DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '02 I => Topic started by: hooked on May 28, 2002, 04:57:18 AM

Title: How did you take it?
Post by: hooked on May 28, 2002, 04:57:18 AM

I would be interested to read how all of you took it when the show ended.  I did not know it was going to happen and when it did it really took me by surprise.  I didnt know what to do.  I was only 11 then and was totally wrapped up in the show which I had only started watching in 5th grade 1970.  Was it known to viewers that this was to happen or was it a surprise to everyone.  Let me know please.  I always enjoy reading posts from you "older" kids.

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Mark Rainey on May 28, 2002, 07:19:25 AM

I found out DS was ending for good about a day before the final episode, if I remember right. I was not pleased. As in "let's scream and holler and throw things" not pleased.

Seems like DS ended on a Friday. I tuned in on Monday to see if it was just somebody's idea of a bad joke. Alas, DS was really gone and Password was showing.

I finally quit screaming, hollering, and throwing things a few days ago.

[shadow=purple,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Cassandra on May 28, 2002, 07:33:34 AM

I was only about 9 years old when it was cancelled but I was still upset over it. I remember coming home from school and seeing my two older sisters all upset in a rage about the show not coming on anymore. At first, we all couldn't believe it so we waited until the following Monday to see if it was true. When we saw Password on instead we fit to be tied! Until this day, I still hate that darn show! >:(

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Daphne on May 28, 2002, 07:49:35 AM

ooooooo so THAT'S what everyone has against PW....I'll never watch it again! *xes heart and kisses elbows* I like Match Game better anyway  ;) I liked when DS ended cuz then the next day it started all over again and I got 2 c Carolyn and Joe doing some fuuuuuunnnyyyyy dancing @ the Blue Whale. HAHAHA! Did people really dance like that?? HEHE! ^^ But the 1841PT wasn't my fav TL, so I didn't mind it starting over!!! I was exciiiited! HAHAH but the question wasn't even addressed to me!! I would cry for a long time if Sci-Fi pulled the show. Like Mark, I'd throw stuff. Heavy, blunt objects, even. I don't think I'd be able to take it. It would be like REVENGE AGAINST SCI FI.....I'm still not over UPN20 for pulling Charlie's Angels. Yeah yeah, they CLAIM they had no more rights to run it, but IIIIIII know the truth!!!!

*sigh* I have such problems......LMAO 8)

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: jennifer on May 28, 2002, 03:21:11 PM

Not Well >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(


jennifer

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: TERRY308 on May 28, 2002, 04:07:41 PM

Like everyone else, I was heartbroken.  I didn't believe it, so, like everyone else, I turned it on Monday, and there was Alan and Betty White yucking it up.  I can never look at Betty White, Alans dead, without thinking......"Yeah, you took DS away."...How did I take it???  Not well.  Not well at all. :'(

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: franimal on May 28, 2002, 05:41:22 PM

Yes, I remember that, too.  Do you all remember that last episode? The last scene where they carry Caroline into the house saying that it looks as though she's been bitten by an "animal"?  Then there was a voiceover saying something like - "and in this case it really was an animal" - or some such stuff.  I got excited when they first carried her in - thinking that perhaps it had been a mistake and they really weren't going to take it off.  I tuned in on Monday also, only to see PW.

Sigh......


Franimal

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Carol on May 28, 2002, 06:34:20 PM

Sorry to say that I don't remember DS going off the air. I was working full time back then--no VCR's--and trying to make real life decisions about whether to stay in my
job, quit, or go to nursing school. I had also started to date my husband and wasn't sure how he'd handle the fact that I wanted to go to school near NYC.

I ultimately quit my job, went to nursing school and dated my future husband on weekends when I came home. Sad to say but DS got lost in the shuffle of life until Sci-fi starting showing it again.

I have now seen DS from start to finish two times over and I discover something new everytime I see it.

Carol

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Dr. Eric Lang on May 28, 2002, 09:55:20 PM

I was still in grade school when DS was cancelled in 1971, but I had watched it during the summer months and I was disappointed to learn it was going off the air. I had seen the 1970 PT story line and the beginning of the 1840 story line before I went back to school in the fall of 1970.

In the late 70's the first syndicated package of DS episodes aired in my area locally. This package began with the arrival of Barnabas and ended at the end of the 1795 story line. I finally had a chance to re-discover the show from the beginning (almost) and I even joined a mailing list fan club/newsletter, in which I learned the syndicated episodes would end once Vicki returned to 1967. At that point I was enormously disappointed. Later I moved to another state and saw the same syndication package again, only to be disappointed all over again when it ended after 1795.

Thank God for the Sci Fi channel or I would have never seen the rest of the series! (Don't have the resources to buy all 1200 eps on tape.)

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: MikeS on May 28, 2002, 10:24:38 PM

I can't remember how I found out Dark Shadows was ending, but I did know ahead of time.  Still, watching that last show, there was a part of me that  really didn't believe it until the final scene.  It left me with a big empty feeling, that stayed with me for a long time.  I also remember being disappointed that we didn't get a final look at the present day characters.  :(

Of course, at the time there was no way of knowing that more than thirty years later, the show would still be so popular, and that we would still be able to watch it in syndication or on video.  Like Carol, I still discover something new, no matter how many times I view the episodes!  :)

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Teresa on May 29, 2002, 02:51:46 AM

I was 11yrs old when it went off the air and can't really remember how I felt but I'm sure I was very sad :'(  I do remember having a mad crush on Chad Everett around that age so I guess I got over it. :-*

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: kuanyin on May 29, 2002, 03:52:22 AM

Ummmm, I don't remember either. I don't think I was watching at the time. I was rather fickle. I do remember Daphne and she was rather late in the series, so I'm really not sure.

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Linda on May 29, 2002, 04:14:23 AM

Quote

I would be interested to read how all of you took it when the show ended.  

IIRC, my viewing of the series in its final days had become kind of haphazard, so I had no idea it was the "final days" until the LAST day.  I think I saw an advertisement for Password that day and was horrified, and hoping fervently, until the very last moments, that someone had made a mistake.  I guess I just thought that DS, good or bad, and like most soap operas, would always be there...if nothing else, I learned the dangers of taking something for granted. <sniff!> :'(  

I tuned in the next day, just to make certain, and sure enough, there was Password -- I remember just loathing Alan Ludden from the first minute he opened his mouth, and was so ticked off about his show being the replacement that I NEVER watched it until it surfaced in reruns years later on the Game Show Network. :)

Cheers,

Linda

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Craig_Slocum on May 29, 2002, 07:24:43 AM

When Dark Shadows ended in 1971, I was only in the second grade. All I remember is my Mom, brother, and I were very disappointed that the show went off the air. I don't think we ever expected to see it again. I remember seeing some of the black and white eps in 1977. VCR's had just come out around then, but we didn't have one. Having all of the MPI videos now makes up for it. Daphne, I like Match Game too. I used to watch it in 1974 when I was 10. I was pretty good at guessing the answers too!  ;)

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Cassandra on May 29, 2002, 09:32:18 PM

Quote

All I remember is my Mom, brother, and I were very disappointed that the show went off the air. I don't think we ever expected to see it again.

Same here Cheryl. Thank God for VCR's!! :)

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: ROBINV on May 29, 2002, 11:16:26 PM

I was 16.  My closest friend, Cheryl, called me early in the morning, before school started, to inform me that the morning paper had a short article stating that DS was going off the air as of April 2.  I remember my heart started to pound and I couldn't catch my breath at first.  I asked if she was sure, and she quietly said yes.  I knew she disapproved of my DS obsession, although she used to watch, too, and somehow, I just couldn't stay on the phone with her.   We hung up, and I felt like a ghost for the rest of the day, like someone who didn't really exist anymore.

I watched DS every day with the same fervor as I always had.  I audiotaped the show on a cruddy cassette recorder (and still have the tapes)!   I steeled myself for the separation from the show (to me more like losing a beloved person), which had been part of my life for nearly five years.  I prayed something would happen to change it, and even went to church with my friend Sue to pray for that to happen.  (I was Jewish, but didn't attend temple, so that was the next best thing).  

I remember taping the final show on my cassette recorder, crying from beginning to end.  I had also hoped they would return to the present day characters so we'd at least get to say goodbye, but that didn't happen, sadly.  

On Monday, I, too, checked to see of Password had REALLY replaced my beloved show (isn't it funny how many of us did this?--hope springs eternal), and to this day cannot watch it, anytime, anywhere.  

I mourned DS for a very long time, and certainly never thought I'd see it again.  However, I went away to college and in 1975, was thrilled to hear the familiar music floating from my black and white TV set in my dorm room--DS had returned to me!  Over the years, it was syndicated several times, but I never got to see the entire almost five years of the show until the Sci Fi channel brought it to us.  In 1996, I discovered on-line fandom and felt like I was a teen again, only now I had friends all over the world who love DS as much as I do.

So that sad 16 year old girl got a happy ending, anyway!

Love, Robin  

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Birdie on June 06, 2002, 06:08:40 AM

Back from vacation.  It is going to take me days to catch up on DS.  I remember being so devastated when my Mother told me that Dark Shadows was going off the air.  I tape the last episode on a tape recorder that looked very much like the one Dr. Lang used.  Let's just say I did a much better job with it.  The tape recorder is gone.  It most likely is in the attic at my older sisters house.  It was her recorder.  Someday she might crank it up and low and behold she will hear some music and the voices we would know in a minute.  She would be expecting to hear recordings of the lovely voices of her teenage friends in a CYC show.  

Birdie

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: jennifer on June 06, 2002, 06:39:57 AM

Quote

Back from vacation.  It is going to take me days to catch up on DS.  I remember being so devastated when my Mother told me that Dark Shadows was going off the air.  I tape the last episode on a tape recorder that looked very much like the one Dr. Lang used.  Let's just say I did a much better job with it.  The tape recorder is gone.  It most likely is in the attic at my older sisters house.  It was her recorder.  Someday she might crank it up and low and behold she will hear some music and the voices we would know in a minute.  She would be expecting to hear recordings of the lovely voices of her teenage friends in a CYC show.  

Birdie

good to have you back hope you had fun!
jennifer ;D

Title: Re: How did you take it?
Post by: Julianka7 on June 06, 2002, 07:16:42 AM

I was crushed!  :-[