Ockeghem's All Things DARK SHADOWS (w/Spoilers) (1 Viewer)

[tracyedgar]

There are TWO of these cast shots--the first one has the entire cast looking appropriately dour and mysterious, worried, ominous....and then this one--all smiles. I suspect after taking the first one for promotional purposes, the photographer said, "ok everyone--now, all smiles just for fun!"

 

[tracyedgar]

There are TWO of these cast shots--the first one has the entire cast looking appropriately dour and mysterious, worried, ominous....and then this one--all smiles. I suspect after taking the first one for promotional purposes, the photographer said, "ok everyone--now, all smiles just for fun!"

 

[tracyedgar]

There are TWO of these cast shots--the first one has the entire cast looking appropriately dour and mysterious, worried, ominous....and then this one--all smiles. I suspect after taking the first one for promotional purposes, the photographer said, "ok everyone--now, all smiles just for fun!"

 

[tracyedgar]

Sorry for the multiple posts! I'm posting from my iPhone and didn't realize it had gone through three times! Also, it appears there's not an option to "delete" your own posts when on iPhone!

 

[Ockeghem]

Tracy,

You're probably right. Years ago, I gave my eldest daughter (a huge fan of Dark Shadows) a large b&w print of the 'serious' cast shot. That picture (in b&w) is my favorite shot of most of the first-year cast.

 

[Roy Wall]

Wedding? A good time to post this picture:

ds-cast-website.jpg

Harry

What's your secret Harry??? I...ironically....posted this pic to you on 11 Jul 13 and no one seemed to notice. I guess my post was to close to the 4th.

 

[Harry-N]

I know everyone's seen that picture, but since the wedding of Liz and Jason had just been viewed, and I recalled while watching that that everyone was dressed as they are in this picture, that it seemed like a good time to bring it up again.Harry

 

[Roy Wall]

I know everyone's seen that picture, but since the wedding of Liz and Jason had just been viewed, and I recalled while watching that that everyone was dressed as they are in this picture, that it seemed like a good time to bring it up again.Harry

I was just funnin' Harry because you got so many likes on the pic. That is a great pic...I love it's color.

 

[Harry-N]

OK, how about this one? I found this on the Internet the other day. It looks like an old bumper screen from ABC. It's been cleaned up and ready to be a dark wallpaper for your computer.

Harry

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Is The Revival Series now OOP once again? I notice it's going for silly money on Amazon.com.

If it is, indeed, OOP, I really hope that MPI will try to acquire the licence to it again from MGM and treat this series with the respect it deserves. Give this was a "budget" title the last time MGM reissued it, maybe they've lost interest and would be okay with MPI having a go?

 

[Charles Ellis]

Regarding the 1967 cast photo- it was taken to publicize the show's first anniversary in June 1967. However, for unknown reasons the photo was never used for any publication while DS was still on the air. It was only decades later when Jim Pierson discovered it in ithe Dan Curtis Productions photo archive. On the other hand, the 1968 cast photo on the Collinwood staircase featuring later cast members Lara Parker, Humbert Allen Astredo, and Robert Rodan along with Frid, Hall, Scott, Edmonds, and Barrett among others, is far more known as it was given as a fan club premium in the late 60s and has been used in books and magazine articles about the series over the years. I'm at a loss as to why there weren't any other cast photos after 1968, especially with the runaway publicity the show got during 1969-70.

 

[Radioman970]

I've been taking a little break from DS. Sure am missing it now though... you know how that goes. Break. Then 30 episodes. Break. Then 30 episodes. It's like times between having pizza! lol

 

[Roy Wall]

and how many years and episodes did DS end their daily shows with a WWW or Batman like cliffhanger????

 

[Ockeghem]

Mark,Had you heard of the passing of Michael Maitland? I only found out today.

http://darkshadowsnews.blogspot.com/

 

[Mark Collins]

Mark,Had you heard of the passing of Michael Maitland? I only found out today.

http://darkshadowsnews.blogspot.com/

Hi Scott,

Yes and very sad because he was so young. He sure did a good job playing the evil kid on DS.

The best scene I remember of Michael is of course the Fan Favorite episode from special features on VHS collectors edition 54 episode December 1969. Michael orders Barnabas to kill Julia. Jonathan and Michael have a great scene together at the start of the episode. The rest of the episode was written to do a 180 on the storyline as Jonathan had told Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show the night before it aired. The fans had been heard. The evil Barnabas would be gone and Julia and Barnabas would be back together again.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Dan Curtis was smart enough to realize that the Leviathan story wasn't working, so he had the writers write that 'special episode' where he confesses all to Julia about how he was coerced by the cult. Alas, the ratings damage had been done. The Parallel Time storyline that followed was far better. One does wonder: why didn't the show bring back Count Petofi to the modern day setting a la Angelique in 1968 as ""Cassandra Blair Collins"?

 

[Harry-N]

We're currently in the story where Angelique has been turned, Nicholas Blair is running things, and Barnabas and Julia are beginning to attempt a second experiment. (Through episode 560)

But something has been telling me that a lot of this was new to me, and yet I knew the story. Still the settings, costumes, and the general "view" of these episodes are as if they were unfamiliar. Now it's true that I only went through this part of the story once, back in its ABC days, but still it seemed way more unfamiliar than other parts of the saga.

Today it hit me as to why. These episodes aired during the summer of 1968, which was the year of my high school graduation and the summer before I started college. And that's when I remembered that I had taken a summer job at the Hourly Messenger Service of Philadelphia. I'd go downtown every morning and work til 5 PM or so and then come home, so I never got to SEE any of these episodes. But there were many times that I set up a tape recorder to capture the audio and listen to it later that evening.

Of course, those kinds of attempts were prone to failure every now and again. Summer storms that knocked out power, timers that weren't set just right, tape that ran out. So I also relied on a buddy who wasn't working that summer, who'd either tell me of the story's happenings, or who himself would tape the audio and play it back over the phone to me!

Much of the next few years of the show would be on a semi-irregular basis as college class schedules would keep me busy on some days during the DARK SHADOWS run. But I also got to see some of those later on in reruns on NJN and SciFi. Originally, I attempted the same deal with audio recordings and my friend watching. Sometimes those didn't mesh either as he was starting college too. Between the two of us though, we managed to get through the entire rest of the series.

It's so nice now being able to watch a bunch of episodes at once as some of the minor plot lines tended to drag out for a week or more. Like recently, we had the subplot of Adam kidnapping someone and there had to be at least seven or eight episodes dealing with the back and forth of that plot. In the old days, that would seem interminable, but now we can get through it in an afternoon.

Another thing I've come to appreciate is the clarity of the sound. Those of us who lived away from the network flagship stations had to contend with audio that was fed through telephone lines, meaning that the high and low frequencies were chopped off and then the local stations would have to run it through a restoration process to eek out a bit of fidelity - without much success. Most all network programs of that era had a mushy sound track to us at best.

On the few occasions that I got to tune in to the show on WABC-TV in New York, the flagship for the eastern half of the country, the sound was much clearer and more intelligible. Today's DVDs give us that purer sound, so it's quite a joy to hear the show the way it's supposed to have sounded.

Enough rambling.

Harry

 

[Ockeghem]

Harry,If that's rambling, then I'd love to see some of your writings when you're not rambling. That was a very enjoyable and informative post. Do you think that the cultural, political, and social events of 1968 played into why you might not have seen or remembered the series as clearly back then? Besides the assassinations of King and Kennedy, we also had the DNC, the seizure of the US embassy in Saigon, Tet, etc. It was an explosive year on many fronts. (Some of the more positive events for me were the Beatles records that were released and Denny McLain's milestone.)

 

[Harry-N]

Interesting point Scott, and surely some of those events would have preempted the show in some areas for coverage of those newsworthy stories. I can imagine being relieved on a day when the show was preempted that I didn't miss another episode!

I'm happy that at least my memory isn't failing! It's had me scratching my head trying to remember why I didn't remember these shows.

Harry

 

[Ockeghem]

Harry,I don't recall when the show was preempted, but as an avid fan of the series I'm sure you've read or heard that the 1,225 episodes are often listed (numbered) in some sources as 1,245 episodes due to the show having been preempted twenty times. That threw me for a loop for many years before I stumbled upon the reason for the different numberings.

Incidentally, I am on episode #782 at present. It is slow going for me, as I am under strict orders from my oldest daughter not to watch any Dark Shadows unless she is with me. And her work schedule is quite time-consuming. (I should clarify that statement. I can watch episodes before #782, just no 'new' episodes. )