Here we have the Chairman of the WB and the powerful tv producer John Wells saying total opposite comments at the same time period. Why would Ancier claim to be willing to place DS on its schedule if John Wells came back to them for further discussions? Is this some type of calling card to Wells reflecting something like {we (CEO Levin) did consider DS dead but we are now again interested}? Then you have Wells say at the same time that the DS project at the WB is dead as dead can be. Is Wells trying to stir some competition up for the DS pilot?
Two of the things that Garth Ancier said in the Sci-Wire piece puzzled me greatly: 1) that the pilot was "unsalvageable," and 2) that if Wells had approached him, the WB would have moved forward with the series. #1 seemed odd not only because DC had commented at his Museum of Television Arts salute that what he'd seen of the pilot "looks good," but the review that was posted on the Creature Corner site was positively glowing in many respects. And as far as #2 goes, I couldn't understand why Wells wouldn't have been willing to address whatever problems the WB had with the pilot and move forward with the series if the WB was still willing to do so. But now Wells' comments seem to clear up the discrepancy and mystery. When one considers Ancier's comment that the pilot "didn't quite gel the way we hoped it would gel" with Wells' comments that the network wanted to WB-ize the concept, "they wanted young and pretty," and "they wanted more Interview With a Vampire; we wanted Dark Shadows," it seems apparent that the WB wanted what many fans feared:
Dark Shadows Creek (a hybrid of DS and Dawson's Creek
). It might really be true that Ancier had been willing to move forward with a DS series - but it would seem as if it would have only moved forward on
his terms - not actually doing DS the way it
should be done - but remolding it with a WB-ized concept. On the other hand, Wells, DCP, and Mark Verheiden's vision seems to have been to update the concept a bit but to still remain true to DS. Given those diametrically opposed concepts, it's no wonder that Wells et al. didn't want to move ahead with the series and replace their vision with the WB's. And frankly, as much as I would have loved to have seen a new DS series, if
Dark Shadows Creek was really what we were going to be served up with by the WB, I honestly prefer to see the WB series scrapped rather than have DS compromised in that way.