Dark Shadows

[Chris B]

I’ve been wanting to rewatch this show but am too lazy to pull out my DVDs and Amazon only had certain seasons for free. I noticed recently they made the entire series, including pre-Barnabas free with Prime so I’ve started re-watching and it is just as good as I remember. I’m currently to the point where Julia has been introduced and everybody realizes Maggie is alive. They build the suspense so well and the show rarely feels slow to me. I just reached the first color episode and it’s remindjng me how sad I was when it went to color. The show had such presence in black and white and I felt like it hid the budget restraints better. I do recall they eventually adjusted to the color style so I do look forward to that and 1795!

[allmc2008]

Ive yet to watch all in while.  I do like the B&W feel.  I kinda think that when the 'noir' revival came in the mid-70s it would've reverted.  The show was like a 'Soap Noir' with a supernatural twist (albiet, later on).  I do feel that the show could've conintued by scaling the supernatural stuff for most of the year but then build it during the summer/winter.

[edgeofnik]

@Chris B I started watching on Amazon Prime around Xmas and I've watched almost 300 episodes in 2 months. I watched part of it on DVD years ago. It's perfect binge material.

 

I have found it interesting how certain key actors were off-screen for several weeks at a time.

 

As I rewatch DS & TEON, it's clear the worst thing to happen to soaps was the 1-hour format. 

[All My Shadows]

Please register in order to view this content

 

[DRW50]

Please register in order to view this content

 

Edited July 1, 2018 by DRW50

[SoapDope]

Lara Parker playing one of Robert Young's 4 daughters in My Darling Daughter's Anniversary (1973). MDA is a sequel to the 1972 ABC movie of the week All My Darling Daughters. Fawne Harriman played the role of Charlotte in the first film and was unavailable due to her contract role on Somerset. Colby Chester (Y&R) plays her husband. Anna Lee from GH also appears. 

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

[DRW50]

Poor Denise Nickerson. I had no idea she was ill (she had a stroke in June and has had other problems; her family is asking for money).

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5943247/Willy-Wonka-Chocolate-Factory-star-Denise-Nickerson-61-suffers-stroke.html

[danfling]

Tonight I read that Robin Strasser (The Secret Storm; Another World; All My Children; One Life to Live) had auditioned for a role on Dark Shadows.   She did not get this role, and I think that it was before her Another World role.

 

Does anyone know for which role she was auditioning?

[DRW50]

Kathryn Leigh Scott co-hosting a 1985 Disney Channel preview special.

 

Please register in order to view this content

 

 

[All My Shadows]

Dark Shadows will be joining Decades's weekday schedule, airing Monday-Friday at midnight eastern (which pains me to say because I live in the central time zone - but how can you NOT say that it airs at midnight?). They are, of course, starting with 210. I read something that said they plan to air it through at least next spring/summer.

[DRW50]

 

I really wish that so many did not always start with 210. Some of the pre-Barnabas episodes are the show's very best. 

[vetsoapfan]

 

Word.

 

That first period, pre-Barnabas' arrival, was surprisingly good. I'm glad I bought the DVDs starting with episode 1, not just 210. 

[All My Shadows]

I'm thankful either Hulu or Amazon has the early episodes - hopefully they stay on long enough for me to get around to watching them. Not too much time for soap-watching anymore these days, I'm afraid. I do have the very first DVD collection, so there's that.

I found the article - they're showing 260 episodes. Not sure why they released that, but kinda glad they did. Hopefully they continue past that point and eventually cycle back to the beginning.

[Vee]

If they don't use the old Sci-Fi Channel bumpers it doesn't count!!

[vetsoapfan]

 

Only 260 episodes starting with number 210? I hope they buy more after that, and not just show the same 260 eps over and over again.

 

There's an Australian teen soap called Home and Away that was picked up by one of our local cable stations several years ago. The show by that point had aired for many years, but our station only bought the first 100 eps, and simply replayed those same eps repeatedly for years, instead of buying additional eps and letting the audience see what happened next. When the ratings sagged, the network used that as justification for dropping the show, but...duh. No soap viewer is going to want to watch the same 6 months worth of story for ten years, LOL. Would  fans of, say, Grey's Anatomy or Game of Thrones be contend to watch the first 13 episodes of season one rebroadcast ad nauseum, instead of continuing through the end of the first season, then into season two and beyond?