Dark Shadows: The Beginning Disc Problems (1 Viewer)

[Tim Tucker]

We been discussing Dark Shadows down in the 2009 tracking thread. Here's what I wrote about James Hall:
The other theory I had, since there's a three year gap in IMDb following his stint on DS, was that he was drafted. But this is all pure speculation.

Another thing I was noticing while watching the last set was the gap shrinking between taping and broadcast. It started out as two weeks, but at the end, it was only 2-3 days. Makes you wonder what happened.

 

[Tim Tucker]

And here's some more of the discussion:

 

[Ockeghem]

For some reason, I cannot quote posts today in the Forum. Hmmm.

Thanks Tim for posting some of the discussion in this thread.

Mark,

I wrote to Kathryn Leigh Scott not too long ago. She responded very quickly, and it was truly wonderful to hear from her.

As for Mitchell Ryan, I read that he had a drinking problem (alcoholism); I believe he conquered (or is conquering) it. He is also good friends with Ralph Waite (John Walton Sr. from The Waltons).

 

[wh5916]

There was an AFTRA strike in the spring of 1967, and it did shut down taping of Dark Shadows for awhile. This could be what you're noticing.

I don't remember the exact timeframe, but I remember being very irritated with CBS when the strike ended. It ended on an evening when they were broadcasting "Charlie Brown's All-Stars" for the second year in a row. I had our family's recently acquired reel-to-reel tape recorder all set to record the audio of the broadcast. CBS, in its infinite wisdom, broke into the special following the first commercial, simply to announce that the AFTRA strike had ended. To this day, in the next room, I still have the audio of that telecast, which begins abruptly with Linus saying, "...we were losing 999 straight games..."

 

[wh5916]

Please accept my apology for this ridiculously delayed response. I got away from the forum for awhile, and totally lost track of the thread upon returning.

Still watching the series on a nightly basis, five days a week, so I'm well past the marvelous story featuring Matthew Morgan, and am in the middle of seeing the Laura Collins saga unfold for the first time. That's a woman you don't want to cross.

I have mixed feelings about the kinescopes, as my oldest memories of the series were of videotaped episodes, though they were always black and white in our family. I honestly love seeing a pristine, sharp, black and white videotape of the program...sadly, all of the surviving videotapes don't fall into that category, even the pre-Barnabas episodes. The tapes, at their best, transport me for awhile back to 1966/1967. The voiceovers for other ABC shows during the closing credits help to heighten that temporary illusion. I'm going to be truly sorry when "The Beginning" episodes come to an end, which will mean the loss of the opening slates and the voiceovers.

Thank you for the link! I would truly like to get a copy of "Dark Shadows - The First Year."