LornaHansonForbes

below is a link to the main list of episode summaries on the aforementioned DARK SHADOWS EVERYDAY BLOG. It is surprising how well written and thought-out many of them are, and they have some gossipy details as well. https://darkshadowseveryday.com/episode-guide/

Well, to be fair, I didn't think she was particularly good as Olivia Corey [the actress who is reincarnated in 1970 during the Leviathon story], but compared to the chick who played JOANNA IN 1840, she is A VERITABLE STREEP.

It makes me want to rewatch the episode

here is a link to the humorous- and astoundingly thorough- blog on every episode of DARK SHADOWS (the name of the blog is DARK SHADOWS EVERY DAY). In this particular installment, the writer is reviewing episode 698, which deals with SABRINA and her brother played by ROGER DAVIS. It's funny, because it's one of the first episodes of the series that i saw, and looking back, the writer nails a lot of the problems with the storyline, not the least of which is that is was abandoned entirely for 1897. the writer wrings some humor out of the icky fact that ROGER DAVIS will not keep his hands off the actress playing his sister. https://darkshadowseveryday.com/2015/08/08/episode-698/

OH MY!!!!!! I just realized I have made a goof, it is LEE BEERY who plays JOANNA (very badly). not DONNA McKETCHNIE (they look similar and are both heavily made up)

JOANNA, that was the name of the third (?) useless character that DONNA McKECHNIE did on DARK SHADOWS. Just looked it up. fyi, there is a DARK SHADOWS WIKI, basically an online resource equivalent to wikipedia for the show and it gives INDIVIDUAL EPISODE synopsises and cast lists and bloopers and trivia and first and last appearances of characters and actors and it is GOLD. It also links, for each episode, to a very funny parody/review blog. a link to their entry for episode 1190: https://darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/1190

HOWEVER, in live theater, she OBVIOUSLY knew what she was doing:

sorry to return to a dead horse, but I have been catching up on some of the 1840 (not parallel time) episodes I skipped over in impatience and am reminded of why i skipped ahead as DONNA MCKECHNIE has returned as...****, I don't know her name, KATE JACKSON'S SISTER, shoehorned oddly and needlessly in near the end of the storyline just as she was in 1897. and MY GOD, if you thought ED SULLIVAN read badly off cue cards, take a look at any of the 1190-1193 (i think) episodes. they have started shooting her in close-up so that she doesn't have to even interract with the other actors as she reads off the teleprompter with "fourth grade book report on JOHNNY TREMAIN" levels of commitment and intensity. "but Quentin, you cannot" (squints) "Go." (eyes dart left and right.) "To Colin." (squints again) "Wood".

or do we think JULIA was more of a CHESTERFIELD girl?

[eerie music] "Collinwood, Leap Year, 1971 Parallel time...a trio of wary travelers have emerged- yet again- from a room that transports through not just time, but existence itself- where a door opens into not only another era, but another reality within that era...and within that era within a reality within a time that awaits them, there is a gathering of others whose fates they have altered in other eras and times..." VOICEOVER: CAROLYN/PANSY/LETICIA SINGING: "I'm gonna dance for you...gonna chase your cares away...." INTERIOR: COLLINWOOD DRAWING ROOM CAROLYN/PANSY/LETICIA continues gadding about the room as she continues her song for it's ninth consecutive hour with no signs of slowing up. Sitting on the couch is ELIZABETH COLLINS STODDARD, only she has been possessed by the spirit of NAOMI COLLINS. She is spinning the loaded chamber in a revolver and staring [with intese hatred] at PANSY. LETITIACAROLYNSY: "someone to hootchie-koo, and tur-rara-boombier (sic)" ELIZABETH/NAOMI SIGHS HEAVILY, then puts the revolver back in the drawer and pours out the last of the mid-morning Sherry. The phone rings and ROGER steps into the room wearing ELIZABETH'S DAFFODIL-YELLOW CAFTAN with HIGH NECKLINE. Roger removes a CLIP-ON EARRING and answers the phone: ROGER: "YES, this is ELIZABETH COLLINS STODDARD..." Watching from the FOYER are BARNABAS and JULIA, who reacts with SHOCK. JULIA: "BARNABAS!! WHAT DID HE JUST SAY? BARNABAS: "Apparently, under a curse from Angelique, the spirit of ELIZABETH COLLINS in 1971 actual time but not a leap year has possessed Roger in leap year 1971 parallel time. Only she has no recollection of what she came here to tell us..." JULIA: So what do you think BARNABAS!!, should we call it a day or or try the parallel time room again or what? I mean, we've been in worse times and realities than this..." (bewildered look) BARNABAS; "I don't know JULIA, let us see what ELLIOT has to tell us on his return from the village..." JUST THEN, THE DOORS BURST OPEN: IT'S ELLIOT, AND THE LOOK ON his face is one that betrays he REGRETS DEEPLY what he must tell them. JULIA "Oh Christ, Eliot! what, is it? What's wrong with this reality? Is NIxon still President?" ELIOT: "Worse. I went to the Rexall, Julia..." JULIA: "And?" ELIOT: "Julia, I regret to tell you..." (cannot finish) JULIA: "Eliot, please, tell me!" ELIOT: "Julia, in this reality and this time frame, stringent tobacco laws have outlawed its manufacture and sale entirely, therefore I could not pick you up a carton of unfiltered LUCKY STRIKES as you requested because, sadly, in this time and universe, they do not exist." CUE: REACTION MUSIC FOR CLOSE-UP AS JULIA REACTS!

I am pretty impressed with the catalogue of TUBI. They even have FACES OF DEATH- if you're "in" to that sort of thing. Also, as aforementioned, the commercials are pretty minimal, if repetitive- i would not have been able to have made it as far as i have into the DARK SHADOWS episodes if there were a PLUTO-TV level of ads, i think, accounting for the edit of the end credits, each episode goes by- commercials and all- in 26-27 minutes. (it's not fair to watch it like that, i know, I;ll never know the long slow agony of love and hate that came from waiting every day for an installment, of this particular show, but as someone who grew up on soaps in the 80's,. I know the feel. they also have DAN CURTIS'S BRAM STOKER'S JACK PALANCE'S DRACULA on TUBI, a 1974 TV movie that apparently got preempted by NIXON addressing the nation. ..it's um, okay. It means well and all, but I was not terribly impressed.

For me though, BEA ARTHUR is the ONLY TURKEY LURKEY,

thank you to everyone for the BROADWAY HISTORY LESSON, I am SORELY LACKING in knowledge on that front.

Actually, The Blue Whale was a surprisingly open and tolerant joint. The real problem was the fact that Roger Collins had worn down the record of IT’S RAINING MEN on the jukebox to where it would no longer play.

also, gotta love that JEB is short for "JABEZ", WHICH I THOUGHT had to be a made-up name until I googled it and it's real. it's from the Bible and it means BRINGER OF SORROW, which kinda helps to explain why you never find it in the personalized license plate/coffee mug section of the gift store. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabez_(biblical_figure)

he played the owner of the antique shoppe who becomes the "stern father" of the fast-growing LEVIATHAN child (who turns into CHRIS PENNOCK) i REALLY DID MYSELF A DISSERVICE (oops, caps lock) in skipping over so much of the LEVIATHAN story, I am now able to understand CHRIS PENNOCK'S odd performance as "JEB" because he is essentially literally playing a bratty manchild, which I didn't get why before, but now i do.

things just got SO EXHAUSTING and unfocused by the end of 1897, first they pair QUENTIN with BETH, then bring in ANGELIQUE to suddenly decide SHE has to have him, then they pair him with CHARITY and then they throw AMANDA into the mix (on top of also recasting KATHRYN LEIGH SCOTT as KITTY SOAMES) and then AMANDA is around for a handful of episodes and she's gone. I guess it's good to see them continuing the story for continuity's sake, but damn, the actress is so bad and the whole story seems so forced.

https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Shadows-Complete-Original-Deluxe/dp/B007PZ6SYK/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dark+shadows+coffin+set&qid=1631813900&sr=8-1 they have a used one for $299.99!!

You know her from something else?

she has also UNDENIABLE PRESENCE ONSCREEN:

quite a few fans have mentioned what an awesome person she is in real life...and while she is "odd" as Megan, it's an odd character and an odd story and she is oddly fascinating (also, i admit i cheated and skipped ahead and know about MEGAN and PHILLIP's fates!)

apologies if this offends, but something about the LEVIATHAN storyline that I am surprisingly amused by has been the three characters of MEGAN and her HUSBAND as well as "actress" OLIVIA COREY, who is the reincarnation of AMANDA from 1897- although the character in that storyline had, i felt, next to NO POINT AT ALL. MEGAN is portrayed by MARIE WALLACE with a misplaced INTENSITY that I just cannot help but chuckle at- it's my understanding from watching some interviews that MARIE WALLACE has been very kind and supportive of the fans of the show, so I'll let her be...(ALSO, THIS WIG IS EVERYTHING) her husband is played by CHRIS BERNAU and- again, apologies- but WOW, HE IS GAY. Like the guy couldn't fool HELEN KELLER. Gay gay. Gay gay gay gay gay...[I imdb'd him and saw his tragic fate, so I'll also let him be]...AND AGAIN, he's not a bad actor, just SO OBVIOUSLY GAY he makes LOUIS EDMUNDS look BUTCH (no small feat at that) but DONNA MCKECHIE (and I apologize if i spell her name wrong) is just so spectacularly bad as OLIVIA/AMANDA (and she later shows up in 1840 as another character) that honestly, I'm amused. I saw her in a scene with DAVID SELBY yesterday where FOR THE ENTIRE EXCHANGE she is looking OFFSTAGE TO THE RIGHT and you CAN SEE HER EYEBALLS MOVE AS SHE READS OFF THE DAMN TELEPROMPTER, (very badly I might add- it reminded me of the "brain fever/brake fluid" misread at the end of SOAPDISH. )

And INSURANCE!!!!!

no, wait. i bet it's a MERCEDES TURBO DIESEL