Strange feelings about the new film and fandom

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I should also probably mention that the two DS fans that I referred to who had posted on Twitter about liking what they had seen of the DS film during the test screening don't fall into the group I've observed on Twitter who live to make fun of the show. From what I've seen of their tweets, they seem to be like many of us and love the original show in similar ways to how we do.

[PennyDreadful]

Even though there's been little evidence of them here on the forum (though posts do exist), the DS fans who live for the bloopers and making fun of the series have existed for decades already. They've been heard from in all sorts of DS venues and only more so since the inception of DS message boards on the Internet - and if my experience with Twitter back when I was following it closely is any indication, they tweet there practically every day of the week. And they're not simply snarky teenagers just discovering the show - most, actually, are longtime fans of the original series, and even original fans. The contingent definitely already exists, so the phenomenon of making fun of the show to the exclusion of anything else about it is nothing new, even amongst fans.

Oh, I know about them.  However, I'd argue that they are in the minority.  I suspect most fans "get" the series in the way it was meant to be perceived, but yes, there have always been the fans who liked it purely for laughs.  If Burton's film is a big hit, his comical take might become the predominant way people perceive DS.  It doesn't sit well with me. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The thing is, for better or worse, it's already the predominant way people in the media perceive DS. And while the existing group of fans who live to make fun may be in the minority, we shouldn't kid ourselves that they're a small group because I'm not exagerrating when I say I've encountered hundreds of them during my time spent at many DS Fests.

[MagnusTrask]

I don't particularly care about people laughing at the show, not for the purposes of this thread and my point.   I meant that the influx of new fans on boards and fandom, fans who reject the old show and think the film(s) is obviously superior in every way because it's new and state-of-the-art... they might start predominating. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

That's a possibility. Though as others have pointed out at various times, that didn't happen with the '91 Series and its superior state-of-the-art SFX. So that sort of fear could also be unfounded with respect to the new DS film. Though, of course, many more people are likely to see the new film - probably even more than have seen the '91 Series and the original series combined...

[arashi]

If Burton's film is a big hit, his comical take might become the predominant way people perceive DS.

But it won't change the way you perceive DS, so it shouldn't matter I don't think. Even if it did the... I hesitate to use the word damage - whatever it did to the public's notion, it would die down in a few years anyway and hardly anyone would think about it or remember it. If it spawns a horde of raving fangirls who disdain everything but the JDTB version, well, they'll move onto something else soon enough more often then not.

I'm sure lots of people thought the 91 series was going to ruin DS' image, but that's how I came across the show and it was the memory of that and hearing my Mom's acclaim for the original that made me tune in when I came across it on SciFi nearly a decade later.

[RachelDrummand]

You guys are right of course. Whatever happens with this new film, no one is going to really pay much attention in the coming years. I do cringe in horror when I think that this is how the general public will view Dark Shadows but maybe...JUST maybe it will lead them to the original/revival series and then they will like those better than the Burton film.

[Nancy]

I believe the new movie and the resulting interest in the original series will stir things up a bit, but to me, that's a good thing.  I am not certain of how much the film will directly impact fandom activity, especially online, but I am curious to see.

I did resign myself to the fact there will be unwelcomed scrutiny of the original series because of the gaffes and other obvious mistakes.  I know many original fans find that endearing but others new to the whole thing will likely see that as a reason to not take the show that seriously.  We've already witnessed people new to DS focusing on the gaffes and making a joke of it all rather than look past the sloppy production values.  DS is not, in my view, a highly regarding work to begin so there isn't anything worse new comers can say about it.  We've been down that road before many times over the past few decades.  The hope that I always hold is that newbies appreciate the show for the ambitious wonder that it is and especially was back in the day, and look past the gaffes.

I think our online world is going to change.  It will feel strange, certainly.

[MagnusTrask]

Nancy, turns out you agree more than I thought on first reading, but no time to edit the following much:

I'm not really talking about gaffes and lack of effects.   Old DS could have been pulled off without mistakes and had reasonable effects, and it would still seem "dated", in acting, pacing, etc., to any influx of younger mainstream film viewers.   It happened with Trek and Dr Who.   There could end up being a competition between the tatty old show (supposedly), and the state-of-the-art, modern one.   How many new Battlestar Galactica fans went on to embrace the original BSG, I wonder?   That's hardly a similar situation, really, but I'll bet it would appear that way at first to many.  The new one would have that surface veneer of being just so much "better".

MB, I didn't see the 1991 series, but I think it didn't do DS in a vastly different, "updated", "re-imagined" way, to have it conform to contemporary Hollywood product, and what they think mainstream tastes are.   It wasn't altered to make DS mainstream, in style and content.   So it didn't redefine what DS is.   It wasn't a huge hit, so it couldn't have.   For what I'm talking about, the new thing has to be a hit.

As far as the way we personally perceive DS, that can change too.   I'm having a harder and harder time getting what I did out of old Dr Who now, after new DW has done so much to redefine it.

It matters how other, new DS fans perceive DS, if the result of the new fan influx is that I don't have the same fandom to inhabit, anymore.

[Nancy]

I understand your concerns, Magnus.  Back when the 1991 Revival was on and even afterwards, new DS fans came into the fandom many only knowing the 1991 series.  They, in turn, checked out the original especially after hearing OS fans online talk about how much they loved the OS.  The new fans, many considerably younger than us older folks, blended into the fandom just fine.  There were new "faces" and perceptions introduced to the long established DS forums and it worked out fine.

Some 1991 fans have created their own 1991 Revival discussion boards so they could focus on their main DS interest.  I'm sure if it warrants new fans who wind up preferring the movie over all else will do the same.  There will be some adjustment period as it is whenever you move into a new house and have to remember how to get around.

It matters how other, new DS fans perceive DS, if the result of the new fan influx is that I don't have the same fandom to inhabit, anymore.

[borgosi]

After seeing the trailer I'm afraid of feeling that I'll have to explain to people when they see me in a DS t-shirt, no not THAT Dark Shadows.

[Countess]

Just viewed the DS trailer for the fifth time and NOW I understand why the original DS is being released on DVD in it's entirety next month - it's to soothe the battered souls of stalwart DS fans who were so turned off by the movie that they'll gladly shell out hundreds of bucks to rid the image of Johnny Depp's disco Barnabas from their psyche for all eternity.  It's all about making a buck, not paying homage to a classic gothic soap opera.   Much of the suspense on DS centered on maintaining Barnabas' secret...so in this version he freely admits to being a vampire?  Where the hell is the suspense in that?  But I'll see the Depp/Burton version - when Amazon offers it as a $.99 weekend special.

Countess

[ProfStokes]

After seeing the trailer I'm afraid of feeling that I'll have to explain to people when they see me in a DS t-shirt, no not THAT Dark Shadows.

borgosi, after watching the Barnabas/Angelique scene in the last 15 seconds of the trailer, I wanted to hide all of my DS pictures and shirts to avoid being associated with the movie.
 

I get this sense that things are changing, and I don't know if it's for the better.  Burton and Depp are a BIG deal, and I have this bad feeling the new DS will imprint the words "Dark Shadows" on the public consciousness in a way we won't like.  I guess I just get the sense that our "little world" is about to change in a big way and it feels sort of strange.

Penny, that was always my fear from the beginning, both when this movie and the WB series were announced.  I'm not comfortable with a new interpretation skewing the image of DS. People who are exposed to the movie will develop a very limited idea of what the show is about and will fixate on those aspects.  I foresee this creating a culture clash between old and new fans as we will be discussing totally different things when we discuss "Dark Shadows."  As I said above, I don't want to be associated with the new movie, and like borgosi, I will now have to qualify myself as "an original series DS fan" and have to explain myself when talking about my hobby. 

Elsewhere on this board, people have referred to Internet confrontations over who is a "real fan."  The downside to having multiple interpretations of a property is the risk of each faction trying to champion its own version.  Whereas I could expect "Star Trek" and "Dr. Who" fans to remain amicable because the new series incorporate the continuity of the original series, DS fandom is based on unrelated, contradictory versions.  The tone of the movie seems so different from the original series that I wouldn't expect people who see it to be  interested in the original DS anymore than I would expect Springtime for Hitler to draw viewers to the History Channel.

ProfStokes