Dark Shadows

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I’d like to start this continuation of the Dark Shadows discussion from the old board with a look at some of the new and upcoming Dark Shadows audio stories from Big Finish Productions. There aren’t nearly as many Dark Shadows audio adventures as there are Doctor Who ones, but the Doctor Who series has been around longer. The Dark Shadows audios are a mixed bag. The first release was a full-cast sequel titled “Return to Collinwood”. Later they began to release a series of interconnected sequential stories grouped in short “seasons”. More recently they’ve been going back to the timeline of the original television show and telling interstitial one-shots. As the Dark Shadows series seems to be catching on, Big Finish seems to be ramping up their production schedule. “Curse of the Pharaoh” was released in September, and the next four are set for monthly release beginning in January at a special subscription rate.

CURSE OF THE PHARAOH:

“Curse of the Pharaoh” stars Nancy Barrett (reprising her role as Carolyn Stoddard) and Marie Wallace (perhaps best known as “Eve” on the TV show) in a new role, famed Egyptologist Dr. Gretchen Warwick. The story doesn’t specify, but I assume it takes place shortly after the end of the series original TV series, circa 1970 or so. Both actresses are kind of rusty and sound as old as they are, not as young as they (Caroline, anyway) are supposed to be. Barrett was always a better actress than Wallace, and that remains true. Wallace’s shortcomings are spotlighted in this “dramatic reading” in which she plays other bit parts, most of the male (Bob the bartender at The Blue Whale, Eliot Stokes on the telephone, Carolyn’s father in flashback), which she performs in a gruff kind of storybook voice as if reading aloud to a child. The story itself is a sequel to the unpopular “Leviathan” television storyline. If you’ve never heard a Dark Shadows audio and thinking of trying one out, there are better ones to start with than this.

KEY: OB = Old Board; UR = Un-Reviewed

Return to Collinwood - 169

SEASON ONE:
S1.1 The House of Despair - 1
S1.2 The Book of Temptation - OB
S1.3 The Christmas Presence - 264
S1.4 The Rage Beneath - 7

SEASON TWO: Kingdom of the Dead - 7

DRAMATIC READINGS:

1. Angelique’s Descent-Pt. 1 - OB
2. Angelique’s Descent-Pt. 2 - OB
3. Clothes of Sand - OB
4. The Ghost Walker - OB
5. The Skin Walkers - OB
6. The Path of Fate - OB
7. The Wicked & the Dead - OB
8. Echoes of Insanity - OB
9. Curse of the Pharaoh - 1
10. Final Judgment - 1
11. Blood Dance - 1
12. The Night Whispers - 1
13. London’s Burning - 2
14. The Doll House - 30
15. The Blind Painter - 87
16. The Death Mask - 88
17. The Creeping Fog - 89
18. The Carrion Queen - 89
19. The Poisoned Soul - 96
20. The Lost Girl - 96
21. The Crimson Pearl - 114
22. The Voodoo Amulet - 129
23. The House by the Sea - 170
24. Dress Me in Dark Dreams - 154
25. The Eternal Actress - 162
26. The Fall of House Trask - 163
27. Operation: Victor - 166
28. Speak No Evil - 166
29. The Last Stop - 166
30. Dreaming of the Water - 167
31. The Haunted Refrain - 167
32. A Collinwood Christmas - 167, 264
33. The Phantom Bride - 167
34. Beneath the Veil - 167
35. The Enemy Within - 167
36. The Lucifer Gambit - 167
37. The Flip Side - 167
38. Beyond the Grave - 168
39. Curtain Call - 168
40. The Harvest of Souls - 170
41. The Happier Dead - 168
42. The Carriage Damned - 168
43. The Devil Cat - 168
44. The Darkest Shadow - 173

SEASON THREE: Bloodlust - 170-172, 181, 269

45. Panic - 173
46. The Curse of Shurafa - 173
47. In the Twinkling of an Eye - 173
48. Deliver Us from Evil - 173
49. Tainted Love - 173
50. ...And Red All Over - 175

Echoes of the Past - 176

Blood & Fire - 176

Haunting Memories - 177

Phantom Melodies - 178

Dreams of Long Ago - 178

THE TONY & CASSANDRA MYSTERIES:
The Mystery at Crucifix Heights - 179
The Mystery of La Danse Macabre - 179
The Mystery of Flight 493 - 180
The Mystery of Karmina Sonata - 180

SHADOWS OF THE NIGHT:
Trio - 180
Honeymoon from Hell - 180
Retreat -180
1:53 AM - 180

MAGGIE & QUENTIN - THE LOVERS' REFRAIN:
The Girl Beneath the Water - 180
The Sand That Speaks HIs Name - 180
The Hollow Winds That Beckon
The Paper to the Flame

GOTHIC PAPERBACK LIBRARY

1. Dark Shadows - p183
2. Victoria Winters - p183
3. Strangers at Collins House - p183
4. The Mystery of Collinwood - p184
5. The Curse of Collinwood - p184
6. Barnabas Collins - p185
7. The Secret of BC - p185
8. The Demon of BC - p185
9. The Foe of BC - p185
10. The Phantom of BC - p185
11. BC vs. the Warlock - p186
12. The Peril of BC - p186
13. BC and the Mysterious Ghost - p187
14. BC and Quentin's Demon - p188
15. BC and the Gypsy Witch - p188
16. B, Q and the Mummy's Curse - p188
17. B, Q and the Avenging Ghost - p242
18. B, Q and the Nightmare Assassin - p244
19. B, Q and the Crystal Coffin
20. B, Q and the Witch's Curse
21. B, Q and the Haunted Cave
22. B, Q and the Frightened Bride
23. B, Q and the Scorpio Curse
24. B, Q and the Serpent
25. B, Q and the Magic Potion
26. B, Q and the Body Snatchers
27. B, Q and Dr. Jekyll's Son
28. B, Q and the Grave Robbers
29. B, Q and the Sea Ghost
30. B, Q and the Mad Magician
31. B, Q and the Hidden Tomb
32. B, Q and the Vampire Beauty
33. House of Dark Shadows - p241

ROB STAEGER: p189

NEWSPAPER STRIPS: p241

[Doctor Hmmm?]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

Are you on your cell phone or shouting instructions to the photographer? :P

Do you have the DVD "Dark shadows on Location"? One of these days Tracy and I would like to fly to New England, rent a car and road-trip from Newport, RI to Essex, CN, eat at the Black Pearl restaurant and stay at the Griswold Inn.

For the record, cell phone. As I recall, I was on the phone with The Lovely and Talented, saying "Guess where I am right now."

The name "Griswold Inn" always conjures up the thought of Chevy Chase in "Vampire Vacation."

[Jeff of Earth-J]

When I was living in Missouri I had a friend who had a private pilot license. In the summer we would frequently fly from Chesterfield Airport in St. Louis County to the Lake of the Ozarks State Park to spend the day. The municipal airport there was about two or three miles from the public beach, but they had a complimentary car which was loaned out on a "first come, first served" basis. It was a "metallic pea" station wagon and the license plate was "GRSWLD."

[Jeff of Earth-J]

1)Uncle Femmycreepy's got some nice wheels, there.

...and they'll play an important role (no pun intended) in an upcoming story!

2)Yow, Partygirl does seem to have the hots for Uncle Femmycreepy. No wonder Joe Boyfriend can't get anywhere with her.

"Oh, he sends me, Vicki, he really does!" Yuck!

4)So, Maggie's father is an alcoholic artist, and, apparently, in on whatever went on between Glint and Uncle Femmycreepy.

Correct!

5)Uncle Isaac looked a good deal like Ulysses S. Grant.

Isaac is another Collins ancestor we never meet.

6)Oh, my God, a door opened! That's it, the place is haunted!

In the earliest days of the show, that was the extent of the "supernatural"... just a kind of general air of gothic spookiness. When Dan Curtis showed an actual ghost for the first time (when the show was in danger of cancellation), the ratings spiked and he knew what his audience wanted.

10)Glint is an ex-convict? Let me guess, Uncle Femmycreepy and Old Man Evans got him sent to prison?

Again, correct! (Not much of a spoiler there, but I have to bite my lip on some of your comments.)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

4)So, Maggie's father is an alcoholic artist...

Oh, I was also going to tell you not to get too used to the actor who plays him at this point. After the first 10 or so episodes the actor playing Sam Evans was replaced with David Ford, who had a much longer and more successful run. He was the only other actor to play the part and did so up until... well, never mind.

[The Baron]

Dark Shadows Reactions: #4DRK
1)This is all still the same night? What a glacial pace this show has!

2)So, Burke used to work for them...

3)"Kitten"?

4)"Isaac Collins...Jeremiah Collins...Theodore...Benjamin...Zeppo...Shemp...Curley Joe..."

5)Joan Bennett had a little trouble getting the drawing room door open, I see.

6)"Pain sometimes precedes pleasure, Miss Winters..." Alrighty.

7)Louis Edmonds seemed to be having a little fumblemouth, there. I supp;ose this is like 60's Doctor Who, where you didn't do a re-take unless something went catastrophically wrong.

8)Of course, the grandfather clock - it's the Master's TARDIS!

9)"Oh, great, the house is crying now!"

10)Cliffhanger: "I...hate...you!"

[Jeff of Earth-J]

1)This is all still the same night? What a glacial pace this show has!

The first four episodes portray Vicki’s first five hours in Collinsport. She arrives at the train station at 9:00P and confronts David at 2:00A. the next episode picks up at breakfast time. It’s not always this “glacial.” I think they decompressed the pace to show the details of Vicki’s first night. If you were to watch all four episodes in a single sitting, you’d get five hours of events in two hours (less commercials). From that point of view, these episodes are rather compact.

4)"Isaac Collins... Jeremiah Collins... Theodore... Benjamin... Zeppo... Shemp... Curley Joe..."

It’s a shame they didn’t use Joshua, Daniel, Gabrial, Tad, Edward, Carl, Jamison and (especially) Quentin”… all Collins family ancestors we would meet throughout the course of the series. Better still, if when they introduced those characters they would have thought to use the names bandied about in episode four. Who knew?

6)"Pain sometimes precedes pleasure, Miss Winters..." Alrighty.

I like, “Welcome to the beginning and the end of the world, Miss Winters.” I’ve been waiting for years to use that line in context but the opportunity has never presented itself!

7)I suppose this is like 60's Doctor Who, where you didn't do a re-take unless something went catastrophically wrong.

Oh, yeah.

10)Cliffhanger: "I...hate...you!"

Oh, I can hardly wait until you get to know David a little better!

[Doctor Hmmm?]

1)This is all still the same night? What a glacial pace this show has!

Remember, this was a daily soap opera. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the market research at the time showed that the average viewer -- in the early days of this show, that was mostly housewives -- on average only caught the show once every two or three days. The goal each day was to advance the plot enough that viewers would stay intrigued without advancing it so much that viewers would get lost and give up if thay missed a couple of days. So lots of vamping [HAH!], and characters rehashing the plot.

As the show became more popular, the writers had an additional problem -- a daily soap opera is a voracious devourer of plot. The writers (now virtual prisoners of the highly successful supernatural plotlines) were scrambling trying to find new stories -- or, to be honest, classics to "homage" -- to feed the plot monster. Once they found an idea, they milked it for as long as they could. Within limits, glacial pace was their friend.

7)Louis Edmonds seemed to be having a little fumblemouth, there. I supp;ose this is like 60's Doctor Who, where you didn't do a re-take unless something went catastrophically wrong.

Bingo! There's a blooper tape out there of stuff that actually made it on the air. It's amazing, by modern, prime time producton standards. Fans either discreetly look the other way or, in my experience, treat that as part of the show's charm.

Everyone on the show had these fumblemouth moments sooner or later. The worst offender was probably the show's (ultimate) star, Jonathan Frid. Frid was an accomplished stage actor but a "slow read." He had a very difficult time keeping up with the "new script every day" pace of a daily soap, especially when he became a major character with lots of scenes. Viewers seemed to have interpreted his deliberate delivery and long pauses as evidence that his character was aloof, aristocratic and "deep." In fact, Frid was just struggling to remember his lines and terrified of "going up" on them when "Cut! Shoot it again" was not an option.

[The Baron]

I wanna see Shemp Collins. "Barnabas, yer crushin' my eyebrows!"

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Spread out!

[Doctor Hmmm?]

I saw Shemp in an old Charlie Chan film last week as a (fake) Indian fakir. An "Oriental mystic" with dark powers and mysterious motives wouldn't have been a bad character for this show.

[The Baron]

As far as my impression of a "glacial pace" I suspect you're right, Doc. I never really watched a daily soap opera, so I guess I'm just not used to the pacing.

[Doctor Hmmm?]

TurningPoint said:

The Baron said:

Dark Shadows Reactions: #4DRK
2)So, Burke used to work for them...

Yeah, but he doesn't remember much else ...

"In fact, Mitch was one of the few actors fired from the show. "He'd come to work with this monstrous hangover," Dan Curtis said in the same article. "Half the time he wouldn't know his lines-something you can't afford to do in soap opera.""

Oh, Ghost of Dan Curtis, you crack me up!