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

Mark Collins

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Harry you are also watching the shows right about the time they aired right before the spring of 1968. I used to always do this when I watched the shows. I would make sure that I would watch all 5 seasons in the months and weeks that they were originally broadcast.

I did this for years. Lot of DS watching 5 weeks of episodes in one weeks time. Now as I have told Scott I skip around and watch favorite storylines. The only one I still do not do this with is Laura's from 1967. I then jump to 1897 watch her there until her story ends. Summer I sort of lay off from DS but pick it up again in mid summer of 1968 which is one of my favorite storylines of the show that really does not end until the week after Thanksgiving.

I still sample though from 1966-1971 through out the entire year but again at the time they were broadcast. Some day I do wish to go through the entire show again like I used to from start to finish as you guys are doing.
 

Harry-N

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It's just coincidence right now that we're in similar dates to actual airtime. We've been doing two to three to sometimes four episodes just about every day that we can, so we've gone through about 450 episodes since early October. So 450 divided by 180 or so days works out to be about a 2.5 show per day average.

I remember the excitement of watching the show originally, especially when you just knew that a change of storyline was occurring. You'd get a sense that things were wrapping up and you'd look forward to the changeover episode. One thing that I still remember was the very first change to another time, the 1795 story, and at the time, it seemed like it took forever to get through it, to the point that we didn't know whether or not they'd ever return to the present. But when they did, it seemed so refreshing to once again see Collinwood with electric lamps, and modern clothing on everyone.

IMHO, the best change was to the parallel time story. We got a few previews of "the other time" when people witnessed things changing in the room and you just knew that a change of venue was about to occur and the excitement level would rise.

I hope I got the right episode of THE PRISONER that contains "Josette's Theme". I'm pretty sure I did. Usually I research this kind of thing before spitting it out on the Internet, but I think I got my facts straight. I believe this is also the episode where Number 6 comments, "Don't tell me time travel is part of this as well!"

Harry
 

Mark Collins

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Harry I felt the same way about 1795 when it first aired. Will I ever see Liz and Roger again? Did you notice how Daniel is kept out of the storyline until the latter half. I guess there was to much going on. I missed the transition episode from 1795 to 1968 when the show first broadcast but I thought it was really cool how they did it. I saw Barnabas with Nathan and that was it. The next episode was 1968 where Julia now appears with her new haircut. I never did see the end of 1796 until i watched the original broadcast where Barnabas explains in the grave yard to Julia in January 1969 with flash backs from those two episodes what happened. That was when I first learned that DS had saved their shows. I of course was able to see the end of 1795-96 when that first year received a full syndication run around the country ending with Barnabas in 1968 burning Angelique's portrait in the fire. NJN of course aired the following 2 years.

Did you know that Angelique's portrait was sold for a great deal of money to a gal at one of the early festivals back in the 80s for a great deal of money
 

Mark Collins

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Harry he was another cool thing. In 1796 Ben shows Vicky and Peter the secret room in the Old House. What a full circle for her and the writers. The secret room is never seen again until 1897 and the same with the secret room in Collinwood that Roger uses to get to the West Wing to save Vicky in 1966. Not seen again until late 1968. Vicky's secret room in her bedroom was invented in 1795 and used through out the show. The Old House Basement secret room that Maggie escapes through in 1967 is not used again until 1968. The Cottage not used again after Laura leaves until 1969 when Carolyn gives it to Chris. I love the episode when Maggie tells Mrs Johnson that she must clean the cottage for him and Mrs Johnson with out speaking of Laura talks of Matthew but other things that went on in that place meaning Laura.

I knew with the Cottage back Laura would not be far behind which of course was true but in 1897.
 

Mark Collins

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I also wanted to point out the fans. VHS tapes The Best of Dark Shadows Volume 2 Dark Shadows The 1840 Flashback and the great Dark Shadows blue box Volume 54 with LIZ and ROGER on the front which contains full fan favorite episodes with commericals. 1840 is a well edited 1 hour version of that storyline which aired in 1970. The DS best of V2 and the DS 54 to me are a must have.

Can be purchased at Amazon and they are not in the coffin box set.
 

Radioman970

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Mr. Handley said:
James, funny you should mention Star Trek. I never really got into any of it until recently. I made my way through the original series, then the animated series and I'm now up through The Wrath of Khan. I plan on doing all of the other movies and TV shows eventually.

As for Dark Shadows, I started off the DVDs with a few episodes per day, but found it better when I would limit myself to one per day. Gave me a chance to better soak-in each episode. If you like Barnabas now, just wait until he meets a certain lady doctor....I'll say no more!
Nothing wrong with that. It's a nostalgic favorite of mine from the 70s when I first saw it, and I know Dark Shadows will be too in the far future. There's a time when I'll get that big box out again and say, it's been a long time! Well, I've got to get through 1000 more and let some years pass. I'm planning to live for a long long time!
vamp2.gif



I don't think I could do one a day. I go days without, but when I watch they almost always go by in the flash!
 

Randy Korstick

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I 1st watched the show as the vhs tapes came out starting in 1991. They started right with the Barnabas story and intially skipped the first 9 months. I watched 2 a day or 10 episodes a week. When I finished in 1995 they released the early episodes so it was a good excuse to start all over again this time I watched 1-2 episodes a day and finished at the end of 2001. I did not initially get the DVD's, I sold off my VHS tapes and then waited a few years and started the series again in 2011. For some reason I started with Barnabas again. This time I wanted to watch as aired 5 episodes a week or one a day. I think I do enjoy it more this way but I understand the newbie feeling of wanting to see what happens next and I could not just watch one either. I'm currently on the Leviathan storyline which is actually my 4th or 5th favorite storyline. I know I'm in the minority but I love the HP Lovecraft weirdness of the story and the early 70's feel to it.
So when I finish I will get the early episodes which will give me an excuse to start all over again :) .
My goal next time will be to watch as close to the actual air dates as possible: Meaning start in June.
Radioman970 said:
Nothing wrong with that. It's a nostalgic favorite of mine from the 70s when I first saw it, and I know Dark Shadows will be too in the far future. There's a time when I'll get that big box out again and say, it's been a long time! Well, I've got to get through 1000 more and let some years pass. I'm planning to live for a long long time!
vamp2.gif



I don't think I could do one a day. I go days without, but when I watch they almost always go by in the flash!
 

Radioman970

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That's definitely what's happening with my viewing... hard to wait. I'm predicting the same thing with the second go round. I might say I'll do just one a day but it'll grab all over again second time and I'll have to see my favorite parts right away!

Watching near the actual air dates is a great idea. although, I wish I could bring myself to watch on the actual days of the week. Something about a Friday episode and having to wait... pins. needles. all sorts of sharp things happening over the weekend waiting. ;)

I'm planning to buy as many of Dan Curtis' other things as possible, including the non-DS stuff and of course the 2 DS films on blu ray and the Depp film. Does everybody wait until finishing up the TV series to move to the movies? I guess I'd hit the Revival Series first then the 3 films...

Well, Roger finally made it back home and met Barnadas and it was love at first sight. :p I mean, the British gent has charmed everyone but Miss Winters.. veeeeeery interesting.....
 

Ockeghem

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Radioman,I remember vividly having to wait the entire weekend for a new episode. And if I missed the later showing on any given day (it aired from 3:30-4:30 weekdays when I was a child, with the earlier episode being a repeat of the previous day's later episode) then I had the added treat of having an entire hour of 'new' episodes to watch the next day.
 

Radioman970

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Ockeghem said:
Radioman,I remember vividly having to wait the entire weekend for a new episode. And if I missed the later showing on any given day (it aired from 3:30-4:30 weekdays when I was a child, with the earlier episode being a repeat of the previous day's later episode) then I had the added treat of having an entire hour of 'new' episodes to watch the next day.
You had an excellent TV station. I wish I could be watching them that way. Some things really are better on commercial TV. I'd say shows with cliffhangers at each break are that was. Best examples are Hercules and Xena...
 

Harry-N

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We didn't have a station that re-ran the episodes, but we did have one that delayed the show to the next morning during one summer - I forget which one. The show aired at 4 PM on the network, and our local would tape and delay it to the next morning, so Friday episodes happened on Mondays! During this time, I would sometimes tune in to the New York channel that came in pretty snowy, but sometimes watchable, so on certain maddening cliffhanger mornings, I could get an idea of what was going to happen by tuning into New York later in the day. But that wasn't always the case - mid-day signals from New York weren't very reliable.

Harry
 

Randy Korstick

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As far as the two DS films go you can really watch them at anytime but best to wait until you at least watch the initial Barnabas storyline. I personally like watching them where they would have originally been shown which is watch "House of Dark Shadows" sometime during the October 1970 episodes and then watch "Night of Dark Shadows" after the series is finished. The only issue watching them earlier is you may see some characters or actors you haven't seen yet.
 

Radioman970

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Great story Harry! There's magic in that there snow! I did that with TV channels in Augusta, Ga where I used to live in the early 80s. And also radio. I hate my current local radio now, but late 70s the folks bought me my first radio and I'd spend hours at night with it next to my ear slowly turning the tuner. Such a great thing to do.. I still have that old radio packed up somewhere. They actually bought me a new one for christmas, old wooden radio looking thing with radio, turntable, etc.

Randy, I will absolutely follow that advice. Probably order those within a month or so. I have great out-of-print fears on everything like that. I need those in the house! :D btw, I believe it was House of Dark Shadows that I recorded on VHS years back. Sure loved it back then. I figured DS the TV show was gone forever though. Time is amazing.
 

Ron Lee Green

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I started watching DS in 1981 or 1982 when it aired on a local Detroit station in syndication. I was a freshman in high school.
It aired at 5:00pm on weekdays. They started with the introduction of Barnabas. I missed the first episode, but I think I discovered the show while channel surfing. They also showed a "mesmerizing" commercial on the station during the day promoting the show so maybe I saw that. That commercial is on one of the extras on the DVD sets.
I thought the show was unique because it was shot on videotape so it had this "real feel" to it I can't describe. I felt like I was watching a "live" performance even though the show was obviously from the sixties because of the clothes and hairstyles.
Anyway, I got caught up in the show and watched it faithfully everyday. I started keeping a journal, and would write little synopsis of the episodes because I did not yet own a VCR.
This was before the internet and ebay, so I soaked up as much information as I could find on the show through books at my local library.
Eventually, I saw an article on the show's revival in Fangoria magazine and they had the address to "the World of DS" and the DS Quarterly fanzine, so I got a subscription.
I even purchased a sealed copy of the DS record album through one of the classified ads.
Eventually, the station finished airing the first 200 episodes or so, and the show went on hiatus while the station and Worldvision negotiated for more episodes.I forget the exact episode numbers but the syndication history is documented in Kathryn Leigh Scoot's almanc book.
After a few agonizing months, the show was brought back for an additional 200 episodes. I was lucky that my local station was loyal to the show. After those 200 episodes finished their run, the show went on hiatus again until the station could secure another cycle of episodes. This cycle continued into 1987. By this time the show was in its Leviatan period, and I moved away to college, so I missed this part of the show. It was too expensive for me to record the show daily on VCR because tapes were too expensive at the time, and my parents didn't know how to work the machine to change tapes once it was full. Uggh!!!
Fortunately, in 1990, mpi started releasing the show on vhs tapes, so I started watching those all over again and the rest is history!
I feel lucky in a way that I got to watch the show daily on TV so I could have that cliffhanger experience and not be able to cheat and watch the next episode.
 

Mark Collins

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I have spoke about the original airings before in my area. We first had 1966 air 1 week behind on our local station right before the news. Chicago aired it at the 3:00 PM slot. The show went to a 2:30 time slot after the Laura storyline and our local picked it up at the same time ratings better and all that. Barnabas Collins is going to have a party would be advertised on the credits of some show during the summer of 1967. We then had another city to the north that picked the show up and aired it a day late so like Scott I to was able to watch a full hour of episodes.

Nancy announces during the credits of the show in July 1968 that do to fans request DS will begin broadcasting at 4:00 PM 3:00 PM CST.

We also had the promo from 1897 with Barnabas Quentin and Edward looking down at another Barnabas in a coffin with Edward telling Quentin to shoot him through the heart. That was all they showed and led us poor fools in Chicago think we were getting the whole show when only the first 6 months. The city to north syndicated us one year of the show but that was before tape machines. I only received the show from NJN 3 years late in the 80s and then 1989 the start of MPI.

I wanted to let Harry know since he will be further into the show to look for these things. The show will bring up broadcast dates in dialog with the actors. The dates written in the script which is sort of cool. August 28th 1897 November 5th 1692 August 27th 1970 September 5th 1897 written by Barnabas September 5th as Julia reads the letter 1969. The best of all and the one and only time it was ever done in the entire series. The opening states Collinwood September 10th 1897 October 28th 1969 Count Petofi reads. Tuesday November 18th Dark Shadows will return to the year 1969 the promo stated during credits and Julia writes the date in her diary as the show plays on that day and date.

Harry you will hear murdered at Collinwood on the 31st day of March in the year 1796. I love how 1795 becomes later 1797 after the show has done a flash back in 1897. I always said details and who cares. The other question was how far back did they go and what was the first. 1680PT and 1949 was the first year visited in one episode only before 1795.
 

Mark Collins

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I also believe what Randy said about the movies is true. The first really is the first year of Barnabas. You can really enjoy the second more which has actors from the end of the series. The Burton film well I think you can watch that at any time you choose. You really should not watch the prime time series until you finish the 1795 flashback.

Yes Scott and I and Harry are lucky to remember those by gone days when you could run home to watch your favorite DS episode or move your antenna so you could watch it more than once. I guess that is why I still hang on to my original audio reel to reel recordings of the show that still play! The credits with promos in them are fun to hear.
 

Mark Collins

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I have to bring up one quick story or I shall forget it. The Werewolf you never hear much about but he is a fan favorite. Carolyn and the Werewolf episode is a huge fan favorite episode! The other thing is this. I had a young man who worked on my staff many years ago who loved Dark Shadows. He would go on and on about renting the tapes because you could. He said he remembered the show. I said no way you were a baby at the time it aired. He could tell me plot points from the age of 5 or 6 years of age. He loved Barnabas but the Werewolf was his favorite! MPI would put out best of DS for us fans while they released the show 4 tapes a month. Yes and I would have to buy them that way from Suncoast Video. Well my friend the Werewolf guy would ask me is the Werewolf in the best of yet. You should have seen his face when I said yes he is. So he ran out and bought that best of DS at Best Buy.

He was such a huge fan and a great employee and I remember the guy fondly except when I ran into the guy about 15 years later with his now wife and kids and he said Mark you have turned into an old man! I thought thanks that what I get for all those good reviews I gave you and my gosh what do you expect after 15 years!
 

Radioman970

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Thanks again to people on HTF, I am the proud owner of a real deal DS.

I think 220 is the first episode to not have the credits scrolling from bottom to top. They appear in the middle of the screen. I like scrolling credits, especially when they sometimes go at a slight angle then correct themselves. :) Love that! I also miss the chalk board at the beginning, especially when the actors are there holding it. They had vickie once and she had a pleasant smile on her face, same with David...pleasant smiles. But in their characters the smiles are different.... vickie hardly ever smiles... I miss those moments at the beginning.
 

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