Ockeghem's All Things DARK SHADOWS (w/Spoilers) (2 Viewers)

[Radioman970]

197. Collectable padlock. What's behind Door #1?

Really exciting.... I was thinking about how great the coming episodes were going to be, then I scanned the back of the DVD case and there's a major spoiler on there about episode 211. So now I know... I kind of suspected, but I really like surprises. I won't be reading the extras list anymore, or watching any. Just too many spoilers. Call that a warning to others who are DS firsties. Save the extras for the second go-round. I really can't wait to see all those extras.

 

[Harry-N]

Just watched episode 432 (Abigail 'meets' Barnabas). What a thoroughly satisfying episode.

We're about at the same place, having watched 432 through 434 today. You're right - quite satisfying indeed.

It's funny. I watched DARK SHADOWS on ABC and know where most of the story lines go, but there are some smaller details in this 1795 story line that I'd forgotten and they've been quite surprising.

I think most of my rerun watching when the show was in syndication on NJN in the Philly suburbs and later on SciFi managed to skip or miss the 1795 story line altogether, because much of this has seemed very fresh. Oh, I know where it's all headed, and know of the basic ideas, but the finer points are interesting indeed.

One other thing I've picked up this go around that I'd never noticed before, but some of the actors/characters actually seem to have their own musical themes. For sure, the slow flute/cello music always plays as we see Joan Bennett brooding around Collinwood - and the piece known as "Missy" always seems to occur when Caroline Stoddard is being introduced to a scene. (I haven't noticed it when Nancy Barrett is playing Millicent.)

Harry

 

[Ockeghem]

Radioman,I have not missed one interview on the Dark Shadows DVDs and VHS tapes. They are very interesting.

 

[Radioman970]

Radioman,I have not missed one interview on the Dark Shadows DVDs and VHS tapes. They are very interesting.

I started to watch the interviews early on but the spoilers just started spilling out and reluctantly I stopped. But my eyes just couldn't help but look at the list on the back of the dvd cases. That was the first spoiler I noticed on the back. It clearly says "211...the arrival of..." you know who.... I've decided not to let that bother me, it will be awesome anyway.

I was thinking how lucky we are that this company put the whole series out. They could have started with 211 and ignored all the great stuff in the first year. It's really been a wonder time and can't imagine not experiencing all that just because a company might of though there was no demand. What if Dr. Who's releases were Tom Baker and newer? So a salute to that company, MPI. They did good. Now The Avengers? only getting Emma Peel? It's just incomplete... great for what it is, but there's missing goodness there.

 

[Mr. Handley]

James, I agree about the early episodes. There's some very nice plotlines and character developement going on there. That said, you're just now getting to the really juicy stuff. No spoilers, but I will say that I can see how Jonathan Frid saved this series. You have A LOT of great twists and turns ahead of you...enjoy!

 

[Ockeghem]

Radioman,

Very well said about the complete run of Dark Shadows. And watch out too for the conclusion of episode #210. It may surprise you somewhat if you're not ready for it.

 

[Radioman970]

you guys are just making it hard to not sit there and watch a dozen episodes in a row. I almost did that around October, about 5 or 6 at a time....so much fun, but now I have so much I'm rotating... DS is probably the #1 show I'd rather watch all the time and let old Trek, It's always Sunny in Philly, Little House, MST3K and Red Green Show sit there in dust bunnies. :p

I'll see how far I make it over the weekend (I'm off!) and post later.

 

[Mark Collins]

MPI took a big chance back in 1989 and it paid off. I have the ultimate praise for them.

The first releases were edited and began with the Barnabas storyline. I still have those VHS tapes as I do all the episodes on VHS. I believe tape 9 was where the editing stopped. The show ran all the way to the last episode with a few months break and then the year one broadcasts were released all the way through and restoring the edited out material. The DVD release was done the same way except no edits this time and at the end of the show they released year 1 once more with the restored kinescope episode of Barnabas. The man who restored it was a huge fan of the show. His gift to the fans.

SCFI was the first time those first year episodes ever aired and the last year of the show too. The first show to be signed with that new network. So when DS debuted so did SCFI.

Harry I had the NJN tapes and 1795 was on their and it also aired in syndication around the country that first year of Barnabas with 1795 in it back in the early 80s. 1976 was the first year it went to the large cities but only the first 6 months of Barnabas. ScFi started with episode 1 and went through the whole show and reaired again. I remember in it's last run on the network it started airing with right before Laura's death.

The music is very important to the show. The entire cast had their own themes. The actors really because when they would go back in time they still kept the same theme unless it really was important to have another theme created.

The other thing you will notice is that when they did change from one time period to the other new music was composed. You will hear a whole bunch of new cues when the show returns to 1968.

The whole Dan Curtis collection of movies of the week too are on MPI. DC productions of Dracula will be put out in blu-ray by MPI soon.

 

[Mark Collins]

The other thing when the show ended in 1971 it was suppose to go into syndication but for some reason did not. I always heard it aired reruns for a short time on NBC daytime but that could be a rumor and not a fact. The 1976 airing is the only first one that I know of which ended with the Consider it a dream from which you will never awaken line from Barnabas. Scott and I love that particular show. NJN ended their run in PT 1970 right before Barnabas and most of the cast were to return to the show after making House of DS.

David Selby and Lara Parker were holding down the fort on the show with a host of new actors while the movie was being filmed.

Just received my festival mailing. Boy would I like to go this year.

 

[Harry-N]

Yeah, Mark, I have no doubt that both NJN and SciFi aired the 1795 story - it's just that *I* missed them. With NJN, I was living in an area in PA that didn't get the channel so well. When I discovered that an upstairs TV and VCR could get it, I started taping them. As I recall they aired them in the evenings, two episodes a night. But I missed the 1795 story.

Then when SciFi was running them, my cable company didn't carry the channel for a number of years. When they finally added it, I think the show was in the Leviathan story. I taped and watched a lot of those near to the end of the series - and then personal budgets had to be cut and we dropped cable.

My DARK SHADOWS go-to at that point was some tapes I'd made of one of the shorter story lines, and the movies HOUSE and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS. I also picked up a LaserDisc of DARK SHADOWS: BEHIND THE SCENES/MUSIC VIDEOS/SCARIEST MOMENTS. Those programs held me whenever I needed a DARK SHADOWS fix.

I never thought that I'd find the time to watch the whole series again, so I never invested in the VHS and DVD sets that came out. Now that I have the entire series, I'm finding out just how easy it is to get through a number of episodes a day, without a huge time commitment. And a bonus is that my wife is interested in the series, so she's watching it with me having never seen any of it at all.

Harry

 

[tracyedgar]

Love reading about all things DS!! Mark--you mention a possible NBC syndication right after the show went off the air? I must relate a story that is my first real memory of DS. I was 4, then 5, in 1970 and 1971. After a half day of kindergarten, I would get off the bus at the sitter's house because my Mom went back to work when I started school. My sitter had 2 kids right around my age, so we played all afternoon until my Mom picked me up on her way home from work. Judy, my sitter, watched General Hospital at 3pm, and then DS at 4pm. Us kids were not really allowed to watch with her but we were fascinated (and scared to death) of monsters, and we would steal glances at the TV, only to be horrified as a dead man with weird eyes and spiked bangs would rise from a coffin!!!! I distinctly remember one storyline that played out over days and had a young woman with long, dark hair, tied to a chair and gagged, locked in a secret room. The horror of that really bothered me as a child, and I never forgot it. Now, fast forward to the SciFi channel years! I saw that DS was on, and it all came back to me--"hey, that's the show that scared the crap out of me as a kid!!" Of course, I started watching, and never looked back. I've seen the entire series through at least 4 times.My huge dilemma is this--and I've never been able to figure it out! Who was the girl with the long dark hair, gagged and tied to a chair, locked in a secret room? The only time I recall something like that was when Matthew Morgan kidnapped Vicki. BUT--that was in 1966!!! Not in 1970-1971 when I would have seen it! I figure it must have been Daphne--but after 4 complete viewings, I have never found Daphne in that kind of predicament!How do I recall a scene that aired in 1966, when I wasn't even born yet? The only thing I can think of to explain this is that maybe when the show finished in April 1971, perhaps they started repeating the early episodes in the same time slot? I've ALWAYS wondered this--the memory is so vivid.Thanks for indulging me!!!Once again, I will be going to Tarrytown for the FEST!!I have the coffin DVD box set, all three movies on Blu-Ray, all the Ross novels, all the comics, the 91 series, the new novels, all the Big Finish audios with the original cast (brilliant!!!!)....yeah, I'm pretty much a die-hard!! ;-)

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I recorded the prime time series too. Andy I have a very different memory of it. Barnabas was walking with Vicky on the beach in the daytime before Julia's injections. I was shocked they showed him in the sun much like the Burton film did. I too have some VHS and the entire dvd set which I do not as a fan have a problem with. I know many fans did have a problem though. I like the upgrade on my Blu-ray player and sorry fans that is what I pop in if I want to watch that series. I would tell all fans to get the making of the series on VHS if you can pick it up cheap at Amazon. Great things are on that tape. Some of the vhs tapes have 90 seconds of scenes that were not broadcast on NBC.Enjoyed the weather comments too from Mr Shatner.

First off, sorry so long in writing this reply.

The "beach" scene is, as you say, supposed to be in broad daylight, so that's not what I'm talking about. The "day-for-night" scenes I'm talking about are scenes that take place "after dark" in the script, but were actually filmed during the daytime, but the picture was darkened in post-production to make it "look" like night-tie (for more on this, go here).

When MGM went back to the film elements for their remastering, besides screwing up the aspect ratio, they forgot to re-grade the day-for-night shots, meaning certain scenes look like a "still cursed" Barnabas is walking around in the sunlight.

So, it's about more than the aspect ratio, lack of bonus scenes trimmed from the pilot, re-combining of episodes 2&3 and the lack of bonuses. MGM really made a pig's ear of this! I'd much rather watch DVD-R copies from those VHS tapes than MGM's DVDs.

 

[Mr. Handley]

Spotted another fun DS alum cameo last night. In the Season 3 Eight Is Enough episode "The Graduates", Jerry Lacy has a few lines as a barber who wants to cut Tommy's hair! All I could of think while watching is how Rev. Trask would've handled the situation.

 

[Radioman970]

198, 199, 200 watched...

I tell you what, I have problems with Roger it's true, but I sat there thinking he'd have a drink or 2 on me down at the Blue Whale if he'd just fling Jason off Widow's Hill by his testicles. The widows could you a soprano! (although, if I changed my mind later about Jason it wouldn't be the first time for me on a DS person, I did that with Burke...)

 

[Bob Cashill]

In NY, NBC reran the show in the early 80, right after the still-running soaps. I think it started with the Barnabas storyline. Fun while it lasted then the station ran MTM and Bob Newhart episodes instead.

 

[FrankPitt]

I always heard it aired reruns for a short time on NBC daytime but that could be a rumor and not a fact.

Although I have vague (and scary) childhood memories of Barnabas from DS's first airing on ABC, it wasn't until the early 1980s (I want to say April/May of 1980) when the show aired in daily syndication on NBC that I was finally, truly exposed to it and quickly became addicted.

Here in New York, the NBC airings were at 4:00 and began with the episode in which Barnabas is freed from his coffin. (Quick side note, because this happened so close to Easter, I remember eating jellybeans by the handful while watching the show, that first week or two, and now I always associate the taste of jellybeans with Dark Shadows).

Anyway, those afternoon airings didn't last terribly wrong, and NBC soon pulled DS from its daytime lineup (this was before the color episodes began). The bright side, though, was that it still aired in the wee hours. I spent much of that pre-VCR summer staying awake in my room and waiting for DS to begin. Most nights I sat through NBC News Overnight with Linda Ellerbee, then an episode of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, followed by the Uncle Floyd Show (which I loved), before Dark Shadows hit my little bedroom screen.

There might have been Saturday airings, too, but I'm hazy on that.

That NBC run - at least in NYC - lasted until the culmination of the Doctor Woodard arc, at which point DS was pulled for good. Several years later, circa 1984, New Jersey Network began airing the series from Barnabas's first appearance, and after many months, I was finally able to see beyond NBC's short-lived run.

 

[Harry-N]

I'm going to bet that the "NBC daytime" rumor is a corruption of the fact that the show ran on WNBC in New York, locally. Someone probably didn't understand the difference between network broadcasts and off-network syndication - easy enough to do when the station in question is the flagship for the network. One person tells another - and a legend begins.

Harry

 

[Mark Collins]

Hey Trace Daphne was confined in a hidden room at Collinwood in 1840 right before the storyline ends. I bet that is what you saw. The fun part is her hands are tied but not really and is part of DS blooper DVD.

Harry I bet you are right and solved that rumor. We received the show in Chicago in 76 at 11.00 PM right after the Honeymooners. The show ended with the Julia Dave and Barnabas story which I will not get into for Radioman sake.

The channel would show promo clips of 1897. The clip was of the highest rated episode of DS which made you think we were getting the whole series and as Scott and I have both said what a let down when it ended after 6 months. The syndicated first year came about in early 80s for all the country. NJN showed the 3 middle years.

We had 3 Dave's on the show because of a strike on writers at the time. I read one refused to cross picket lines in 67. I remember the whole thing well because all soaps were off the air and the networks were showing reruns of anything they had. DS was the only show going strong. I had been sick and was let out of school for the rest of the year. The Burke and Roger story was concluded during this time right before Barnabas.

I have never brought this up but Barnabas meets Roger and Carolyn on a Friday which I was not home for. I was with Grandpa and Grandma and Mom and when we returned to our hometown 70 miles from Chicago a costly Tornado had hit our town on April 21st 15 minutes after we came back. We saw 3 tornados in the air as we approached town. I will never forget that and the date. We were very close to the destruction and the house across the street all around us was a secured zone by the National Guard. We were very lucky our houses were still in tact with minor damage.

 

[Mark Collins]

Andy this is why I hung on to my VHS tapes but yes I do watch DVDs. I always tell people to get the behind the scenes DS tape about the prime time series.

I also state the rumor that it had to do with the war going on is wrong for not getting a second year. Some stupid guy in change at NBC decided not give it a second year even though Quentins character was suppose to head DS year 2 prime time.

Harry the music is great if you buy the box set because it is all in sequence. Laura's theme for casting a spell was invented just for her. Barnabas has the same theme twice over and then his classic which stayed with him through out the show. Places had the same theme Collins Tomb and activities such as dreams séance always used the same theme

 

[Radioman970]

The acting and scripts have really ramped up. Very good moments. I know it helps to have so much time invested in these characters. Joker's like Jason and Willie really effect you. Jason is just a scoundrel, not dangerous. But that Willie guy... I really wanted Burke to deal with him on one hand, but on the other I didn't want to see him get involved and maybe get hurt in some way. But my mind is all over the place on where things are going to go.

I'm declaring the end of 205 among my most favorite moments so far. What a classy way to do that. Portrait, heartbeat. Wonderful! I haven't had this much excitement about a show in a while. I feel it's long paid for itself in entertainment. 1000 episodes of bonus material at this point.

Getting ready to do 206. I've been unable to watch anything else.