who is buying 'Dark Shadows' on DVD? (1 Viewer)

[Gregory V]

Thank you Robert.

 

[Brian Himes]

As a HUGE Dark Shadows fan I spent $$$$$ on a complete VHS set (254 volumes all together, both movies, the 1991 series and all of the various specials and compilation tapes) so I was more than a little bummed to have to start this over on DVD. However, I have kept up with the series and have just finished watching set 19. Finally I'm into the 1970 Paralell Time story which is one of my favorites. One more year to go and I'll be at the end of the series. I have no doubts that MPI will go back and release the 'Pre Barnabas' episodes. The fan base for this is too great for them not to do it. Actually I quite like the 'Pre Barnabas' episodes. The show looked better in black and white and it's really interesting to see how the show evolved. The Laura Collins (The Pheonix) story is really quite good.

As for the cuts on the DVDs, yes there are more than the Bathia Mapes scene. There were several of the off camera goofs that were 'fixed' long before MPI found out about it. The story goes that the company that was transfering these episodes to DVD for them 'covered' the goofs up and when MPI found out told them to stop. However, by then it was too late to correct the errors. If anyone has the MPI VHS Dark Shadows Bloopers, all you have to do is watch that and compare it to the corresponding DVD episodes to see what I'm talking about. There was a rumor that an entire ending scene from an episode on set 12 was cut because of a faulty camera on the original master tape. I have re-watched the episode in question and as far as I can tell, the episode is intact. I'd really have to rewatch my VHS copy to be 100% sure, but it didn't look cut to me.

Anyway, that's my two cents on Dark Shadows. Yes, it a lengthy series, but boy is it worth it. Love this show. It way too much fun.

 

[Paul_Scott]

was just curious if anyone can tell me if MPI has gone back and changed the packaging on any more of the earlier season yet to the new slimmer cases?
i picked up Vol 1 last month at wal-mart (for what i thought was a great price- $30.00) and was happy to see the slim case used.

with the DDD sale now, its a great time to pick up more of these.
but i would rather hold off till a future sale, if they haven't migrated over to the slimmer cases yet.

 

[Charles Ellis]

Really, Paul- that's news to me. I suppose it's like what Paramount did when it rereleased the early "I Love Lucy" DVD seasons in slimmer cases last year. Is it possible to contact MPI and arrange a trade-in of the old bulky cases for slimmer ones? It's hard to believe that next week Vol. 21 arrives with the end of PT and the start of the final present-day storyline, as 1840 and 1841 PT looming in the distance. Of course, I'm really looking forward to the pre-Barnabas episodes. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one insane enough to have bought all of the VHS tapes and repeating history thru the DVD releases!

One last thing- I'd like to ask eveyone here: Do you find yourself having to pack your VHS tapes and moving them to the basement to make room for the DVDs? This is something I'm comtemplating as my bedroom has become hopelessly crowded! Now that three-fifths of DS is on DVD, my VHS tapes are gathering dust!!!

 

[Harry-N]

The one thing that bothers me about collecting DARK SHADOWS episodes is simply the *time* involved in trying to watch them all.

I watched the series back in its original ABC run in the '60s, once more when it aired on a local PBS station in the '80s, and saw quite a bit of it on the SciFi channel in the '90s.

I always found it enjoyable, and always managed to get caught up in the storylines as they unfolded, but have never really had the desire to own the whole series on either VHS or DVD.

What I would like, and as has already been expressed, is for the movies to make it to DVD. I have the LaserDiscs, but would like to upgrade them properly to DVD.

I've found that if I have a craving for DARK SHADOWS, a movie or two will satisfy me, as it condensed many of the best elements and cast members into the two films.

I also picked up one of those *compilation* best of titles on LaserDisc, so again, it allows me to see the sets, costumes, and characters, all condensed into a nice little package.

Original Philly airing trivia: the DARK SHADOWS series began on a fairly low power UHF station, channel 29, rather than on the main ABC affiliate, channel 6. Channel 6 ran some sort of syndicated fare back then and relegated the network feed to channel 29. Once the DARK SHADOWS series began to catch on nationally, channel 6 had to shuffle things around in order to air DARK SHADOWS. I still recall watching the early Victoria Winters saga unfold on that fuzzy UHF station.

Harry

 

[FrancisP]

I'm up to set 18. Plan on catching up with DDD sale this week. I plan on being there until the end. Fortunately I stopped buying the tapes some time ago since I had a feeling they would be on dvd eventually.

Also would love to see HODS and NODS on dvd. Warner if you don't want to release it then LICENSE it so we can enjoy the movies as well. Warner can be so good and at the same time so infuriating. Both HODS and NODS were shot full screen as per Dan Curtis' wishes.

I have also heard that the producers originally wanted Barnabas Collins back for NODS but Jonathan Frid nixed it.

 

[Darren Gross]

Both feature films were shot 1.85, not 1.33/fullscreen.

 

[FrancisP]

I read in several places that Dan Curtis did not like widescreen so he shot the movies in fullscreen. Also TCM tends to run movies in their OAR. I have never seen it in widescreen. Are the original prints in that bad shape?

 

[Brian Himes]

What I'm th emost curious about is what's going to happen with volume 26 of this set? Will it be a volume 40 episodes? Because once they reach volume 26, there are only 10 more episodes before the end of the series. The only way that it can be a 40 episode set is if after episode 1225 then the next episode on the disc is episode 1. I was thinking MPI would do what they did with the VHS set. Meaning once they reached the end of the series run, then they released the Collectors Series which contained episodes 1-270 (in 54 volumes).

More than likely MPI will fill out volume 26 with the specials that they released on VHS (Dark Shadows 25th and 30th Anniversary Specials, Bloopers, Music Videos, etc) that they haven't released on DVD yet. Then they might begin a new DVD series of the first 209 episodes. I wouldn't put it past them to do something like this.

 

[Charles Ellis]

No, more than likely MPI will fill out the last volume the same way they did with volume 200 of the VHS releases- with the brief featurette narrated by Roger Davis "Beyond The Shadows", which tells the fates of various present-day characters, as per DS writer Sam Hall's 1971 TV Guide article. Also, there was an extended music video of the Dark Shadows theme with the saga of the Collinses told from Vicki'a arrival to the last shot of Barnabas's portrait. Also, you get a last word from Jonathan Frid- I'll not ruin the surprise, but if you know the 1969 soundtrack album's finale, you'll know what I mean. Also, Vol. 200 had a preview of the pre-Barnabas episodes, so I suspect that will be in Vol. 26 of the DVDs as well.

 

[Darren Gross]

I'd love to find out where those quotes come from. They're new to me and I thought I'd seen them all!
Curtis loves widescreen and thinks its much more involving an experience. He even shot a few test shots of BURNT OFFERINGS in 2.35 but he changed his mind at the last minute, probably due to the longer time required to light the set and the constricted location. For the DS films, Curtis felt that since it was a TV show spinoff, he would shoot them flat 1.85 instead of going to a scope ratio. I'm sure also, on the first one time and money figured into the decision, since if they went over budget or schedule, the overages were going to come out of Curtis' pocket.

If he got another shot at a feature film, he's intimated that he'd do it 2.40 widescreen.

The elements are in fine shape, but there's been no widescreen transfers made in the history of the titles. There won't be until a DVD release. Once DVDs are out and new transfers made, I'm sure TCM will have access to them.

 

[FrancisP]

The whole business with TCM makes no sense. TCM is owned by Time-Warner and HODS and NODS are also owned by Warner.
They can show a complete version of The Alamo which has never been released on dvd and they don't own but can't do one with the DS movies. I'm not criticizing you Darren, but it doesn't make sense. I guess that's show business.

 

[Darren Gross]

It makes total sense.

The Alamo was released in an extended version on laserdisc which was widescreen. Therefore a widescreen extended version master exists and apparently was made available for broadcast to TCM.

They also own THE GREEN SLIME but don't have a widescreen master of that yet, either. (Though I hear one is forthcoming soon.)

Neither the DS films have ever been available in widescreen transfers. The laserdiscs were pan n scan.

Could Warners make widescreen transfers? Absolutely.
Have they? Nope.

Occasionally TCM will show a movie widescreen that's never been released on home video that way. Many times its because they get access to a recent transfer that's slated for DVD release somewhere down the line, other times because a title has been sold for foreign TV release and a new transfer is part of the package. Neither of these situations has arisen to inspire Warners to spend the considerable time and money to make new transfers.

 

[Hermey]

Yeah, MPI lost me as a Dark Shadows DVD customer after it came out they had edited some later episodes. This was unfortunate, but they didn't make good on their own error.

Peace and Love,

Hermey

 

[Brian Himes]

This is the reason I still hold onto those 254 tapes that I bought. One day I hope to trasfer the edited episodes from VHS to DVD. That and I'm waiting until I get the entire series on DVD before I decide what to do with the VHS set.