tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849534063028549941.post52053154285116936..comments2024-01-17T03:30:15.977-07:00Comments on His Name Is Studd: Dark Shadows – A History; Part Three - The Temporal Misadventures of Phyllis WickRick Diehlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09164406479995933163noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849534063028549941.post-29121898346028407652023-08-23T21:27:51.657-06:002023-08-23T21:27:51.657-06:00Accurately and eloquently put. I think there is a... Accurately and eloquently put. I think there is also an unfortunate train of thought on the part of many to put the show down as low-tech and clumsy in its execution. Fact: Dark Shadows was essentially a stage play which was televised using a three-camera arrangement--with big bulky cameras--in very tight quarters. And it was a one-take live performance recorded onto tape. I gladly overlook any flubbed lines in favor of enjoying the intense energy that the performers were forced to exert on a daily basis to portray their characters. Fact #2: Sy Thomashoff's sets were unprecedented in scale and construction as far as daytime "soap operas" were concerned. In reality, Dark Shadows had production quality and production value that was through the roof for a show of its time and type...which was decidedly NOT a "soap opera"! It gets that tag simply--and simplistically--due to its daytime time slot. I have also found myself--in 2023--shocked by what DS portrayed in daytime television in the 1966-1971 period. "OMG! That is BRUTAL!" I found myself saying that to under my breath on numerous occasions while watching the show. You are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT in stating that DS took itself VERY seriously. Curtis was a serious man and knew what he wanted. He said that his daughters asked him why the show couldn't be scarier? The show's ratings were not good in the first six months or so. So, what did he have to lose, he asked himself? "Let's blow the lid off", he told everyone. On comes Laura Collins the Phoenix which opened the door for Barnabas Collins the vampire. And the rest is history. If they bring it back to TV like they have been playing with the idea of, the new DS will have to dark. VERY dark. So dark it will move people to say under their breath, "OMG. That was brutal!" Just as I have in watching the old show. I can't be tongue-in-cheek in the least. Do they have Dan Curtis's "intestinal fortitude" to "push the envelope" as he did in his time? I wonder. And I wonder if whoever heads the new DS project will really "get" the old show and act accordingly in reviving it. One can only hope.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5849534063028549941.post-83732651072113377752020-05-03T15:23:03.952-06:002020-05-03T15:23:03.952-06:00People in 2020 don't appreciate just how revol...People in 2020 don't appreciate just how revolutionary "Dark Shadows" was in the 1960s. There were already fantasy series on TV, but they fell into three categories: campy ("Lost in Space", Batman"), comedic ("Bewitched", "I Dream of Jeannie"), or anthology shows ("The Twilight Zone", "The Outer Limits"). "Dark Shadows", contrary to what several uninformed TV digests say, was NEVER the least bit campy; it took its dark doings with deadly seriousness. It built long plot arcs, with complex stories and characters, striking sets and costumes, and genuinely imaginative twists. (The Victoria Winters-Phyllis Wick trading of places in the 1795 sequence is a device that I've never encountered in any other time-travel story to this day, in any medium). For a daytime drama to employ such devices as time-travel, real vampirism, and parallel universes was literally unheard of in that period. Dan Curtis deserves posthumous kudos, both for his imagination in conceiving "Dark Shadows", and for the intestinal fortitude that it took to translate it into reality.Thomas DiMaggiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15528586971282008329noreply@blogger.com