Fireplaces on DS

[Philippe Cordier]

Some of these appear to be real, such as the one in Tuesday's second episode (I can't remember now which room this took place in, but I believe it was a scene between Edward and Quentin).

In this scene and some others recently, the flames in the fireplace appear real and that sure looks like real smoke.

Yet some earlier fires on the show appeared to be fake.

Does anyone have any ideas about the fireplaces on DS?  I don't recall this topic being discussed.

[doombuggy69]

Dark Shadows was the only soap on ABC at that time that had a working fireplace in their studio!  I do believe all the fires on the show were real.  In fact, when One Life To Life debuted on ABC July 15th 1968, the opening credits consisted entirely of burning flames, with the words OLTL boldly coming out from them.  OLTL producers had to go to the DS studio to film the shots of those flames for their opening, because they had no working fireplace!  

[ProfStokes]

In this scene and some others recently, the flames in the fireplace appear real and that sure looks like real smoke.

Yet some earlier fires on the show appeared to be fake.

When I was at the Tarrytown event last October, a similar question came up.  The ladies all agreed that the show used real fire, and made reference to the gas fireplace.  Diana Millay mentioned that a union fire specialist always had to be present on the set whenever fire was in use, even if it was only a small one or lasted for a short period of time.  Perhaps the earlier fires were badly superimposed on the scene?

ProfStokes

[Raineypark]

No studio would have used real wood in the fireplaces...it wouldn't have been allowed and they'd have had to be insane.

Gas fireplaces produce different effects depending on the unit....those that produce flame patterns that look more random look more like wood fires.  Those that produce less random flame patterns look 'fake'....even tho the fire is always real.

What they should NEVER have produced was smoke.  Not from a gas fire.  If they wanted smoke, it would have had to be a separate special effect.

[jennifer]

The fire in Judith's firplace looked real and i was thinking i really want to buy a house with a fireplace in the bedroom. mentioned this to my husband and he asked"where did that idea come from?" i told him DS
and he rolled his eyes and said "what about a room for the coffin?" heehee doesn't he know you just leave it in the cellar like Barnabas does!

jennifer

[Cassandra Blair]

I don't really recall any fire in one of the fireplaces looking fake, but there were some fake looking fires that menaced or destroyed characters in the original Laura/Phoenix storyline and in 1795/96.

I've always been sort of surprised that the show even used gas logs in their fireplaces, and am not surprised to learn that a fire specialist had to be present - but wouldn't they have been there about every day?  It seems like there's a fireplace going in every single episode.  

Must be mighty cold year 'round in Maine!

[Patti Feinberg]

Dark Shadows was the only soap on ABC at that time that had a working fireplace in their studio!  I do believe all the fires on the show were real.  In fact, when One Life To Life debuted on ABC July 15th 1968, the opening credits consisted entirely of burning flames, with the words OLTL boldly coming out from them.  OLTL producers had to go to the DS studio to film the shots of those flames for their opening, because they had no working fireplace!  

Doombuggy!!! Cool info...do you happen to know if there's anything on the 'net that would show this?

thanks,
Patti

[Dr. Eric Lang]

When I was growing up our family always had gas logs in the fireplace; it was always obvious to me that the DS fireplaces were using a gas line. You can see the pattern from the gas jets when they zoom in on the fire place - and sometimes you can even hear them. A real anachronism in 1795.

[doombuggy69]

The opening credits of One Life TO Live that used the "fireplace" from DS, was seen on the show from 1968-1974.  Unfortunately Patti, no clips of the opening credits of OLTL from that time are available on the internet. In fact, most of the tapes of that period of OLTL were destroyed by ABC years ago.  When DS went off  the air in 1971, did you know that OLTL cannibalized many of their old sets?  The old DS sets were being recycled on OLTL even into the early 1980's!  I have a picture from a daytime magazine that shows a wedding from a OLTL episode of 1980. In the background of the church set you can clearly see the stained glass window from Collinwood's foyer, and the two double doors from the Collinwood drawing room!  It gets you thinking that somewhere in a storage facility at ABC, their may be some pieces left from the old DS set??!!

[CastleBee]

It gets you thinking that somewhere in a storage facility at ABC, their may be some pieces left from the old DS set??!!

OMG - If someone got hold of any of that they could really clean up on Ebay! I know I'd never be able to aford any of it but I would dearly love to have the chance to nose around those old storage facilities!

[Raineypark]

OMG - If someone got hold of any of that they could really clean up on Ebay!

I'd be very surprised if that hasn't already happened to some of that stuff.  Not that I'm implying that the industry's rife with thieves....but if room was needed, and old things were going to be tossed anyway....I'm sure someone might have realised they had value and taken them off the studio's hands.

Imagine having bought some old curiosity at an upstate yard sale and never knowing it was once a prop on DS??!!

[Miss_Winthrop]

Several items from DS have actually shown up for bid on ebay.  If memory serves me correctly, one was a wall sconce and the other a serving bowl.  The seller claims that they are authentic and would even include a letter of authenticity with them.  I never got back there in time to see if they had actually been bid upon.  As I recall, the opening bid seemed excessive.