DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
Members' Mausoleum => Calendar Events / Announcements Archive => Calendar Events / Announcements '26 I => Calendar Events / Announcements '07 I => Topic started by: David on January 17, 2007, 05:00:21 AM
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After years of steadily declining ratings, the DS/Bewitched
hybrid Passions ends it's NBC run this summer, after 8 years of struggling to find an audience.
It's fan base was, frankly surprised it lasted as long as it did.
Dead last in the daytime ratings for over 3 years, Passions
low this past year was a 1.3, it's high a 1.7.
Port Charles & Passions both tanked, proving once again that DS was truly a one shot deal.
David
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What should have been a joyous occasion has turned into a black day in soap history. I hate to say it, but all those Passions fans were right. Its cancellation has caused trouble for other soap operas. You know what really sucks about all of this? The creator of Passions knew his show was going to be canceled if he didn't improve it because NBC warned him and still he did nothing. He didn't care because he was still bitter about being fired from Days of Our Lives. NBC wants out of the soap opera business so in 2009 Days will be going to either ABC or CBS and when that happens another soap opera will be canceled for Days to take its place. Word has it ABC daytime really wants that show.
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it got cancelled" FINALLY? when it aired on sci-fi channel i tried to like it. & a started to a little bit. but it's QUITE HARD to like a show when the acting is SOOOOOOOOOO BLOODY bad that it's NOT EVEN funny. & i think what you also meant to say is that it proves once again that "Dark Shadows" is by far the BEST supernatural show!TRUE on "DS" there's some actors that can't act such as the actress who played "Amanda Harris" for starters. another is the woman who played "Roxanne" just to make another example. but anywys for those "Passions" Fans i do hope they end the show as the fans want it though. has it got any better as of late? i'm just curious.
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has it got any better as of late? i'm just curious.
Nope. Lately it's just been women characters getting raped. One character got raped twice from what I read. I don't like the change the show took when the actor that played the doll died in real life. They dropped all of the supernatural storylines over the years and that's why ratings kept going down. That's why it's not different anymore. Passions is a stupid, slow pace soap opera that was begging to be canceled. Well now that it has, I hope the real actors / actresses move onto better things. I hope they don't try to stay in the soap opera business because it looks like soaps are becoming a thing of the past.
BTW, they still have storylines from day one of the show still going on. And with the cancellation and the death of a former main character recently, it doesn't look like her story will get to be completed. They had great potential when it started, they just didn't go with it.
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You are right, Satan.
Just read the Passions boards at www.soapcentral.com
Though it had wonderful sparks of comic genius, fans were
disgusted that, in 8 years, not a single storyline was resolved, not a single character was allowed to be happy.
Other than the Bewitched styled moments, there was no payoff to watching Passions.
At leat not on an emotional level.
Recent case in point:
Beloved character Grace Bennett (Dana Sparks), written out in 2004.
Brought back last month amid much fanfare.
Grace spent her entire month back on the air TALKING ON THE PHONE.
There was no onscreen reunion with her loved ones.
Then, she was killed with no warning!!!!
Fans were pissed!!!!!!
James Reilly was warned publicly by NBC to improve the show, but he ignored the network.
A shame.
Because Passions had SO MUCH potential.
Remember the mad adventures of Tabby & Timmy, Zombie
Charity, the Angel Girl, Miguel and Charity in Hell, etc
RE: Days: now #3 in the ratings, it's expected to go to ABC in 2009, while AMC and OLTL will go back to 30 mins to make room for it.
I don't think the soap genre is dead, though.
SoapNet is a VERY popular network.
It's AC Neilsen's refusal to count VCR, online & Tivo viewers (i.e. more than HALF the audience)
that causes the ratings to go as low as they are.
BTW, SoapNet begins airing Santa Barbara reruns this summer. That makes 4 older daytime shows they air.
Maybe DS can be their 5th......
David
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TRUE on "DS" there's some actors that can't act such as the actress who played "Amanda Harris" for starters. another is the woman who played "Roxanne" just to make another example.
Have to disagree here, I didn't think either of these actress's were that bad, no Meryl Streeps for sure, but not bad. Now, the chick that played Joanna Mills, Lee Berry? Whoa!! She was HORRIBLE!! ::)
BTW, SoapNet begins airing Santa Barbara reruns this summer. That makes 4 older daytime shows they air. Maybe DS can be their 5th......
DS would be a good choice. Me personally, I'd KILL to see old eps of Guiding Light! Say from 1968-1976? ;)
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I'm not at all surprised that Passions was finally cancelled. I, too, attempted to watch it numerous times, but I absolutely cannot stand anything on NBC, so maybe that was my downfall. It's odd to hear that NBC wants out of soaps. With all that space during the middle of the afternoon, what the hell are they going to air? TALK SHOWS? I'm sorry, but with every celebrity in the world who is washed up wanting a talk show now, it's going to be harder to find a stable one then to have a decent soap with ratings, which is what Days seems to be now.
Not to mention the fact that I'm outraged that ABC is going to cut OLTL down to a half hour show. BOO! I never liked AMC--too goody goody for me--but they should just air Days at 12 for an hour. But hey, at least they're not cutting GH down to a half hour, which, frankly, I'm surprised at as well because I know that they were being heavily criticised in the past for their crappy storylines, and rightly so. So I guess that their ratings are climbing back up again? I guess the critics are swarming back towards it again.
(Really the only thing bad about GH that I've had to say lately is when they brought in the "good" twin to Manny Luis' "bad" twin part. THAT was REALLY uninspired, considering that just did that a couple years ago with Alcazar.)
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I'm not in the least surprised about this news and IMO - good ridance. I tried to watch also from time to time - especially when I was re-couping from an operation last Spring and, sheesh, I couldn't even manage it on pain meds. When I checked the digital cable description I thought they had a lot of gall to describe it as "the wildest soap since Dark Shadows". Give me a break - it was the corniest piece of doo ever on daytime TV - and, with the wasteland that pretty much is daytime TV, that would be saying something. I've heard people call DS campy (and, in light of current technology, I can see where they're coming from though, since I was there I am able to recall my original respect for it) but all I can say in comparing the two is; you'd never see thought balloons over the head of Barnabas Collins. That might not have been so bad in "Passions" case if it had been humorous - but it just came across as lame.
The only thing those two shows had in common is that they were on during the day and they involved supernatural elements ... and in the case of "Passions" just barely. My theory is, if you want something like that to make a go of it you have to appeal to approximately the same age group most of us were in when we first fell for DS (pre to mid-teens). To do that, I think it needs to be taken a tad more seriously than these (apparently) self-destructive folks did.
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Recent case in point:
Beloved character Grace Bennett (Dana Sparks), written out in 2004.
Brought back last month amid much fanfare.
Grace spent her entire month back on the air TALKING ON THE PHONE.
There was no onscreen reunion with her loved ones.
Then, she was killed with no warning!!!!
Fans were pissed!!!!!!
James Reilly was warned publicly by NBC to improve the show, but he ignored the network.
A shame.
Because Passions had SO MUCH potential.
Remember the mad adventures of Tabby & Timmy, Zombie
Charity, the Angel Girl, Miguel and Charity in Hell, etc
Grace is the character I'm talking about. Her character didn't know the first 20 years of her life. That story should have been explored more before killing her off. Plus throughout the shows run it says her and her daughters have powers yet they haven't gone into that any further. They dropped everything that was interesting for women getting raped, becoming hookers, doing drugs, killing people, it's just stupid now. The first 3 years of this show are the best episodes ever made.
I've been following this story for over a week now. When I read JER was warned about Passions being canceled if he didn't improve it, the first thing that popped in my mind along with other fans was that he was still bitter over being fired from Days. He ruined that show and that's why NBC had him canned. Now that they have a professional in his place as headwriter I read that the ratings have gone up and it's becoming watchable again. I stopped watching it a few years ago after the serial killer storyline. I didn't care for how JER finished that. Everyone who died, ended up alive on an island.
It's odd to hear that NBC wants out of soaps. With all that space during the middle of the afternoon, what the hell are they going to air? TALK SHOWS?
Not to mention the fact that I'm outraged that ABC is going to cut OLTL down to a half hour show. BOO! I never liked AMC--too goody goody for me--
I guess you didn't hear about the extra hour for the Today Show uh? That's where the hour is going to go when Passions ends its run. That will be 4 hours of The Today Show now.
I love AMC. It's the only soap opera on right now that I watch. That's why I'm upset by this news and the news that ABC wants to add an extra hour of their morning show which could lead to the cancellation of one of their own soaps. That's why I'm saying the soap genre is going out because of all these stories going on. With Passions cancellation turning out true, I'm betting the latest one with GMA will be too.
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According to this morning's Variety, Passions remains quite popular with young girls.
Negotiations are alredy underway to see it continue on My Network TV or Soapnet,
but I'll believe it when I see it.
What a sad missed potential this show turnd out to be!
It almost came back last summer with a bizzare DaVinci
code styled plot set in Rome,
but as soon as that story ended, the show went nowhere.
David
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According to this morning's Variety, Passions remains quite popular with young girls.
Negotiations are alredy underway to see it continue on My Network TV or Soapnet,
but I'll believe it when I see it.
Didn't it briefly run on SCI FI Channel in early 2006? My guess would be that it's more likely to show up again on an NBC/Universal network, such as SCI FI or Chiller. That would require much less cross-company negotiation.
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Sci Fi reran the first 3 1/2 months of Passions this past Spring. The eps featuring Tabitha the Witch and Timmy the Living Doll (Juliet Mills/Josh Ryan Evans) were the show's high point.
The ratings then were double what they are now.
But Sci Fi is now a huge network.
A small cult show cannot cut it there anymore.
Passions on Sci Fi was LOW rated.
The only place for Passions reruns would be Soapnet, but James Reilly wants it to continue elsewhere with new shows, not likely to happen.
David
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And to think that "Another World" was canceled to make room for this crap!
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I"m not surprised that "Passions" is going at all, and from what I've heard, "Guiding Light" is hanging on by a thread, soon to end its run. Perhaps the soap opera genre really is nearing the end of its life. After all, these "serials" started out on radio. Maybe they just can't sustain a life of their own anymore.
Someone mentioned "All My Children." I have watched that since its inception. However, it's been maddening lately with some of its "out-there"storylines, such as Josh Madden being this miracle baby of Susan Lucci's character, Erica, and her first husband, Jeff. Way back when, Erica was the first character on a soap opera to have a legal abortion. Oh, but turns out now, years and years later, her evil gyno, Greg Madden, absconded with the fetus, implanted it into his own wife -- and voila! -- baby Josh (now a hunk of a man, by the way), biological son of Erica and Jeff. I mean, puh-leeze!
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According to people I know who work in the soap opera business, it is very much a dying genre and they are either pondering retirement altogether or planning on working in prime time or something else altogether.
That doesn't mean syndicating the soaps in their heydey won't do a good business on SoapNet.
A friend of mine who worked in production of Guiding Light for years moved to One Life to Live and then to General Hospital where she is now. She had pondered going to teaching as she "saw the writing on the wall" for the continued longevity for soaps. But the opportunity to move out to California and work on General Hospital seemed like a better way to "go out" if that is what ultimately happens.
Nancy
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None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Soap Operas move like glaciers in this digital world we live in now. How can the genre possibly attract new viewers away from content made available in faster mediums? I watch General Hospital....but I don't watch it live.....I fast forward more bits than I watch.
I mean really.....how many times can one watch Sonny marry Carly?... :P
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According to www.soapcentral.com, NBC wants to keep Passions alive and has yet to set an actual end date.
They are already in negotiations with Soapnet about keeping the show going in a 30 minute format, which would bring production costs WAY down.
We shall see........
I still think soaps have a bigger audience than people realize. Soapnet is a sucessful network.
The problem, I think, is AC Neilsen's absurd, outdated system that does not include VCR, Tivo, online or Soapnet viewers into a show's overall rating.
I think more folks are still watching than the networks realize.
David
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The problem with soaps is this:
They run for so long that they inevitably repeat the same storylines over and over again. I mean, there's only so many people who can have a drug addiction, become a stripper, have a miscarriage, have an abortion, be gay, cheat on their husband, murder someone, etc etc. It gets tiring after a whiile. I mean, sure, you could say that soaps run on these same storylines but that the characters are different and their reactions are different. But pretty soon, those become predictable too.
Look at GH currently. Like RaineyPark said, how many times can we watch Sonny marry Carly? I'm GLAD they're apart, and I WANT them to stay THAT WAY. It's quite tiring watching all that. Right now my favorite parts of the show are Sam, Lucky/Liz/Maxie, and sometimes Dillon/Georgie/Lulu, but even that's getting a little tired. I'm also liking this whole Nikolas' kid getting kidnapped.
But I suppose in 20 years, if the show is still on and I'm still watching it, I'll grow tired of seeing these same storylines, and having seen them probably 2 or 3 times by then.
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Well, Brandon, after 28 years I am seriously considering quitting GH over the immiment firing of Stuart Damon. The show has gone downhill with the current producing-writing regime which lionizes mobsters and ridicules law enforcement and the medical profession. Back in the mid-90s, GH had a wonderful period with Wendy Riche producing and Claire Labine as head writer. How such morally bankrupt character like Sonny, Carly and Jason can be promoted as the show's 'heroes' is beyond me. John Beradino & Emily McLaughlin (the beloved Dr. Steve Hardy and Nurse jessie Brewer) must be rolling over in their graves. If I ran the show, the show's moral compass would be reset with more doctors, no mobsters, and yes, a full-time return of Luke & Laura! Sorry for the tangent, folks, but the soap world has become less friendly in recent years.....
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The news that Soapnet is going to be showing Santa Barbara is fantastic! I loved that show and really look forward to seeing it again.
As far as Passions, it's about time. The amateurish acting, writing out of a ninth grade non-creative writing class, and the fact that none of the storylines ever went anywhere at all made that show nothing but a huge groan inducing monstrosity.
The only soap I watch (other than DS of course) is As The World Turns, and it's getting pretty darned boring as well. They put these bad characters on the show with these big schemes, and in order to make the schemes work they have to make all the other characters into complete morons. It really makes me lose all respect for the characters I used to like, and I also can't stand the bad characters. They have the ocassional fun storyline, like a while ago there was slasher loose at the summer camp killing teens, that was pretty good stuff. But the day to day stuff is just sooooo old. Will Jack and Carly get back together? Will Will and Gwen ever be happy? Good lord, I couldn't care less. At least now Paul can apparently see into the future, so there's some possibility of that turning into something interesting.
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I thought one of the more well-written soaps was Ryan's Hope. However, even that got ridiculous when they had some gorilla kidnap Delia Reid Ryan and hold her captive in a castle in Central Park! I mean, shades of King Kong.
As for soaps in general, Nancy's right. The business is dying. More and more, they're cutting costs to keep themselves alive, which is why they're fiing people such as Stuart Damon and Julia Barr (a two-time Emmy winner!). I think it's just a question of time.
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My roommate recently taped an episode of The Young & the Restless because former Beastmaster star Daniel Goddard had a bit role as a hustler in a bar. I watched Goddard's scenes and after we had finished the tape suggested that the soap should be re-titled The Hung and the Listless.
I do have to say that the use of hairproducts and cosmetics, on both the female and the male principals, was impressive...
G.
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You folks make good points.
I watched Y & R from '73-'81, but gave up when the show
REFUSED to resolve the Jill/Kay feud, which I believe
continues to this day!!!!!
In the late 70s, there was a gay porn film called The Hung
and the Breastles!!
David
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I watched Y & R from '73-'81, but gave up when the show
REFUSED to resolve the Jill/Kay feud, which I believe
continues to this day!!!!!
Jill turned out to be Katherine's daughter, and they're living under the same roof. The latest bunch of garbage is that Katherine has suddenly remembered via dreams/nightmares that she may have given away Jill's son Phillip when he was a baby, meaning that the child Jill raised who ultimately died wasn't really her son.
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Oh, brother.....
That, and the AMC twist about Erica's baby do sound
awful..........
David
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Charles Ellis.....ITAWU!!! I can't stand the Sonny/Carly/Jason thing anymore! BOO! And Ric trying to bring down Sonny everytime they need a new storyline. It's getting about as old as Barnabas seeing Josette in every girl that walks in front of him (except Julia, of course).
And I recently read somewhere that GH is ripping off Grey's Anatomy with their new focus on the hospital, and I'll have to agree. I don't know why they infuse those one shot characters and their stories, getting the regular characters involved. Personally, I don't care because I don't care about those characters. BOO.
Maybe they should take a lesson from DCP and realize that the same thing over and over are no good. It's getting really rediculous that they keep doing the same things every two or three years.
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Another reason why I'm watching daytime soaps less and less- preposterous plots that insult the intelligence of the viewer, and worse, rewrite the show's history! The whole 'Jill Foster Abbot as Kay Chancellor's kid' story is a true Jump The Shark moment, alongside with AMC's abducted fetus (yecch!) storyline and practically everything on OLTL in the past decade, demostrate how bad things can get when writers change accepted canon after many years. DS was lucky in that the major rewriting was early in the show's run with Barnabas' arrival and changing the original Jeremiah-Josette saga to fit the character, and with the 1795 storyline came the final ingredient to the widely accepted version of the triangle: Angelique!
I remember following roughly 4 to 5 soaps at one point in the 80s. Now I just tape GH and the reruns of "Another World" on SoapNet (which is currently showing stuff from 1991, and it's a million times better than what passes for a daytime soap today). I've started buying DVDs of primetime serial dramas that I've missed over the years, like "The O.C.", "Footballer Wives", and "One Tree Hill". Also, I've been watching VHS tapes of probably the first (and best!) primetime soap, "Peyton Place", as supplied by a confidential source (when is THIS TV classic coming to DVD, anyway?).
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Another reason why I'm watching daytime soaps less and less-preposterous plots that insult the intelligence of the viewer
Charles I couldn't agree w/you more! I was RABID about GH and Guiding Light when I was a kid, started watching GL in '76 right through to the late 80's early 90's I guess. Would switch between GH and GL back then, no VCR''s waaahh! I also was really into ATWT for a while in high school and AMC, OLTL, RH, Loving/The City and Capitol too.
But like you, I got tired of basically being talked down to w/the more and more ridiculous plots and straying from established canon! On GL for example, they decided in the early 80's that the character of Mike Bauer was a former fighter pilot since the actor portraying him, Don Stewart, had been himself. 'Mike Bauer' never served ONE DAY in the military if you look over the show's history! If they wanted to have the character fly a plane for dramatics and the actor was willing and able to fly said plane, then have the character take flying lessons for god's sake! Sheesh! Don't say he's an ex military guy when clearly he wasn't. ::)
Anyway, I'm straying too far off topic so I'll come back to DS, LOL! Yes, DS is over the top, far-fetched, preposterous (sp?), campy at times and strays from established canon too (pre-1795 story to 1795 and post-1795 story), but it's *DS*! We KNOW the very concept of the show is a little silly and unbelievable. I like what Jonathan said in one interview (Casting Shadows I think it was) where he said there was a time when he had to say a line about going back in time, I think to save Vickie, and he was trying to figure out how, as an actor, he was going to 'sell' to the audience this preposterous idea of not only going back through time, but how VITAL it was that he/Barnabas do it. He decided to put into his mind how hard it was in Barnabas' time to travel say to the Far East and how dangerous and long a trip would be. He sort of compared the two so that he, in his mind, could make it believable for us. ;)
One more stray OT, I have become ADDICTED to YouTube and have watched many wonderful scenes from the 70's and 80's of GL and other soaps. I highly reccommend cousins checking out YouTube for your favorite old soaps. There's lots of DS stuff on there too, like most, if not all, of the DS Addicts wonderful music videos! ;) And of course, my FAVE DS-themed video "Brokeback Shadows"! >:D
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Anyway, I'm straying too far off topic so I'll come back to DS, LOL!
Thank you. :)
This isn't directed to anyone specifically, but discussing the general state of soaps as it relates to Passions' cancellation is already enough OT without also lamenting specific storylines on the other current soaps, which is going way OT. ;)
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Another reason why I'm watching daytime soaps less and less- preposterous plots that insult the intelligence of the viewer, and worse, rewrite the show's history!
OLTL, once a fine soap, just went nuts with the Viki/Niki thing. Worse, they even continued it with Viki's daughter! I mean, it isn't as if dissasociative personalities are genetic!
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on tomorrow's Passions, Luis (Galen Gering)
will be raped by the stalker.
To think that this once was a fun show that mined DS & Bewitched for great laughs.
Sad............
David
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True, David, and now we know why it's been given the ax. Headwriter James Reilly, whom someone correctly identified as the ex head writer for Days of Our Lives, isn't the boy genius some thought he was. He's the one who was responsible for that ridiculous storyline on Days where Marlena is possessed by the devil. He's hoping, as I read yesterday, that Passions will continue either on the Internet or cable, as also has been mentioned here. Well, good luck to him, but I can't see it happening.
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Yesterday I strongly suggested that people shouldn't discuss the storylines on the current soaps. I don't want to be a hardass (don't make me bring back the Iron Bastard! [diablo]), but today I'm asking outright: Please do not discuss the storylines on the current soaps (or even past soaps other than DS). It's way OT, and from now on any such discussions will be subject to removal. ;)
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No disrespect meant, MB, but since Passions & Port Charles' reputations cme from their supernatural stories, and since the press has compared both to DS, wouldn't
anything to do with these two shows be considered on~topic?
David
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I'm sorry, David, but thinking that discussing anything to do with either Passions or Port Charles simply because certain elements of those shows have been compared to DS is way too broad an assumption, and many aspects of those two shows would certainly be considered way off-topic here. The Forum's Guidelines state:
2. The purpose of these forums is to discuss DARK SHADOWS, its characters, actors and storylines.
Anything beyond that is off-topic. We're most definitely willing to allow certain other discussions that directly relate in some way to something special in the topic starter's life, or if a topic at least relates itself specifically to the horror genre, of which DS is itself a part, and focuses on that horror as it might relate to DS. But just because any type of TV show, movie or book might contain horror elements, that doesn't necessarily allow free reign to discuss details of its non-horror elements (unless, perhaps, those elements also in some way directly relate to DS). Because some DS fans might have been interested in learning about Passions' cancellation, this topic has been allowed on this board - however, discussion about mostly anything else regarding the show is much better suited for a Passions forum, which this forum is clearly not. ;)
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None of this should come as a surprise to anyone. Soap Operas move like glaciers in this digital world we live in now. How can the genre possibly attract new viewers away from content made available in faster mediums? I watch General Hospital....but I don't watch it live.....I fast forward more bits than I watch.
I mean really.....how many times can one watch Sonny marry Carly?... :P
Hey, Raineypark,
Who has a more "distinctive" hair style, General Hospital's Luke or Dark Shadows' Nicholas Blair? [hdscrt] [silly]
Bob the Bartender
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Barnabas' spiked bangs don't get a vote?
David
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Barnabas' spiked bangs don't get a vote?
Yes, Mr B.'s spiked bangs are indeed noteworthy! (He sort of looks like Jughead from the old Archie comics with those plastered-down-bangs of his, imho!.)
In addition, I think that that Judge Vail, the 1840 justice who presided at Quentin's and Desmond's warlock trial, had a great head of sweeps as well. ::) Although, no one had as impressive a head of hair as that other learned 1840 jurist, the Hon. Judge Wiley, portrayed by the estimable Addison "The Silver Fox" Powell! (Can you imagine Mr. Powell as a lycanthrope on Dark Shadows?) "Ahh-ooh, silver-haired werewolf of Collinsport, draws blood!"[Wolfie]
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from TVGuide.com
http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/#film3
Scroll about half-way down the page.
Patti
p.s....sorry, don't know how to tag it correctly... :-
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Other thread:
OT: Passions Saved?