Storylines & Ideas We Never Saw?...

[PennyDreadful]

    I've been wondering about storylines, ideas, and plotlines the DS writers & Dan Curtis planned which never made it into the series. 

   These are the ones I know of, but they are unverified (i.e. I've heard them from fans over the years):

   * Dan Curtis planned to do a mummy storyline but changed his mind because he felt a mummy was too "slow to catch anyone."  Is this true?  Does anyone know the details of this unused plot?

   * They eventually planned to show the Leviathan creature and were going to have one built, but it was too expensive.  Supposedly it was going to resemble the many-headed Naga serpent.  (I heard this from a fan many years ago and he claims he read it in a magazine - this has never been verified to my knowledge so I have no idea how valid it is).

    * A story about a cursed ring which would cause the wearer to become possessed and take on a new identity or somesuch (another unverified fan rumor I heard many years back). 

   Does anyone know of more unused DS ideas?  Or can anyone verify any of the above? 

 ~Penny Dreadful~

[Gothick]

Well, the best known example is the Sam Hall TV Guide article in which he wrote up his story notes for what would have been the wrap-up months of the series.

I think it would have been very cool to have brought Count Petofi back, but I believe most fans had had more than enough of the character well before the conclusion of the 1897 storyline.

G.

[Nelson Collins]

I cannot verify any of the abandoned storylines, but that possible mummy storyline could have been interesting.  If DC had gone the route of Karloff's The Mummy, it could have worked. After all, Karloff as Turhan Bey was pretty spry and agile.

(Pointless aside:  I have always thought DC cribbed the Barnabas/Josette story directly from the 1933 version of The Mummy.  You have a supernatural creature awakening in a modern time, meeting a woman that resembles his Lost Love (tm) from long ago, believes she is the reincarnation of said Lost Love and sets about trying to restore the previous incarnation's memories in the mind of the modern woman.)

[PennyDreadful]

  The TV Guide article was quite interesting but I'm sure that was Sam Hall's ideal version of what would have happened next.  I think most of the world travelling definitely wouldn't have happened, and Curtis would have likely nixed some of the other stuff Hall speculated about in the article.  I do think Adam and Petofi would have eventually returned though.

  Yes Nelson, I too think the original Barnabas story was borrowed from the original Mummy film.  I always thought a mummy storyline involving an ancient lover of Laura's would have been a great idea.  I read on these boards awhile back that the mummy would have been a followup to 1897.  I never knew any details about this proposed storyline though and am curious to find out more about it and other unused plotlines. 

 ~Penny Dreadful~

[Ian]

I, personally, am very happy that they didn't make a giant Scylla back then. No offense, but special effects weren't the best back then...and I didn't watching it until the late 90's, so then I would have gotten turned off to one of the greatest shows ever made. XD

[Gothick]

My version of an actual Leviathan creature on DS is very similar to the re-enactment of Bela Lugosi's struggle with the giant squid in "Ed Wood."

So, yeah, I have to agree with Ian that it's just as well they blue-pencilled it--although NOTHING could have kept me from becoming the Dark Shadows fanatic I remain to this day!

G.

[PennyDreadful]

My version of an actual Leviathan creature on DS is very similar to the re-enactment of Bela Lugosi's struggle with the giant squid in "Ed Wood."

 ROTFLMAO! That's hilarious Gothick!  

I wonder if it's even true that they planned to show it at all, or if they knew all along it would have been
a bad idea.  I'd love to see artist interpretations of what it looked like though.  I know Frenchy (the 16 Magazine artist) did a little sketch of what she thought it might have looked like in her Chris Pennock montage.

 ~Penny Dreadful~

[Raineypark]

After all, Karloff as Turhan Bey was pretty spry and agile.

Make that Ardeth Bey..... ....(it's one of my all time favorite films.)

[PennyDreadful]

Here's that Frenchy pic.  Her vision of the Leviathan is the scaly kitty-cat looking thing with snakes coming out of it in the bottom left corner...

http://www.hollowmoon.net/sites/darknessfalls/images/misc/misc15.jpg

 I'm guessing if they had done a mummy it would have started as a bandaged, slow-moving undead being and would have eventually become the intelligent Ardeth Bey type.

~PennyDreadful~

[Gothick]

Wow, Penny, that Frenchy drawing is STUNNING.

If you hadn't said so, I wouldn't have know what "Levia-kitty" was meant to be.

Y'know, I vaguely recall seeing that picture Back in the Day.  I was quite the slavish reader of !6, Tiger Beat, and the rest of them... just because of their DS coverage.

If you like Chris Pennock, there are some *gorgeous* screen captures the Mysterious Benefactor did way back of Jeb in his one shirtless scene, the one where he's wearing those pj bottoms (too bad they didn't just slip off... hee hee!).  I thought CP was a sexy mofo back then, but that seems to be a minority view.

G.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I read on these boards awhile back that the mummy would have been a followup to 1897.  I never knew any details about this proposed storyline though and am curious to find out more about it and other unused plotlines.

When it comes to what others have posted, be careful about what you believe. Most people cite their sources, and if it's a credible source and/or they provide actual excerpts, you can most likely believe it. But if something is stated without a source, it *might* just be their own opinion or a rumor they're repeating. 

[Gothick]

Sorry to correct yet again, but the Karloff character in The Mummy was ARDATH BEY (not ArDETH).

I've seen that movie so many times I can recite practically every word of dialogue in it.  And I STILL enjoy watching it!  Yeah, I really should get a life.

G.

[Midnite]

Here's that Frenchy pic.  ...
http://www.hollowmoon.net/sites/darknessfalls/images/misc/misc15.jpg

The image is on Arashi's site.  Here's her DS home page--  Darkness Falls

[Mysterious Benefactor]

If you like Chris Pennock, there are some *gorgeous* screen captures the Mysterious Benefactor did way back of Jeb in his one shirtless scene, the one where he's wearing those pj bottoms (too bad they didn't just slip off... hee hee!).

That would be this topic:

and you know that you want these (Part2).  So, here are some captures from episode #969:

Enjoy! 

[Raineypark]

Sorry to correct yet again, but the Karloff character in The Mummy was ARDATH BEY (not ArDETH).

I've seen that movie so many times I can recite practically every word of dialogue in it.  And I STILL enjoy watching it!  Yeah, I really should get a life.

I'll take your word for it Steve.....but would you believe that GOOGLE has 4,520 entries for ArdEth as opposed to 2,310 for ArdAth?......

Anyone have a copy of the original print?