The music in the video is called No. 1 At The Blue Whale. It was the song you most often heard when the scene was taking place in the Collinsport bar - The Blue Whale. I don't know who put the video together, but they must have been a Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) fan.
She started while the show was still in black and white. She was quite a progressive character
To this day I'm not 100% sure that she was even supposed to be a "she". In the days leading up to her introduction, the main doctor of the Windcliff Sanitarium, Dr. Woodard, would refer to his colleague that he would soon be consulting with often as "he." He will know all about it. He will be coming soon. When I talk to Dr. Hoffman, I'll ask him. On one hand, the way he seemed to put undo emphasis on the male pronouns, it seems like an obvious feint. Like trying to lead the audience into thinking Dr. Hoffman is a man, but then surprise! On the other hand, this is pretty trend setting stuff for 1966.
She's a medical doctor in a time where the profession was dominated by men. She smokes on screen. Everybody smoked back then, but the pretty, good girls weren't often portrayed as doing so. She was also portrayed as drinking bourbon (a whiskey) instead of a milder, ladies drink like sherry. When one is free to be honest, you have to admit that she was not attractive and she had a 5-pack-a-day voice to match. Of course the aesthetics don't matter because Hall was a terrific actress, but most shows don't deliberately hire such an unlikely woman to fill a major role. My guess is that Dr. Julia Hoffman wasn't meant to be a major role at first.
The movie Night Of Dark Shadows plays out the Barnabas story as it was originally conceived for the most part. A few weeks of terror from a vampire before he's finally staked. I think Julia Hoffman was a casualty in that version... which is another reason why I suspect the television role was originally meant for some random man, not necessarily a woman. As it played out on television however, things changed. Julia kept herself safe from the wrath of the vampire by promising to cure him. This is one of the things that led to Barnabas' popularity. That tragic hope in his eyes, that he need not continue as a monster. It melted hearts everywhere and made Dr. Hoffman a permanent fixture. Of course, it moved slowly in the world of soap operas. First Barnabas is a bully and threatens her constantly and even makes her kill Dr. Woodard.
But, eventually when Barnabas changes into a complete good guy, she's right there by his side, following him into any time period, specializing in hypnosis and sedatives to help him battle the forces of evil and working tirelessly on his cure.
And speaking of time periods, although the names were changed for the characters that were in them, their personalities remained the same for the most part. Julia was one of the few that got to behave differently and have a little variety in the period characters she was assigned. In 1795 she was Josette's Aunt Natalie. She read tarot cards and was a bit of a gossip, but also a protective, motherly figure to Josette. Much different than the professional woman that Dr. Hoffman was.
In 1897 she was Magda Rakosi, a gypsy. They darkened her skin, gave her a long black wig and had her sport an vague Eastern European accent. She also read the cards, but she was Barnabas' willing servant since he was a nicer guy in this time and, at risk of sounding un-PC, they never wanted him to bite the "ugly chick." Magda was eventually killed so that Julia Hoffman could join Barnabas in this timeline and help to wrap things up with her skills as a doctor. When I first started watching Dark Shadows it was shortly after the 1897 story line had started so I saw Magda before Julia Hoffman and it was how I came to understand how they utilized the characters in these different time traveling stories.
Her most surprising change was in the story where Barnabas travels to an alternate 1970 timeline. In this parallel time, Julia Hoffman was not a doctor, but Angelique's devoted servant and she was evil. She helped to plot against the characters and was onto Barnabas' secret, ready to betray him to her mistress. It's kind of a shame that once a character was aligned a certain way on Dark Shadows that they never got a chance to be turned into an opposite alignment. This is as close as we come to a genuine "heel turn" for one of the characters. It doesn't last long, of course. The good and loyal Dr. Julia Hoffman finds a way to follow Barnabas into the parallel time, kill her counterpart and masquerade as "Miss Hoffman" for a while to help our hero.
It's also a shame that the unattractive actress was never given the prize of a love story. Julia Hoffman loved Barnabas, but his affections were always planted elsewhere with the more beautiful actresses of the show. After you watch any good and well preformed character long enough, you stop thinking of them as unattractive though. In my eyes, her features and manner softened and I think she should've had her chance in at least one alternate timeline. Even Joan Bennett, the show's matriarch would shift between playing a single mother to someone's wife, even if she was only pursued for her money. I suppose the fault lies not only in her lack of beauty but the time the show was made in as well. Things were different in the 60's. The sacrifice of a character that embodied a progressive, professional woman was that she could not have both the career and the love life. I won't elaborate on the issue... there have been valid points made on both sides. But one thing is for sure - the Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman partnership was one of the strongest on the show. I would say it was even stronger than the times when Barnabas and Quentin were paired together in the fight against the creatures of the night. Love Julia!
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