But, as the actress I spoke with said: "Dan Curtis KNEW this show was special" and he kept all those tapes (at least that's what she told me).
Dan Curtis doesn't and didn't hold onto anything...All masters have always been stored at ABC and Worldvision.
Darren, thank you so much for jumping in to explain that. I've been trying to hunt up the Variety article that explains it (with no luck) so that people wouldn't simply have to take my word that the DS actors who continue to spread that story simply don't know what they're talking about. But now it wouldn't simply be my word.
I did, however, come across this initial article from 1975 about DC's suit:
'Dark Shadows' Prompts Suit Against ABC And Worldvision
Dan Curtis Productions has filed suit against ABC and Worldvision over the syndication and distribution rights to the "Dark Shadows" series that played on the network's daytime schedule between June 1966 and April 1971.
According the the plaintiff, which is seeking triple damages on "at least" a $1,000,000 loss to itself, Curtis entered an agreement with ABC for the latter to play the series on its network with ownership returned to the producer after web play. But, the brief filed in N.Y. Federal Court said, ABC assigned domestic and individual rights to its ABC Films syndie division. That division was later sold to its head, Kevin O'Sullivan, and the name was changed to Worldvision Inc.
That assignment of rights, according to the suit, was "exaction," a practice outlawed by the Sherman Antitrust Act and exerted by ABC through its economic power as contrasted to that of the plaintiff, an independent producer.
"At the time the agreement was made," the brief said, it was the usual practice of ABC and the other two national tv networks to force all independent producers to agree to terms similar to or identical with these exactions before said network wiould agree to exhibit television shows." Those agreements, it was stated, give the networks a position tending to monopoly.
Independent producers, the brief continued, had "so little bargaining power," they almost always gave up a substantial amount of a show's profitability to the webs.
The suit said that from 1957 to 1968, networks increasingly engaged in syndication and their control of off-web syndication increased from 62.28% to 96.7% of such product. Profit from such syndie material, it was said, went from $894,000 in 1960 to $6,266,000 in 1967.
In 1970, the FCC gave the networks a time limit to get out of syndication. CBS spun off its division as Viacom International and O'Sullivan bought his business in April 1973. NBC has also disposed of its syndie properties to National Telefilm Associates.
But the three networks are currently facing a Justice Dept, suit in California charging them with antitrust violations for owning rights to many shows they air -- a proctice all have said no longer exists.Like I said, unfortunately I haven't been able to locate the article that fully explains the settlement. But as I also said, basically the ruling was not in DC's favor and Worldvision retained ownership of the DS episodes. DC, however, owns the "intellectual property" of DS.