Another article that appeared in SG #71 that's worth sharing:
I've told this story before, but I reconnected to DS in a somewhat similar way to the author. It was almost a decade before DS first ran on Sci-Fi, and it wasn't while channel surfing, but it was in 1985 while casually browsing the TV Guide one day when I was on vacation from work and noticing that DS was actually airing on an independent station in my area. I couldn't believe it. I'd already missed that day's ep because it had aired at 11am, but the next day I was firmly in from of my TV to see if it really was true that DS was back on (I was afraid to accept it until I saw it with my own eyes
). But sure enough at 11am the familiar music and voiceover thrilled my senses. And as I watched, I was so excited to see that it was an ep that I'd never seen during the original run because I didn't start watching DS until September of 1967. It was May 17, 1967's Ep #233, the one in which there's a violent thunderstorm at Collinwood as Barnabas tells Vicki and Carolyn the story of Josette's death on Widows' Hill. But I was also sad because my vacation was going to be ending before the next ep would air and at the time I didn't own a VCR, so who knew how long it was going to be before I could catch another ep. (But when I did I was beyond excited to realize it was a milestone ep: August 4, 1967's Ep #290 in which Julia discovers Barnabas in his coffin and then Barnabas goes to Julia's room to kill her only to discover she's been waiting for him. What luck was that?!
) But I would catch an ep whenever I could - and within several months of doing that I was definitely hooked and determined to watch regularly - and the first ep I recorded on my new VCR was October 12, 1967's Ep #339, the one in which Dr. Woodard steals Julia's notebook. And I've been involved with DS regularly ever since.
I definitely take exception to the author saying DS had "atrocious production values" - did they watch ANY of the other soaps that were on at the time? Now, too many of those had atrocious production values (I'm pointing at you in particular,
General Hospital!!). If in the author's opinion DS had atrocious production values, the mind boggles as to how he/she would have described the production values of other soaps of the time. In truth, DS often had production values that were on the cutting edge of video production. But as we know, it's so much more fun for people to make fun of DS than to give it its due.
And the other day after I'd put in The Beginning's Collection 6, Disc 4 and gotten a capture from Ep #206 for the Everyone In Collinsport's Favorite Word Slideshow, for the first time I checked out several of the extras on that disc. One that I watched had info that I thought was very interesting, and it's something that this article reminds me that I wanted to post about. We constantly read how teens were a major audience for DS, so much so that at times one would think teens comprised the majority of the show's audience (and sometimes writers even use that to demean DS as something of a "less than" show because of it). However, the Dark Shadows Syndication Promo Reel includes this ratings info:
DAILY 5 SEASON
NATIONAL AVERAGES
WOMEN 18-34 1,240,000
WOMEN 18-49 1,970,000
TOTAL WOMEN 2,630,000
TEENS 970,000Do those stats make it seem like teens were the show's majority audience? A large audience, certainly - but the majority? But then, just how many of the people who've written about DS have actually verified everything they've written? Well, given that too many of their errors could have been easily disproved with even a little actual research, we know only too well that not many writers have bothered to check their facts...