What If DS Had Been Taped in Front of a Live Studio Audience?

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey, gang,

We've all seen films and photographs of all of the kids who regularly assembled in front of the ABC television studio where DS was filmed.  Now, I know that soap operas have never had live studio audiences, like many of the past and current day sit/coms have.  However, if Dan Curtis had allowed the fans into the show's tapings, do you think the audience would have behaved like the studio audiences did at the tapings of "The Odd Couple" and "The Bob Newhart Show" in a very subdued and controlled manner, or would the fans have acted as uproariously and vociferously as the kids who sat down for the tapings of "Happy Days"?

Of course, whenever, Barnabas, Quentin, Willie, and Angelique walked onto the set, I imagine that the kids would have gone wild with delight.   

However, if the Rev. Gregory Trask or Count Petofi happened to walk onto the set, I suspect that there would have been a chorus of boos and jeers from the "Dark Shadows kiddies"! 

As to Jeff Clark, I think that the kids in the audience would have shown no reaction at all (either positive or negative), sort of like the way that the kids reacted whenever Anson "'Potsie' Webber"  Williams strode onto the set at Arnold's Drive-In on "Happy Days." 

Bob

[dom]

I can certainly hear coughing from all the cigarette smoke. Cliffhanger inhales. And blooper giggles.

[dom]

...and maybe Dan Curtis yelling at everyone to be quiet.

[Uncle Roger]

Definitely more bloopers! Audible audience reaction at possibly the wrong moments.

[Gerard]

I remembering reading, a long, long time ago, while the series was original airing, that on a very rare blue moon, a few select fans were permitted to watch during a taping; maybe not the whole episode, but at least part of one, if they swore absolute silence (during and after taping).  So, I guess in a way, there was an occasional "live studio audience." 

But now I'm trying to envision a live studio audience.  Would there be an "uh-oh" lady, as in the audience during the taping of I Love Lucy?  Actually, the "uh-oh" lady was noneother than Lucille Ball's own mother, who attended quite a few of the tapings.  A recording of it was kept by CBS studios for other sit-coms that had canned laugh-tracks, including The Munsters and Gilligan's Island. 

I'm surprised that on various musical/comedy/variety shows at that time that there never were any spoofs of DS.  The Carol Burnett Show could've done a great one, with Ms. Burnett playing maybe Julia or even Elizabeth (or both).  Of course, her show was all done before a live studio audience, bloopers and all.  Oh, god, the bloopers that the network aired because they were so hysterical!  Remember the horse peeing?  And Tim Conway starting to ad-lib about the Siamese elephants during a Eunice and Mama skit and they just kept the cameras rolling and aired it in its entirety (except bleeping out one word that Vicki Lawrence said during it who refused to crack up and was determined to make Tim Conway crack up and succeeded)?  What would an audience do during DS bloopers?  Like the window pane falling down when Charity/Pansey waltzed into Tate's studio?  Adam and David knocking over bushes with Christmas-tree-bases?  Stuck doors?  Entire "brick walls" ready to collapse? 

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

Instead of Clarabell the clown, they could have had Pennywise the clown warming up the audience.  Yes, boys and girls, we all float at ABC.