TBH, I think it's no bad thing that it's been fixed - it really is an all-time low for the series and I can't believe that anyone involved with the show's production would favour the original form. It's sub-standard television, plain and simple. No one's fault, but it doesn't alter that fact.
I've never really been bought by the so-called "charm" of bloopers - in isolation on a compilation tape it's one thing, but within the episodes they're shortcomings which detract seriously. DS did wonders on the resources it had, and seeing something so downright amateur draws attention from those achievements.
I'm not necessarily advocating wholesale tampering, but where seriously bad mistakes like this can be repaired seamlessly, I think it's welcome and makes the show more acceptable for a contemporary audience.
While I uphold Stuart's right to have and offer his opinion, I feel his arguments of how the editing of these classic episodes can be a "good" thing are weak at best. Just who should have the power to judge whether a mistake is serious and unacceptable or whether it is minor and acceptable?
When asked what the all time low for DS was. different people offer different opinions. Some might answer "The Leviathan storyline" or the "Adam storyline". Others might answer "Kathy Cody's acting" or "the Mrs. Johnson character". Some might say "The cheap special effects.... bat on a string, mis-matched chromakey". Quite a few people have offered their problems with Jonathan Frid's frequent line flubs and glancing at the teleprompter. It just goes to show, as Rosanne Rosannadanna once said "It just goes to show you. You can't please everybody, or anybody from Ft. Lee, New Jersey!"
If we had the power to "fix" the "all-time lows" in Dark Shadows (and I strongly disagree with Stuart's use of these words) it would perhaps be easy to find a place to start. But, where would we end?!! Should we get an actor who sounds like the late Robert Gerringer to dub in audio over the original lines that labeled the yet-to-be-introduced Dr. Hoffman as a "her"? Should we spare no expense to computer generate a believable bat to bite Barnabas in 1795? Should we cut out the entire 1995 flash forward and create a flash forward to 2005?
If MPI's mission was to produce a "more acceptable" show for a "contemporary audience", perhaps all of the above should be done. But, I don't think that this is, or should be, the reason they are producing the DVDs. Nor do I believe that MPI is correcting the bloopers out of respect to "anyone involved with the show's production" as I doubt that these folks make up a sizeable number of the people who are buying the DS DVDs. No, I believe that the folks at MPI are supposed to be producing a CLASSIC CULT SHOW for DEVOTED FANS of that show, who remember it when it was originally run (or as it was run in reruns in the 1980s up till now) and want a TRUE and ACCURATE reproduction of that show, warts and all. Let those who cringe at things they don't like in DS go watch another show that's more to their liking. If people can't see the charm in the bloopers by realizing that the show was done virtually live and that people are human and television production has evolved greatly since the 1960s, if people can't get over this then they shouldn't be bothering with DS at all. To watch DS, you NEED to suspend your disbelief in more ways than one. The far out storylines, the limited sets, the contradictions in the scripts, etc... You also need to suspend your criticism and your need to find fault with things. Sit back and enjoy it for what is was, and still is, not for what it could have been. Save that for things in your life that you can change, more important things than a 37 year-old soap. Not that this 37 year-old soap is not important to me and all of it's thousands of long-time fans. It is important... just as we remember it. And nothing more, or less, would be an acceptable substitute.
Respectfully,
SDP
