This superb and timely review of the '91 series DVD (Happy 15th Anniversary!) was just published in Videoscope #57, available later this week at your local Barnes & Noble, Borders, Virgin Megastores, Tower, etc., is posted here with permission of the author.
Dark Shadows: The Revival (1991)
2 1/2 antennas
D: Dan Curtis, others. Ben Cross, Jean Simmons, Joanna Going, Barbara
Steele, Roy Thinnes, Jim Fyfe, Michael Weiss, Joseph Gordon Levitt,
Julianna McCarthy.
592 minutes. DVD
Sony Home Entertainment
This is the short lived but superbly Hammer-esque revival of the legendary Gothic horror soap opera Dark Shadows. A wonderful produced show in it's own right, Dark Shadows: The Revival, like the late Mr. Dangerfield, can't get no respect! Sony's abysmal presentation of the series' 13 episodes makes a 4 antenna production get a mere 2 1/2.
The dissing of the Dark Shadows revival began the night it's first episode aired on NBC, which was also the first night of the first Gulf War. NBC pre-empted the show for several weeks to cover the war. With no announcements whatsoever, they ran the show at 1AM, then shook their heads in disbelief when no one watched!!!! By the time Dark Shadows aired in it's normal timeslot, several weeks later, most people didn't even know it was on!
So NBC changed it's timeslot, again with no announcement! When it didn't immediately become NBC's #1 show, they cancelled it. Thousands of Dark Shadows fans held vigils at NBC affiliates all over the country. They were ignored, and one of the most promising horror series in years was gone after 13 episodes.
It was a wonderful series. Unlike the stagebound, videotaped original, Dark Shadows: The Revival was shot on film in a real mansion. Cross played Barnabas Collins with the same tragic aura that Jonathan Frid displayed in the 1960s. But the younger, sexier Cross gave Barnabas an erotic intensity that Frid could never have conveyed. When Barnabas Collins feasted upon blood in the 1990s, the results were truly orgasmic, for both the vampire and the victim.
Collinsport Maine in 1991 was a scary place! The residents actually ran through the storms that were, in the 1960s, only seen through windows. The thunder, lightning and howling winds were real, and terrifying.
Former horror movie queen Steele played the lovelorn Dr. Julia Hoffman in 1991, who tries to cure Barnabas of vampirism while loving him from afar. Steele was about 53 when the series was shot. Still youthful and beautiful, she gave Julia a seriousness, and a sexiness, that the frumpy, over the top Grayson Hall failed to convey in the 60s. Going's Victoria Winters was no dummy, unlike Alexandra Moltke's earlier portrayal of the character. While Moltke's recurring line was "I don't understand! Help! Save Me!", Going's Victoria strong and savvy. But still vulnerable.
Dark Shadows: The Revival took a wonderfully fun, sometimes cheesy but innovative show from 1960s daytime TV and gave it all the blood and thunder we saw in the best of the early Hammer Films.
NBC, in their foolishness, destroyed it. And now, Sony Home Entertainment does the same.
Sony's first blunder was to repeat NBC's mistake of burying the series. Dark Shadows: The Revival has been released on disc with no fanfare, no publicity. On Dark Shadows message boards, fans have been asking when/if the series will be released. You know the publicity department is not on the ball if the show's hardcore fans are not sure if it's even available!
The second, and perhaps greatest mistake on the part of Sony is the presentation. The three discs that comprise this set are letterboxed. Why? The series was shot full screen for God's sake. This is a TV show, not a film. The purpose of letterbox bars is to preserve a director's visual images when a film is seen on the small screen. In this case, the letterbox bars DISTORT that image!! Worse, the show's opening and closing titles are boxed on all four sides! This makes the credits hard to read and is annoying. What was Sony thinking?
There are no extras. On other discs, Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis made himself readily available for interviews. MPI home video had produced a very good behind the scenes doc on this series, Dark Shadows Resurrected. Surely there's material that Sony could have included on the discs, especially since the set costs $30.00!!! Sony was so cheap in their presentation, they didn't even include the sub-title options one finds on their other discs. Sony took Dark Shadows: The Revival, and threw it away.
What makes this all the sadder is not only the superb quality of the series, but the vibrant colors and sound found in each episode. The print quality is incredible! This has got to be one of the biggest missed opportunities in the history of DVD!
Sony, you are sitting on a potential goldmine. Recall these discs at once. Consider rereleasing Dark Shadows: The Revival next year, but do it right. Present it as it was shot, full screen. Give us those much needed extras.
After 15 years, it's time to give Dark Shadows: The Revival the respect it deserves.
-----------------------------David Nahmod
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I didn't see the commercial with Daphne singing. It sounds truly silly, and I can't imagine what the makers of this commercial were aiming at. Iit would be very funny to see it now, but at the time I think it might have turned potential viewers off.
Actually, the promo didn't feature Daphne/Rebecca Staab - it was merely some nubile woman on a bed:
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/teeth1.jpg)(http://www.dsboards.com/images/teeth2.jpg)
However, it was obvious from the get go that the promo was very much tongue in cheek. Also, it only ran for 4 days (12/22/90-12/25/90). And considering it was only 1of 9 different promos that were running at the time - including one that was an entire minute long - I'm pretty sure the vast majority of NBC's viewership already had an excellent idea of what type of series the '91 DS was going to be.
On the other hand...
The promo had this ridiculous over-the-top music and voiceover - just way melodramatic, and the voiceover & music all sounded rather tongue in cheek. The whole commercial reeked of some desperate attempt to get ratings by making it look as if the show were some kind of camp-fest. I found that one worse than the Christmas one, which at least was sort of semi-amusing.
...whoever it was in NBC's promo department that was responsible for that particular promo should have been shot. It was absolutely dreadful - and it most definitely sent the wrong message in a way that the two-front-teeth promo never did or even could have. ::)
I taped a bunch of the commercials when they were first on.
GMTA, PD. Back in '01 in honor of the series' 10th anniversary, I had created a Web site which featured downloadable videos of both of the promos mentioned here as well as several others. The initial promotional campaign for the '91 series was absolutely amazing - particularly the 2 minute long theatrical style trailer that NBC produced (I still get shivers whenever I watch that one). I was able to share the promos because back in '90/'91 I'd made a VHS tape of the more than two dozen promos NBC aired along with the various pieces the entertainment/talk shows did in the runup to the '91 series' debut. The tape runs for over 90 minutes, and I keep telling myself that one of these days I should transfer it to a DVD to better preserve it. If I ever do get around to that, I'd be happy to hand out copies to anyone who might be interested. :)
Think the DVD set is bad with no extras and incorrect widescreen framing?
It gets worse.
In a stunning screw-up by a usually top-notch tech services department, the telecine department inadvertently 'corrected' all the filtered day-for-night photography.
OMG - I didn't realize that. But then, I didn't buy the DVD release. And the more I hear about how dreadfully it was botched, the less inclined I am to ever buy it. :-
Speaking of widescreen framing, one of my Christmas gifts to myself was picking up the first two seasons of The Pretender on DVD. Season 1 was released in 1.33:1 full frame format, but when I began watching Season 2 this week I was surprised to see that it's in 1.78:1 widescreen, just like the '91 DS DVD set. However, unlike the '91 DS, apparently The Pretender must have shot Season 2 and onward in widescreen format even though it was never broadcast on NBC that way. And also unlike the '91 DS DVD set, the only part of the series that's cropped to conform to the widescreen format is the credits - exactly the opposite of the way things were done with the '91 DS DVD set. (I'm presuming the credits were cropped to avoid producing an all new widescreen version of them, having to frame them with vertical black bars to the left and right, or to avoid how jarring it would be for them to suddenly jump to full screen.)
Here are two examples. First up, the credits:
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/Jarod-TAPE_credits.jpg)
original broadcast
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/Jarod-DVD_credits.jpg)
DVD
But look how much more there is to the actual episode footage:
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/Jarod-TAPE_scene.jpg)
original broadcast
(http://www.dsboards.com/images/Jarod-DVD_scene.jpg)
DVD
If only the '91 DS DVDs could have worked out that way. But alas...