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Dark Shadows Discussion Thread

DAMfan

By DAMfan
in DTS: Cancelled Soaps

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DRW50 Grand Master

DRW50

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Hadn't seen this before. A lot more time than I expected is spent on the Angelique vampire story (which I wasn't a huge fan of but it's interesting to hear her talk about it a bit). I miss Lara and I miss this version of the Sci-Fi Channel.

I assume someone there thought the first photo was her (it's not).

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Efulton Rising Star

Efulton

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I just finished episode 336.  Sarah shows Dr. Woodard the secret room in the mausoleum that no one will believe David about.  There is a WINDOW in the secret room with trees blowing in the wind outside of it.  LOL.  I guess it was not that secret after all.

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chrisml Proficient

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I took a break from Edge of Night to finally start watching this. I watched the first week's worth of episodes. I started off chronologically even though they released the show originally with the Barnabas era first (don't know when he comes in). I had those discs in the complete coffin collection. I'm watching the complete series on Amazon so I hope Amazon doesn't pull a Knots Landing and yank the series before I finish as I don't have all of the beginning episodes.

Thoughts:

I appreciate the creepy black and white vibe and how everything is so mysterious even when it's just people walking into rooms. I also like seeing actors I know (Louis Edmonds, Joan Bennett, Mitchell Ryan, Conrad Bain (although he might be a cameo), etc.). It was nice to finally see Joel Crothers as I have yet to see him on Edge of Night. Crothers is quite looking so I wish he'd show up on EON. Mitchell Ryan is also attractive.

I like how they set up Devlin's animosity towards the Collins family during this week.  We're left to wonder why Roger is so upset. Why is Devlin angry? What happened to Roger's wife? Who wrote to Victoria? Not much has really happened but I'm intrigued. The dialogue is certainly not on the level of EON.

It amuses me they leave bloopers in. Bennett in particular struggles with doors. Was this filmed live? 

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DRW50 Grand Master

DRW50

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The black and white episodes of the show are very special. An atmosphere the color run loses.

Dark Shadows was filmed live-on-tape. They could do a retake but it would be very expensive. I think there was a claim that if actors wanted a retake they would curse. There was also a rumor that at one point Joan Bennett accidentally said "Hollywood" instead of "Collinwood" and that necessitated a retake.

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Vee Grand Master

Vee

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I think the pre-Barnabas episodes are very underrated both for dialogue and character. They're slow but they really create a world and fill out the characters, imbuing them with heavy dimension that ultimately will have to sustain them for years as the show largely stops writing for character after it returns from 1795. What we know about them by then is what they have to power them. (I don't think the show was bad after, I actually love it in '68 and often in times after that, but it was very different.) I think the B&W episodes with Barnabas' early days are especially frightening - they terrified me as a kid - but the color stuff in '67 is also very strong, especially in the stretch where Julia is on the run, Carolyn is under Barnabas' control, and you get the sense that events have gone off the rails for the regular characters and anything goes. As a child viewer seeing it in syndication on the Sci-Fi Channel, who had no idea who lived or who died, it was a lot.

Mitch Ryan is especially powerful in the early pre-Barnabas era as the sort of Byronic Burke Devlin character. You knew they had to kill him once Barnabas comes in, despite Ryan's alcohol problem making it impossible to keep him at the show - Burke dominates the first year or so as the fulcrum character, he's incredibly magnetic and charismatic. You couldn't see him becoming a dupe for Barnabas and Julia, as Anthony George's more benign, mild version briefly does before getting unceremoniously killed off.

I always found Burke's offscreen plane crash death very eerie and suspicious, and I think the show does toy with the question if Barnabas' powers somehow got him on that plane and if he took it down. I had always wanted Burke to return one day, in any revival project, as a kind of vengeful power broker and puppet master, driven by Vicki's inevitable demise to get revenge on Barnabas and co.

I still have Art Wallace's "Shadows on the Wall" DS bible somewhere. IIRC in the earliest versions of the plot Vicki was going to somehow be tied to the butler or his daughter - Betty Hanscomb or something. I don't remember the exact details. I do know there's all sorts of raised and dropped plotlines and characters offscreen in '66, like Ned Calder, the man they clearly intended to pair with Liz and so on. I've always found '66 very rich, but I don't begrudge the show after for it because it's still awfully well-written, specifically the early Barnabas stuff.

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DRW50 Grand Master

DRW50

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David knowing Burke was going to die and making sure to say goodbye to him was very unnerving. Some of the last moments where David Henesy's otherworldly vibes from those first few years are put to good use.

I agree that the few months right before 1795 are excellent. They do a great job with building suspense and going through insane twists. 

DS was never going to be able to have a long run anyway, with the high burnout rate and a number of principal cast not likely to stay, but I do wonder what might have been if they had done a better job with the present day after the return from 1795. 

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