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

[Charles Ellis]

Plus, new fans will emerge, which inevitably leads to talk of another DS Festival.......

 

[EricSchulz]

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!


https://ew.com/tv/2019/01/20/dark-shadows-documentary-ian-mcshane/

 

[TJPC]

I loved this Soap Opera when I was a kid, and would rush home
everyday from school to catch it. I am saving up to get the series on disc.

My wife had a closer connection. We live in Johnathan Frids home town of Hamilton. (The building where our newspaper has offices is on Frid Street). When she was a highschool secretary, the head secretary was Marian Frid, Johnathan’s sister (or perhaps cousin).

She was quite the character. She used to sit at her desk, open a drawer and bend down behind it to make a phone call. When she retired, they found several phone numbers taped inside of the drawer. They were all “dial a prayer”.

 

[Harry-N]

DECADES is promoting the fact that the show will continue past where it usually ends in syndication with the killing of Dr. Woodard. Starting Monday, April 29th, DARK SHADOWS will run further episodes.

Again, I know it's easily available on Amazon and such, but it's nice to have it airing on a national network.

 

[Harry-N]

I just watched MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS and was immediately taken with the old ABC promos. They've seen better days, but I got a bit of a chill when this image flashed at the end:

 

[Harry-N]

I don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but the remake NBC series is now on Amazon Prime - and it's in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, not the fake widescreen that was issued on DVD.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07RL9DG35/

 

[AndyMcKinney]

I don't know if it's been mentioned elsewhere, but the remake NBC series is now on Amazon Prime - and it's in its original 4:3 aspect ratio, not the fake widescreen that was issued on DVD.

Looks like they might be using the same masters that MPI used for their VHS range (since episodes 2/3 are in their separate 1-hour syndication versions, rather than combined into a 2-hour format as per the NBC broadcast and DVD).

 

[Mr. Handley]

Sadly, Denise Nickerson (Amy Jennings / Norah Collins) passed away at the age of 62 on July 10, 2019. I always thought she was one of the best actors on the show.

 

[David Weicker]

David Selby had a very emotional episode of Chicago Fire tonight.

Good job ‘Quentin’

 

[Harry-N]

Bringing this thread back from the dead, I thought I'd give a slightly wordy story about DARK SHADOWS-watching in the days of streaming.

Backstory: When the big coffin set was issued, I finally broke down and bought one - not the autographed one - just a plain set. I really just didn't know how I'd ever watch 1225 episodes of "anything", let alone an old daytime soap. Well, it turned out not to be difficult at all. Over the course of about 18 months, I and my wife sat watched the great, great bulk of episodes. (I think we baled in that last, awful story somewhere.) It wasn't difficult with the DVD episodes that followed one another, and with only about 21 minutes per episode, an hour would peel off three from the total.

When we decided enough was enough, I put the set back in its coffin and stuck it on an unused shelf in one of our bedrooms. From that point, I didn't think I'd be back in the DARK SHADOWS world except for the couple of journeys through the movies HOUSE and NIGHT OF DARK SHADOWS when they came out on Blu-ray.

At some point in the last year or so, I noticed that DARK SHADOWS was showing up on streaming services and it was also being broadcast nightly on the DECADES channel. We have Amazon Prime and I noticed that at first they had just the "main" Barnabas episodes and then added all of the rest, with the early stuff listed as DARK SHADOWS: THE BEGINNINGS, just the way it was packaged on home video.

When I re-watched the series on DVD, I really enjoyed the pre-Barnabas episodes, as I hadn't seen those since they 'd aired on ABC back in 1966. So, one day, while playing with the Rohu streaming device, I put on the premiere episode of DARK SHADOWS and enjoyed that one all over again. It was weeks or months later when I once again decided to check out an episode in streaming and rather than go back to episode 2, I jumped a little forward, remembering just how slow things were in those early weeks. I think I started around #35 when David Ford took over the Sam Evans role. From there I followed the series in order up to today when I watched episode #90. I'm in no hurry to watch these this time around, and am doing so on my own. My wife isn't interested.

And now, finally, the thrust of this post: While watching yesterdays episodes (Vicki Winters locked in sealed-off section room by David), I though the episodes looked not that great. I wondered if my DVDs were the same, and I'd just forgotten. So I unearthed the coffin and found episodes 89 and 90 and compared them to the Amazon streaming versions as I watched.

NO CONTEST! The DVDs were sharper, smoother, and had nowhere near the aliasing and jaggies that I was witnessing on Amazon. So while streaming may at times seem awfully convenient, the old DVDs still look a good bit better.

 

[moviebuff75]

I am watching them through for the first time. I started Christmas Night, 2019. I took a few weeks off in January and have been watching ever since. I am currently watching Episode #992. I have watched all three movies, the unsold pilot, and the 1991 revival series. I am also collecting DS like mad now!

 

[EricSchulz]

I am watching them through for the first time. I started Christmas Night, 2019. I took a few weeks off in January and have been watching ever since. I am currently watching Episode #992. I have watched all three movies, the unsold pilot, and the 1991 revival series. I am also collecting DS like mad now!
[/QUOTE\

The unsold pilot?

 

[TJPC]

Any reason why the Blu ray set for this series is so expensive?

 

[moviebuff75]

The 2004 Unsold Pilot.

 

[TJPC]

Any reason why the Blu ray set for this series is so expensive?

Sorry, this was a mistake and put in the wrong thread

 

[Harry-N]

I did just a little more comparisons between DARK SHADOWS on DVD and the same show on Amazon streaming. Here are two screen captures which don't really show much difference in picture "quality". That's something that needs to be seen in motion to really see the difference. But I also found that the Amazon episodes are cropped - pretty severely - all the way around. These screen captures of the static image during credits just how much is cropped.

First, the DVD (this is episode 91's end credit):

Next the same frame from Amazon streaming:

While watching the streaming episodes, I kept noticing that the square with the "D" for Dan was often too far left and even cut off on some days. Here, you can see why. The two lamp-like objects to the left of the portrait are totally gone. On the bottom, the piano keyboard is chopped, and there's a good bit of headroom above the portrait that's chopped off. It's hard to see, but the right side is chopped off too. The whole thing on Amazon is basically zoomed in, whereas the DVDs show the whole image as transmitted by ABC.

Speaking of ABC, these early episodes are all taken from ABC broadcast masters and most of the DVD episodes had slate sections at the top of the episodes. None of those are present on Amazon streaming, but the announcer voiceover with ABC promotional announcements remains over the credits.

I just found this interesting - perhaps I'm the only one who would!?

 

[darkrock17]

Someone on Facebook has been uploading 4 episodes every Friday night for the last couple of months. They seem to be ripped from the DVD's.

Every episode runs about 21 minutes each, which is a bit odd seeing as it's a 60's series and should be be 25 to 26 instead. When Dark Shadows went into syndication did they cut 4-5 minutes per episode for commercials? Wouldn't the master tapes contain the complete episodes in tact with commercials?

https://www.facebook.com/HouseOfDarkShadowsFans

 

[Harry-N]

21 minutes is just about right for a daytime soap in the 60s. Wherever you see a fade to black, there was a commercial break of at least a minute and a half to two minutes.

 

[Mr. Handley]

Glad to see this thread resurrected (like Barnabas!). Our "50 years ago today" viewing group is currently heading in to the final 6 months of the show's original run. I really love watching them this way, 1 per weekday, just like it used to be! I must say that I'm really enjoying the 1840 story line thus far. I remember watching these episodes as a very young child and that head in the box gave me endless nightmares.

 

[darkrock17]

21 minutes is just about right for a daytime soap in the 60s. Wherever you see a fade to black, there was a commercial break of at least a minute and a half to two minutes.

30 minute shows from the 50's through the 80's were around 25 minutes in length, so wouldn't soaps follow the same until they switched over to a full hour?