Bill Malloy. There's more but my notes

      are awful on these two. Anyone want to post my originals if I ever did

      them?

34-35

      34

      Blah! Boring as all get go. We see a light on in the house as Vicki does

      her narration or maybe it's just a speck on the film. We get the first and

      maybe the last passionate kiss as we see lips lock between Carolyn and

      Joe. Carolyn nurses Joe into his hang over or from it. We hear Carolyn say

      her great great grandfather was a drinker. Vicki goes to have dinner with

      Burke but more wanting to find out more about her past....Burke's private

      detective may have more for her but does not. Joe goes to repay Burke who

      paid for his drinks at the Blue Whale and finds out Vicki is there. Later,

      he tells Carolyn, the wash woman that he is. This ep can cure insomnia.

      Burke once again warns Vicki to leave...

      35

      In the opening narration we see trees blowing as there is location footage

      and before that a smoking crew member holds up the chalkboard. This is the

      first time we hear something like this: "The character of Sam Evans will

      now be played by David Ford," who's much better, more likable, and

      pleasant enough...still, he has to look at the cue cards or teleprompter

      to get some of his lines.

      We see what might be Carolyn and David's first scene together and he's

      back to being a monster again. He's also back to crouching in a dark

      corner and emerging like some monster. David listens in on Carolyn's phone

      conversation to Joe and casually lies about it later to her and then later

      gives himself away. He also nudges Carolyn too far so she screeches at him

      and hurts my ears. We also get David threatening Vicki again.

      Burke is left eating two steaks when Vicki abandons him after Joe came in

      the last ep so he offers it to Sam, who enters. We learn that ...as Sam

      talks to Joe in the kitchen of the hotel...Maggie's mom proposed to Sam

      instead of the other way around!

      This is also the first ep that Carolyn is decidedly mean to Vicki and she

      realizes it...Carolyn that is, although Vicki takes it and David's renewed

      threats in stride. Carolyn almost apologizes but she's quite disturbed,

      too. She is very jealous of Burke asking Vicki to his room instead of

      Carolyn and she's a real nasty piece of work. I don't like Carolyn when

      she's like this, at all.

      A better ep than 34 but not by much. David also looks a bit older than he

      was, he's grown or something...

36-38

      36

      about 32 seconds in we hear a clicking sound and later some sounds that

      seem to be crewmen working but nothing overpowering as in later eps. Sam

      Evans calls Collinwood---and it should be noted that in these three eps

      everyone from Sam to Liz have choice words for the picked on house---"the

      dark and gloomy monument of pain." Liz later admits that without

      Vicki---who's threatening to leave AGAIN!---the house would go back to

      being one of torment and fear. She feels Vicki will allow Carolyn to leave

      (and leave Vicki a prisoner!) and bring love to David who's never had

      anything but hatred in his life from those that are supposed to protect

      him. Liz feels she can handle David (clue: she can’t really despite her

      lovely scene with him here). When Roger returns he asks, "Where's the rest

      of our happy group?" Also of note he says, "The past doesn't concern you

      Liz but it very much does concern me, for me it is here and now." When

      David proclaims some fear of going to bed, Roger insults him (again and

      again) saying something about the devil being afraid of the shadows.

      Ghosts and goblins are discussed, probably by Sam and Roger. Liz makes a

      call to Ned Calder who is in Portland, Maine and this bit gets up a

      mystery really. Vicki is still wearing her wallpaper dress.

      In soaps, esp this one, and DAYS OF OUR LIVES, sometimes a week represents

      just one day or one night and it certainly seems the case here. In the

      upper hand corner of the screen, a small square appears.

      37

      On the phone, Sam makes a quick flub with the words telling him or out or

      talk him out of it. I never noticed it but the portrait by the phone Roger

      is on in Collinwood is one creepy b&$#$. Before the credits, a musical cue

      repeats itself twice. I have to say it, although Maggie is a major part of

      DS, she's just annoying and her nosey body shtick here with Sam is

      annoying as is Sam's letter writing---and gosh, it takes forever for us to

      have to watch him write this letter, address it and seal it and give it to

      Maggie. This pair are very annoying and boring to be honest. We start to

      get more inklings that Sam did something to Burke when Burke was a boy.

      These days most audiences would wonder if it was some kind of abuse thing.

      Maggie expresses a desire---having deduced that her Pop is upset thanks to

      Collinwood---a desire to see the house burn to the ground!!! Sam talks

      about ghosts of the past living inside each man. Maggie talks of spooks.

      All this talk of ghosts and spooks, goblins and whatnot, lead up to a

      seriously scary bit where Vicki, at night, unable to sleep, hears sobbing

      and comes to investigate it in the cellar. I'm not sure if they meant this

      sobbing to be Liz sobbing over her dead husband...whom we THINK is dead

      and whom she thinks is dead but who isn't. BUT the crying sounds nothing

      like Joan Bennett or Liz to be honest. It is an atmospheric bit however.

      The credits appear, vanish, and then come on for about two seconds, just

      long enough for the narrator to say, "Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis

      production," and vanish again in what must be the shortest end credit

      sequence ever. Vicki takes a lot of abuse from all: here it is mostly

      Roger who apologizes almost Jekyll and Hyde-like but she also gets abuse

      from Carolyn and Liz and of course David over the course of these early

      days episodes...

      38

      Before the credits, we get to see Thayer David for the first time and yet

      no "The role of Matthew Morgan will be played by..." during the theme song

      happens. Vicki does call him Matthew Morgan or at least his first name so

      we know it's him. A gruffer (if you can believe that) more violent minded

      Matthew--who out and out tells Burke later in the hotel kitchen/restaurant

      that if he makes trouble for Mrs. Stoddard, he will kill him. Burke seems

      to need the teleprompter during that scene. Vicki in the cellar mentions

      looking for one of David's books about the Rover Boys---which Liz knows

      exactly where it is later on. Matthew mentions Josette Collins's ghost

      which hasn't been mentioned I don't believe since ep 5.

      Carolyn is annoying as she tries to woe Burke Devlin in the hotel cafe

      which is once again manned by Suzie AND has at least one customer other

      than Burke and Carolyn. Carolyn leaves her ring behind to get Burke to

      call her. She's fairly pathetic and then gets all happy when she thinks

      her stupid plan will work. Burke is reading the COUNT OF MONTE CRISCO

      about a man who plots revenge on those who sent him to prison

      wrongly...hmmmm. Later he tells Matthew that perhaps the Collins family

      should be punished or get revenged on...in a conversation with Matthew

      that seems like one giant flub...I mean HUH?

      Liz talks to Matthew and tells him that she wants Matthew to blame himself

      if anyone asks about Roger's accident. HUH? In an earlier episode didn't

      they (Roger and Liz) discuss that they told Matthew the truth? I mean he

      might have not believed them that David did it but here it seems as if he

      still believed that Burke Devlin did it? WHAT? During a short bit, we hear

      voices of the crew behind the scenes working.

      Liz finds Vicki in the basement and...this adds a mystery to Liz. She

      seems to be hiding something or someone in the locked basement room and

      challenges Vicki to test her by offering Vicki the key...and of course

      Vicki refuses and Liz looks relieved after Vicki leaves her. So what is

      she hiding there or who? I must say that ever since I saw a British movie

      about two old ladies who locked their brother in an attic room or a

      basement room...a savage monster of a brother I think...this kind of

      things has frightened me. Is Liz hiding a woman there? Or what? Vicki

      tells Carolyn or one of the others later on that there is no such thing as

      a ghost. Liz tells her that there are 40 rooms in Collinwood, most of them

      not used and that some windows may be open and cause the sounds. Only 40?

      To me it seems larger. Say, where is that Tower Room room supposed to be

      on the outside shots we see?

      Burke may be teasing Carolyn but he mentions a War Memorial and a New

      Housing Project in town. Again, before the credits, we see a small square

      mysteriously appear in the corner of the screen.

      These three episodes are variable. The cellar thing is good, the arrival

      of Thayer David is good, and David at his most sympathetic and pathetic

      and scary here again, the sobbing adding more of that spooky factor, the

      Liz thing another layer of mystery but on the other hand the Burke?Roger

      thing is annoying; Sam and Maggie are annoying and Carolyn's pursuit of

      Burke obvious and petty. Again, soaps are not supposed to be watched more

      than once a day and not in a row but also I think the makers don't always

      consider--nor should they I guess---the viewers who tune in every day but

      the viewers that tune in once or twice a week. Here we have reiteration of

      the entire Burke, Sam, Roger thing, the Josette thing, Matthew's meanness,

      the don't go in the cellar (possibly the title of that movie or don't go

      in the attic) thing, and the David/accident thing. It's not entirely

      boring but added to all the other stuff, it can get on one's nerves and

      try one's patience. I wonder how long I can take these episodes before I

      tire of the show at this stage of its life.

A silly note about 36: when Vicki comes in from outside, we see through

      the Collinwood doors to what looks like...another inside room. This

      actually fits in the real Collinwood, for there really is some kind of

      vestibule before you enter the main area(s). Either way it looks like the

      studio!

      39-40

      Gosh. I'm not gonna make it past these episodes. They are akin to watching

      paint dry. Of note is a flub right from the start as the narrator stating

      the date of videotaping, gets the date wrong instead of saying, "8-4-66."

      Another amusing moment comes when Burke, unaware that Sam is hiding Roger

      in the bedroom (actually Roger hid himself), says, "You're not hiding a

      lady love in the bedroom, are you Sam?" And...that's about it. I

      understand they are setting up Sam, Burke, and especially Roger for being

      the number one suspects for the upcoming death of Bill Malloy, who returns

      in 39, but really....slowly.

      One thing that comes to mind is how soaps were aimed at female

      audiences...only this storyline is squarely about three older men! And men

      seem to dominate DS right from the start. Another thing is that we've

      almost reached 50 episode and no one has died yet! In DS!

      In 40 we learn the earth shattering info that Roger gave Carolyn the ring

      for her 16th birthday. I completely forgot about Carolyn's ring subplot

      and ...when reminded, wished that the writers had too but no such luck.

      I must admit that Louis Edmunds and Nancy Barrett portray an obvious

      affection for each other and thus, their characters also do that with

      Roger once more calling Carolyn, "Kitten." In some earlier ep, he called

      her Caroline.

      Stock footage alert: really nice scenes of Carolyn driving her car up to

      the front of the hotel, getting out of the car and going into it. Then

      later of her leaving the hotel and getting in her car and driving off. And

      honestly, that's the most exciting thing about these two episodes.

      Despite this being as slow as drying glue, this might be David Ford's

      finest moment as Sam Evans. When he gets drunk with Bill Malloy watching,

      he portrays a true tortured soul, complete with a comical shake off of his

      head. Burke once again calls Bronson (I think that's his name) and Liz and

      Malloy display some relationship moments.

      Also Ned finally reaches Liz by phone but not sure that this Ned thing

      went anywhere. For some reason, it felt as if they were trying to set up

      Ned as Vicki's father or as one of many suspects that Ned might have been

      Vicki's father or even later, Bill's murderer.

      Either way these two episodes were NOT fun to watch.

41-43

      41

      NOOOOOO! We start in the Evan's Cottage again! NOOOOOO! Roger calls Sam

      and asks, "Are you alone?" and Sam answers he is alone. Roger than asks,

      "Is Bill Malloy still there?" I think it's awfully funny that Sam puts the

      phone down while Roger is still talking and he goes and gets a drink as

      Roger witters on! Archie Bunker did the same thing to Edith once on ALL IN

      THE FAMILY. Sam then returns to the phone as Roger asks if Sam is

      listening and Sam hangs up the phone! Later we learn Roger may not be

      rich: he may have spent his entire inheritance. Liz hasn't. Liz stutters a

      bit in this episode, "Buy buy..." etc.

      I noticed the dialog seems sharper here. The writing tighter. Was there a

      new writer group? Or just one?

      This might be the first mention that Liz's husband's name was/is Paul.

      Gee, it seems that being Maggie Evans has its perks. She can leave work

      because she forgot a shopping list, go home (walk?), talk to Pop, and

      offer to make him coffee. I wish I could do that. Sam makes mention that

      women think coffee is a cure all. Maggie looks right at the screen

      --possibly for Katherine to read the teleprompter. We see a series of boom

      mike shadows, wire shadows, and camera shadows in these three

      episodes...well is called DARK SHADOWS.

      Part of the family's worry is where can Carolyn be but...I thought she

      told Vicki something about a date in an earlier ep.

      During a Liz/Vicki scene in the drawing room we hear strange clicks (from

      the camera or the mike?) and a loud humming noise (again, possibly from

      the moving camera or mike booms moving devices).

      Liz wants to say the Carolyn may not want the boy Joe is but a clever man

      (Burke?) but she says a clever boy and then corrects it to clever man.

      There are more noticeable shuffles and noises during this ep. What are the

      crew doing?

      For the first time (?) we see the Collins' family office or perhaps just

      where Joe works at it. I thought he was mostly on the ships?

      Sam calls Maggie's work place a fancy restaurant...perhaps establishing his

      role as a drunk. If that restaurant is a fancy one, what's a dump in

      Collinsport? Maggie under reacts in this ep (yeah, she doesn't in most

      later eps but here...?). I mean Sam grabs her, practically threatens to

      hit her, mentions that she probably signed his death warrant by calling

      Roger at Collinwood (who just hangs up on her!) and what does Maggie do?

      She brushes this all off and just leaves!

      If that isn't strange enough...Vicki decides to walk from Collinwood to

      Collinsport. Is she crazy? She says the exercise will do her good!

      Despite this ep being better than the last two or three, there is still no

      real sense of urgency.

      In addition, thank goodness that the DS music is great: I can listen to it

      over and over and it has atmosphere. Thank God I can listen to it over and

      over because I DO! In every ep, the musical cues are all the same!

      The end theme seems to be a harder organic version.

      42

      When we see the clapboard, we get a long shot of Joan Bennett preparing

      for a scene to start and a crewmember holding it! Vicky's narration

      mentions that 130 years ago the love of a man and woman built Collinwood.

      Sam comes to meet Liz for the first time in 18 years and they barely

      recognize each other.

      Now this is a first (I think, I haven't been noticing) and maybe a last:

      Liz actually locks the door after Sam enters! The front door!

      Sam mentions that he wants to save his soul, perhaps the first mention of

      such a thing on DS. He enters the drawing room and says he loves it. Liz

      tells him to stop it, it's dark and gloomy and he knows it. Their cordial

      meeting quickly becomes tense.

      For the first and last time: we see a normal place in Bangor's fancy

      restaurant and this one is a fancy one. There seems to be many extras:

      customers, a maitre de, a waiter, dining people or rather this is lunch.

      One James Blair meets with Burke there...now it's odd, one thing about DS

      is seeing lines that aren't there between unrelated episodes and stories

      and storylines...a lot like DOCTOR WHO in that regard. What if James Blair

      is somehow related to Nicholas Blair, Angelique's (I could never spell her

      name) demon brother? Just a thought. Bronson will not be joining them.

      This is the first and last normal place in DS. Blair mentions that no one

      would want to buy Collinwood except to turn it into a hotel resort---now

      there's a spin off if I ever heard one!

      He and Burke talk about a Harris at the bank. Burke must not have good

      vision: Carolyn is not spotted despite sitting not far from him. He

      doesn't see her until much, much later. At the same time, she must not

      have good hearing. Burke, LOUDLY pronounces he is going to take over the

      Collins family and all their ownings several times and Carolyn does not

      hear this!

      Liz worries that she cannot get Bill Malloy and he's not the office. This

      got me thinking he was already dead. When Liz summons Joe to the house,

      she tells him that there are drinks in the drawing room but Joe laughs,

      "Don’t' even suggest it."

      Burke calls Carolyn using her middle name of Collins? Huh? Do people take

      on their mother's maiden name as their middle name? I never heard of that.

      At the restaurant, there is another boom mike shadow or camera with wires.

      Burke gives Carolyn some advice, "Always tell the truth...it will be much

      better in the long run." Burke gives Carolyn a sterling silver pen...which

      figures into the episodes later on I think. Burke claims he never does

      anything in fun. He suggests Carolyn write in a diary.

      43

      We see outdoor footage of the hotel and a car driving by. I sigh as this

      means more Maggie. I don't remember that overhanging design over Maggie's

      grill and bar counter. Maggie as she talks to Bill, drops a bun off a cup

      and doesn't pick it up. She tells Bill that all the Evans family are born

      in trouble and get worse as they get older. Later, with Vicki she mentions

      a comic strip character with a permanent cloud over his head...sounds like

      everyone in this show. It also sounds like or made me think of Pig Pen

      from CHARLIE BROWN/PEANUTS. Bill calls Collinsport a township. He also

      tells Joe that 20 years ago, he had a problem at Collinwood (Vicki being

      born?) and didn't do anything about it and it was too late when Liz got

      Paul or at least that's implied strongly. Apparently, Bill knows something

      now---maybe Sam spilled the beans about his witnessing Roger driving a car

      that killed the man that Burke went to jail for killing!? Maybe Sam told

      him in a drunken stupor the night before? Joe also refers to his drunk

      night as last night but was it? I can't keep track. If so, why doesn't

      Bill do something about it right now? Why wait? Anyway, despite these

      three eps being better and having Vicki and Maggie get closer over coffee,

      it's still not very fast paced at all and still moving at the pace of an

      turtle farm.

Well just to show that this show gets better I watched episodes later on

      as in 528 and thereabouts: the dream curse, Angelique appearing in

      Maggie’s cottage to leave the cursed rose water; Vicki standing up to

      Nicholas Blair and Angelique; Adam...Compared to these episodes, those are

      absolutely FAST!

      but now it's back to the more mundane.

      44-47

      A lot of stuff happens but not packed into one ep, stretched out over four!

      In 44, Liz says something about Collinsport or Collinwood's phone number

      4099. A lot of people, especially Roger and Liz, spend time on the phone.

      A word about the original FIRST YEAR book: some of the summaries used the

      original synopsizes. And if you read into it, you'll find dialog in the

      scripts and synopsis’s that are not said on screen. On example if in 45

      where Carolyn and Roger talk; Carolyn first talks to herself about how

      Jeremiah or the house builders or someone in Collins family must have had

      a screw loose, then later Roger says he will be remembered for David if

      for nothing else. This does not occur in the ep. I haven't checked every

      synopsis nor compared them to the new version of the book THE FIRST YEAR

      but I'm sure there's more incidents like this. I don't know if the revised

      edition works from the actual episodes or from the synopsis’s or from the

      synopsis’s in the first book but I'm sure there's other stuff in there

      like this.

      In 44 John Harris arrives at Collinwood to talk to Liz, another old

      codger, this one a fair actor. He's her banker. Carolyn arrives and tells

      him she remembers when she opened a one dollar account in his bank. The

      opening credits are very dark in this ep. We learn that Ned asked Liz to

      marry him and she refused. Bill is a nice so he can't last as long as the

      liars in this show (not that last long either!) and he knows more about

      the boats than about running the entire company for Liz. We learn that Ned

      did that better than anyone could, Bill or Roger. Liz stumbles over a few

      lines but manages nicely. Carolyn at one point seems to have forgotten her

      lines and needs a look at the teleprompter: I think every one in this show

      has done that or will do that at one time or another.

      45: in the clapboard sequence, this time we hear talking about

      ...something small. Perhaps the clapboard because in the next ep or two,

      it gets an extreme close up. We learn Burke thinks Bill is an honest man

      and he is. 15-16 years ago Bill gave young boy Burke his first job and

      paid him a man's wages; Bill tells Burke he deserved it: he did a man's

      job. Burke does some odd thing to his waist and with his hand. It seems as

      if he's had a cue card hidden in his jacket or his belt or his hand or

      something.

      One thing about this whole Burke thing: I guess he's handsome enough and

      manly and macho and all that but really...they keep trying to hit us over

      the head with it. I don't really see his appeal against someone like Joe

      who doesn't YET have all the baggage. Carolyn is pathetic.

      We see Roger's office at the plant and his playing darts as Bill tells him

      the truth about his plans is...tense and an interesting way to do what

      could have been another exposition scene. It's a bit exciting in a

      foursome of unexciting eps. Earlier when Carolyn visits...and all the

      scenes Roger and Carolyn have together, even when they're at odds with

      each other or have a row as Carolyn says, there is obvious affection and

      charm between them. The actors carry off the relationship and caring they

      have for each other well.

      Roger mentions a worker named Handley in marketing in the company. Which

      is interesting. The actor who plays Nicholas Blair also played Evan

      Handley later on. Whom I always, even now (!) wrongly (?) suspected was

      Nicholas Blair in some other time or disguise or in a reincarnation mode

      even if he didn't know about it. So we had a Blair a few eps ago and now

      we have a Handley mentioned. It just seems...strange...Is Nicholas Blair

      checking in on the Collinses by coming from the future or knowing the

      future? Just another idea.

      Carolyn reads from the family book and the info we get gives credence to

      the fact that this PRESENT 1966 (end of summer now) is probably a parallel

      universe from the other parallel universe of the 1795-1796 storyline we

      later see. For thing Josette's last name is mentioned as something

      completely different. For another it is said that she existed, along with

      Jeremiah in the year 1830!!!

      A fan once wrote an extensive article about Vicki leaving the séance and

      crossing into a parallel 1795 universe and that when she returned she

      remained in that parallel universe without realizing it, returning to a

      parallel PRESENT of 1968. The problem with that GREAT theory is that the

      story changed BEFORE she left! The year, the last name, all of it was

      mentioned by Barnabus before that first trip back in time for Vicki. Of

      course it could be that someone changed the history book of the family...

      We see a camera crane shadow. Carolyn gives Roger the pen but somehow

      before he can return it to Burke in 47, he's lost it or misplaced it or

      left it home.

      46: in 46 it must be noted (and since his accident), Roger's head wound is

      still apparent. It looks very real and I wonder if somehow the actor

      really cut himself or had some accident doing that. A sympathetic long

      shot on Roger in the foyer of Collinwood on the phone or just getting off

      it reveals someone or something moving on the right side, probably a crew

      member or a camera. It is more a shadow than an actual thing. Roger calls

      Bill's house and gets his housekeeper Mrs. Johnson, first named here.

      Vicki enters looking for a picture David drew and which she took out of

      his room without his consent! Does she never learn? She says, "David will

      kill me if I lost this." Roger replies to that, "My son will probably kill

      you anyway," or something like that. The dialog is sharper than the

      earliest episodes. Vicki and Roger (who's brooding and feeling sorry for

      himself, even though he's the liar and perjurer here!) have a discussion

      about David and the state of the world and how you can't trust anyone.

      Roger tells Vicki he was a child full of joy and love and a zest for

      living...and he was wrong to feel that. He now knows the world is a

      hostile place. She disagrees. He tells her not to curtail David's

      instinctive grasp of the truth and that maybe his world view is correct.

      Roger calls Vicki a Pollyanna. David's picture is of Collinwood. Roger

      cares enough to look at it and says a famous quote, "Collinwood with all

      its Dark Shadows, he's captured all right." When Vicki mentions she wants

      to foster David's artistic talent...Roger tells her it is a fantasy but

      she has a plan and that involves having dinner with Sam and Maggie...which

      makes Roger try to stop her.

      Later an intense Bill Malloy demands Sam be at Roger's office to confess

      to Burke that he witnessed the accident and it was not Burke's fault but

      Roger's. Bill also visited Liz and told her the some of the same

      thing---Liz does not seem to know but suspects. Bill also hits Sam with

      his pointy finger and it really seems to hurt David Ford, playing Sam.

      Geeze, calm down as Bill later tells either Sam or Roger.

      A thing about the accident. Were the writers, as in DS it is almost always

      felt, making this up as the went along? I mean at times it seems as if

      Burke...really didn't know what happened himself. Yet in the reveal, he

      was in the car as a passenger...possibly in the back seat. Was he drunk?

      Passed out? Did he agree to cover for Roger? I first thought he agreed to

      cover for Roger but then why was he so made about it? Did he try to tell

      his side of the story? Did Laura lie for Roger? Where was Sam when he saw

      this? What exactly happened? It's really not that clear to me but maybe

      that's just me.

      Roger means to say, "...be there" but says, "..be here," when he's at

      Collinwood already and should be talking about his office. Where the

      admittedly tense meeting in ep 48 will take place...

      Vicki tells Roger she intends to talk to Sam...about her past. He might

      know something about it. Roger just laughs about that, having originally

      thought she meant to talk to him about the Burke thing. He's most uncaring

      about her past it seems or just self involved in his own problems.

      The grandfather clock ticks loudly for some reason. Did someone plant a

      bomb?

      47: Liz plays the piano nicely...at 11 pm. Carolyn likes it and comes

      downstairs, having heard it only as she approached the doors to the

      drawing room. Joan looks nicer with her hair long and down IMO. The

      grandfather clock rings its chimes at 11: 10 pm and then again at 11: 25

      or so. What kind of clock is that? Liz has an impending premonition of

      disaster. Despite this, she and Carolyn are ABSOLUTELY HAPPY AND LAUGHING

      at a past reference that happened on a past Halloween between Liz, Carolyn

      and her friends and something vague about her friends calling to talk to

      the witch or spook of Collinwood: meaning Liz. The two are laughing and

      joking and it's a joy to see, probably the ONLY time in DS that this

      happens! To anyone! And laughing for good reasons! And good memories.

      First and last? Carolyn calls her mother something of a kook and Liz

      laughs at that too!!!!

      The meeting between Burke and Bill; Sam and Roger does not take place.

      Bill never shows up and his car is at his house. The three men talk about

      sardines and the weather (as Burke later says) for about an hour. Burke

      thinks Bill is missing or dead. One wants to strangle Sam the big coward

      and he's most unsympathetic now, knowing what he knows and just willing to

      leave. Roger one can understand and hate anyway but Sam? Sam's a jerk

      here. Not sure what Burke is after but he's also a bit annoying but it is

      hard to hate him.

      I believe the original idea was to have Roger be the murderer of Bill but

      really it could have been almost any of them for any number of reasons,

      including Liz, Carolyn and even Vicki.

      These four eps are not boring not fast paced but a bit better than some of

      the others.

That character was Joe Biftik from the wonderful comic strip "Little

      Abner" by Al Capp. Joe always wore black and walked around hunchback. Many

      a time my husband will say he feels like Joe Biftik, nothing going right.

      Pig Pen was just dirty. He had a sunnier look on life

48-50

      48

      We see a zoom in on the house, close up on a window in what seems to be

      location shooting. While Vicki is tutoring David we see a full fledged

      camera to the right of the screen! Later, Joe meets David and has a scene

      with him for the first time I think. David not only rips his own picture

      thanks to Vicki having taken it and gotten a smudge on it but the brat

      also gets a crystal ball from Burke--not a gift that Burke seems likely to

      buy for anyone. Bill Malloy is officially missing and all are concerned.

      Liz talks to Mrs. Johnson on the phone but the character has not appeared

      yet. She's Bill's housekeeper. Near Vicki we see a boom mike, not a shadow

      of one but a full boom mike! David tells Joe he will not marry Carolyn but

      she will marry Burke. Right on one account, wrong on the other. Joe tells

      Vicki out of earshot of David to give David a swat for him. As the scene

      changes we hear a crackling sound and it sounds like someone passed gas.

      On the end theme the music gets all miscued or fast speeded or

      something...and that's about it. This ep is not bad but I can see why DS

      was almost cancelled. It moves too slow.

      49

      We have hit the air dates of September 1966. Maggie and Joe have a huge

      scene together or possibly the first time. Burke warns Joe to search for

      all the dead bodies if he plans to marry Carolyn and move into Collinwood,

      moving aside some cobwebs first. Maggie tells Sam that with him it seems

      to be the same old story: "You, Burke Devlin, and Roger Collins." Tell me

      about it, Maggie! She asks where they are all headed and leaves the

      Cottage. Sam says, "Towards Death." Again, not a bad ep but still moving

      like a turtle. The Carolyn-Joe thing needs to be put to bed already, too.

      Joe and she kiss again.

      50

      Outside footage as Vicki leaves huge doors from the house. At Widows'

      Hill, among other things, Carolyn tells Vicki that her mother knows Bill

      Malloy for more than 25 years. She also tells Vicki that Joe gave her the

      wristwatch for her 16th birthday. David tells Liz he can't sleep because

      there are things in his room that he can't see but he knows they are

      there. We hear a clicking sound as he leaves the Drawing Room and Liz

      follows. Liz tells Vicki that David has a family affliction: "David's

      been afflicted with a family disease---he's been seeing ghosts." Carolyn

      on the piano plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but realizes she's lost her

      watch. She plans to go back to the Hill to get it and asks Vicki to along.

      In the meantime, Vicki has found the word Death in David's handwriting on

      her mirror. She forces David to wipe it off but he insists the Widows did

      it. He also tells Liz that when Vicki goes back outside she will find

      Death. Earlier when Liz worries that Roger is missing, too, Vicki offers

      to make tea, telling Carolyn that everyone else always seems to be making

      tea so she thought she'd try her hand at it.

      Roger does turn up and is questioned by Liz. He tells her that he went to

      Bill's cousin's home to find out if they've heard from him. They haven't.

      Liz questions him about why he lied to her that he had seen Bill when he

      saw him at Collinwood last night. Roger knows she found out about this

      from Vicki. Also I thought there were three Widows that died, Carolyn even

      seems to say so in this episode but then wonders if Vicki will become

      number three. Liz tells Vicki that there were two widows who jumped off

      the cliff. We wonder if Vicki will be number three. Liz tells her that the

      legends of Collinwood seem too real sometimes.

      When Vicki and Carolyn return to the Hill, we see outdoor location work of

      Bill's body (although we're not supposed to know it's him yet) at the

      bottom floating on rocks but in the water face down. Vicki screams and

      proves that Alexandria Moltke cannot scream.

      I read about this scene long long before ever seeing it. It was in the

      first FIRST YEAR chronology put out by fans years ago (1990? or 1991). It

      was taken from the summaries. It said that both Carolyn and Vicki scream.

      In this cliffhanger they do not and to be honest, it should be make more

      of an impact than it does here visually or story wise. Not sure why but the

      text of this was more exciting, perhaps because my imagination filled in

      the details.

      In 1988 or so (before UHF got it or PBS) NBC in NY showed some early

      Barnabus stuff at 4:30 or so and it bombed and was never seen on network

      TV again. I saw some of it and thought it was boring. Just thought of

      that, not sure why.

      Anyway so did David write DEATH on the mirror or not? We may never know.

51-53

      51

      The narration starts out by saying melodramatically that the Widows' Hill

      has a long history of death and ....wait, there's only been two deaths

      there! Vicki hopes it was a stranger's body she and Carolyn saw as opposed

      to someone they know. Later on we find out she thinks it is Bill Malloy.

      Roger, while steadfast against the idea that there is a body down there,

      is quite funny in his sarcasm, it's easy to see why the makers of the show

      want to keep this actor and character. He jokes it might be Burke Devlin

      and he also mentions his good natured son. Matthew Morgan has checked the

      bottom of the hill for a body and deems it is only seaweed. When Carolyn

      and Vicki insist they've seen a body, Matthew sort of sides with them in

      saying it could be a ghost and says, "Around Collinwood, nothing's

      impossible." Roger talks to Sam and just hangs up on him and RTD of DOCTOR

      WHO fame complains in his books that that is one of his pet peeves, no one

      says good bye when they hang up on a phone. Liz goes to Widow's Hill for

      the first time in the series that we've seen...it won't be the last. Here,

      she goes with Matthew Morgan. There's a lot of talk about the newspapers

      and townspeople having talked about another ghost sighting at Collinwood.

      These three eps are rather atmospheric.

      52

      Carolyn wants to sleep in with Vicki due to their having seen a body at

      the bottom of Widows' Hill. Vicki buys that it might not have been a body

      but seaweed but not Carolyn. Vicki doesn't believe in ghosts...yet.

      Carolyn tells Vicki to lock her door and if she could, Carolyn would pull

      a dresser in front of it. She's been in the house longer than Vicki and

      knows what it is like here. We see the shadow of a boom mike. When Vicki

      asks if Collinwood has always been like this, Carolyn tells her no. At

      times people would drive by the house to see the haunted mansion and/or

      the witch that's never left in 18 years or yell or whatever. We hear a

      strange hum from a camera or boom mike.

      Carolyn admits that the really strange stuff hadn't started until Vicki

      and Burke arrived. Carolyn tells Vicki some more things: she's never been

      allowed to swim in the ocean near here because the tides and undertow are

      too strong...that's what could have washed Malloy's body...uhm, the body

      out to sea again. She refuses to believe it is Malloy because Bill's

      always been like a father to her, Whiskers Malloy.

      At Maggie's Cottage (NOOOO!), Maggie tells a brooding Sam that the

      atmosphere here is pure and that is why the summer people come here..to

      get away from the pollution in the city. Sam is talking of an evil in the

      air that can't be escaped and a pollution in the souls of men. Maggie

      tells him the letter is in a safe in the hotel and later when Maggie

      threatens to read it, he grabs her and wants her to swear on her mother's

      name she will not do that. Maggie doesn't swear but tells him she's never

      lied to him before.

      In the bedroom of Vicki, both girls hear what sounds like a shutter and

      other banging. Roger and Liz and apparently David, the little monster,

      have gone to sleep already. Vicki thinks it is David and goes to find out.

      "I’m going to find a live little ghost." Instead, she finds him fast

      asleep in his bed. "Poor David, he gets blamed for everything around

      here."

      Vicki flubs by saying, "They already think we're hearing things..." when

      she should have said, "They already think we're seeing things...now

      they'll think we're hearing things too."

      The two girls go to the drawing room and find the large window/doors open.

      They also find the family album on the floor, far away from the desk.

      Vicki suggests a cat but Carolyn tells her she's never seen a cat in

      Collinwood or on the grounds. Cats are probably too smart to come near

      that house!

      After they leave and shut the doors, the windows now closed, the book

      opens by itself and opens to the page where it reads Josette Collins born

      1810, died 1835! The book mark also moves down. THIS is one of the first

      supernatural things in the show. NOT the first but one of the purest

      incidents of a real ghost. There's almost NO other explanation here than

      the supernatural. When Carolyn and Vicki return to the bedroom, there's a

      loud sound from the camera or mike that there's not supposed to be.

      A good, spooky episode...

      53

      We see David drinking milk in the kitchen and all throughout this ep he's

      obsessed with DEATH, Vicki's midnight scream, and the death of Malloy and

      that Roger killed him, and that he believes that. He hates Vicki and Roger

      because they're always making trouble for him so he makes it for them. We

      see a good old, GIANT fly in the kitchen...it hasn't been around for a

      bit.

      David talks about his mother, thinking Vicki tried to replace her. He

      tells her that someone stole the picture he had of her and he thinks it

      was his father. Liz comes in and in a good mood for once but lies to David

      about what happened last night. He finds out later by eavesdropping on Joe

      and Vicki and overhears the truth. When David lets Joe in, we see a new

      angle of the doors from the side view looking out.

      Vicki's tutoring session yields several things: David is smart and has a

      good memory but he's also, during the entire thing obsessing about

      Malloy's body's appearance. He also tells Vicki that if anyone ever tried

      to hurt his Aunt Elizabeth he'd kill them. Are they trying to make us

      think David killed Bill? He says he loves Liz almost as much as his

      mother. There's also, I think, a blooper as Vicki asks David the longest

      river and he answers or she does and then a few seconds later, she asks

      him what the longest river is again!

      Matthew tells Liz early on that maybe unnatural forces led the women to

      jump off Widows' Hill and that Liz should keep Carolyn away from the spot

      even though it was one of her favorite places to go as a child. Matthew

      has worked for Liz for 18 years and before that for her father on the

      boats. She knows Matthew has lied and he tells her the truth: the body was

      Malloy. Upset, Liz makes her second call to the Sheriff, whom she now

      names as George so there's a new Sheriff. I guess it's Sheriff Patterson.

      These three eps are rather well done, set the tone of supernatural stuff

      and focus on the main five characters: Roger, Liz, David, Vicki, and

      Carolyn. Yes, Maggie and Sam appear but not for long and we get no Burke

      (even though he comes off as a hero sometimes, he can also be tedious and

      petty). ANY ep with David and Vicki isn't bad and they're given a lot to

      do. The house comes off as genuinely unsafe and creepy here! A good trio

      of eps.

54-56

      54

      We see Roger outside at the docks waving to workers as he walks off the

      docks, past boats and WATER toward his exterior office wall! Then he goes

      inside and everything gets mundane again. Seriously if they did more

      outdoor location work to enliven stuff more and more and change the

      storylines more often, they'd have had a hit right away. As it is it's not

      hard to see why this show was about to be cancelled. It's really boring.

      Roger calls for --I'm thinking---a secretary named Miss Black to answer

      the ringing phone. And what a cliffhanger to go into the theme song...a

      ringing phone. Phew. Tedious.

      It must be noted that the stuff before the theme song is still original

      and not repeats of last ep's ending. Almost all of the time. Dana Elcar as

      George (not identified as Patterson until the end credits and on screen in

      ep 55. Bill Malloy it turned out was afraid of the water and couldn't

      swim. HUH? And loved working on the ships? Whaaa? Liz and Matthew claim

      the St Elmo's fire will return Bill but not the way everyone would think.

      Matthew tells Liz he's seen drowned men before and it's not pretty

      discussing the proof of how long Bill was dead. EWL and EKK.

      Dana is a great actor for TV and he adds a depth to DS of professionalism

      and care. He's that good. He appeared on MacGuyver I believe and also some

      of STARGATE. An unseen deputy is named Harry Shaw and he goes with Matthew

      to re look over the area. Liz tells Matthew to tell the truth: Matthew

      pushed the body back out to sea to protect her from the talk that another

      death happened at Collinwood.

      On the phone at work, Roger talks to what sounds like a man named Townsend

      and Roger tells Townsend about new ideas to run the business and not the

      way Bill did.

      This ep and the ones before it have some sound issues. This one in

      particular.

      Just as Liz explains something to George, we hear a person whispering

      something that sounds like "Close the door" or "stand over" or something

      like that. It's very disconcerting, and could be akin to the ghosts in the

      house. It's a strange whisper and then we hear something like a door

      opening.

      55

      Liz introduces Roger to George Patterson. Roger remembers him. Liz calls

      Collinwood COLLINSWOOD. Sam is seen smoking ALOT during this ep. A drunk

      and a drug addict. Mrs. Johnson is mentioned again--this time by Liz and/or

      George, who calls her a tea totaler.

      We get MORE Sam and Maggie here. NOOOOO! They irritate in almost every

      scene. Maggie makes us laugh as he jokes that Pop must have a married

      girlfriend he's keeping hidden. They talk about the letter again. And

      again.

      Earlier, Liz told Roger they were the only two in the house but Carolyn

      was upstairs sleeping! It’s amazing that Roger never confides in Liz at

      all. I guess he feels she'd do the right thing...and she would so he

      doesn't tell her the truth even while she knows she has to protect him or

      feels she has to.

      In the hotel restaurant which I think Maggie calls Collinsport Restaurant,

      George goes for cop cliché and asks for a donut but then gets a call..the

      coast guard has found Bill Malloy's body!

      56

      We're in a new studio for this one and the rest after it and...it doesn't

      really show or make a difference. In fact, there might be more bloopers.

      It's been 12 hours since Carolyn and Vicki saw Bill's body...so over six

      eps, only 12 hours pass. On the average one viewing week of DS adds up to

      maybe one or two days of the character time...if you’re e lucky! Carolyn

      hasn't slept this late for years. Liz returns her watch that Joe found

      earlier. Liz and Carolyn get news of Bill's body being found and it is all

      a bit too morbid and depressing.

      Carolyn tells Vicki who was just saying that she used to help the littler

      children get help with the beds, making the beds. She suspected some of

      them knew how to do it but just wanted the attention. Carolyn waxes on and

      on about how she hates the world and how she doesn't want life to like

      this and how Collinwood has a legend for every day of the year.

      Malloy's body was found two miles south. We get to see a water effect in

      the window of the Blue Whale, something I'm not sure was there before. It

      gives the feel that the bar is on or near the water. The bartender in the

      back is once more smoking.

      Carolyn tells Vicki that Bill's dream was to spend a month on a tropical

      island doing nothing (me, too) but he never got to fulfill that dream and

      she urges Vicki to try to fill her dreams: so Vicki decides to go find Sam

      Evans who might have some news about her parentage. In Vicki's room we see

      a giant camera on the right. In the drawing room we see a giant camera

      also. So the new studio doesn't just give us camera shadows but the

      cameras themselves.

      Honestly, this ep in particular is hopelessly hopeless and sad and a

      downer.

The original backstory is actually quite interesting, and it's bewildering

      to think why the writers decided to change it so radically. It could have

      easy been used to suit the 1795 flashback. From what we learn, Jeremiah

      Collins was an older man (who drank too much) who built Collinwood for his

      new bride, the much younger Josette la Frenière. Josette, who hailed from

      Paris, France, was never happy because she was different and the residents

      of Collinsport, as well as the rest of the Collins family hated her.

      Eventually, she jumped to her death at Widows' Hill.

      When Barnabas arrives on the scene, we learn a little more about his

      relationship with Josette (although still adhering to the original

      continuity). Josette could not speak a word of English, and it was up to

      Barnabas to teach her. He fell in love with her, but Josette only ever saw

      him as a good friend. He became a vampire (the circumstances at this point

      unknown) and tried to win Josette from Jeremiah, whom he would have killed

      if circumstances allowed. Barnabas and Josette became lovers, but she

      killed herself when she discovered his true nature.

57

      I have almost nothing to say about this one except that George Patterson

      calls Burke Malloy at one point and quickly corrects himself. Again, Eclar

      is an excellent actor. Other than that...Vicki and Maggie talk; Burke goes

      to the sheriff. Major plot points already covered are re-covered: Burke

      got his start from Malloy; Vicki wants to find her past blah blah blah! We

      do learn that Malloy used to tell Burke to climb up to the mast and if he

      fell, to get back up and climb again--it's just water! But he was afraid

      of the water himself! Bill was the most honest man, etc. It is not a bad

      ep just...well, there. The lighting is strange or maybe it's just this

      copy. It gets very dark in the restaurant and then as Maggie blah blahs on

      and on to Burke, it gets very very light. I couldn't even watch a second

      ep, perhaps I'm going too fast. This one almost put me to sleep!

58-62 (a whopping five of these stinkers!)

      58

      Anyway perhaps that's cruel. They're not all bad. No, really. In the Blue

      Whale, Joe calls the bar tender Pudgy (!) and Sam mispronounces Carolyn as

      Caroline. There's a new fly in the new studio. The Drawing Room looks

      different. I don't know if it is the floor, the new studio (and any

      changes made) or a new rug. I do think the couch and chairs are new. David

      lays and sits on it, using charts and timetables to figure out the wind

      and ocean currents to figure out where Bill Malloy's body landed in the

      ocean. He's sure it was his father who killed Bill and he's going to prove

      it. Now I’m partial to any ep with David in it so this one is a relief.

      He's hardly one of the HARDY BOYS though but I do like kid detectives,

      too. While Carolyn says she hates this house (another reaction to Bill's

      death), David calls it fun, "What other kid gets to live in a house with

      real ghosts?" David calls them his friends, the Widows and the ghosts in

      the closed off rooms. This illustrates the difference between Carolyn and

      David. He loves the house and mystery and adventure, he's also younger and

      he's also been here far less time than Carolyn, who's lived here her whole

      life. Even so, when Joe later comes calling, Carolyn threatens not to

      leave the house for an outing with him when Joe seemed intent on helping

      David solve his chart mystery...telling him to stay and play with David.

      She's so petulant here guess which one I'd chose to do?

      Sam is once again smoking and doesn't mind the smoke he later tells George

      Patterson, who is trying to get Sam to go with him outside or talk to him

      alone. George seems to be telling lies to get to the truth. Apparently,

      with Carolyn trying to get David to play outside (like Liz wanted him to

      do and she even told Vicki to cancel any lessons for today) and Patterson

      trying to get Joe to take his girl (Carolyn) out for a drive, it is

      apparently a nice day outside, a beautiful afternoon. Patterson tells Joe

      if he, in his day, had a girl as long as Joe has had Carolyn, he'd have

      hog tied her by now!

      I wonder if, later, Patterson is lying to Sam about his real reason for

      coming out today: two good friends having had a fight on the docks. Some

      of the conversation between Patterson and Sam seems...messed up or lines

      forgotten and made up or something. They seem to be talking about

      different things at one small point (something to do with the time Sam

      left his house and what he did or didn't do at 10:45--such as maybe kill

      Bill?).

      David doesn't know what the word morbid is but Carolyn calls him it. When

      Joe does arrive, she calls David a nine year old horror. Joe tells her,

      "He's not that bad." BTW, David has gone outside, to the Hill maybe, and

      he's dirty when he arrives back inside and he seems even dirtier when he

      comes back out of the drawing room. Also btw, it looks as if someone

      dropped a stamp on the floor of the Drawing Room. Oh and Carolyn's

      annoying already. Joe, just go and play with David and leave her already.

      59

      When we see the postcard of Collinwood this time it seems to be moving up

      and down during the narration which btw is still "My name is Victoria

      Winters...." Patterson arrives to question Roger and Liz again. He

      mentions a picture/painting of Roger's great uncle Benjamin Collins.

      Okay, let's get this going right now: just what is the genealogy of the

      Collins' family? Who are Roger and Liz's parents? Grandparents? Do they

      figure in any way in the closet timeline 1897?

      Patterson wonders about the Collins family that built this town and this

      house and how ambitious they all were. He later reveals to David and Roger

      the came here to arrest Roger but was talked out of it. Roger, in the

      Drawing Room, calls---and he sounds sincere---Bill's death horrible. We do

      seem to see studio light shadows over the entrance to the drawing room

      doors to the left of the open door. We also see a camera shadow on the

      chair inside the room, moving.

      Bill's watch is discussed. It apparently stopped at the time of death when

      he hit rocks. The possibilities of Bill's death are gone over and over in

      these five ep: suicide, murder, accident. The sheriff flubs at least one

      word, something like alrice instead of advice or something.

      David is in a formal suit (for a funeral?) and tie and is in a good mood

      as Vicki points out. Her bedroom looks slightly different. David thinks

      his dad is going to prison and explains. Vicki smiles, "David, you're

      terrible." He tells her he is but at least he hasn't killed someone. He's

      consulted two things that never lie to him: the ghosts of the Widows and

      his crystal ball to figure that Roger is guilty and that Vicki might be

      next. At times, he seems genuinely interested in keeping her alive,

      figuring that if he can plot where the murder took place, he can advise

      her to stay away from that spot. Then he lapses back into hoping she'd die

      anyway. Vicki wonders if Roger is guilty. David tells her she would

      deserve it and he doesn't care if his father does kill her.

      Patterson was involved in the Burke trial and case. David gives him one of

      his charts and later we find out he was not too far off from what the

      experts figured was Bill's body voyage. When Liz and Roger talk in the

      Drawing Room we see the ceiling, for the first time maybe? Liz has lied

      for Roger. Liz states that she and Sam haven't seen each other for almost

      20 years. Roger makes a strong confession for lying at Burke's trial and

      for killing Bill...but it's a fake. David overhears it. Liz believes Roger

      is innocent of both.

      David is eavesdropping and this time, for the second, he's caught. This

      time he's caught by Vicki; last time it was Liz. We see a camera on the

      right.

      60

      Every ten ep or so something monument us seems to happen. No, this is not

      it but Vicki does find a painting Sam did about 25 years ago of a woman

      who looks a lot like Vicki. Sam later tells her the name is Betty

      Hanscomb, who left Collinsport six months after the painting was done and

      six months after that she died. He tells her that Betty's parents were

      both dead and there were no other relatives. Sam knew her well before he

      was married (and they seemed to have...well, maybe dated or more). Vicki

      wasn't born during all this so there might not be a connection.

      So what were they playing with here? Who was her mother? Liz? Furthermore,

      who was her father? I know they had a plan but I forgot it. Frankly in

      this ep, they were so determined to go with the Burke-Sam-Roger stuff,

      they left this subplot (minor to them) alone for the rest of this episode.

      Maggie and Vicki's banter is lively and fun and it seemed genuine. Frankly

      behind the scenes, I'd always imagined the two actresses having some kind

      of rivalry but from everything I've read and heard about them, they

      didn't.

      Sigh. Burke goes again to the sheriff's office and Patterson makes mention

      of it, "He's here again" and "We should give you you're own desk."

      And just when I was thinking, these ep may be tedious, just how more

      tedious they would be if I had to endure them with commercials, do we get

      on the dvds, the commercials! Ellen Burstyn of THE EXORCIST and THE TIME

      TUNNEL-CRACK OF DOOM (in 1966 no less) introduces Palmolive!

      Maggie mentions writing an autobiography which is odd as I think Kathryn

      Leigh Scott has. She will write Vicki is a terrific potato peeler. She

      asks Vicki about Collinwood and Vicki jokes. Maggie asks if the kitchen is

      spooky. Vicki tells her that you have to watch about the oven because a

      witch is usually behind you to push you in and that there are open fires

      to cook on and cauldrons. Maggie has never been there, she feels her own

      home has enough spooks.

      Patterson has figured out with his experts (?) that Bill's house is on the

      water, so he could have fallen in there or at Sim's Cove (two miles north

      of the cannery) or at Lookout Point. Burke mentions Truth of Consequences.

      Maggie mentions that when she heard Hanscomb she thought they mentioned

      Hanson, the man that was killed by the car Burke supposedly was driving.

      This leads Sam to tell Vicki the entire story--well, almost--of the

      accident. Roger and Burke used to run around together. Burke was boy

      friend of Laura, who not much later, married Roger. It was a hit and run:

      Burke, Laura, and Roger were at a tavern, all were probably drinking.

      Burke was too drunk to drive but insisted on driving and hit a man on the

      road.

      While Sam is telling the story, he wants to stop. Maggie says something

      that is probably out of date, something about take the shoe off the other

      foot? WHAT?

      Roger testified that Burke was driving; Burke says he was lying; Laura also

      testified against Burke. Soon after Roger and Laura married.

32

Vicki. Roger and David are back. Liz comes back from Matthew’s cottage. Roger knows David tried to kill him. Roger drinks. The brake cylinder was found in David’s room. Liz, “I don’t know.”  Sheriff Jonas Carter calls deputy Harry to get Bill Malloy but Bill is already here. Bill comes in and sits (mike shadow). Jonas says, “Flishing fleet” instead of fishing fleet and one of them says the name Bob –I think. There’s some mumbling going on between them. Bill thinks or tries to make Jonas think that Burke did the tampering with the car. Jonas asks about a nine year old…he thinks David may have done it. He later explains that David dropped the wrench and contaminated it with new prints. Burke also hired a detective who arrived in town two weeks before Burke.   

Roger calls David a monster. Liz stares out the windows, which are open. He also mentions a “loving wife and adoring son” and how horrible it was for him. He mentions his wife name was Laura. He also wonders if and in the past, wondered if David were truly his son, thinking he was Burke’s. David was born 8 months after their wedding. Roger always hated David, thinking David was Burke’s son. Liz believes David is Roger’s. David (and Roger?) has been at Collinwood only for two months.

Bill seems to say the word George when talking to Jonas but it is Jonas that he says. They look at the prints taken from the wrench. Clearly, some of Burke’s large prints are over David’s, meaning David’s prints were on the wrench before Burke touched it. Jonas is ready to turn in his badge. He says, “I don’t know what to do about it.” 

David would not talk to Liz (he’s unseen). Liz says, “I don’t know what to do about it.”  Roger calls David not a normal child and wants to send David away. He believes there will be a juvenile hearing if it comes out that David had something to do with this. Liz asks Roger to forgive David. He cannot seem to. He’s had nine years of torment from the boy. Liz asks him to think of what David has gone through: surrounded by hatred from the moment he was born.

Liz says, “Our family stands together, we always have and we always will.”        I can’t help but think of how Carl was killed by Quentin and Barnabas; of how Barnabas killed Jeremiah, etc. They don’t always stand together.  In fact, the show is so different from the show it will become three years later. Liz shows him the paintings of the other Collinses: Jeremiah, Issac, Benjamin. Liz flubs over Roger’s name.

Jonas arrives to talk to them both. Roger still has his bandage on his fore head. Jonas tells them he has been mistaken before. Liz lies about Matthew: that Matthew admitted the valve had already been loose and he never changed it. Jonas will close the case and take his wife to a movie (a normal thing in DS!). After Liz lets Jonas out of the house via the double doors, we see him walk past the set on the far right side as it apparently is wide open! Roger, “You protected a monster, Liz.”  He believes she will regret it.

Credits: Are over the sheriff office. Sheriff Carter. The announcer mentions that in September a new show called RAT PATROL will start. The announcer also says, “Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.”   

My original notes say something about giving David the happiness and tension he deserves!?

33

Vicki. 8-10-66. Steps and scaffolding and odd reflections against Collinwood. Tension halts the flow of time. Vicki feels as if she’s been here for years but hasn’t. Liz sits in the dark in the drawing room. She was afraid Carolyn would get caught in the storm but it has passed. Liz, “Please be happy.”  Carolyn Teleprompter. Liz and Carolyn talk about a nine year old boy who tampered with brakes. Liz, “I’m not interested in Burke.”  Thank goodness for that. Carolyn, “I’d rather have one friend like Burke than ten cousins like David.”  Liz feels Carolyn is the only one in this house that can have a sane, happy life. Carolyn jokes about Burke proposing to her. She’s not ready to marry Joe. She doesn’t know about herself.

Joe gets drunk the Blue Whale. The dancing couple there is awful. Joe calls Andy or Pandy the bartender, calling for a waiter, too. Burke comes in for a beer and offers to buy Joe a drink, too. But Burke warns him not to get drunk some more, Joe tells him he doesn’t  like him. Joe tells him that a friend of his at work and he were going to buy a boat together and then Joe could marry Carolyn. The friend’s wife , the fella’s wife, is going to have a baby and he cannot buy the boat with Joe. So Joe cannot marry Carolyn. Burke suggests he buy the boat himself but Joe cannot afford it. Burke mentions his “help” and proposal. Burke says, “Marriage isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, it gets in the way.”

Liz to Carolyn, “The sooner you get out of this house, the better.”   David is staying. Carolyn says, “No wonder this place is a madhouse.”  And, “David’s no ordinary little boy…from the very first day that he came here…”  Liz mentions that she is his aunt and Carolyn his cousin. Carolyn says that even Jack the Ripper had an aunt and mother.

Carolyn goes to Vicki who is looking at what she calls her “birth certificate”, the note left with her on the door step of the orphanage. Dinner is in half an  hour. Dinner!!! On DS! Carolyn asks Vicki, “Are we all crazy?”  Vicki says, “I know.” 

Burke is being nice to Joe and when Joe says he’s nothing, Burke says, “Don’t sell yourself short, kid.”  Is he deliberately trying to build Joe’s confidence, knowing he is drunk, and that he might go to Collinwood to start something? I’m not sure but it sure does not look like that. But then again back then, DS wasn’t as deliberate as it would be in 1969. A new dancing couple is just as bad as the other one and their movements are not in sync with the music.

Vicki will not be at dinner. She has to go into town and Carolyn has leant her her car. Joe comes to Collinwood, insults and blames Liz for it all and confronts a Carolyn who just came down the steps. He’s drunk. Before he knew Carolyn was coming down, he was going up to her, “If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain…”   Carolyn says, “You’re potted!”  Mike Shadowed too.

Joe is brought to the drawing room where he almost falls and has to be helped by Vicki and Carolyn. He tells Carolyn she will never marry, insults and blames Liz again and before falling onto the couch says to Vicki, “You stay here, you’ll be as nuts as the rest of em.”  

I notice for the first time that they are making Vicki and Liz’s hair up the same. It doesn’t do either woman any favors. 

Vicki goes to the Blue Whale, her first time she says to Burke. She has met Burke there.

Credits: fireplace. “DS is a Dan Curtis Production.”

NOTE: as par for the course, the last four episodes all seem to be the same night.

Review: Phew ! A very different show. In a way I’m glad I had this chance to go back and redo two eps that either I forgot to do before—they are in my notes but I can’t find my write ups---or just skipped. What a very different show. In some ways it was more subtle and more …well, human. Joan and Louis could make something from nothing. Their talk in ep 32 is just…interesting, tense, and entertaining when the dialog is just routine. The two of them make it so much better than it is and these two eps, far from being boring just move along nicely. David is a strong character –in fact, so strong that he’s not even in these two eps but is a presence in them just the same. It’s also sad that Joe is mostly correct in his diatribe against Liz and Carolyn and that Carolyn will have a poor, supernatural beset life. She really isn’t any more happy when we last see her as when we first saw her. Vicki’s eventual fate also makes this ep seem. almost psychic. I can’t help but think Vicki’s fate on the show is not the actual end all be all , that somehow she returns, possibly under control of the Leviathans and as an evil entity only to break free somehow later and become her old self and to find that Liz is her mother.           

      60

      Every ten ep or so something monument us seems to happen. No, this is not

      it but Vicki does find a painting Sam did about 25 years ago of a woman

      who looks a lot like Vicki. Sam later tells her the name is Betty

      Hanscomb, who left Collinsport six months after the painting was done and

      six months after that she died. He tells her that Betty's parents were

      both dead and there were no other relatives. Sam knew her well before he

      was married (and they seemed to have...well, maybe dated or more). Vicki

      wasn't born during all this so there might not be a connection.

      So what were they playing with here? Who was her mother? Liz? Furthermore,

      who was her father? I know they had a plan but I forgot it. Frankly in

      this ep, they were so determined to go with the Burke-Sam-Roger stuff,

      they left this subplot (minor to them) alone for the rest of this episode.

      Maggie and Vicki's banter is lively and fun and it seemed genuine. Frankly

      behind the scenes, I'd always imagined the two actresses having some kind

      of rivalry but from everything I've read and heard about them, they

      didn't.

      Sigh. Burke goes again to the sheriff's office and Patterson makes mention

      of it, "He's here again" and "We should give you you're own desk."

      And just when I was thinking, these ep may be tedious, just how more

      tedious they would be if I had to endure them with commercials, do we get

      on the dvds, the commercials! Ellen Burstyn of THE EXORCIST and THE TIME

      TUNNEL-CRACK OF DOOM (in 1966 no less) introduces Palmolive!

      Maggie mentions writing an autobiography which is odd as I think Kathryn

      Leigh Scott has. She will write Vicki is a terrific potato peeler. She

      asks Vicki about Collinwood and Vicki jokes. Maggie asks if the kitchen is

      spooky. Vicki tells her that you have to watch about the oven because a

      witch is usually behind you to push you in and that there are open fires

      to cook on and cauldrons. Maggie has never been there, she feels her own

      home has enough spooks.

      Patterson has figured out with his experts (?) that Bill's house is on the

      water, so he could have fallen in there or at Sim's Cove (two miles north

      of the cannery) or at Lookout Point. Burke mentions Truth of Consequences.

      Maggie mentions that when she heard Hanscomb she thought they mentioned

      Hanson, the man that was killed by the car Burke supposedly was driving.

      This leads Sam to tell Vicki the entire story--well, almost--of the

      accident. Roger and Burke used to run around together. Burke was boy

      friend of Laura, who not much later, married Roger. It was a hit and run:

      Burke, Laura, and Roger were at a tavern, all were probably drinking.

      Burke was too drunk to drive but insisted on driving and hit a man on the

      road.

      While Sam is telling the story, he wants to stop. Maggie says something

      that is probably out of date, something about take the shoe off the other

      foot? WHAT?

      Roger testified that Burke was driving; Burke says he was lying; Laura also

      testified against Burke. Soon after Roger and Laura married.

      61

      In this part, through the many conversations, we learn that Burke started

      to drive but Roger made him pull over and Roger got behind the wheel and

      he hit the man...all this comes from Burke. Burke, understandably is upset

      about Bill's death/murder and goes over to Sam's dinner "party" with Vicki

      and Maggie and totally ruins it, acts strange and as Vicki says, "Is a

      bully" about the whole thing. Sam flees and tries to get the letter at the

      hotel where Mister Wells (Conrad Bain again) will not let him have it.

      Maggie must get it. In the letter is the truth. I’m not sure but Wells

      won't appear again until 1968 when he's killed by the werewolf Chris turns

      into! The credits in this ep are shaky. It’s hard not to feel sorry for

      Maggie, who wants to stick up for Pop but also wants to believe Burke or

      rather she does seem to believe Burke. Burke makes everyone, me included

      uncomfortable.

      62

      Burke and Sam talk talk talk in Burke's hotel room. Sam still can't admit

      the truth...he's annoying. Roger calls Maggie a bit caustic at times but

      nice and Sam a brilliant wittiest. When Vicki returns to Collinwood,

      there's a strange clicking as Roger comes out of the Drawing Room. Vicki

      tells Roger that Burke upset her a great deal. Roger tells his side of the

      story and mentions that he didn't go to the police at all the night of the

      accident. The car was traced to Burke. Burke calls Roger to Sam, my flub,

      "Collin." Roger attempts to get rid of Victoria by sending her to a friend

      in Florida, paying for it, so that she could be governess to two children

      of a friend! He tells her there will be no Widow's Hill, no haunted house.

      etc.

      These five eps have a lot to be given credit for. I just can't seem to

      find much about that at the moment. They're not terrible, not totally

      slow, and definitely make Maggie a much better character and of course,

      any time David or Vicki appear it's worthwhile. But...gosh, when is it

      going to get well, better!

You're absolutely right; Jamison Collins was Liz and Roger's father. We

      never learn the name of their mother.

      As far as the genealogy of the Collins family goes, in the first year it

      was set in stone: Jeremiah Collins was Liz and Roger's great-great

      grandfather. At one point, David says that Josette was his

      great-great-great grandmother (implying Josette and Jeremiah had

children).

      In the late 1600s, Isaac Collins founded the town of Collinsport. A

      relative of his was presumably Amadeus Collins.

      In 1795 , Joshua and Naomi Collins had 2 offspring, Barnabas and Sarah.

      Joshua had a brother, Jeremiah and a sister, Abigail (Naomi was originally

      called Abigail in the first year continuity).

      Barnabas married Angelique Bouchard. Jeremiah Collins, who was once

      married to Laura (but had no children), married Josette du Prés. Only

      Joshua survived the events of 1795 and a cousin, Daniel Collins, inherited

      Collinwood. Daniel had a sister, Millicent, who married Lt. Nathan Forbes.

      By 1840, Daniel had married Harriet (who was killed by Daniel before

      1840!) and had had two sons, Quentin the First, and Gabriel. A cousin,

      Flora and her son, Desmond, lived at Rose Cottage . Desmond married Leticia

      Faye (the great aunt of Pansy Faye). Quentin 1 was married to Samantha

      Drew and had a son, Tad. After Samantha died in 1840, Quentin 1 married

      Daphne Harridge. Gabriel Collins was married to Edith.

      Before 1897 Edith's son (name unknown) had had four children: Edward,

      Judith, Quentin the Second (werewolf) and Carl. Edward married Laura the

      Phoenix and had two children: Jamison and Nora. In 1897, Judith married

      Gregory Trask and had a step-daughter, Charity Trask, alias Pansy Faye.

      Quentin married a Gypsy, Jenny, and had two children, a boy who died in

      infancy and a daughter, Lenore. Lenore was the grandmother of twins, Tom

      and Chris Jennings and their sister, Amy. (Joe Haskell was their cousin!)

      Jenny's sister was Magda, who was married to Sandor Rakosi. As for Carl

      Collins, he was murdered by Barnabas!

      In the 20th century, Jamison was the father of Elizabeth and Roger.

      Elizabeth married Paul Stoddard and had a daughter, Carolyn Stoddard.

      Carolyn married Leviathan Jeb Hawkes. Roger unknowingly married his own

      grandmother, Laura the Phoenix and had a son, David. After Laura's

      "death," Roger married Cassandra Blair (Angelique). Nicholas Blair claimed

      to be "Cassandra's" brother. Victoria Winters was Elizabeth's illegitimate

      daughter (confirmed in the Dan Curtis approved audio play Return to

      Collinwood).

THANKS! That's a great deal of info on the family and just what I wanted.

      I suggest every one also get the original FIRST YEAR if you can find it as

      well as the NEW FIRST YEAR revision, both have different info in different

      spots. Originally, ideas vaulted around that Liz and Paul were involved in

      a baby producing scandal! It was planned that Liz sent her that money

      every month. Carolyn and Joe were supposed to get married but it would have

      been a train wreck, Vicki was to arrive by bus, and Joe mom was to have

      worked for Collinwood for years and he used to drive her to and from work.

      The outline for the show contained other stuff that Liz and Roger's

      parents were called Joseph and Carolyn. She died at 38 giving birth to

      Roger. Three years after Roger was born, the father died. Liz was 35 when

      she married Paul and three years later she had Carolyn. The East Wing was

      closed off after WW1. David was born seven months after Roger married

      Laura and he always thought the boy was Burke's. The writers did agree

      that they were going to reveal Vicki was Liz's daughter.

      In the revised FIRST YEAR, it is cumulated that the first 210 episodes

      only span 52 days! So by ep 210 Vicki has only been at Collinwood for 52

      days! This is according to the scripts but I don't think it quite works

      out that way but it wouldn't surprise me if that were close. Days and

      nights are spread out over at least a week or half a week.

      63

      For some reason someone thought it was a good idea to focus on the

      clicking of the grandfather clock again...only it's almost never heard in

      other scenes and here it sounds like someone is playing ping pong or at

      least the 1970s video game of tennis! It's very annoying. At the Blue

      Whale, Carolyn invents the phrase from the 1980s before it happens, when

      she tells Joe, "Nope means no." The next two episodes focus on characters

      leaving certain places, changing their minds, and then returning to those

      places! I’m not joking either. For the first time, we hear an actual ship

      outside the Blue Whale in a sound effect but unfortunately the same songs

      are playing that have been playing since ep1! Over and over and quite loud

      while Carolyn is still trying to mourn Bill. We get a scene between

      Carolyn and Maggie and Joe as Maggie comes to the Blue Whale looking for

      Sam ("Hiya Kids!") and then shock of shocks, Maggie goes to Collinwood to

      talk to Roger, who's not there. Liz answers the door and we see a camera

      shadow and the outdoor set (the film stock looks rather shaky here too

      for some reason on this copy). Liz and Maggie meet for the first time and

      Maggie seems truly dwarfed by the rooms of Collinwood as Liz goes to look

      for Roger, and treats Maggie most coldly. At the same time, Matthew

      Morgan, spurred on by Liz's talk of Burke causing trouble, goes the Blue

      Whale, a place he doesn't normally go to. This ostensibly seems

      interesting but...well, it has to all wait until next episode. They sure

      are milking this storyline for everything it's worth and you got to give

      them credit for not rushing it...I guess. Liz flubs as she tries to say,

      "For some strange reason..." and it comes out "...for some strange

      region..."

      64

      The DARK SHADOWS lettering seems vanished at the right side and fades in

      slowly during the credits. Pre credit sequences are still original

      material. Carolyn and Liz sort of argue over Burke. As they talk, we see

      the back window/doors and someone walks by them on the outside and is very

      visible for quite some time. In the Blue Whale we see an older couple

      sitting down. Here, Matthew Morgan and Burke meet and Matthew confronts

      and threatens Burke, resulting in Matthew trying to choke Burke in a truly

      startling scene. George comes in to break it up and takes them both to his

      office.

      Liz proves she is very wrong about her assessment of Matthew being

      harmless. Carolyn is more on the money with "I think if someone were

      worrying you or endangering you, he'd tear them apart."

      Matthew admits to Burke that telling the bar tender to tell a phoning in

      Liz that he wasn't there was the first time he'd ever lied to her but he

      didn't directly do that. Matthew did say he would kill Burke...for the

      second time. In the back ground of George's office are wanted posters and

      one of them looks like Fred Gwynne (of MUNSTERS fame) from CAR 54 WHERE

      ARE YOU. It's probably not though. George flubs over the word execution

      and says "ectocution," instead. He also goes over what Matthew does, "You

      work the farm for them?" Farm? At Collinwood? I believe the script says he

      tends to the gardens (perhaps the huge botanical spot seen in NIGHT OF

      DARK SHADOWS, the second movie that seems so far removed from this time of

      the show).

      Liz feels for what Carolyn has been going through but honestly, what has

      she been going through? I mean the death of Bill is one thing...but what

      else? Go off to school if you hate it so much. Leave! Liz and she have a

      calmer talk now and Liz feels that if you have faith in the one you love

      it is hopeful. It might be one of the last hopeful love talks in DS. They

      both declare their love for each other. In another first, Liz won't hold

      it against Carolyn and won't try to stop her if she confronts Burke for

      his side of the story. It's a nice touching scene between them and doesn't

      make them selfish monsters as all the DS characters later become with some

      exceptions. Burke comes to Collinwood...gasp! What again?

      65

      Gosh, this stretches on and on and will not be settled, I think until

      ep200 or so! In Vicki's narration, the words DARK SHADOWS are mentioned.

      We see a mike shadow as Liz greets Burke and the two almost spar verbally.

      I almost thought they were going to come t to blows. Burke tells her his

      manners were gained in a waterfront shack. Burke talks about his old man,

      who repaired lobster pots for a living. He asks Liz if she has some

      knitting or gardening to do and she won't be spoken to like that. She

      thinks about calling the sheriff but resorts to cordial kindness and

      making tea which throws Burke off. He asks her if a chest in the drawing

      room is about 200 years old I think. We view a boom mike. Liz calls Burke

      by the name of Roger and then corrects herself. When Vicki arrives, Burke

      is so confused by Liz's change into hostess attitude that he tells her he

      is not sure why he's there, for tea? He tells her he's sorry he ruined her

      dinner party with Maggie and Sam the other night. But Maggie seemed to be

      still looking for Sam? Was he gone for a whole day? Burke talks to Vicki

      about other places such as Norway where those men are real sailors. It's

      ironic that his going to another place years later will end up with him on

      a crashed plane (Brazil and btw did Barnabus have something to do with the

      plane crashing?).

      More Blue Whale and more Sam meeting with Roger and more nastiness between

      them which foreshadows a lot of the nasty encounters between lots of future

      characters. We do hear what seems to be a new BLUE WHALE song!!!! NO

      fooling.

      Burke tells Vicki that his father was not healthy but loved the sea but

      could not work on it. Burke is not sure what he is. Vicki tells him she

      always wanted to be a bareback rider in the circus riding a white horse.

      She could not run away from the foundling home as she's not the running

      away type but he wishes she were so she would run away from here. When Liz

      arrives back with tea he offers to help her and tells her that none of the

      places he's been to...despite all his earlier complaints about Collinwood

      and Collinsport in the entire series thus far...have seemed quite like

      home as Collinwood. Liz tells him it can't be like it was in the past but

      she hopes it is to him.

      Roger arrives home and is worried. In a peek at the pre credits to next

      ep, I find Liz was just play acting nice until Roger got there and they

      got into it. What a bi#*%#.

      Still, with all the back and forth, some more character background with

      Burke and Vicki and the interaction of characters who have not interacted

      usually including the tension between Matthew and Burke (both with good

      actors poised for a fight), the fight itself, this was a better set of

      three eps but then again we got more Sam/Roger and I’m really getting sick

      of them together by now.

      oh and in the next ep, 66, we get the exact same opening sequence of the

      house and the same zoom in as the past three eps!ARGH!

66

      Same opening sequence as the last two or so eps. Sigh. Burke was in prison

      five years, one month, three days and 7 hours. He and Roger have it out in

      the drawing room. When Liz goes to Vicki's room, Vicki jokes, "I haven't

      heard any screams yet," but adds she guesses that's not very funny. Vicki

      talks about her time as an orphan, lonely and Liz looks most distressed

      and upset by it and calls it sad that Vicki, in order to get mail, writes

      letters to herself, a kind of diary of her short life. We hear coughing in

      the background. Vicki seems to forget a line or something when she throws

      in a line that says that Liz could leave this place (to which Joan reacts,

      "I couldn't.") and that "you know what I mean you have Carolyn and she has

      you." Liz is acting as if she is Vicki's mother. Guilty as charged I say!

      Back in the drawing room, we see a HUGE camera shadow. In a short scene as

      Liz and Burke wait for Roger to get Vicki to come down and "testify" on

      his time of leaving the house--this episode again goes through the whole

      "did he have enough time to kill Bill" nonsense...we see Liz and Burke

      standing practically nose to nose (or rather nose to chest, they both look

      very uncomfortable doing it but do it with style)! And the front of

      Burke's long hair is blowing over his forehead.

      Later there's a wild blooper as the camera loses control and tilts down

      but this gives us the image of tilting upward...and we see the entire top

      and END to the set, the studio ceiling and ALL the studio lights above the

      drawing room!

      This is one ep where where we see what Moltke talked about in her

      interview: when she was having trouble with her lines, just trying to get

      through an ep, she would wring her hands. She does it here. Burke is not

      happy when Vicki seems to correspond to Roger's story and he throws veiled

      insults at her. The jerk.

      67

      Sigh. Day. Hotel outdoor footage. Again. Maggie seriously seems to joke or

      seriously means it about putting rat poison in Burke's coffee and later

      she tells him they ran out of arsenic when he is surprised he survived the

      first cup of coffee or tea. Maggie, when Burke arrives, tells Carolyn,

      "Speak of the devil."

      And oh my gosh, more Patterson vs Sam at the sheriff's office. George

      keeps asking Sam about the time he left his house. He wants to verify more

      stuff for the coroner. Haven't they figured out that stuff yet???? Sam

      looks out the window of the office and see a strange shot of his face from

      inside the office but our view is from outside the chain linked window!

      The photo of the cop on the wall looks a little like Dan Curtis!

      This is Sarah Johnson's first episode! Yeah! Patterson calls her in and

      she comes in, acting up a storm. From the way she carries on and cries,

      I'd say that either she really liked working for Bill or she was jealous

      of the Collins family and loved Bill and wanted him to marry her! She's

      kind of sad and scary here. She's sure Bill was murdered...a man does not

      ask for a breakfast half an hour earlier than he usually takes it if he

      was planning to kill himself. When George goes to give her water, he

      realizes he's run out of paper cups. Was that planned by the script or the

      crew or just a blooper?

      Burke's got a hair cut by the way. He goes through the Collins family

      members, "There's David, he's not exactly George Washington." In the 60s

      and before that there used to be legends around Washington never telling a

      lie. He tells Carolyn that Liz believes what she wants to believe. He then

      compares Victoria Winters to the first liar in the Bible, Adonaias, the

      first great liar, who got struck down dead. Later, in his room, Burke

      talks to someone on the phone and the name sounds like Myra or someone

      like that but some synopsises say it is Blair but I don't think so. He's

      planning something against the Collins family. NOOOOO? OH you don't say!

      Maggie tells Sam that she talked to Mr. Wells and knows he tried to get

      the letter from the safe. When George shows up, Maggie is sarcastic. She

      really doesn't know what time Pop left the house that night but she lies

      to cover for him and says it was 10:45 and sarcastically reveals she

      called the naval observatory to send up a balloon. A word about Kathryn

      Leigh Scott, I'm not her biggest fan nor any of her characters but

      honestly, she's very very good in this ep.

      When Carolyn visits Burke in his hotel room AGAIN, Burke admires her

      loyalty to Roger and wishes someone were as loyal to him when he was

      accused ten years ago. At the same time, Sam remains loyal to Maggie and

      defends her against her own lies that were her being loyal to him! If

      there is a theme to this ep, it's loyalty, something you don’t see often in

      DS. Then again, that theme could run throughout the entire series if you

      think about it. Sam also tells Maggie, "Don't be fresh, darling" when she

      snipes at George. At this point, Patterson is getting on my nerves, too.

      Get on with it! He also bravely tells her not to be afraid of Burke

      because he is the law around here. Oh wow, she must feel much better now!

      Then we're right back to typical DS lie stuff: Sam lies to Maggie about

      what is in the letter: it's my will he tells her and he just wanted to

      make an addendum to it. He'll do so in another letter...that will never

      happen. Maggie knows he is lying and tells him she doesn't believe him.

      While hugging him from behind. Burke is also fond of Carolyn's naiveté

      (spelling?). He asks her if she's ever been so drunk...."no, no of course

      you haven't" and calls her, "My sweet Carolyn..." affectionately instead

      of sarcastically. Burke even admits that maybe Roger didn't mean to kill

      Bill, maybe they had a fight and an accident ensued.

      This ep is really unlike a lot of the others. Here, we have people who

      seem to be struggling against people they love and or care about greatly

      but blaming them for a great many things, some of them true. No one wants

      to be mean in this ep but they have to be. There's loyalty and lies, love

      and conflict. In this respect, it's a bit like the TV show THE TRIBE, also

      a soap really and sometimes as slow moving and also with great music, a

      show one would not think to compare to DS, especially in this era.

      During the credits, the light in the sheriff's office is swinging...

68-70

      68

      We see Louie Edmonds readying for a scene as the clapboard is placed

      in front of his desk at the office. He also talks but we can't hear him and

      he's on the phone. A fake phone. I think. We also see---ARGH!!!-the same

      stock footage of Roger leaving his car (?I think) and getting to walk

      across the pier and wave at a worker and go to his office. It's already

      mundane but I guess in the age of no vcrs or dvd players...it was nice to

      see again and fooled people into thinking it was different.

      Vicki has her hair up as she races into the drawing room to find a hiding

      David. We see the first of many many camera shadows and boom mike shadows.

      David is wearing a vee neck sweater that is not unlike those worn by the

      space family Robinson in the Gold Key comic and in the TV show LOST IN

      SPACE! When Vicki finds him, he relates incidents about school in

      Augustus, recess and games. He also recalls Laura and Roger fighting, when

      he was six years old and they were fighting about Burke; he remembered it

      when he first met Burke. David feels the fights were mainly his father's

      fault. He also thought Roger was going to kill her.

      Oh no. George Patterson visits Roger at the office to talk about the Bill

      Malloy/Burke stuff. Aragh! Roger, stupidly, tells George if he were to

      hire a person to kill Burke it wouldn't be someone like Matthew

      Morgan...and even more stupidly, he tells the Sheriff that he would like

      to kill Burke himself. Despite all the talk of the influence of the

      Collins family, it seems they have very little or maybe just a bit...and

      Roger seems as if he has to work. They're not as rich as I first thought

      they were.

      In the meantime, David has another tiff with Vicki and humorously says,

      "You know what's wrong with you, you've got a big mouth!" Vicki seems to

      move at him but he throws a tantrum, knocks over and breaks part of a

      chair and sends things flying off the table. He calls Vicki a stranger

      here who doesn't belong. When Roger comes in, David yells that they are

      ganging up on him just like in school. Later, Vicki tells Roger it will do

      David good to have happy people around him and she relates the tale to

      Roger about David hearing the fight Laura and he had when David was six.

      David listens in hiding behind the partly closed drawing room door which

      at one point seemed like it was open so that he could not have hidden

      there! After Vicki goes, Roger has a talk with David which is both warm

      and chilling at the same time...

      Roger tells David that one can catch more flies with sugar than with

      vinegar. Roger admits he's treated David badly and he blames himself for

      it; all the pressures of moving back here and of the job and of the

      current mysteries. David enthusiastically tells him to fire Vicki. Carolyn

      returns and sits on the top of the steps and as she does, as she talks, it

      sounds like a new take of the scene shifts...the sound seems to get

      different somehow. Carolyn seems bored and tired and calls Joe a square

      and that she will never marry him...then when Joe calls, she tells Vicki

      not to tell him she's there, then changes her mind and answers it and asks

      him to take her to an early dinner. She's a bratty pain here. And

      annoying. We see a camera boom mike crane. Roger apologizes to David and

      asks David if you had to choose one of us to get rid of, who would it be,

      "Me or Miss Winters?" This makes Roger a sly bas$%^ because just a few

      scenes earlier he was making peace with Vicki and telling her they would

      go to a lobster dinner together. It also makes him seem more sinister and

      evil. And makes David equally creepy and horrid. I'm not sure this plot

      thread is ever picked up again but David also insinuates that he can do

      something that will make Liz think Vicki did something horrible to David.

      Roger tells David he does not want to know about it. In the next ep, when

      Liz calls Vicki to the drawing room to talk I almost expected her to say

      that David told her that Vicki hit him! Somehow I think this does happen

      but...it's a far cry from his calling for Vicki when say Julia tries to

      hypnotize him later on...

      A psychologically scary episode.

      69

      "We're slating!" the clapboard man calls out. Burke and Mrs. Johnson plot

      to insinuate her into the Collins household. They don't have to try very

      hard as sucker Carolyn comes calling yet again and Burke makes her think

      it was her idea. Bill didn't know that Mrs. Johnson was "fond" of him but

      everyone else seemed to. There seems to be a moth or a fly on Burke's

      jacket. Bill's watch was given to him by his father. Johnson is very much

      crying and upset but she also believes in signs and omens and believes

      Bill's body was pointing at his murderer...Roger as it drifted back to

      Collinwood.

      Carolyn goes to Roger's office first before going to Burke's hotel room.

      We hear someone in the background coughing. Joe and Carolyn share some

      sickening scenes. And they kiss again. Joe flubs about Carolyn trying to

      get him to get the day off with Roger, "You do that," when he meant and

      corrects, "You try to do that and...I'll..." he says something like kill

      you or beat you! Joe calls a friend named Larry to cover for him but Larry

      cannot. Another boss calls Joe back from Roger's office. Carolyn acts like

      a brat and spoiled. She calls herself bored. She calls Joe an idiot and he

      is: for staying with her!

      Johnson tells Burke she "has no love for that family", a far cry from her

      later self. In the planning stages, Johnson was supposed to be even meaner

      by menacing Vicki and being more sinister, almost a villain. When Carolyn

      shows up, Burke has to hide Mrs. Johnson in the bathroom and even stop

      Carolyn from getting a drink of water. When Carolyn tells Burke that Uncle

      Roger denied everything, Burke sarcastically says, "NO!" Carolyn then

      thinks it is her idea to get Liz to agree to take on Johnson as

      housekeeper and she feels nice doing something for somebody else for a

      change. Burke tells her that just by having people look at her, that’s

      nice for people. When she leaves, Burke tells Johnson that anyone at

      Collinwood is fair game...

      70

      A GREAT EPISODE! Clapboard is on the rug. Vicki's narration mentions

      Collinwood has stood for 130 years. David is eavesdropping AGAIN and again

      he's caught...this time by Matthew Morgan who calls him a "young limb."

      Huh? The music cue goes oddly into the main theme and it sounds rather

      good. David tells them the ghosts don't like Matthew. He sees and talks to

      ghosts regularly. One is a lady in white. He tells Vicki and Matthew about

      the Old House. Matthew tells Vicki about the Old House, which is more

      dangerous than Widow's Hill. David drew the lady in white. Liz tells Vicki

      that originally the Old House was the original Collinwood. When Carolyn

      tries to get Liz to hire a housekeeper, Liz tells her that she isn't

      lonely, she has all of David's ghosts.

      At 9:30, Vicki agrees to go with David to the Old House. Carolyn talks to

      them before they leave, "I knew David was odd..." she says to Vicki.

      David, almost seeming honest and sensitive and caring, tells Carolyn,

      "I'll take care of her. Don't worry." David and Vicki walk through the

      woods and it's stunning. Yes, it's out of focus a lot and it's dark and

      too dark. And yes, at times, we can't see them but honestly it adds a

      visual dimension to DS that's usually missing during these eps and which

      is not always felt later on when there was NO location shooting. The

      dialog is dubbed over and that jars but this ep is better because of the

      footage. It's much better once they approach the Old House. We see them

      better and see the huge poles that hold up the Old House terrace and front

      porch. They go up steps to go inside...and this doesn't match the mock up

      set we see later in the series for the exterior. It's also a bit jarring

      as they go from opulent outside exterior building to inside mock up studio

      set that is much smaller than the house looks on the outside. Yet...it

      still works to set up this world...

      Inside, Vicki has an almost comedic double take when she almost accepts

      David's ghost talk, answering him at first as if they are real. A shutter

      blows back and forth. The Old House is in ruins. Matthew is outside and it

      looks a lot like Count Petofi! He carries a lantern. We also see footsteps

      approaching and for all the exterior footage of feet coming up, it might

      as well have been shot indoors anyway. Inside, David shows Vicki the

      portrait of Josette Collins, who's picture was drawn in the history/family

      album at Collinwood. Despite that, David tells Vicki that he drew his

      picture from actually meeting the ghost. The portrait looks nothing like

      Maggie/Kathryn Leigh Scott. The camera on David does a wild dance for a

      few seconds when the cameras shift to a new take.

      David tells Vicki that Josette can never leave Collinwood, she's condemned

      to stay until a third girl dies on the Hill (later on, Liz will tell of

      three victims). David tells Vicki that she' s the third girl. It's all

      pretty creepy for poor Vicki, in a spooky cold house with a crazy kid who

      hates you and seems not to at times and noises outside and even if she

      knew it was Matthew, he's not the nicest person either. When they leave,

      we see them better in the outdoor location stuff and it looks in focus and

      looks grand. The place is now overgrown with trees and forest and

      wild brush, almost as if the house never stood there. I've been there and

      one can't even get near it, or at least several years ago that's how it

      was. This footage was in Lyndhurst which is in NY and used in HOUSE OF and

      NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS.

      When the trio leave, an effective sequence, perhaps the first effective

      special effect of DS, has Josette ghost descend the portrait, come out of

      it, and become more distinct. She goes outside and then walks around the

      outer house and later whirls about the poles...amid the very effective and

      very creepy music by Robert Cobert. Well done!

71-72

      Enough of pole dancing ghosts. We're now in October of 1966. The music cue

      goes right into the theme song. We see a camera mike shadow and later on

      the steps of Collinwood a camera mike itself. Roger's worried over the

      report about Malloy's death and makes himself seem guilty to...well George

      and us. Vicki's dreamt of ghosts all night. Roger takes her on a tour of

      the cannery, telling her he will tell Liz about this day off (he doesn't);

      Vicki thinks David's been nicer to her. Geeze...Burke goes to see George

      at the office and the sheriff asks if anyone in this town sleeps late any

      more. There's some humor about George's coffee being lousy. Roger takes

      Vicki to the hotel restaurant/coffee shop is what it really is. Here he

      tells her about sardines and how planes spot them from the air. She thinks

      it funny that the family started out with whales and moved to sardines.

      Burke arrives and is most unpleasant to...everyone. His act is really

      getting annoying.

      The big thing this episode is Vicki and Roger outside on the street, a

      main street, walking to the police office! We see cars, buildings, the

      town! Outdoors! Inside, we go through the entire thing we went through

      with Burke hearing Vicki's alibi for Roger not killing Malloy. Then later

      we see Vicki and Roger emerge from his office after her tour and see new

      footage of Vicki leaving and Roger watching...the water behind him and the

      dock/pier. Amazing scene setting stuff. Vicki walks outside to the hotel

      and goes in...

      ...where Burke is a full fledged jerk to her. I can't believe she accepts

      his ride home. Burke also flubs a great many lines into one confusing

      ABBOTT AND COSTELLO like line about Vicki and her plan to find out about

      her past, "Don't forget who you are who what you're after and what your

      plans are about who why what you..." WHAT? It is actually pretty funny.

      We see Suzie once again and the outdoor Collinwood door set...which I

      don't recall having seen since ep1. This time we get a full look in and

      past the foyer into the drawing room. It looks rather grand. Burke is

      being an idiot to Vicki. On the end credits as they credit it to "A Dan

      Curtis production," there are strange voices on the sound track, probably

      the crew talking during recording. This happens briefly during the

      clapboard stuff in the next ep

      72

      Carolyn gets her turn at being mean to Vicki. Carolyn's an idiot. While

      her tirade goes on and on, we hear creaking of some sort as if someone's

      wheeling a cart through the studio. Mrs. Johnson, in the coffee shop,

      meets Maggie, first time on screen. Johnson reveals she used to make her

      own mayo and never realized about the loneliness. Maggie asks her why she

      doesn't go stay with her daughter. I forgot the reason but I was shocked

      she had a daughter. Johnson complains about Maggie's mayo seeming old,

      about the stool hurting her back, and about getting sick. She wont' get

      sick while, "not while evil walks the streets of this town."

      Carolyn sets up Liz for firing Vicki but Liz doesn't yet give her an

      answer about the housekeeper issue. Carolyn's a jerk! And annoying. I do

      like that Liz tells Carolyn, "You have a habit of answering a question

      with a question, it's most annoying."

      When Carolyn goes to the hotel restaurant, I realize how short she is next

      to Maggie. Johnson tells Maggie that ---and this might be one of the first

      misquotes or misuses of the Bible ---of an evil lying person---"an eye for

      an eye," like the Bible says, Johnson claims. One gets the idea from how

      KLS (Scott) plays it, that Maggie is not fond of Mrs. Johnson and her

      nonsense. Johnson tells Carolyn she's a good girl, that Bill always liked

      her and was fond of her. Johnson lies that she never talked to Burke since

      he's been back but when Carolyn tells her that Burke did talk to Johnson

      and mentioned, she lies some more after an, "Oh." Johnson tips

      Maggie...with a dime. After she leaves, Maggie tells Carolyn that Johnson

      is creepy, "She gives me the willies." One feels that Maggie thinks but

      doesn't say that she would fit right in at Collinwood.

      It's Liz's turn in between Johnson, Maggie, Carolyn stuff, to be mean to

      Vicki. She doesn't trust her or her story and later checks up on her by

      calling Roger to verify Vicki's story (and later apologizes for this), she

      tells Vicki to report only to her and she's most cold and unkind. That's

      Roger being a d%$#, David the son of a &%##, and Carolyn being a nasty

      spoiled Bia*^%$#, and now Liz throwing around her dysfunctional S*&^. When

      Vicki overhears Liz's call to Roger to check on her, she gives Liz an

      ultimatum, "Fire me or trust me." She mentions how she's been badgered

      and bullied. Liz apologizes and realizes there is more pressure than she

      thought there would be from all the things that have happened since Vicki

      arrives. They share a warm scene together and it seems as if Liz will

      trust Vicki from here on out. During the credits, the Abc narrator

      mentions how a woman is murdered and the FUGITIVE Richard Kimble gets the

      blame again.

      Not two bad eps. Glad Vicki finally stood up to Liz. Now I can't wait for

      her to really give it to Carolyn (she did a bit here) and Roger and put

      David in his place.

73-76

      We get that wind sound effect as trees are blowing in the outside shot of

      Collinwood. Sam is seen on main street this time as cars toot horns and

      one pulls out of a driveway as Sam enters the police station...NOOOO!

      Another police station scene! Patterson seems to be playing Sam in many

      ways and we see a boom mike shadow. One of the wanted posters (are these

      things of real criminals?) looks like Irwin Allen. No, really. You can see

      how my interest wanes in the police office scenes. A poster behind

      Patterson looks like deer or wolves are in it. In the hall, we see a

      poster that says, "The Quiet Death."

      David calls Burke's hotel room despite Liz's feelings about Burke. David

      is funny in these scenes and he enlivens the whole thing. If what I found

      out about him later weren't the case (that he drowned a kitten) I'd like

      him more. He annoys Liz who tells him to go to his room, to read a book,

      lie on his bed, or do his studies. He sneaks out anyway but she sees him

      and he runs anyway, after a whole conversation about how Burke is his

      friend.

      We see Sam outdoors at the hotel, going in. NOOOO! Another Maggie/Sam in

      the hotel coffee shop scene! NOOO! Sam tells her he does not want to hear

      her small town hotel gossip and save it for the backstairs.

      Patterson arrived at Collinwood, just as David ran out. He informs Liz of

      the finding of the coroner: it was an accidental drowning. He also says he

      had to call his office, delaying telling her to let them know where he was

      in case anyone had to borrow a cup of sugar. Was he kidding? Why didn't he

      tell them before he left? Do people really borrow sugar from a police

      station or was he being facetious?

      David sneaks into the hotel restaurant and Maggie introduces him to her

      father in a nice scene. David seems like a normal kid just then but turns

      down a Sunday from Maggie, who says she shouldn't eat it but does (despite

      Joan B telling her that every woman should keep the figure of how she was

      at 20...or something like that...and Scott did keep that her whole life).

      Sam tells David he has a great smile and he would love to paint him some

      time. He tells him he can make a storm or a buttercup into something

      beautiful. When David leaves, Sam worries what Burke will do the Collins

      family and to the boy in particular.

      74

      Burke in outdoor location shots, walks into the hotel. When he sees David

      in his room he flubs, "What are you...what the devil are you doing in

      here?" David tells Burke that he told him that nothing is against the law

      unless the law unless you get caught." Burke doesn't remember saying that

      but tries to explain. During the credits, something flutters across the DS

      lettering, making it flutter or vanish in part. Roger comes to Liz all

      happy about the verdict. Liz says, "David, I forgot all about him." Roger

      said, "Oh well that should make you happy in itself." Roger wants to take

      a turn walking on the cliff, he's in a good mood. He opens the doors to

      the exit and we see bushes outside the front door of Collinwood.

      David tells Burke that voices talk to him and told him Roger killed Bill.

      He wishes Burke could come live with him at Collinwood and Burke goes on

      about that for a time. Carolyn arrives and Burke says, "Speak of angels

      and they shall appear." When Burke is accused by Carolyn of housing a girl

      in the other room (it is David), he calls David out, "Honey..." When David

      and Carolyn trade insults and accusations, Burke watches, enjoying it,

      "Good one, Davey, you're turn," he says to Carolyn. Mitch is quite funny

      in this and other episodes to follow, making it fun to watch at times.

      Carolyn finally gives in and laughs about this. They get rid of David for

      a short time but he returns, "Time's up!" We see an actual microphone near

      Carolyn. She brings up the pen which Burke, and later we find out Roger,

      almost forgot completely about. David tells Burke, "She's a big pest."

      He's right!

      When Carolyn relays to Burke the info about coroner's verdict about Bill's

      death being an accident, he gets mad and angry. It scares them both and

      they are told to leave, David shutting the door for Carolyn in a good

      scene and a good interaction between all three. Burke looks out the window

      and we see the shot from outside it.

      Burke goes the sheriff and he tells George that the Collin family hires

      the most people in town, controls the most votes, and pays the most taxes

      so he implies they controlled the verdict. Patterson almost kicks him out

      and tells him to go back to NY. Burke tells him he has lawyers that will

      be on him. His gloves are off. During the credits there is an ad from the

      narrator about BEWITCHED: Aunt Clara drums up an extra child while

      babysitting.

      75

      Widow's Hill woods set where Roger enjoys his happy day. Matthew meets him

      there. Roger enjoys the view but Matthew says it is just ocean and

      sky...to which Roger told him he has no soul. Roger flubs, "Low crowds"

      instead of clouds. He likes how the light hits the water. Matthew worked

      for them for 18 year4s. Roger admires nature and says, "The Earth is

      spinning" and on the word "Spinning" Louis Edmonds spits! By mistake.

      In Collinwood, Carolyn is nice to Vicki now. She tells her that she

      couldn't argue with a fly (there used to be plenty around the studio!).

      Carolyn also mentions her last incarnation, something strange in light of

      how many incarnations Nancy Barrett will have in future eps. She also says

      at times she loves the drawing room but at others, hates it.

      Roger jokes with Matthew about having him kill Burke on Widow's Hill.

      Matthew warns him about his kind of humor. He says Poor Bill Malloy.

      Carolyn tells Vicki they have so few happy days in Collinwood but Vicki

      says maybe this is just the first of many. Carolyn wishes it but knows it

      will not last. They joke about putting a musical number: Winters and

      Stoddard with Matthew on the harpsichord. Carolyn tells Vicki if she's

      going for a walk to try Lookout Point. Vicki leaves the house and we see

      the outside of the house as she leaves, goes down steps, passes a stone

      wall/garden wall with poles.

      Roger throws stones into the water and Vicki creeps up on him just as he

      did to her on her first say here. She reminds him of this and he

      apologizes. They talk about fate.

      When Roger returns and gets a big hug from Carolyn, she brings up the

      stupid pen which will monopolize the next score of episodes. The pen is

      from South America. Roger sarcastically asks if he should pop down to

      Rio to get another one. I must mention the drawing room set: it's fabulous

      and goes all the way around most of the time. At various points in the

      series, we get to see every wall. While the pair talk, we hear walking of

      someone else and banging.

      Victoria is on the beach...a real beach and finds shells, stones, and the

      pen. We see her near the water as the tide comes in. I don't know when

      this was filmed but she looks younger. She looks up and sees a cliff.

      In the foyer in Collinwood, we see a thick electric wire as Roger, Carolyn

      and Matthew search for the bloody pen. There's a knock on the door and it

      is Burke whom we do not see yet. Roger feels the happy day is over...

      76

      Just what is that on the right side of the clapboard? A scarf? Someone,

      sounding like a male, clears their throat just as the narration stops. Or

      suppresses a laugh. Burke has it out with Carolyn, Roger and Liz. It is

      during this episode, where Burke wants Collinwood, that I thought how

      similar this is to the later Ghost of Quentin Collins 1968 storyline.

      Burke is really Quentin or vice verse but a non supernatural one. He gets

      close to David and wants the house. When Burke talks to Carolyn about how

      he mislead her but didn't, there's a bloody blooming light that comes from

      the fireplace. Burke doesn't believe the old adage that "murder will out."

      He has to out it for it. Burke flubs as he says, "To be...to earn..." He

      wants to found a dynasty.

      When Vicki returns she closes the doors but one opens again. Vicki jokes

      to Carolyn about Burke, what can he do, bomb the house? Burke is smoking

      in the drawing room. Roger wants Liz to sell Collinwood and tries to get

      her to do so. Liz tells him that their great grandfather built it (did he?

      or was it someone further back?) but Roger doesn't care if it burns down.

      Liz looks at the teleprompter.

      Carolyn in Vicki's room zips Vicki up. What? Did she change outfits?

      Carolyn jokes that maybe Liz will stay here with Burke when Burke buys the

      house! There is a mike shadow. Liz can't put a value on Collinwood, some

      things can't have a value put on it and she says Collinwood is one of

      those things. When Roger asks Burke to wait outside the drawing room so he

      can have it out with Liz over selling Collinwood, Burke meets the girls

      who come downstairs. Carolyn asks what's changed him. He tells her, "I

      haven't changed. I'm still the same obnoxious character I always was." He

      wants space for his children to grow up in but first thing he has to do is

      get rid of the ghosts. He says something like, "Bill Malloy ended the

      case." HUH? What?

      He tells them that he will be doing them a favor because the house will

      destroy the family one by one anyway. He house is a house of evil and

      oozes evil out of the walls. In the drawing room, Roger and Liz continue

      to argue, Roger bringing up Paul. Roger tells Liz that even though he was

      away at school during her marriage to Paul, he came home on holidays and

      saw that her marriage to Paul was not happy so she can't be holding onto

      Collinwood because of him. She tells him he does not know what he is

      talking about. She thinks Paul is dead as we later find out and buried in

      that locked basement room....the viewers by now have forgotten about that.

      Liz flubs when she says, "CollinSwood." When Liz gives her strong and

      stern answer to Burke, she wants Vicki in on the announcement. She tells

      Roger, "Vicki's practically a member of the family" and mentions that

      Vicki's been through enough unpleasantness." Liz tells Burke he will know

      he has been in a fight if he intends to get Collinwood one way or another.

      Carolyn moves to Burke as he leaves, Liz stops Roger from getting her,

      "She has to make up her own mind." One of the things Liz does that is

      smart. During this, Burke, despite making fun of Liz for not leaving

      Collinwood for 18 years (he also apologizes for that; it is her private

      life) seems to respect Liz regardless.

      These four eps have been okay, not too boring, with some humor believe it

      or not and from the situation. The acting is strong, the story moving a

      bit faster and the imagery memorable. More David and less sheriff stuff

      and less about the murder plot would have been better but what is there in

      these four is pretty good and the location shooting enlivens things up a

      great great deal.

77-79

      77

      In the clapboard intro, the narrator does not say DARK SHADOWS. Liz's hair

      looks darker. She admits to Carolyn that she might under different

      circumstances find Burke terribly attractive. Really? Carolyn still does.

      It seems Burke drove Vicki home yesterday(was not that episode 71?) Liz

      tells Carolyn she once fell for a terribly attractive stranger...Paul,

      Carolyn's father. Liz talks about him for a bit. David is in a tie and

      jacket as if he's going to private school. Matthew Morgan (WHAT is up with

      that make up on his grizzled face, stubble? Fake stubble? To resemble the

      other guy that used to play Matthew? it looks like dirt) is repairing a

      drawer in David's room.

      A word about the synopsises in the first year first version (haven't

      totally checked the second version but I think it’s is the same): their

      synopsises were taken off the scripts or the writers' synopsises and they

      don't always match what is on screen. For example, in the book synopsis,

      writers' guide, Matthew is repairing a book shelf. In episode 78, the tone

      of Vicki coming down to Roger just after he was on the phone and the

      dialog is all different. He thought in the written bits, that she was

      overhearing another conversation he was having on the phone. Her dialog

      states something about nothing in Collinwood surprising her anymore or

      something like that. In the televised version it is all different. Their

      encounter is more friendly, she doesn't see him on the phone at all and

      there is none of that dialog. SO the written books are okay but they don't

      accurately describe the first year anyway. Haven't checked the BARNABUS

      year or SECOND YEAR book INTRO TO BARNABUS yet but I wonder if that's the

      same.

      David says, "You know Matthew, you're smart," as they converse about Liz

      and Burke and which side David should take. Matthew tells David he would

      protect Liz and David. Matthew tells him that he just listens and hears.

      Matthew calls Liz Miss Stoddard. David has stolen a photo of Burke at his

      first oil well strike (the synop says it has FIRST STRIKE! written across

      it and as far as I can see it does not). He justifies it to himself,

      Matthew and Carolyn as he and she get into a huge fight over it. Before

      that, Matthew warns Carolyn that Burke is a tiger and he says something

      like, "Even an experienced tether....wouldn't go near a wounded or enraged

      tiger..." Did he mean trainer or a tetherer? Or am I just not hearing it

      right or don't know what that word is?

      David is confused about who to side with: Liz or Burke. He thinks Liz is

      hiring Mrs. Johnson as his jailer. Liz during her conversation with David

      tells him flat out, "I love you." David runs off upset and is then in a

      fight with Carolyn over the photo and Burke. David is obnoxious but on him

      it’s pretty funny. He tells Carolyn it is Miss Winters that Burke likes

      best. So he's sometimes perceptive. Matthew tells them they should be

      ashamed. He tells Liz about them. Liz asks, "What have they done now?"

      When the fight spills downstairs, Liz says, "BE QUIET. NOW tell me..."

      well do you want them to be quiet or tell you? Joan B covers this with,

      "...one at a time..."

      78

      A zoom out of Collinwood to the bushes blowing from afar as we see

      Collinwood between leaves and bushes in a standard outdoor shot. For once

      the Narration goes on but Roger is talking on the phone during it. Roger

      seems to flub as he seems to be talking to Sam, "I don't want to come

      there nor to your house..." did he mean "I don't want you to come here?"

      Vicki comes down en route to the library (LIBRARY? WHERE'S THAT?) which is

      also not in the synopsis I don't believe. EWK! Roger seems to be flirting

      with her, wants to take her out again, and touches her hair or her face!

      EWL.

      A new location shot I believe: the Blue Whale from outside, water calmly

      churning, the pier seen. There's also new BLUE WHALE music on the juke

      box. Humorously, there's an older man clicking his fingers to the music.

      Was this what the 60s were really like? Maggie jokes that if anyone messes

      with Pop she will put a hex on them. Maggie sees a lonely Joe Haskell and

      sets her eyes on him but in a nice way. She invites Joe via Pop over to

      their table. Joe is being stood up by Carolyn and he figures it is because

      he wouldn't go the beach with her today, leaving his job (now is this

      another time or is this the time in episode 69?--he calls it today! That

      long ago in an ep?). Joe says he's 86th in line for Bill Malloy's job. Joe

      and Maggie dance and we hear what might be a Glenn Miller song on the juke

      box, maybe. Roger and Vicki ready to leave and there is a moment of

      unfocused camera. Roger tells Vicki that she deserves a gold medal for the

      progress she's made with David...is he just conning her or has she? As

      they leave, we see an unusual tilt up and we see above the Collinwood

      door...and outside there seems to be an overhang of some sort and an

      alcove or something.

      Maggie and Joe remember when his team lost a big football game even though

      he scored a touch down. He does not seem to remember that she was a

      cheerleader. She might have been lead cheerleader. She, Joe, and Sam play

      a drinking game: every time someone mentions the Collins family, they

      drink.

      Roger talks to Sam; Vicki sits with Joe and Maggie. Roger tells Sam that

      it would be a good idea if Sam kept his mouth shut every time someone

      offered him a drink. Maggie asks if Mrs. Johnson will be getting Vicki's

      job and Vicki hopes not, laughingly. They discuss Liz and Carolyn's quick

      changes of mood.

      When they arrive back home (Roger faking a head ache or maybe Sam gave him

      a real one) , Roger hears of the Mrs. Johnson gig for the first time. There

      is also a camera bump that shakes things very briefly.

      79

      Mrs. Johnson goes to Burke's room. OHHH! MYYY! Anyway she claims she snuck

      past Mr. Wells, who notices nothing. Someone calls Burke about Sam and

      Roger at the Blue Whale. I don't think we ever find out who. Burke and Mrs.

      Johnson use some term about Sam "going to seed" which means he became a

      drunk.

      Maggie feels the town is back to fishing and football instead of worrying

      and gossiping about Bill's death. Sam yells at Maggie twice and nastily.

      He apologizes. Mrs. Johnson tells Burke that Liz fired the maids, the

      chauffeur, the cooks 18 years ago when Paul left. Burke mentions Liz's

      lawyers Frank and Richard Garner for the first time I think. Blair calls

      Burke.

      Maggie doesn’t trust Mrs. Johnson and tells Pop Sam that it is just female

      intuition. In front of Maggie and Sam, Mrs. Johnson pretends (or is she?) to

      blame Bill's death on Burke. Earlier Burke told her that they have to

      appear not to like each other if their plan is to work. What she says is

      true, though: if Burke didn't come back then Bill would not be dead. David

      overhears this and yells at Johnson and even seems intent on hitting into

      her until Burke pulls him away. When Burke pulls David in the foyer, Burke

      keeps interrupting David or David interrupts him, either one or the other

      forgot their lines, probably David as he says the same thing twice and

      Burke might be using his lines, feeding them to him. It doesn't come off

      too bad as their interplay is a good casual one. In the hotel restaurant,

      there's an odd focus on Maggie staring...but she's not talking in the

      scene, Johnson is.

      In a strange, warm, creepy but sensitive scene, Burke locks the door when

      he brings David to his hotel room and Burke checks all the other rooms!

      What? Why? David mentions Vicki is teaching him about the Civil War and it

      is like Liz is Lee and Burke is Grant. Burke is glad he's Grant. Unlike

      the Civil War, Burke seems to get David to say that maybe this time there

      will be no loser or winner. Burke soft soaps his desire to get Collinwood.

      At times, he seems to be conning David but at others, he seems to

      genuinely care for the boy and to want him to believe the correct

      morality. Earlier even Maggie defended Burke to Johnson. Maggie also tells

      Sam that Mrs. Johnson is all right when Sam tells her he wishes Maggie would

      be nice to her: she's had it hard. This makes it looks as if Sam is

      feeling guilty over Bill's death.

      Burke gets David to apologizes to Mrs. Johnson, calling her a good old soul

      and thanking him for defending him to Johnson. David does apologizes and

      contrary to what I thought, she accepts it nicely. Another nice thing is

      that David puts the photo he stole back but then tells Burke the entire

      truth! Burke then acts nicely toward the boy and tells him he left it out

      for David to have anyway, it was his. David is very happy.

      In the closing credits, we hear the narrator say that on BEWITCHED,

      Samantha will travel back in time to break a family curse. Sounds like a

      future DS!

      Anyway are Burke and Johnson heroes or villains, neither or both? They are

      doing conniving things and for the good of it but...they are lying, using

      people, and being sneaky. On the other hand, they are being warm and nice

      to David and loyal to Bill, trying to solve his murder. One of the things

      about this time is that there are no easy answers; Roger and Sam may have

      been bad minded at one time but now they seem okay or at least want to;

      Burke and Mrs. Johnson are doing nasty things and acting creepy but they

      aren't really; Maggie is mad at Burke and distrusts Johnson but willing to

      change her mind about both; Sam is a drunk but loves his daughter but can

      fly off the handle...and David, well, he's a mess...a good three eps and

      psychologically creepy...

80

      Something is jolting around as Roger appears. Liz and Roger talk and

      stumble through it, each actor seemingly without realizing it, making the

      other mess up. Carolyn tells Vicki she has a problem so Vicki tells her to

      ignore it until it goes away, seemingly having enough of her problems.

      Carolyn admits she's in the wrong with Joe but she won't admit it to him.

      Roger asks something about Burke and Mrs. Johnson in the restaurant, "Both

      of them?" and this makes little sense in the dialog. They talk about Burke

      and Mrs. Johnson. Later, Carolyn is upset over her hair but Liz hoped that

      everything in this house was as all right as her hair. When Joe arrives,

      Vicki tells him that she didn’t' t mention anything to Carolyn about Maggie

      and he and Sam together at the Blue Whale. Joe says, "Vicki, if I weren't

      in love with Carolyn, I'd be in love with you." Joe talks to Liz, who

      jokes about his wanting to be his own boss on his own boat, "Am I such a

      bad boss to work for?" He wants to be on his own. Liz hopes to make

      Carolyn and he leave after they marry and hopes offering him a larger job

      and pay that he will move ahead. He turns her down and later, she admires

      that. Roger creates a lot of trouble in this ep and later eps. Here, he

      tells Carolyn about Joe dancing with Maggie at the Blue Whale and that Liz

      is trying to marry her off. Carolyn tells Liz and Joe off, never wanting

      him to speak to her again. Roger also tells Carolyn to ask Vicki,

      indicating that Vicki knew about Maggie and Joe at the Blue Whale. Carolyn

      runs up to Vicki's room and rather than getting really nasty just tells

      her she doesn't know if she should hate her or love her. Carolyn will go

      for a walk, maybe at Lookout Point and hopes she falls in the water. Me

      TOO! Vicki doesn't fall into her trap of a pity party, "You do that, only

      don't wash up on Widow's Hill." Vicki has the pen. During the credits,

      Vicki's lamp is...lit up or something strange is going on with it or how

      it mixes with the camera.

      81

      Outdoor location shot of Matthew leaving Collinwood doors and it matches

      the interior set of same doors! Matthew continues walking through town and

      more location stuff. He walks down main street and into the hotel

      restaurant! NOOOO! When are they going to drop this set? Suzie is once more

      on duty. Burke once more smokes. Burke doesn't want Matthew at his table

      and so he cons Matthew and instigates Matthew, telling him that once he

      owns Collinwood, he'll get Matthew his own housekeeper. They argue.

      Liz tells Matthew she considers him one of the family. He goes to do

      hedges after bringing up Mrs. Johnson's daughter and why she can't just go

      to her and live there. He is shocked when Liz calls Johnson in for an

      interview. As the taxi pulls up to the house in an amazing outside

      location shot, Matthew turns around from cutting the hedges, all outside!

      Matt's hair looks darker in the outside shots. When Liz interviews her

      Joan is reading the teleprompter and saying, "Ahhh" and "uhm" a lot.

      Johnson tells her she always felt close to this family. She's lying. Liz

      wants her to the cooking and cleaning. Johnson worked for Bill for 20

      years. She tells Liz as a last resort, "I love this house and look forward

      to working in it."

      When Matthew walks (?) or drives (?) Johnson back to the restaurant to eat

      lunch, he tries to dissuade her from taking the job. Matthew tells her the

      ghosts are real. She doesn't want to be a shadow in someone else's house

      so she won't go live with her daughter. As soon as he leaves, she phones

      Burke. In his room, they argue, Burke being a jerk to her; she telling him

      she doesn't like him much. They both agree to find Bill's murderer AGAIN!

      Johnson mentions Liz playing the Grand Dame and showing the ancestral

      palace. Burke thinks Johnson blew the chances of getting hired but Liz is

      still making her mind up.

      Liz is in the drawing room brooding. Get a damn TV! She tells Matthew she

      thinks Johnson is well balanced, even so Matthew is shocked again when Liz

      calls Johnson and hires her!

      82

      the narrator says DS twice and seems distracted by...Henesy who's holding

      the clapboard. His hands are all over it. Vicki is teaching David math.

      Burke goes to the hotel restaurant to annoy a humorous George. "Mind if I

      sit down," he asks. "Uh huh," George says, "But saying that won't do me

      any good." He tells Burke the book he's reading is about a cop who was

      trying to relax when some man came to annoy him. Burke asks, "Are you

      trying to tell me something." What could be a boring scene is well played

      by the two actors. Burke tries to get George to open the case up on the

      evidence of the lost pen...but none was found. George leaves before he

      throws a punch.

      Vicki tells David to do more math work, he says, "What do you think I am a

      slave?" David tells Vicki what she told him, "Nobody's perfect," in that

      he got some math problems wrong. David plans to be partners with Burke in

      business and own half the world. Burke wouldn't hurt anybody that David

      liked. Vicki jokes about not giving him math homework. Vicki tells him she

      has a fairy godmother but he tells her that's kid's stuff. Roger comes in

      and notices the pen and makes believe that he is inadvertently leaving

      with it but pain David makes him bring it back. David does math problems

      and at 9 times 8 there is a pause, Vicki moves the pen and we see Roger

      going down the steps to the foyer BUT we hear David still talking!

      Burke gets Roger to come to the hotel restaurant. We see new outdoor

      location footage of Roger's car, stopping, and Roger gets out and goes

      into the restaurant. Vicki shows David the pen and he thinks it belonged to

      a king. Roger bribes Vicki AGAIN to leave and will give her three thousand

      dollars or two thousand. We see a boom mike. David wants to talk to Vicki

      alone and shuts the drawing rooms on Roger. David knows Vicki found the

      pen at Lookout Point, telling her he saw it in his Crystal Ball. Roger

      steals the pen.

      83

      No narrator at the clapboard. Roger comes out of the house in outside

      location shooting. There are flower pots and flowers, poles, etc. He is

      dressed like Sherlock Holmes. This episode seems like it is a kinescope

      copy. Roger buries the pen. There is a nice segue into the theme tune.

      Vicki blames David; David looks out his window and we see the POV from

      outside the window set with leaves on the wall. This time, Vicki is wrong:

      she tells David it is not his father but it is him! She's totally wrong!

      Roger wants peace in the house but he tells Vicki she should not really

      overreact and should overlook this if it is true but that it should be

      good enough for her that David said he didn't take it! Roger walks off...

      ..leaving a stunned Vicki and David, astonished that Roger stuck up for

      David. David is wide eyed, "He...he stuck up for me." It's a very funny

      few seconds. Then David reaffirms his hate for her.

      Joe goes to Maggie at the hotel restaurant and acts like the waitress! He

      tells her about Carolyn not speaking to him. He tells Maggie he was

      offered a promotion today (EP 80!!). Maggie tells Joe that when she was in

      the drawing room and foyer of Collinwood, she felt as if there are a 100

      ghosts around her. She tells him that Carolyn is off her rocker not

      wanting to leave it for Joe. Maggie calls Joe a White Knight. Joking, Joe

      tells her Collinwood is musty, spooky, has blind alleys, dark corners, and

      dead people that never speak. Maggie invites Joe to dinner. Good for both

      of them. Stick it to Carolyn.

      David looks into his crystal ball and Roger looks over his shoulder,

      wondering if he sees a million dollars or a new bike. Roger is acting like

      a real father...and sadly it's all a creepy act! David tells Roger he'll

      get even with Vicki and Roger encourages this! When Joe stops by after

      Roger leaves, there is a storm and David starts acting strange and distant

      again.

      It's scary because David and Vicki were almost getting along and David was

      almost acting nice to her and relating to her well. Now starts one of DS's

      classic events stretched out over many eps of course.

      Vicki tells Joe, "You don't know what's it's like to be alone in this

      house with David." As she and Joe talk, something falls in the studio. Joe

      has to leave and from his chat with Vicki it seems he will dump Carolyn.

      Yeah! Smart guy finally. He resigns from the idiot club (Vicki mentioned

      that he was an idiot to keep Carolyn when he puts it to her in a

      question).

      David leaves his window open during a storm. He now tells Vicki he lied to

      her before...but he's lying to her now and before he was telling the

      truth! A strange twist. He's in creepy mode but acting innocent, planning

      his revenge on Vicki, who due to the storyline has to play the stupid

      victim and acts much too gullible. At the end theme it sounds as if there

      is more music than usual.

      84

      In the closed off wing, Vicki hears a mouse and we hear squeaks but from

      the crew! There's also a strange sound that David says is the wind but

      sounds more like a rocket ship taking off! Vicki tells David they've been

      up and down stairs, in and out corridors and he's taking her in circles so

      she needs him to help her find the pen. It's been ten minutes. David tells

      her that no one would find him in a thousand years. Sometimes he feeds

      mice and has food there in tins. There's a scary shot of lightning hitting

      David. More creepy than any witch, werewolf or Rev Trask.

      Carolyn does not like herself at the moment. Liz admits there are times

      she is not proud of Carolyn but admits that she deserved what Carolyn said

      to her earlier about making decisions for her. Carolyn knows she just

      wanted to help. Carolyn says she THINKS she loves Joe and thinks someday

      she might marry him. What a jerk. Get a clue. Liz tells Carolyn that you

      are a Collins, you'd survive. Carolyn's moods go up and down. Now she loves

      everyone, "Even David," and she's all happy and getting ready for Joe,

      whom she calls. She tells her mother not to have premonitions: David and

      Vicki seem to be missing. Carolyn tells her the problem here is that

      everyone is logical and gloomy with premonitions of doom. Look who's

      talking!

      When Carolyn mentions they should have a party here, Liz tells her they

      used to have many parties and had a treasure hunt through all the areas,

      the closed off wings then open. That was when Liz was a little girl.

      Carolyn tells her they should open the rooms now and fill them with

      flowers. Liz tells her the room are empty now with just memories of a past

      that won't come back.

      David tells Vicki a story of a girl who was once caught in a room here and

      died, when they finally found her she was just bones. Dead bones.

      Joe comes to Carolyn and is cold but she doesn’t see it. Liz asks him when

      he last saw Vicki. It was one hour ago. Carolyn is a B&*%^%$ when she says

      that with Joe, she has more important things to discuss than Vicki or

      David.

      In the closed off room, there is a boom mike shadow. David opens the door

      and lets himself out but asks Vicki to blow out the candle or the house

      can burn down. She does and he locks her in, yelling she can scream and

      scream but no one will ever find her ever again!

      Joe lets Carolyn in on that fact that he has a dinner date and she gets

      all B**^&achy again. She says Joe Haskell has a girl in every port (What

      is he, Capt Kirk?). We hear a squeaking sound again as if someone is

      pulling a cart or a wagon around. Joe and Carolyn have a fight and for me,

      Joe wins out as he gets to dump Carolyn for good it seems! As Carolyn

      storms up the steps, David comes down and she yells, "Why do you always

      have to be in everybody's way." David came in the back door he tells Liz,

      lying. He goes to get something to eat while Vicki is in the room, during

      the storm. We hear voices and sounds that are NOT supposed to be on the

      soundtrack. They sound like the crew talking or something. It just adds to

      the spook factor. It sounds like they are not supposed to be there.

      These five eps are sort of variable. There's the pen business. You just

      know that the pen stuff will be stretched out over and over many eps.

      Every ten eps or so something monumenous happens and then that takes us

      through ten more eps or so. The pen thing is one of them. There's more of

      the hotel restaurant set which I'm sick of by now. There’s the not

      terribly exciting Mrs. Johnson sub plot and Matthew Morgan and more of him

      and Burke, Burke and Johnson, Burke and George. The actors carry on

      bravely and give it all they've got and there's even some humor, which

      helps. Joe and Maggie together are surprisingly refreshing mostly due to

      how awful Carolyn and Joe are together. Joe's lovesick stuff had to end

      and Carolyn had to get her due. Good for the show to stick it to the nasty

      spoiled brat with the huge mood swings. When everything's going well for

      her, she acts kindly to all but when things are not...she's horrid. Also

      horrid here is Roger who starts a lot of trouble covering his tracks.

      From this point, we don’t yet know if Roger is innocent or not. He is. But

      this stuff makes him look like...and maybe the writers still at this point

      were going to reveal that Roger was the murderer...just how did the pen

      get there? Just how was he at Lookout Point if the time table were correct

      or was Vicki wrong?

      There's loads of camera mike shadows, camera shadows, one door not closing

      and several lines forgotten. Thing is the closed off wing is an amazing

      bit of business, obvious but David H is amazing in it, even if Vicky is a

      fool to fall for it all. The set is scary, the build up slow and cautious

      but deliberate. The bold face lying David does is scary and the whole

      thing just works...but among all the other stuff...

      There's a ton of outdoor location work and that makes this move along

      faster than other episodes and give it a real feel. So then all five are

      not terrible, not great but with brilliant moments, snappy dialog, and

      good shooting inside and out. it just needs to move faster and faster than

      even this. The INTRO TO BARNABUS eps must positively fly compared to these.

      I remember seeing those first and being amazed at how SLOW those moved.

      Well these are slower!

Onward and downward:

      85

      Vicki calls David through the door and...we hear no sound for the first

      call. Thunder moves right into the theme song in an effective opening and

      the waves and the sounds they make meld right out of the thunder sound.

      Liz calls Carolyn out like she's acting like a two year old and she is. I

      can't wait for her character to mature a lot and become the more confident

      Carolyn...after Barnabus bites her! At least that's how it seems. Here,

      she's just annoying and babyish, spoiled and temper tantrumy.

      We see outdoor location stuff as Sam walks to the Blue Whale and for once,

      it could have not been included. We see an outside door and it could be

      any door. A long shot would have been better but I suspect it is not the

      Blue Whale door we see/saw in other outdoor stuff. Maggie, on phone, asks

      Sam if he's drunk and he says, "I'm not drunk. Not yet." Burke is there

      and invites him to drink with him, seemingly drunk, lamenting he has no

      friends here any longer. He calls over the bar tender Andy (Andy this

      time?). It looks like the same man that Joe calls Paunchy. Burke calls Sam

      educated. Burke is drunk? I had my suspicions, thinking he was trying to

      get Sam drunk to reveal stuff like Bill Malloy did. Carolyn has her hair

      up and as she leaves, she says something like "God help me." We see actual

      rain at the door exit of Collinwood. I don't think that happens a lot

here.

      Vicki in her trapped state: we hear the same haunting music over and over

      and over and over again...and it doesn't bother me. It's really very good

      for a supernatural show. There's also a shadow on the wall as she calls to

      David, the original title of the show I believe (SHADOWS).

      Sam, drunk talks of the ghosts of Collinwood, the long legged beasties,

      the things that go bump in the night, and demons that all haunt the place.

      Carolyn comes in and tells them they're potted (slang for drunk). It all

      seems very 60s.

      The classic appearance of Bill Malloy happens here and it is well done and

      creepy. One thing though: if it is Bill, why can't he say more than just

      leave, like tell who killed him! Or get help for her or something. Vicki

      gets more hysterical at the finding of seaweed on the floor after the

      seaweed face covered ghost was thought to be just a dream/nightmare by

      her. In any event, the credit announce a documentary of WE ARE NOT ALONE,

      extra terrestrial life is out there.

      A good episode, mostly due to the ghost of Bill Malloy and Liz's telling

      off of Carolyn. Sam, Burke, Carolyn...dump them all!

      86

      We see a long shot of Collinwood, outdoor location and heavy rain! it's

      stunning to be honest and a bit of mist. David lies, telling Liz and Roger

      that maybe Vicki went out through the back door and waited for Carolyn in

      the garage. We won't often hear of backdoors or the garage in later years.

      In the drawing room, as he cons and plays Liz and Roger, David H turns to

      the curtains as if he's forgotten his lines, laughs and then talks about

      the ghosts.

      Burke takes Carolyn to his hotel room and wants to talk about something

      more fascinating than Carolyn's young man (Joe, who isn't her's any longer

      it would seem, smart Joe), "Your old man---me!" For one of the only times

      in DS we see and hear a radio and a new report and some music from it.

      Later, as David talks about getting warmed up, Roger tells him that if

      he's done something wrong, Liz will warm him up in other ways. Roger seems

      to know David's up to something or has done something to Miss Winters and

      he seems almost happy about it. No wonder where David gets it from. Vicki

      hears some creaking noises, this set, like the drawing room is very good.

      Burke tells Carolyn of his time in Rio and his carnival days. He takes his

      shoes off (YUCK) and put his feet on the table (YUCK!). He talks about a

      Portuguese woman who was his friend and tells Carolyn, who asks, that there

      were a few other women. Carolyn asks about in love stuff. He later goes on

      to tell her what seems to be a fable or the truth: he was stranded for

      three days and three nights on an island with a girl who knew if the

      chiefs of her tribe knew about this, they would destroy them both so she,

      being a good swimmer, swam off the island, back home. It seems to tell

      Carolyn something and she finally gets the hint and leaves. When she

      leaves, Burke, seemingly NOT drunk at all and never was, talks to himself

      (something that happens a lot in DS especially with Angelique, some things

      like, "I will punish you, Barnabus Collins"). Burke's been playing with

      her the whole time, threatening now that a whirlpool may engulf her. Not

      sure how I feel about this scene. It' s a bit creepy and warm at the same

      time and yet ends disturbingly.

      Roger and David discuss Vicki. David seems to be winning his father over

      but Roger knows something is up. Liz comes and has a key to the closed off

      wing (East or West? I thought both were closed off?) and she says

      something like there is only one and there's not another one like it and

      then two seconds later she says, "There are duplicates." WHAT? David plays

      his aunt and father. On his way up to bed, before he ascends, Liz kisses

      him, seemingly going for his cheek but the way David catches the kiss, the

      two kiss on the lips. I know that some parents do this with their kids but

      we didn't in my family for the most part and it seems very uncomfortable

      to me.

      Alone, Roger toasts Vicki, wherever she is. He's a creepy jerk, too! He

      seems happy she's gone.

      Vicki takes a glass and throws it at the barred window. Why? What good did

      she hope to come out of that? Was it frustration? it wasn't played like

      that. Then she tries to get the key that's in the lock (I never got that,

      a key in the lock left there?) onto a piece of paper I think it is. It

      doesn't work. Another key? It fails.

      Of course, they drag out Vicki's imprisonment...and there's more to come

      in the Old House and Matthew's Cottage...later on. Either way, the whole

      thing still works...and the show looks great. And the core family: David,

      Liz and Roger interact well and the actors are just plain good here in

      this ep.

      87

      More rain over Collinwood and it's refreshing. In the narration, Vicki

      mentions that Collinwood has something like over 80 rooms. I prefer that

      to the more mentioned 40 rooms. The grandfather clock ticks and sounds

      more like a clock than last time. The pre credit teaser seems shorter than

      most. Maggie tells Joe that whatever they were talking about sounds like a

      Joseph Conrad story. Don't know who he is, I'm sorry to say. Joe tells her

      about his ship drifting, lost in fog and a storm, for a night and coming

      to dock at 5 PM (did he mean 5 AM?). Maggie knows about boats and sails

      and proves it to Joe. Joe tells her he can pay the down payment in one and

      a half years I think. Ten years ago, Sam had 15 thousand dollars and blew

      it all. Joe sings What Can You Do With A Drunken Sailor, just like Burke

      and Sam in the last ep. Is that song about...sex? Carolyn returns home and

      talks to Roger about Joe, Burke, the Blue Whale, and Sam. She seems very

      concerned, sincerely, about Vicki's disappearance. "She can't just have

      disappeared!" In future, she will do just that and go back in time for the

      last time. Roger tells Carolyn if he thought Vicki were in danger of being

      killed like Bill, he's be scouring the country side right now for her. Is

      he telling the truth? It seems so but then again...

      There is quite a few minutes of someone walking on steps until we see that

      it is Roger tramping around the closed off wing or wings. He goes up

      steps, down steps, he moves past windows and cracked bricks in the wall.

      Then there are winding steps of white iron that he goes up. Roger gets the

      key and puts it in his pocket. He hears Vicki and decides to use various

      ways to scare her, the stupidest being pretending he's a ghost and trying

      to disguise (poorly) his voice to warn her to leave. Roger then rescues

      her and hugs her, closely! Vicki is hysterical, "You're right about David,

      he's a monster!" She tells him she saw a ghost, real one, and that it was

      Bill. The credit narrator tells us about Tony Bennett's first TV special.

      A good episode showing us more of the closed off wing, more of David' s

      handiwork, further cementing Maggie and Joe; showing us how selfish and

      horrible Roger is...

Don't know if I wrote this but in the last ep, for the first time, the

      secret passageway from the Drawing Room into the corridors that lead to

      the closed off wing or wings was seen and used by Roger. It is accessed by

      a secret button or something on the dresser counter, the one with the

      model ship on it.

      88

      In Vicki's narration she mentions specters. Roger forgets his lines,

      making his conversation with Liz almost incoherent, almost. Vicki is

      putting something away or something in her bed room. Either way her dress

      gets stuck on the cabinet dresser or in a drawer and almost prevents her

      from moving across the room. There's a lot of concern over Vicki's

      decision to leave AGAIN! Carolyn and Liz don't want her to; Roger wants

      her to; Vicki says it is ultimately up to David. Carolyn tells Vicki, "We

      may not be demonstrative but we care, all of us." When Vicki asks if David

      does, Carolyn says, "David's a nut." Vicki feels sorry for

      David...Collinwood is the whole world to him and he can't just walk away

      and leave like she can. While Vicki and Carolyn (sincere for a change)

      talk, we hear loud squeaking as if someone is wheeling a rusty wheeled

      wagon or cart. Vicki tells Carolyn they managed before she came here but

      Carolyn thinks barely. Her lines seem to make her...confused or confusing.

      Carolyn calls Vicki the most honest person.

      When Liz and Roger discuss a ghost, Roger seems to go two ways. In this

      ep, he seems to believe it all. He even asks Liz if she's seen and felt

      things that weren't there but were...he clearly has a child and her

      reaction to this question makes us all think that she has as well. In the

      synopsis, Liz was supposed to say something like, "Vicki...I have a

      definite responsibility for her and it is one I will see carried out!"

      That line doesn't happen here or in later eps around this one's time.

      Roger tells Liz he walked through MILES of corridor. He and Liz go to the

      room. They find signs of David having been here more than once including a

      toy robot. Roger says something like, "It may be horrid of a father to say

      about his own son but David's an incipient psychopath." Liz finds seaweed

      on the floor...and takes it with her to the drawing room and throws it in

      the fireplace. Liz makes a plea to Vicki, telling her Mrs. Johnson can

      never take her place. She thinks in his own way, David does respect Vicki

      but Vicki feels David hates her more than she knew.

      89

      And so we wait for David to get in trouble and...we have an episode

      centered around Burke's plans to buy up Logansport Fishing Industries and

      use the Collins family men to work it for him. The narration mentions

      Jeremiah Collins.

      Let's repeat the confusion here about the four men that come to see Burke

      and Blair. Four men who work for Liz are invited to Burke's hotel room.

      NO, it's not what you think. Burke wants to give them a share in his

      profits if they leave the Collins family industry and come work for him at

      Logansport Fishing Industries. Burke seems to screw up at least two of the

      names. One of them seems to, well read this from a DS FAQ on line:

      " B27: OK, SO WHO TURNED DOWN THE LOGANSPORT OFFER,

      HERN, HEARNE, AHEARN OR ADAIR?

      A: Hern, Ezra (actor #1)(1966) listens to Burke's offer to work at

      Logansport Cannery in episode #89. In episode #99, Hern, Ezra

      (played by Dolph Sweet)(1966) turns down Burke's offer to work

      at Logansport Cannery

      First of all lets be clear (Aha) there were 2 actors who played

      this part. One "listened" to Burke's offer and we don't know who

      played the part. 10 episodes later a second actor, Dolph Sweet,

      turned down Burke's offer. That's why he's listed twice in the

      character list. Easy - well, here's the ugly part...

      The character is listed in the credits as "Hearne" and in The History

      of DS as "Ahern", but Burke calls him "Adair" and some sources list

      him as Hern.

      Watch ep. #89, its a DSFAQers nightmare. Burke calls Ezra Ahern and

      Adam Bilodeau by the names Ezra Bilodeau & John Adair (Amos Fitch does

      call him Ezra "Ahern" ). But that's not all!! Burke forgets

      his lines again, makes some up and dumps them into Amos Fitch's lap!!

      Amos starts looking around - looking like he forgot his lines thanks

      to Burke - then Amos Fitch does some improvising himself and "makes his

      move" and leaves!!

      Since Amos Fitch calls him "Ahern" and he's listed that way in

      The History of Dark Shadows, our bet is that "Ezra Ahern" is correct.

      Burke mixes up the names. Anyway, Amos warns Liz and Liz calls Burke and

      tells him he's in for a fight.

      As for other things in this ep:

      The narration also states that "Spoilers lurk nearby..." Just before and

      just at the theme music, the incidental music continues for a short time

      while the theme music plays. Roger now tells Liz he believes Vicki's

      imagination is dangerous: there was no ghost and she's a danger to David

      and he to her. There’s just no pleasing him. One of the Garners calls

      Liz. Liz, Roger and Burke both separately feel, is standing alone against

      Burke but she feels their workers will stand by her. Thus we get what

      sounds like Zeb or Dave Cartwright, Amos Fitch, Ezra Adare, John Beladoe,

      and oh who cares?! Amos is capt of the Collins fleet. It's odd to see such

      a man in Collinwood. He feels the Collins family always treated him right.

      While the Burke hotel room meeting goes on, there's an odd whistling sound

      as if it were a tea pot sounding off as ready OR a long winded fart! Burke

      flubs a line, "come over to Collinsport..to Logansport..."

      And just what is on Amos' jacket as he goes to the foyer of Collinwood?

      Dandruff? Rain? What?

      Burke gives Blair 1000 dollars. A word about Blair. He seems like a nice

      guy. He even offers not to take it and also wonders if Burke is doing the

      right thing and will get his desired reward.

      In the end credits, the narrator advertises BEWITCHED with Willie May in a

      Halloween episode.

      Off topic slightly in years gone by MANY series had ...well they lasted

      all year long...and didn't have the today's usual RESTS or HIATUSES or

      long periods of no new episodes. Series had maybe 35 episodes a year,

      sometimes even 40 or so. By 1966 this was down to maybe 29 or 30 but the

      point is mostly new episodes mostly every week bar one or two exceptions

      for a special here or there. This left lots of time for feelings and

      ambience and HOLIDAYS. BEWITCHED was notorious for this having MANY

      Christmas episodes (almost one every season), a Thanksgiving episode

      (Clara accidentally transports everyone to the first Thanksgiving),

      Halloween episodes every season, and even a President's Day episode or

      two. Even if there was no theme to the story as in THE ODD COUPLE we might

      see a Christmas Tree or a Manura up or something to show the time of year.

      I want to say here and now: I MISS THIS!

      The Burke take over ep is a strange one in that it's not strange at all.

      It comes at a strange time though. Vicki's just seen a ghost; David the

      little &^%$ should be getting his comeuppance and ...we stop for a meeting

      of men in a stuffy hotel room. I can't say it is boring because it's

      really not. In some ways it is astonishing that they'd do this and for

      some, seeing a DS with straight forward take over business DYNASTY style

      nastiness is amazing in and of itself. I wouldn't want them to do it all

      the time though and frankly I'm really sick of the Burke thing and of the

      character...

90

      Now that he knows Vicki saw a ghost, David begs Vicki to stay, apparently

      we've heard that his father scolded him already off screen. David mentions

      Josette Collins and another unnamed female ghost but in the past he's

      mentioned many ghosts know him or he's seen many others. Here, it seems

      that just two are his "friends", the freak. Boom mike shadow alert. David

      wants Vicki to stay and tells her that the ghosts like her and want the

      same thing but she counters that Bill's ghost told her to leave before

      she's killed. David feels that the ghosts here can only be here if they

      were murdered: someone, he feels pushed Josette off the cliff. Already

      we're getting a rewriting of the legends. Vicki counters that was more

      than 100 years ago. Before Carolyn enters, it's obvious that Nancy Barrett

      was standing in the hallway set, waiting for a cue as we see her shadow

      way before she enters. David pleads some more and tells Carolyn and Vicki

      to beat him black and blue but make Miss Winters stay! When David leaves

      (but typically stays in the hall to listen), Vicki tells Carolyn, "Any

      friend of a ghost is a friend of David's."

      Vicki asks Carolyn about the song, What Will You Do With a Drunken Sailor

      and claims Bill sang that, the ghost rather. Frankly I don't recall

      hearing that when she was being haunted but maybe I wasn't paying

      attention? We see the hall outside Vicki's room and it looks different

      somehow.

      Liz seems to have lied as Matthew tells David the fake reasons she gave

      for him to change the key to the lock to the closed off wing. She seemed

      to be protecting David. At one point, David mentions, "In this house,

      nothing's impossible."

      Carolyn calls herself selfish, scatterbrained, and other things. YEP,

      honey, you are. She's trying to convince Vicki to stay. The pair go to the

      room Vicki was stuck in, before Matthew has a chance to change it totally.

      David knows they are in there and questions Matthew but does not tell him.

      The tension mounts as we think the twosome will be trapped again and

      rather stupidly, Vicki shows Carolyn how the key fit in the lock and how

      it didn't come under the door but now...it does. HUH? I don't get ittttt.

      Vicki finds a ledger with the name B. Hanscomb on it. And Garner and

      Garner in Bangor, Liz's bankers or lawyers.

      David tells Vicki he loves her. Vicki asks Carolyn if David ever said that

      to any other living thing. Carolyn tells her that in Augusta or Augustus

      when she visited, David said that about a kitten but he drowned it. OKAY

      now why did they have to go and do that? I love animals and that is just

      overly disturbing and now it's hard to sympathize with David IMO.

      91

      Whenever Vicki asks about her past, Vicki noticed Liz acts evasive.

      Carolyn promises not to tell Liz about Vicki's real reason for a trip to

      Bangor. Liz mentions they have friends in Bangor and Vicki can stay with

      them. Vicki doesn't want to but will stay at a hotel. Maybe they were

      trying to build suspects in Bangor that could be related to Vicki's past

      and/or her parents, mostly probably her father. But that's just me. I

      stubbornly refuse to believe that anyone other than Liz IS her mother. A

      storm comes up. When Vicki and Carolyn ready to leave and walk out of the

      drawing room, Liz/Joan looks up at the ceiling. WHY?

      In outdoor shots, Carolyn and Vicki drive up, get out of their car and go

      into the Hotel Restaurant from the street! Inside, is Suzie. Carolyn

      secretly sets it up that Burke will come down and meet them but lo and

      behold, it backfires on her and Burke, rather than spend time with this

      immature spoiled bored brat, decides to drive Vicki to Bangor! That alone

      makes this ep worthwhile. Just. Burke and Vicki talk in the car.

      The car scene is strange. It looks as if the pair might be standing up in

      a partial car set! It looks sort of cramped. Burke is not very nice to

      Vicki in the car. Burke seems to flub and calls Vicki Carolyn or almost

      does. How can he make that mistake? Carolyn, the b$%*&, seems to intimate

      to Liz that Vicki went to Bangor to find out more about her past. Liz

      looks worried. Burke warns Vicki AGAIN to leave Collinwood and Collinsport

      and he's being a mean &*( of a $%^*& to Vicki. How dare he!

      Frankly I don't know how much longer I can go on watching these. They are

      not exactly action packed if you know what I mean. I'll give it my best

      shot but I don't know if I'll make ep 120 let alone 210! They're almost

      mundane!

92

      We're in November of 1966 if airdate is anything to go by. Richard Garner

      is seen and he calls and mentions his Secretary Miss Partridge (later of

      PARTRIDGE FAMILY? No, just kidding). Vicki mentions in this and the

      several episodes after it that this is the first time she's been away from

      Collinwood since she's started there. Richard (or as Liz later calls him,

      Dick; I'm reminded of ARE YOU BEING SERVED's Mr. Lucas, "Just call me Mr.

      Lucas!") tells Vicki that there used to be a B Hanscomb who served as

      Collinwood's butler. There used to be two chauffeurs, three cooks, an

      upstairs maid, a housekeeper, a butler, and gardeners and a handyman!

      Vicki tells him it is hard to believe that there was ever any gaiety at

      Collinwood but he tells her there was. There were also 12 extra workers

      there to stand in, I guess. Richard, in this "cliffhanger" and in a few

      later eps, seems to know Liz's secret about Vicki but on the whole he's a

      nice man and unlike anyone else in DS until his totally innocent and nice

      son, Frank appears! A job at Collinwood meant a job for life but all of

      them left Collinwood. Richard calls his son Frank in. Frank is totally

      taken with Vicki and makes no bones (!) about it. Since Frank is so young,

      he knows nothing about a B Hanscomb (spelling?). Richard's brother died

      five years ago and was partner then. I made note of the fact that Frank

      mentions an Emil Jones but I'm not sure why I wrote that down.

      Bangor Pine Hotel restaurant: Vicki and Burke chat. He tells her her eyes

      give her away: she's found nothing. Burke says something like this, "I

      trust me and I'm a pretty tough guy to convince." What's that mean? Burke

      also flubs, "I think it, well it, you came..." He calls her like a stray

      kitten. As they talk, a shimmering glare is behind Vicki. No, not a ghost

      just probably a reflection off her water.

      In the meantime, Richard calls Liz....to tell on Vicki...

      This episode more than any other thus far, seems like another pilot to

      re-introduce the show to viewers! We have Vicki not at Collinwood,

      arriving at a strange town in a hotel, meeting two new men...and

      encountering Burke...and explaining Vicki's whole situation again with

      plenty of talk about Collinwood... this pilot feel continues into the next

      few episodes...it also feels like the start to an old 1940s or 50s horror

      movie like I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (a GREAT movie by the way) or any old

      Universal horror/mystery movie.

      93

      The drawing room looks like someone's been smoking in it or started a fire

      or something. It's Smokey. The DS lettering looks different to me in the

      opening credits. Roger's scar is completely gone. Liz flub about, "What

      she's trying to do," when she means Burke! Then she corrects with a "he" I

      believe. Liz once more says Vicki is practically a member of the family.

      Okay, Carolyn is a donkey. The word I'm looking for starts with A and ends

      with S. She's horrible and a horrid person. Roger goes into David's room

      and seems to take an interest in his drawing. David sees ghosts, he says

      but Roger says there are no such things. A few eps ago he seemed to say

      that as a kid he saw things, too. When David reveals he is drawing Bill

      Malloy's ghost and that maybe Malloy is going to tell them that Roger

      killed Bill, Roger (for selfish reasons really but oh, it's so nice to

      see) smacks David across the cheek. HOORAY! The brat deserves it. Then

      proving that he is really Roger's son and not Burke's, he uses this and

      other things to try to manipulate others...okay, it’s wrong to smack any

      kid but really David's SOOOO BAD and SOOO AWFUL....Henesy plays it well

      too. David thought that Roger changed his mind and liked him now but David

      reaffirms his hate for Roger.

      Liz worries about B Hanscomb (could it have been her?). Carolyn calls

      Burke. B Hanscomb might have had a daughter or niece named Betty. As Liz

      talks to Carolyn, the ep has major sound issues. They discuss Paul, who it

      was said only wanted the Collins' money. Liz tells her that someone else

      wanted to marry her and Carolyn thinks it was Bill Malloy. Liz tells her

      it was Ned Calder. Joe reminds her of Ned. Liz is reading the

      teleprompter, her back on the closed drawing room doors. We see lights on

      ceiling that we're not supposed to.

      Roger tells Liz to get rid of Victoria Winters, that even when she's not

      here, her influence on David is poor. He balks at her idea of having seen

      a ghost. Roger does admit that things happen around here that are

      difficult to explain logically. Why can't he make up his mind? Or is it

      just part of a lie that he doesn’t believe in ghosts and he really does

      believe in ghosts? Liz tells Roger that Roger loves money more than he

      loves David but she's using that to her own advantage. The credits tell us

      to watch BATMAN!

      Another ep that seems like a pilot designed to introduce or re introduce

      Carolyn, Liz, Roger and David. They do what they've done since the

      beginning and Roger is back to treating David badly and David treats Roger

      badly; Carolyn acts nice and then acts mean. Liz broods and worries over

      Vicki's search for herself. It's basically a pilot! Or a brief retread of

      ep2 and 3!

      94

      The narrator for the clapboard makes a mistake and says the air date

      before the VTR date and corrects himself, "Rather VTR..." Joe and Carolyn

      are in Blue Whale. Carolyn is read by Joe as pretending to have a good

      time: he knows her and she's faking. She just wanted time away from that

      "house of horrors" she lives in. He mentions spooks and hobgoblins; she

      mentions it is a dungeon. Maggie comes in with Pop and is invited to sit

      down with them by Carolyn. I'm not sure if it' s a good thing or not but

      Maggie is played as being very obviously depressed that Carolyn and Joe

      are together. Carolyn and Joe mention something about Eagle's Point and

      walking up it or to it.

      In the meantime, Frank is still with Vicki chatting. When Vicki was 9

      years old a nurse came to work at the foundling home and Vicki pretended

      she was her mother. Vicki loved her but then the nurse moved on to another

      job. Frank is called away by the Anderson Will. They talked about B

      Hancomb as a she but wasn't that the butler?

      Maggie has to start work tomorrow at 6:30 AM. Sam or Maggie mention the

      boogie man. When the jukebox is on, someone is talking (a guest? A

      mistake?). When the camera focuses on Sam, it looks as if the lenses

      change. Joe and Carolyn's dancing/fight is silly looking for some reason

      but after the fight, Maggie is very happy. She and Joe bond and

      irritatingly Maggie goes over what she knows about sails and boats at

      Joe's urging. Are they going to be as obnoxious together as Carolyn and

      Joe are?

      Another sort of pilot that reintros Maggie, Joe and Sam and gives us the

      status of Carolyn/Joe. Frankly, the plot is going a little threadbare here

      and it's getting on my nerves yet again...Sam isn't as irritating here,

      certainly not more so than Maggie, Joe, and Carolyn. I DO think Joe and

      Maggie are better off together than Joe is being with Carolyn, the twit

      that she is.

      95

      STILL IN BANGOR! Vicki talks to Frank about the ghost. It's odd that this

      is DS and they are making a huge fuss over one ghost. In later years,

      ghosts will be almost common place as the furniture and no one will bat an

      eyelid as they've have too many other things to worry about, werewolves,

      curses, dreams, witches, vampires galore, Leviathans, Adam and Eve, and

      really evil ghosts. Vicki tells Frank when you're away from Collinwood,

      things seem different but there you find yourself believing things that

      you scoffed at before. Frank realizes she is terrified of the house and

      she admits it, telling him that there is something sinister in the air

      there and that evil comes seeping out of the walls. Frank urges her to

      leave. She feels she belongs at Collinwood and that maybe she can help

      David. Frank says he didn't know Vicki had a ride in Burke Devlin but I

      thought in another ep, he and Burke met and it was discussed in front of

      him by Burke and Vicki. When Burke goes off to meet with someone--James

      Blair I believe, Frank inquires about Vicki's relationship with him.

      Vicki tells him that Burke is sensitive and kind at times but is capable

      of cruelty and violence. Frank deems Burke that "He doesn't qualify as a

      boyfriend." When Frank asks if anyone at Collinsport is after Vicki as a

      girlfriend, and she says no, he says, "There must be something wrong with

      the male population of Collinsport." As he leaves, he tells her that he

      will search the records for more info but that they go back to 1879 but he

      will go through them all. It will take time.

      Burke asks Vicki where her bags are and she says in the lobby. Is someone

      watching them? Burke leaves Vicki alone at the table with James Blair, a

      nice enough man but he's writing with an exact same pen that Vicki found.

      He tells her about it: there are four in South America and two here, one

      with him and one with Burke. Vicki lies to Blair and at first I was not

      sure why. She suspects that Burke, who later confirms he does not have his

      pen with him or on him, killed Bill Malloy! Vicki tells Blair before Burke

      returns that she was mistaken and a good look at the pen revealed to her

      that it was not the same pen. She's lying! As they part company, Blair

      mumbles and might have called her "Miss Collins." Another storm comes up.

      Vicki calls Roger. Burke is supposed to drive her home but she doesn't

      want to go. She explains the whole thing to Roger, who agrees to come get

      her. At one time, Vicki is out of focus. There is a boom mike shadow

      present ALOT. The credits tell us to watch THE FBI!

      Not a bad ep but not great either. Vicki's plot is a bit threadbare and

      again we have more pen stuff resurface. I guess they have to go into that.

      It is a bit surprising that Vicki suspects Burke this much and calls for

      the one person who we as audience know probably did kill Bill: ROGER! Yet

      there's more surprises to come.

      Most of this though is talk, talk talk. I do like Vicki as a character but

      this is really another pilot and then circles back to being about the plot

      where it was: the pen and Burke's takeover. For what it's worth, it is not

      boring and Frank is a truly nice character in DS.

      96

      Roger, Vicki, the car, the storm. They talk about the pen, Burke, the

      murder as water hits the car window. Roger has to turn off the main road.

      This is one of the rare eps I saw back a long time ago. I actually thought

      it was more sinister and that Roger planned this whole thing and that the

      rainstorm wasn't as bad as Roger told Vicki it was but none of that in my

      memory was correct. Roger has to take a back road to avoid floods.

      In the meantime, George Patterson arrives at Collinwood at night, waking

      up Liz, who thinks Roger is still here and asleep. His car has stalled on

      Valley Road, one half mile from Collinwood. Liz takes him to the drawing

      room where the fire is still in the fireplace. The road at the bottom of

      the hill has washed out and when the storm dies out and the area dries

      they will have to fix it. Patterson calls someone, I thought it was a

      mechanic named Cal or maybe someone named Hal. He also calls his office I

      think and asks for Woodard and then acknowledges that he's speaking to

      Chuck. Is Chuck Woodard or are they two different people? Who knows.

      When Patterson has tea with Liz he tells her that people in town know

      about Burke's plans and the people in town want to help her in any way,

      the Collins business is the backbone of the town. This is surprising as it

      is often thought the townspeople just hate the Collins family so they

      really don't. Another surprising thing is Liz telling Patterson that her

      father wanted a boy. Patterson tells her she's doing a great job. He also

      mentions the back road to Bangor is out. There are only a few houses back

      there but most of it is lonely country.

      Which is where Vicki and Roger are in the car, Roger mentioning this might

      be a NorthEaster which could last three days. Roger has to stop the car to

      check how deep the water ahead is. There might be as much water behind

      them. He leaves Vicki alone in the car. Oddly, this is not played up and

      Vicki alone in the car could have been made to be a scary thing. It's not.

      When Roger gets back, he tells her he saw an abandoned shack (and a nice

      set that is too outside and in). The car won't start and he thinks it is

      the battery so they start out for the shack. In the shack they start a

      fire in the stove. Just how do those old fashioned stoves work? I have no

      idea. They toss stuff into a hole in the top!

      Vicki wants to know more about Roger. At first, before she asks this, they

      have some friendly banter about weddings and carrying one over the

      threshold...and Laura is mentioned yet again. One of Roger's wishes is for

      Vicki to leave Collinwood. He tells her it is for her own safety but he's

      just lying: he's afraid the pen business will come out. He tells her the

      pen could be a danger to her but it is really a danger to him. He tells

      her not to tell Carolyn, Liz or David about the pen. They discuss Bill

      Malloy, who was demoted when Roger returned. He thinks, lying to her

      really, that Bill was in on some plan of Burke's to do something against

      him but when Malloy backed out, he tells Vicki that Burke must have killed

      him.

      Okay, I'm convinced that some camera crew was trying to get the scoop on

      Collinwood and get entry somehow. They were killed either there or en

      route in their car (the smoking car that killed Nancy Barett's character

      as a well as John Karlen's character in NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS will do). In

      return, the camera crew haunt Collinwood and follow whoever lives there

      around. This is the only explanation for all the boom mike shadows, camera

      shadows, on screen cameras and mikes, strange hammering, thumps, squeaks,

      and other behind the scenes flubs. In addition sometimes they take over

      people's minds and make them say things that don't make sense or bring up

      names that aren't being addressed to the correct person!

      This ep is tense but could have been even more so if we were made to

      think Roger wanted to kill Vicki out here. Let's face it: no one knew

      Roger went to pick her up! Patterson comes to the shack, having seen the

      car and the note Roger left. Again, in past, I thought Roger faked that he

      left a note and got Vicki to the shack to menace her. He didn't. Patterson

      rescues them. Roger has convinced Vicki not to say anything about the

      blooming pen. In the shack, on the floor is what looks like a sink or a

      toilet bowl cover!

      During the credits, we hear thunder claps as the DS Music plays!

      97

      Liz is cold to Vicki the next morning. Carolyn is equally mean and only

      told Liz half the story about Vicki's ride to Bangor with Burke. Roger,

      for his own purposes, doesn't want Liz to browbeat Vicki this early in the

      morning. Liz tells Vicki that Betty didn't work here or something like

      that. She tells Vicki she trusts her. Vicki tells Liz the truth about

      Burke taking her and fills in some info that Carolyn didn't but she

      doesn't tell Liz that Carolyn was the one who called Burke down in the

      first place. I would have!

      Roger lies to Carolyn and tells her that he and Vicki were in the hotel,

      insinuating that he and Vicki were intimate with each other! Carolyn buys

      it. She tells him if they marry, Vicki will be her aunt! Carolyn is

      horrible to Vicki here but Vicki stands up to her several times, answering

      her back with stuff that Carolyn cannot counter. Roger, sarcastically asks

      "Is the boss available?" when Vicki emerges from the talk with Liz in the

      drawing room. Vicki calls Carolyn her best friend as she tells her off,

      telling her that she was responsible for Burke coming down and offering

      her the ride: Burke told her.

      When Roger comes back out, he puts his arms around both girls and as Vicki

      moves to leave for a walk to Sam Evan's Cottage without telling him, he

      balks. "Now don't you start on me," she tells him. There's a brief outdoor

      shot of Vicki walking down the steps of Collinwood and she has her scarf

      on but by the time she reaches Sam's house I don't think there was a

      scarf. She may have put it in her pocket.

      Before she gets there, Sam is jovial and singing something like BE AWARE.

      Sam quotes Alice In Wonderland, "Curiouser and curiouser" to Vicki about

      her quest for being there. He's positively nice to her and compared to the

      Collins, he's totally nice to her. Sam jokes that maybe Vicki was here to

      see the cat. I'm not sure they have a cat! Vicki seems to flub about the

      painting, "It isn't the likeness or the quality, it's the likeness..."

      They discuss B Hanscomb and Betty. Sam tells Vicki that he and Maggie's

      mum stayed to themselves. Originally, he and she were from Connecticut.

      Sam says, "I'm sorry for not making you feel more at home since you

      arrived here." He tells her that he tried to capture Betty's soul when he

      painted it, something ironic as in later years paintings seem to do

      exactly that. Sam gives the painting to Vicki.

      Liz and Roger discuss Betty and B Hanscomb. Roger was away at school and

      despite holidays, doesn't remember a butler. Liz thinks Betty could be B's

      niece or daughter. Roger wonders why Liz is protecting Vicki as much as

      she protects David and Carolyn. Liz says, "I told you, it is my

      responsibility." Did we see her tell him this on screen? did I miss it? It

      was in the synopsis but not on screen as far as I know. When Vicki return

      with the painting, Liz and Roger feel it is nothing like Vicki's face.

      Carolyn enters and happily tells Vicki it looks exactly like her...

98

      Liz and Matthew discuss Mrs. Johnson. Then we have the riveting cliffhanger

      of him going up the steps into the theme tune. Mrs. Johnson arrives and

      her room is the third right at the top of the stairs. The dine at 8 and

      she will cook dinner every night. Liz cautions her about certain members

      of the family and household: her brother Roger will be hostile to her but

      it will go away. As Liz talks, she mentions, “Neither one of them are used

      to strangers,” possibly including Matthew in that but its awkward. Johnson

      knows about the closed off east wing but Liz also tells her to not go into

      the basement. David is wearing a short sleeved shirt for what might be the

      first time (and last?). Liz tells him he’s being rude to Mrs. Johnson and

      might have to apologize to her again. They both relate what happened and

      that Burke made him apologize. Liz claims for once Burke was right. After

      Mrs. Johnson goes to put her things away, David refers to ghosts and that

      there are such things. Liz is clearly frustrated by him, “David!”

      As Matthew cleans the fireplace (something Ben will do in 1975 when Vicki

      first meets him, I think), David sneaks up on him and scares him and David

      Henesy is very, very good in this and the following episodes…as usual. His

      intonations and speech patterns are just about perfect as he says, “Are

      you scared of ghosts?” He’s one of DS’s highlights almost all the time

      he’s on screen. Johnson brings him lunch while Liz is on a walk. Ham is

      David’s favorite sandwich. She sits next to him and tells him that when

      she was a little girl on her street was a deserted house with secret

      rooms. David tells her there are secret rooms here, too—the attic (I’m not

      sure we ever see an attic in Collinwood), the East Wing, and the basement.

      Johnson tells him she doesn’t believe in ghosts. David says, “You will.”

      Matthew now creeps up on them. When David leaves with the tray, Henesy

      smiles on his way out to someone else. It’s most endearing. It’s now

      verbal sparring between Matthew and Johnson with him warning her.

      Later at night, Liz is reading and there’s a loud wind sound moving

      through the house and around it. Matthew comes to her and tells her not to

      trust Johnson. Liz is strong about keeping her on. In a slow but

      atmospheric sequence, Liz, amid the chimes of the clock, shuts all the

      lights and goes up to bed.

      3am as the chimes of the clock ring out as in another effective sequence,

      Johnson goes to the basement, carrying a flashlight. There are some very

      interesting shots and the set is marvelous. One shot is through a picture

      or painting frame that is hanging from the ceiling. A hand grabs her after

      a long search and its turns out to be a hiding David in a box. Boom mike

      shadow. David’s guessed the truth: that Johnson is a spy for his friend

      Burke. David hates his father, he tells her and hopes he dies. Johnson

      tells the boy that is a terrible thing. As David is sent up stairs after

      making a deal with her, “Member what I said.” He will keep his side of the

      bargain. He won’t tell anyone she was snooping where he was hiding if she

      doesn’t tell he was there, too. She never agrees to that. After David goes

      up the steps, Johnson hears loud sobbing on the other side of the locked

      door.

      A terrific episode mostly thanks to the strong acting from all concerned,

      not a flub in sight really. A strong use of music, character, set, mood,

      and …a creepy kid and a creepy caretaker. Johnson seems set to be the new

      victim in Collinwood but she doesn’t really turn out to be that.

      99

      Johnson wakes up early and phones Burke about Collinwood, “This house is

      haunted.” Into the theme. In fact, Collinwood is my choice for most

      haunted house on TV and probably is more haunted than any haunted house in

      the movies. I mean you can count ADDAMS FAMILY and THE MUNSTERS as haunted

      but those are comedies. THIS house is seriously haunted. Johnson tells

      Burke she’s a not a superstitious woman. Vicki tells Carolyn she met

      Johnson yesterday. Lots of things around these episodes happen that we

      don’t see and in a way I’m glad. Lots of boring stuff is talked about

      having happened yesterday…yes, some boring stuff that we don’t want to see

      and for once we didn’t get to see some of it. Carolyn had gone to see a

      movie and although she could have asked Vicki, she didn’t. She’s still mad

      at Vicki, the bia&^%. Vicki tells Carolyn there will never be anything

      between Burke and herself (meaning Vicki) but never say never. Johnson is

      listening. Carolyn detects that Vicki is somehow scared of Burke now.

      Johnson sneaks to Burke’s hotel room and tells him this and also that

      David has guessed what they are up to. She’s sure he will not tell. He

      asks her if she is afraid of the boogieman and is sure she isn’t…even when

      she’s sure he’s making fun of her. He assures her he is not and suggests

      possibly a vent in that closed room took sounds from another room. SO I’m

      not sure if he’s right or not. Is it Liz crying? Once that storyline

      straightens out, the crying is never brought up again…I think. Why would

      Liz cry all the time? Johnson has to hide in another room when Ezra Hearn

      (sounds like Ahearn or Hern) shows up and tells a beguiled, then angry

      Burke that they are not taking him up on his offer. Johnson apologizes

      after the man leaves. Is this a new actor playing Ezra? I’m not sure. He

      flubs when he says Stoddard as it comes out Stobbard. Burke or he flubs

      when they say, “We’ve said each everything…” HUH?

      Burke calls Carolyn for dinner at 7PM. Carolyn, bi polar thing that she

      is, is now happy because things are going her way and she apologizes to

      Vicki. Carolyn tells Vicki about the pen when Vicki tells her SOME of what

      happened with the pen. Carolyn doesn’t know Roger is now a suspect but

      Vicki strongly feels Roger might have killed Bill.

      Another strong episode with mounting tension and Moltke is very good.

      100

      Nancy Barrett is holding the clapboard. Vicki says Bill was killed long

      weeks ago. David is listening as in the drawing room we see outside and

      the trees are swaying and one is swinging! There is also coughing going

      on. David is listening as Carolyn claims she and Vicki are friends again.

      David comes in and Carolyn realizes he’s jealous. David will tell Roger

      about her date with Burke. She won’t let him stop her and says to Vicki,

      “He really is a little monster.” Carolyn will let Vicki take her car to

      town as long as she is back in time for her date with Burke. Carolyn is a

      jerk.

      Outside location: as Vicki drives the car up to the hotel and gets out and

      goes inside. Vicki tells Burke about the bloomin pen and about Roger. He

      murdered Bill Malloy both of them think. Vicki is smart. Burke asks her

      something and finishes with “Would you Vicki? Would you?” It’s fairly

      melodramatic.

      There is a quick camera jerk as Roger steps through the doors into

      Collinwood. Roger comes to David, “What devilment have you been up to

      today?” David says, “Miss Burke Devlin” by mistake instead of “Mr.” Roger

      and Carolyn have a fight in Carolyn’s room, which we might be seeing for

      the first time. Unlike the other sets, it’s not very impressive. Carolyn

      tells Roger about the pen. He now knows about Vicki suspecting him.

      The end credits says, “Where will the TIME TUNNEL lead to this week, the

      distant past or far into the future. Wherever it takes you danger and

      suspenseful drama await as you step into the TIME TUNNEL.” An okay ep but

      not great. Furthering things is always a good idea and this one moves

      faster than usual so that’s good.