Julia gives a spectacular wallop of a slap to Cassandra in reaction the the presumed doom of Barnabas with the completion of the Dream Curse.
It’s a magnificent smack, matched only by the suitably striking attire of both its bearer and its target.
Playing offense, Dr. Julia Hoffman never looked better in this classic tweedy skirt suit and apricot blouse, complemented by a gold necklace in four strands. I like to think this is the closest Orbach’s can get to Chanel.
On defense, Cassandra offers a much more contemporary late sixties look for receiving the angry thwack: a sleeveless shamrock dress with a roomy pocket prescient of cargo pants, tied at the waist with a metallic belt. What really sets this outfit off, however, are the studs on her right shoulder, like a half-set of glimmering epaulets to show she’s only half-ready for battle.
I do wish that Julia’s slap had knocked off one of Cassandra’ hoop earrings, or at least set her gleaming black Liz Taylor wig slightly askew. Maybe it would have been too difficult for Grayson Hall and Lara Parker to continue a good working relationship after engaging in slapping at the gold-standard level set by June Allyson and Joan Collins in The Opposite Sex.
Note: Vicki’s unadorned sleeveless dress in a near eggplant hue provides a nice contrast to Cassandra’s and is far less offensively bland than most of her other sad-sack outfits.
And since we’re in 1968, it’s only fitting that someone created a gif paying tribute to both the Batman series and the best high-fashion smackdown yet on Dark Shadows:
Doris W.
mrlousy
Raúl Zingle
1630revellodrive 
Dear RZ, just discovered your “Dark Shadows” posts: they are brilliant and hilarious! I greedily read them all at once, and now want MORE. Did you lose interest? I’m rewatching the series after 40 years with great enjoyment. You are fantastic at pointing out the ridiculous, convoluted plotlines that are never resolved and your gay readings are perfect (not, alas, something I was consciously aware of as a teen). The overt gayness of Craig Slocum took my breath away–as did Christopher Bernau’s later portrayal of antique dealer (!) Philip Todd. He was being gay in a way that must have been unprecedented on 60s TV. And what of Professor Stokes (with monocle!) relationship with Adam?….One of my favorite treats from show is the appearance of 1960s bedding (peacock blue sheets and harvest gold blankets) in every era: 1790s, 1840s, 1890s. And thank you for noticing the turquoise candles! Well thank you again for the pleasure of your posts…I am mostly saddened by how humorless (and homophobic) so many of the DS fans seem to be. George in NJ
Thank you! I relished my rediscovery of Dark Shadows eight (!) years ago, and I need to get back into showcasing the personal highlights.
I slipped off the DS wagon not as a conscious choice but out of a number of other demands. It’s never left my consciousness, though, and I do intend to get back in. There was a bit of a comedown when the 1795 storyline ended, so that made it a bit easier for me to drop off. (But the end of the “flashback” with the return to the seance from SIX MONTHS earlier is a high point in television history for me.)
The show is so outlandishly gay, but I think we owe our humorless and homophobic friends an ironic debt of gratitude since their consumption of the show without catching the gay appeal allowed it to stay on the air in a very different time – as well as solidified its camp aspects, by which I mean that real camp never places itself above its intended audience. The show is bleeding a very gay sense of camp, but it would lose that charm without the chunk of the audience oblivious to it. That’s how I watched it as a child. That’s how my babysitter watched it. Not with a wink, but with a steadfast earnestness.
Thanks again for your encouragement. I have yet to meet some of the characters that you cited, so now I have more to look forward to!