Dark Shadows Poll

[Professor1985]

Here's a new poll queston

Spencer Karter

[Mary]

I voted for color because when I was a kid during the original run we had a black and white tv, so I never saw any of the episodes in color until all of a sudden one night during the PBS DS reruns in the '80s there was an announcement that "Dark Shadows is now in color" or something like that prompting me to shriek "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" or something to that effect.  So for me, it doesn't matter how good a B&W episode might be, I want the color!!!  LOL!!!

[Raineypark]

Black and white, thank you very much.  Being as old as I am, I watched a lot of TV in black and white before  color came around and I was used to it.  After the arrival of color, I still preferred anything that was meant to be moody, scary, or serious, to be in black and white.  Besides,  having actually worked with black and white cameras in college, I know how difficult it is to work with black and white, and I honestly believe that TV production just got a bit "lazy" once color came along....

[Luciaphile]

I think the show worked much better in black and white. It seemed spookier to me somehow.

[PennyDreadful]

 I voted for both.  Each had their advantages.  I felt the b&w eps were spookier and had a great classic movie feel to them.  The color episodes had a certain dream-like quality and allowed for lots of eerie green lighting and vivid red blood droplets. 
   

[DSFan008]

i personally liked the show in color. Although several of the B&W episodes where excellent.

[Barnabas'sBride]

I like the atmosphere of the B&W episodes, the B&W added to the gothic gloom, IMO. However, I like the show in color too. So I'd probably vote both.

Many of my favorite episodes are in B&W (the early Barnabas episodes), but there are also many I love in color too (pre -1795, 1795, 1897). I have a hard time imagining some of those storylines in B&W.

[stefan]

Black and white for me. One of the episodes in my of my 1795 collection is in B&W and it gives everything such an ethereal and moody appearance.

[michael c]

i picked both.

for me the early,gothic,victoria winters stuff was perfectly suited to a black and white format.the same for the early barnabas storyline.it had a very menacing quality.

later storylines have a trippier feeling that was enhanced by the saturated color palette.

the show went to color shortly before the 1795 flashback began.one cool thing they could have done was to go for a "wizard of oz" type effect.maintain the black and white right up until vicki(like dorothy)steps into another time and place then go to vivid color.there would of course have been a certain visual irony in this since the events of the year 1795 were bleak indeed but it would have been a cool effect.

[Heather]

I like both...couldn't imagine DS without either one of them. There are moments in both the B&W and COLOR episodes that tickle my fancy to no end...  

[Satan]

I think B&W suited this show much better.


It would be nice if they could colorize the kinescope episodes that were filmed in color. It didn't look bad at all when they colorized season one of Bewitched. At least not to me anyways.

[Amy Jennings Fan]

Both

[Gerard]

I picked both.  But I have an affinity for the old b&w episodes because they seemed more "realistic."  For example, they used the exterior filmed footage, which vanished with the color episodes.  Also, scenes and sets seemed more realistic.  They utilized more actors, including in the background.  I recall the scenes with Vicki and whomever sitting in a restaurant in Bangor, the place populated by other diners.  It seemed far more real.  All that vanished with the color episodes which tried to keep things down to no more than five actors per episode.  Even the Blue Whale suddenly became empty.

Gerard

[Misty]

B&W for me----it is much more suited to the gothic theme. I must say, though, that I enjoyed the color in the 1795 storyline; the costumes were gorgeous.
                                                     Misty

[Connie]

Color, thank you very much.   

Probably because I remember when I saw the show in color for the first time.  I was awe struck.  Everything was just so beautiful -- the furniture, rugs, lamps, fireplaces, even the candles.