She's Victoria Winters, no other actress could really do the character justice. She rang my chimes watching her on that show. My idea of a girl I would like to meet.
I hate to admit this, but I actually have never finished the original series because Alexandra leaves the show and it was her story, as Victoria Winters in search of herself, that hooked me into watching the show.
Sent her an e-mail in 2012 and she replied. My grandfather used to be her mother's hairdresser. Mab Wilson-Moltke sent my grandfather a letter in June of 1944. I sent Alexandra a copy. She was very cordial and appreciative of my contact.
I think the initial plot when the series started was the best one and I was very disappointed they never solved the family connection between Vicky and the Collins, but Victoria was great ... and her hair amazing.
Victoria was the central character of the show. The various storylines all played to her involvement with them and how they affected her. Even after Barnabas arrival she continued to be central. It was only after time travel back to 1795 storyline that her role lessened and Barnabas took over as central character to the show.
She and Burke Devlin were tailor made to the original format of the show, which was really just a standard soap opera with no supernatural attachments. When the flashy and/or supernatural characters came on to the scene, both Victoria and Burke were severely marginalized.
@@user-kf8wb2cq4f after her unremitting Love for Peter Bradford there just wasn't anyplace for her left in the show. She had to return to 1795 and remain there to be with him forever. Barnabas even assisted them in their return going back and changing the timeline. He and Ben Stokes even burned Angelique there When we last seen Victoria and Peter they were leaving Collins Port to travel Westward. In 1795 that would be no further then Pennsylvania or Ohio! lol. The writers knew by that time Barnabas was the entire show. Kids rushed home from school everyday after school to watch the next episode. The show was a national craze. As Vampires go Barnabas was second only to Dracula.
Dean, what a great observation I hadn't thought to verbalize. Yes, a sweetness, purity, clarity to her voice that added to all that Victoria was! All actors want to play the interesting bad guy that makes everything happen, but in the end it is Victoria who stand tallest, never to be forgotten. Alexandra, the dreaded 'goodie/goodie' is all important and indeed you were the centerpiece of DARK SHADOWS. As heroine, damsel in distress, you were as good as it gets and meant everything to me. Was it Barnabus who I raced home from school every afternoon to see? It wasn't. No, for me, it was always about the Victoria... Although, admittedly, I realize I am in the minority... Can you say, 'good hair'? HA!
Alexandra, of course I understand your comments as to the limits of your character, but the beguiled are never thinking about that as it never occured to me that Victoria was a bit of a dim bulb. If you could only see the charm of Victoria Winters through the eyes of many of us who watched and feel under her spell, your heart would swell with pride.
With Victoria being held captive at the old house, locked in a closet or the drama of being burned at the stake (actually hung from the rafters!), my very life (and week{s}) was spent on the edge of my seat until Victoria was, once again, safe! Please, God...
@@garywarmee4367 I started watching the show when it was announced they'd be introducing a vampire. But I always thought of Vicky as the heroine and one of the focal points (for me) of the show. I don't think I was even very aware of the unresolved issue of her origin either. Still I was more disappointed by her departure than I expected. I'm marathon watching all the pre-Barnabas episodes now, and having watched the first 80, she doesn't seem to be a dimwit, at least not yet. She seems to be earnest, and "intrepid" as Alexandra put it. The person you can most relate to. Perhaps she turns into a "what could this mean?" type of naif as the show developed, I can't recall. Also, I don't recall having to race home from school, at least not too quickly, to see the show, even when I had a long walk. Maybe the show aired earlier in the non-eastern time zones. I seem to recall it airing 3:30pm and then it moved to a later time for all it's younger fans.
When the show went supernatural, her role took a different route. If the vampire story never caught fire, the show probably would have centered about Vicky since it would have been revealed she was actually Elizabeth's daughter.
We never really found out why she was hired by Elizabeth without even seeing her. The whole 1st season was about avoiding this question, and then Barnabas came and everyone forgot about it.
The original "bible" for the show, written by Art Wallace, iirc, had it that Vicky was Paul Stoddard's daughter with a local woman he had an affair with -- Betty Hanscom -- and it was he who took the baby to NYC and wrote the note about not being able to care for her. Liz Stoddard found out about it and felt a sense of responsibility for the child, once Paul "died," and that was why she hired Vicky. But because Barnabas, Angelique, Julia, Josette, et al., began to be the real interests of the audience, the producers just let that storyline fade away. Also, the show didn't always stick to that original "bible." I know Joan Bennett said that Vicky was Liz's daughter, but that was many years later, and who knows.
@@Historian212 While Vicki's original parentage was true they decided to change it because of Alexandra's resemblance to Joan Bennett. While it was never revealed on the show itself it was revealed in the Dark Shadows audio series that was created years later. When Elizabeth Collins Stoddard died it was revealed during the reading of her last will and testament that Vicki was her daughter that she gave up because she was unmarried at the time.
@@Historian212The Portrait of Betty Hanscom!! That's why Elizabeth acted so strangely when vicky showed her the painting she knew that lady was her mother
See interview 1986 20th anniversary of Joan Bennett goes into character one last time of Liz Stoddard and admits “Victoria Winters was indeed her daughter “. !!!!
Vicky was the outsider who couldn't bridge life as an orphan to Collinwood completely. Yes, watch early stories where Vicky tries to find her parents. It's obvious that Liz is bringing home her daughter. My pick for father? Jason McGuire!
When Victoria was written out of the show, that left a major gap that was never filled. I think it would have been possible to do a storyline where she was possessed by a demon, why not?
Robert Pentangelo they should either have had Vicki Winters possessed or made her into a little bit more aggressive, heroic character. I thing it was a great mistake not to accommodate her. Although I think its much harder to play a nuanced character who is basically good, but has a little bad in them.
Because Dark Shadows at one point turned from a story, suspense and mystery oriented show to a fan oriented one, where characters lives were saved by popular demand. If they got upset over the prospect of a beloved character being killed off they'd deluge the set with letters. This made the show a load of fan service crap and frankly ruined it. Which is why I don't bother with the audio dramas. There's no point to them, except nostalgia
On "American Horror Story: Asylum" Sister Mary Eunice is introduced as a kind and meek character but she soon becomes taken over by a wicked demonic presence, and her personality shifts to something vile and vicious. I felt so badly about the character losing control to evil but I also relished the fact that Lily Rabe got to flaunt her acting skills with the fierceness of a samurai warrior, playing the possessed nun. I totally understand how Ms. Moltke here would feel the yearning to do something totally different, character-wise. It could have worked-- the fans would have felt such deep pity for Victoria; the key would be to occasionally show her genuine self on the show, the decent and wholesome Victoria ... agonizing to return to normal.
Sam Hall said in an interview; ''I told Alexandra that I was sorry for the lines we gave her, and she told me ' no, I love you and I love the show but I HATE ACTING''. That was in an interview I saw of his on RU-vid.
That’s a strange statement. Sam Hall was head winter, was he forced to write her that clueless? I feel sorry while watching at times because she had to act as dumb as a rock sometimes. It’s all on the writing, and the decisions made behind that writing. There’s nothing to indicate Sam Hall had any respect for the character regardless of what you quote, because he literally had the power to give her different lines and do more with the character.
I think it was because the original premise of the show changed just like how Family Matters changed when Jaleel White came on and Steve Urkel became the focal point of the show. Once Jonathan Frid came on his character Barnabas became the focal point and it deviated away from the original premise which was Victoria trying to find herself by finding out who she truly was. As much as I loved the character of Barnabas and what he brought to the show I can understand why Alexandra could have been put off by this and therefore chose to leave and wanting to explore the range of her character which up to that point was pretty one dimensional and while Betsy and Carolyn did their best Alexandra brought a certain quality to the role that they couldn't and unfortunately the audience took notice as well.
My one criticism of Dan Curtis was his decision to "kill" Victoria off camera. Alexandra had long left the show, the character of Victoria had long been written out, but the ghost of Peter Bradford revealed that Victoria had been killed by the Leviathans shortly after returning to the 18th century. There was absolutely no reason for this other than Dan "getting back" at Alexandra for refusing to return to the show.
He could be pretty nasty man i believe, I heard he treated Jonathan Frid terribly at the end of Dark Shadows because Jonathan didn't wanna do Night of Dark Shadows.
As the show progressed her character seemed to me unnecessary until she left..and man did that leave a gaping hole in the show for a while..and no one could replace her afterwards.
+CrassMufumbu Precisely why she left. (I never bought the pregnancy excuse, the producers simply could have temporarily written her out of the show). The characters of Angelique, Barnabas and Julia simply overwhelmed the character of Victoria. The only thing that kept her relevant for awhile was Barnabas' crush on her, and the jealousy of both Angelique and Julia. But that quickly grew stale. One must remember that Victoria was one of the ORIGINAL characters, as well as the INTENDED STAR of the show. However, that was when the show was geared toward a housewife audience as an intrigue based soap opera (NO supernatural effects). When the producers decided to go the supernatural route with an aim toward schoolkids as an audience, the character of Victoria became too sappy.
@@atlantic-yq2wr Most of the actors on the show played multiple roles. They could have just killed off Victoria, and Alexandra given another role. No. Alexandra was married a few months before she left. She was pregnant.
I feel sad when I hear Alexandra Moltke..not being happy with her Victoria Winters role--thst she was too naive. Vicki wasn't stupid. She was Us, the Viewer..she played the mysterious, innocent character being brought into the World of the Supernatural. There would have been No Stories without the "Regular Characters" and They made DS truly interesting.
Von Moltke family came from Prussia and were part of its war machine until the end of WWI, her ancestor was on the Kaiser's General Staff when Prussia invaded France in 1870...
She's absolutely gorgeous. She was the best Victoria Winters. Wish SO much that she could have come back for the Parallel Time episodes. Would have been AWESOME seeing her as crazy as the rest of the characters in that story line.
I always thought this was a poor send off for Alexandra as Victoria Winters. Especially since she was our original heroine and introduction into the world of Dark Shadows. She was my favorite character. If they had to have a replacement, I thought Carolyn Groves was good, but she was only hired for 3 episodes. I always hated in 1970, when we hear from the ghost of Peter Bradford, how Vicki died. Also, how they found Vicki's stored clothes in Collinwood's basement for a now living Daphne (Kate Jackson) to wear. Alexandra was forever hard to replace. Although I do think during the DS Revival in 1991, Joanna Going, was excellent as Victoria Winters.
After all this time to see the show actually seen and seen again is a testament to its creator, actors, director, writers and of course the production team.
vicky was pretty yes but I always like Lara now she was beautiful and after meeting her at the ds festival four different times I can also say that she is very nice kathryn leigh scott also is a very very nice very beautiful woman
Yes she was. A story was written and a read recorded. After Liz had passed away a letter she had written to Caroline was found explaining to her that Vicki was her sister. Please find Vicki and bring her into the family. Look for it. You’ll find it.
Just finished watching the end of the series and seeing the Daphne Harridge character. It reminded me a lot of Victoria Winters. I always liked Victoria and it would have been interesting to see, what would have happened if she did come back. Its sad that at one point Peter Bradford comes back as a ghost just to say Victoria was dead or killed.
+Patrick Hozjan I could never understand that. Why not just have left the character of Victoria alone? Unless the producers thought that mentioning her so much later in the show would raise the ratings. In the audio shows released just a few years ago, the will of the now dead Elizabeth Collins Stoddard confesses that Victoria was indeed her daughter by an adulterous relationship, and urges Carolyn Stoddard to somehow reclaim Victoria from the past, an implication that she did not really die?
atlantic 11561 I remember hearing that, and nearly bursting into tears, largely because of the unrealized potential that was never addressed on the show, and also because hearing Carolyn in tears at the realization that her best friend, one of her closest friends was her sister and she never knew, the weight of that realization is heartbreaking. It woukd be nice of big finish, who do dark shadow audios manage to wrangle her into doing some and fond a way for Victoria to.not be dead or something. Cuz I wpuld.just love to hear on an audio drama proper her once again saying the words 'my name is Victoria Winters...'
Who would know that the first two characters seen on that train in Episode 1, Burke and Victoria, would both meet tragic endings. They were the originally intended stars, but that was also when DS was still in its housewife soap opera stage. When the show went the supernatural route, Burke and Victoria were marginalized by the characters of Angelique, Barnabas, Julia, etc. I wonder if there is any truth to the rumor that Dan Curtis was so upset with Alexandra for not coming back to the show that he decided to kill off the character of Victoria out of spite. Sadly, the mystery of Victoria's background would never be really resolved. Oddly enough, Burke and Victoria would be "resurrected" in one of the Marion Ross novellas "The Curse Of Collinwood", published after their characters had been written out of the show. They team up to stop the zombie couple of Derek and Esther Collins!
There were actually two replacements. The first one was too shrill and unconvincing. The second one looked more like Alexandra and was an all around better actress, but by that time, she had been hired under the knowledge that she would only make a few appearances before being written out of the show.
"at one point Peter Bradford comes back as a ghost just to say Victoria was dead or killed" Perhaps the producers did that to stifle public demand for Vicky's return (if that was the case, I don't know how many letters they got, but it does seem odd for them to bother to kill off a character who was long gone from a show)
Have you ever seen Joan at 22 yrs. old, 23? Molke bears no resemblence to her whatsoever. Bennett was extremely delicate, petite and gorgeous. In fact she was a natural blonde.
She would have comeback during the leviathans and wanted to be part of them. They turned her down. Peter Bradford came back at that time. I wished they let her comeback and the storyline would have been better.
I think she dumped the dude when she found out he was a killer. She was a powerhouse in the courtroom. Still probably in her 30s. Don’t know why her and Nancy Barrett both married old guys. They were still young n great looking. Go for the younger guys......
Nina She's made award winning documentaries, one relating to the Jewish struggle in Denmark against the Nazis. She has a website, just look up Alexandra Isles. It has a list and dsscription of her documentaries, five in all
With all due respect to Alexandra, her insistence that Victoria become an evil possessed character as a prerequisite to her returning to the show was a bit unreasonable. Victoria had been the basis of Dark Shadows, and to compromise her in any way would have been unacceptable.
Very true. She and Burke Devlin were intended for the original format of the show, that is, a classic soap opera featuring intrigue, revenge and romance, but nothing supernatural. Neither character seemed to fit in well when Barnabas, Julia, Angelique, and others came on to the scene. That is precisely why both were written out of the show.
Originally, Victoria was supposed to be revealed as Elizabeth's out of wedlock daughter. But when the show shifted from a housewife to schoolkids audience, that would have been too racy and scandalous. Instead, Victoria was revealed to be a reincarnation of her eighteenth century self, and when her character no longer was relevant to the show, she was transported back to her own time. (By that point, Alexandra was no longer playing the role).
She was never the basis of the show, she was a very reserved nanny who never brought David anywhere nor even left the house. After one year the show was folding, it held nobody's interest and then came BARNABAS.
@@billlamont817 of course they are standard jacket construction - I'm talking about the intentionally exaggerated shoulder pads of the '80s that were a throwback to the '40s --- guessing you didn't look like Joan Crawford in your schoolboy blazer
Totally SUCKS they couldn’t accommodate the littlest request she had for her character to play “evil”. She didn’t even ask for more money! She just wanted her character to be seduced by the darkness. I know the show was a ratings success but they would have had the original Victoria back and maybe her story would have had better closure. It really was about Victoria as it was Barnabas.
