quartermainefan

I started to rewatch DS on netflix and after six or seven episodes I have to say it still holds up. It is slow, amateurish, and all the rest, but it is true to its world. I can honestly recommend this for anyone looking for a soap to watch at night. It's sort of fun.

Netflx users, Dark Shadows is now available for streaming right to your computer. They have already converted the first two collections with Barnabas and to stream you start with Willie Loomis opening the coffin.

IIts been said that the Massacre killed the show but I done beleive that. Season 6 was good in spite of it. Season 7 was decent and the Adam/Dana romance was the best thing about it. They had a great story arc, especially when Adam's parentage comes into question. I also liked the introduction of Caress, Alexis' sister. She had potential to be a good rival for her, but she didnt last too long and they didnt fully execute it.

Season 8, however was an outright mess. Jeff adn Fallon returned and for some reason they decided to follow through with the Colby finale which had Fallon abducted by a UFO. That was too campy adn ridiculous even for Dynasty. This season also featured alot of Leslie, who was downright horrible. I cant remember much else but Dana/Adam once again remain the strong point of it and probably are the only saving grace.

Season 9 was different. Much better than 8, but different. You can tell Dynasty was moving out of the 80s and into the 90s. The clothes, the style and the theme changed. It was inevitable. The show lost Krystal and Alexis only appeared part time. Its why Sable was brought in as a semi-replacement for the 2 and she fit in well. There was a season long mystery which was told effectively and if you've paid attention, its something that was first introduced going back to the beginning of the series. Emma Samms finally comes into her own as Fallon and she shines. Dynasty never got as good or big as it once was, but it ended on a high with good writing and intersting cliffhangers, which wont get resolved until the miniseries 2 years later

Season 9 was horrible. I actually skipped whole weeks at a time. First they ruined the credits, and even the font became chintzy. They ditched the melodramatic music too that used to accompany every scene. Then they brought on that italian cop from Brooklyn, and I am sorry, that just isn't Dynasty. It was awful and deserved its collapsing ratings.

I don't know what moving out of the 80s and into the 90s means except "it became dull". Your statement sort of implies that to enter the 90s there needed to be no merit to the show and everything fun had to be stripped away. I see that in the daytime threads too, "OLTL entered the 90s"...in other words it became dull!

I don't like Sammy Jo one bit.

:o

Sammy Jo is great for the first few years. She is so trashy and lacking in anything refined or cultured. There is some episode somewhere where after trying to be haughty and on her high horse, she demands a ham sandwich I think. You gotta love it. Plus, I love that little theme song she has that plays whenever she appears.

They ruined her midway through the show when they softened her up. I guess they figured she had been rotten to so many people if she didn't start making nice there would be no realistic way to have anyone continue to talk to her.

Sammy Jo is easily top 5 Dynasty characters for me.

Recently I was listening to this, and I don't remember what link to link to link brought me to it. People get the label of "diva" just because they tell people they are fab, but Kathleen Battle is/was a true diva and rumored to be hell on wheels to boot. However, she had the talent to back up her diva rep.

I don't think any other name ever written on this site compares to Kathleen Battle for the diva crown. She was so difficult I think the Met let he go at the height of her powers even though she was better than everyone else.

And here is another side to her, in a gown that probably costs $10,000 but being the supreme diva she looks like she belongs in it:

Starring Jonathan Frid

(Duration: 45' approx)

CAST:

Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), John Karlen (Willie Loomis), Barbara Steele (Celeste)

SYNOPSIS:

"He’d gaze across time and see himself at the other side unchanged...”

Long since released from his vampire curse, Barnabas Collins has settled into a new life away from the supernatural. But when a powerful storm sweeps through Collinsport, the elements bring back memories of past sins. Who is the mysterious spirit whispering in the darkness, and what is its connection with Barnabas?

Jonathan Frid returns as Barnabas for the first time since 1971 in this all-new dramatic reading, based on the classic ABC-TV series.

http://www.bigfinish.com/13-Dark-Shadows-The-Night-Whispers-Audiobook

Jonathan Frid is returning to the role in some sort of podcast radio drama for sale.

is everyone aware the entire series is being shortened into minisodes and streamed on youtube? Hundreds and hundreds of DS minisodes are up.

He's been in a lot of stuff but Dynasty is also the only place I remember him from. Apparently he was in Three Men and a Little Lady but I haven't seen that in almost twenty years.

I just remembered John Forsythe passed away only last week. I guess he and Christopher are having a reunion.

<lights a candle for Diahann Caroll>

He was good on Dynasty; I never saw him act again unfortunately. Such an untimely death at 64.

I do wonder what hand David Jacobs had in his soaps. On Knots and Dallas, I know he wrote scripts and in interviews has credited himself with major story points like killing off Ciji Dunne. Maybe he was like the lead headwriter or more of an executive producer with a hands on approach with the writing? I know he was heavily involved in Knots. When John Romano destroyed the show (not totally his fault), it was Jacobs who (after creating a midseason cliffhanger) shut down production, brought in Ann Marcus and got the show back on track. It was a remarkable turnaround that you don't often see midseason on a primetime series.

I've met David Jacobs, and he was pretty nice--to me, anyway. His ex-wife married John Pleshette (she was a casting agent) and they lived in Bela Lugosi's old house. Pleshette was a bit of an ass, I felt at the time. David Jacobs, as I remember it being told to me, was pretty much out of DALLAS fairly early on, but was totally into Knots in every aspect. This was many many years ago, 20 years ago, that I was acquainted with these people. It was weird to be in a house with "Richard" and then Michele Lee calls.

Where do you watch them online? I have only been able to find crappy clips on YouTube, but I want to get more into the show, cause the plot lines intrigue me....Anyone know of a place I can watch it? Is it on Hulu?

It was on aolvideo, but that died. I was a fool and could have downloaded each episode but just assumed there was no reason to waste so much space.

wow, he wasn't really that old. Evil Nora had a crush on Gunther, I remember that much.

One prime time soap I loved the first year was Twin Peaks. It got crazy year two, but it was really well done for a while. And a great piece of theme music I will add.

Not primetime, but I remember the late night soaps. Prisoner: Cell Block H of course, and then I remember one with Lois Nettleton from the 1970s called "All That Glitters" about a world where the roles of the sexes were reversed (this was the 1970s) and the women were the men basically.

In primetime, Dallas will always stand atop the mountain I think. The first four or five years are just gold. I am rewatching this on DVD and it is interesting to see just how a successful soap begins, the baby steps they took toward serialization before it turned into a full fledged soap opera. Knots followed the same path, and I think that is one reason why those soaps lasted. They served up an accessible drama weekly with only hints of serialization-even less than latter seasons of FRIENDS or any season of LOST--and then after a year or two and an audience along for the ride, they inject a two-part episode or two. Then that works and suddenly every week is part of a 30 part episode.

Some of these others that debuted in the wake of Dallas didn't want to lay the groundwork and thought they had a hooked audience from day one. Emerald Point, CPW, Flamingo Road..they all wanted the full fledged soap from day one. Melrose Place got it right with their first season of episodic boring drama, but it was enough to keep it going til they decided it was time to soap it up. We see with the new MP that if you soap it up from day one nobody cares.

anyway, here is a great scene from Dallas with a sadly very sick Jim Davis, just for the hell of it because Barbara Bel Geddes and Jim Davis were great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX1XTGf833E

I didn't know any of that.

What did some of you think about Frances Fisher? And Joel Crothers?

I wish Holland Taylor's run was out there.

It's really a shame aolvideo is no more. I loved watching the stories with Frances Fisher. Even the period covered by aol, (1980 roughly give or take) was superior to the later show when it became Schuyler and Raven as some bogus soap supercouple. Joel Crothers was good I thought too, and had perfect looks for a soap actor.

I love Dark Shadows. The 1990 (1991?) series is complete and streamed on either Hulu or Fancast.com. The 1960s original can be viewed on youtube in 10 minute truncated mini-sodes. One thing I give the show credit for is the mood. Btw the big house with Mrs Stoddard hiding away for 20 years to the local pub where you might find people in sweaters drinking a pint, the show was very consistent in establishing a sense of place. These days no soaps go that extra mile. Pine Valley is now South Beach.

It's a shame the two films were so lame, but I have high hopes that the rumored big budget movie gets made. DS is the soap that never dies and it is a shame soapnet doesn't pick it up.

So Iran can now make Bombs. What is our Pres going to do about this? Should Iran have bombs?

Hi,

If you are Iran, then the answer is 100% yes. George Bush showed that if you do not have bombs the US reserves the right to attack you at will without provocation (Iraq), and if you do have bombs the US will not attack you even if you point your weapons at US troops and allies (North Korea). The US will attack a country without bombs that harbors Osama Bin Laden (Afghanistan) but will not attack a country with bombs that harbors Osama Bin Laden (Pakistan).

So, you are Iran and there is the US...which kind of country do you want to be?

Sharon Gabet as Raven is Love.

What? I'm loving Slesar here...lost intelligence? Tell me more. Slesar was there for 15 years, from what I'm reading, which is highly unusual for daytime.

It was a typo. I meant when he left and was replaced. Supposedly they let him go because the show was too intelligent for the viewers and the network wanted it dumbed down.

About Raven: she was ok, your typical soap vixenish character, but the show became a showpiece for her, Schuyler, Jody and her BF whereas it was previous to that a showpiece for well written stories no matter who they starred.

Although Henry Slesar was primarily a mystery writer,he was also able to play up the emotional'soapy'aspect of the plots.

I remember reading that Gloria Monty simply took the Edge formula of ongoing mystery/action stories and ran with it,creating much publicity,while Edge died in the ratings and was cancelled - never really acknowledged for originating it and doing it better.

EON had good ratings back on CBS but they fiddled with the time and that was that. Once Slesar came in the show lost some of its intelligence. You watch these episodes and there is no trace of supercoupling or who is supposed to be the star and who is more important and all that. By the time Schuler and Raven and Jodi and Preacher consume the show it is just a shell of its self.

This gets my vote for the best soap of all time. Its a shame aol took off the first 100 or 200 episodes already with the drug cult, Mansion of the Damned and Nola vs Deborah and Miles, but I am starting again after a break and Draper's trial was really good, and just watching the fascinating explanation for who killed Margo Dorn just shows you how Henry Slesar assumed his audience was intelligent and not morons. Today's murder mysteries tend to be clueless nonsense with the motive being senseless insanity. Mr Slesar crafted a well thought out scenario with multiple suspects--and did it time and time again.

Kim Hunter was brilliant as Nola. Her character was so multi faceted being old, alcoholic, vain, wallowing in self-pity, being cheated on by her husband and desperate to hold him, and her secret about her son and step daughter. It was just a great role.

And then beside the emphasis on crime, it was "soapy" to the max at times. The episode where Draper tells April he has to go for sentencing just a day after the birth of their baby, with that music and the hammy soap-atrics---brilliant stuff.

I can see why this show would appeal to men also.

I would be fine with skipping to season 4 of Knots. They can add the end of 3 when gary gets caught with Abby, and go from there. That is when the show takes off anyway, when Val leaves Gary, and he falls apart while with Abby. It rocks for years from that point on, almost every major storyline is a winner.

Hi. (new to this board but want to chime in)

I have sort of an opposite impression of KL. To me the most memorable episode ever was when Sid died. In the later years they didn't even live in the cul de sac and there were all these characters who I didn't really care about. I preferred the original crew.