DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '09 I => Topic started by: Taeylor Collins on March 30, 2009, 11:06:51 PM
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Hello Cousins...I have had this question on my mind for the last several days. I know in one thread I believe it was confirmed that a lot of the writers were against The Leviathan storyline to follow up after 1897. I think it was MB (who seems to know all sorts of things I haven't learned in my almost 20 years in fandom) who spoke of this! Do you guys know what some of the other writers idea's were? Also what do you think would have been a good follow up to the enthralling 1897 storyline?
I personally think it would have made perfect sense for Petofi to come to the present day and wreak all kinds of havoc. I actually like The Leviathans period I just think it was handled wrong after the hate mail started pouring in.
I did some searching. I hope I haven't started a thread already devoted to this topic, if I have feel free to move this and delte the topic.
Taeylor
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Well, we know they wanted to throw a mummy into the mix, but just not sure if it was immediately after 1897 or later. They probably thought it was cheaper and easier to have Jeb Hawkes run around in a leather jacket in every episode than having to wrap some guy up in gauze.
Gerard
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I saw a copy of a Soap Opera magazine from 1969 where it states that following 1897, DS was going to have a story involving a mummy.
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We have confirmation....
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Mummy? Hmmm, that would have been interesting...sort of...where would the mummy have come from?
I kinda liked the Leviathan storyline though those people at the alter were strange.
And I have to wonder at Carolyn's choice in men [easter_huh]
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I am glad they didn't do a Mummy storyline....talk about cheese. I personally love the Leviathan storyline..it was creeptastic, however I just would have preferred to have the whole 6 month story instead of the mess they turned it into when the hate mail came in. [easter_rolleyes] ON Volume 4 of DS Collection, Sam commented on using Lovecraft and said that he wishes Stephen King was writing then and they could have stayed on 100 years. I enjoyed his interview. It's great that they have gotten these interviews as everyone involved is getting up there in years.....
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I quite agree with you, Taeylor. That would have been too much.
nancy
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I would have liked to see Petofi at some point in the distant future, maybe after 1840, or maybe even in some other flashback to before he lost his hand. But, by the time 1897 was over, we had just had Petofi as the primary villain for around 80 episodes. I think 1897 was sort of growing too long and stale by its end (although I thought the episode where Garth Blackwood first appears is one of my favorite of all time-- tons of stuff happened there), and re-introducing Petofi would have been sort of a continuation of that.
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What a magnificent character Count Petofi was!
When DS was on the air back in the 1980s, my father had retired and tuned in around 1897 out of curiousity as he had never seen the show. He was quite taken with the character of Count Petofi (and Angelique) and became a regular viewer of the series.
Nancy
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I wouldn't have minded a mummy - perhaps the mummy even could have been Count Petofi in one of his plots to escape the gypsies. It would have been better than the leviathin kids marathon.
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Hmm. Well, that's a good thought. They could have just have him come back as a ghost or a more-cognitive enabled zombie. I suppose I tend to think of mummies as being ancient and egyptian.
nancy
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I would've loved for Petofi to have come to the modern day.
I always thought it might have been more interesting if Barnabas had settled in 1897 for good. Imagine the Leviathans in 1897, with Judith , Edward, Kitty, Magda, Pansy etc. The 1897 cast is pretty fabulous after all!
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1897 was a good storyline, IMO. My father had a very short attention span and couldn't wait for the next episode. That's one way to spend your retirement years! [easter_grin]
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It's best they didn't stay in 1897. Although Judith & Edward were more interesting, it was nice to see Liz, Roger, and the present time family again.
1897 was too long, it should have wound up after the Quentin death was resolved.
1897 is the one DS story that I can't think of a moment where the climax of the plot was. It would have been the Quentin death resolution, but the story continued on for two more months.
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They already (sort of) did The Mummy any way. Barnabas was not a mummy, but the whole part of his early story that's not from Dracula is right out of the mummy. The original film, with Boris Karloff, had the archaeologists (arguably tomb robbers) disturbing his rest. The mummy loses the bandages and pretends to be an archaeologist, a distant relative of the ancient Egyptians. He lives peacefully enough until he sees the woman he fancies as the reincarnation of his lost love. Then he turns violent and tries to recreate her through her modern counterpart.
I forgot why he was mummified, but I think it had to to do with a forbidden love.
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Jeremiah's ghost had the appearance of a mummy with all the bandages wrapped around it's face.
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That bloody, bandaged spook of Jeremiah scared the you-know-what out of me when I watched it plodding along mummy-like back in 1967. When it would appear, I would cover my eyes (the way I did when I was younger when the face of the Wicked Witch of the West filled not only her enormous crystal ball shrieking "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!" but the whole TV screen). And I would here my mom screaming from the kitchen (knowing, as mothers knew, that something scary was happening on DS, even though she was no where near the living room): "Turn that spooky crap off!"
Gerard
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LOL! My brother used to hide behind my fathers legs during The Wizard of Oz, while I was right in front of the TV dazzled like a mindless zombie!
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They already (sort of) did The Mummy any way. Barnabas was not a mummy, but the whole part of his early story that's not from Dracula is right out of the mummy. The original film, with Boris Karloff, had the archaeologists (arguably tomb robbers) disturbing his rest. The mummy loses the bandages and pretends to be an archaeologist, a distant relative of the ancient Egyptians. He lives peacefully enough until he sees the woman he fancies as the reincarnation of his lost love. Then he turns violent and tries to recreate her through her modern counterpart.
I forgot why he was mummified, but I think it had to to do with a forbidden love.
Good catch, Doctorand K9, thanks! That whole reincarnation of the lost love thing was totally the original Mummy with Karloff (and as many times as I've seen that movie, I never caught it until you mentioned it!)
Going from memory, wasn't Im-Ho-Tep embalmed alive for trying to bring the woman he loved (the Pharaoh's daughter)back to life? (Oh yikes, I suddenly got a flashback from Bubba-Ho-Tep!) I think they kept most of that plot with the later Mummy movies, too, but the Mummy then was Kharis. (Useless trivia is a wonderful thing.)
Jeannie
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I saw a copy of a Soap Opera magazine from 1969 where it states that following 1897, DS was going to have a story involving a mummy.
Sam Hall said "the mummy" was a joke and they knew they were running dry on ideas when someone would joke about a "mummy" storyline.
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Well, at least the mummy would've been different. All they did with the Gerard/Daphne storyline was rehash Quentin/Beth. And it certainly wasn't better the second time around. Even having the Creature from the Black Lagoon plodding around, leaving wet footprints all over driving Mrs. Johnson nuts, would have been a fresher serving of fish.
Gerard
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Oh YIKES. I just got a mental image of Alex Stephens as the Creature from the Black Lagoon, complete with that fresher serving of fish in his mouth. [easter_shocked]
Its been the beginning of another one of THOSE weeks at work.....
Jeannie
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Sam Hall said "the mummy" was a joke and they knew they were running dry on ideas when someone would joke about a "mummy" storyline.
Yes, it's easy to see how such a storyline could unravel in short order. [easter_tongue]
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Well, at least the mummy would've been different. All they did with the Gerard/Daphne storyline was rehash Quentin/Beth. And it certainly wasn't better the second time around. Even having the Creature from the Black Lagoon plodding around, leaving wet footprints all over driving Mrs. Johnson nuts, would have been a fresher serving of fish.
Amen. It's hard to believe sometimes how much time they devoted to rehashing 1897 with 1995/1970/1840.
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I know that 1995 was tied to 1840, however, I wouldn't really conglomerate it with the 1840 rehash! For me 1995 was the highlight of the shows last full year and it quite possibly is my FAVORITE storyline of the entire run, peroid, that is all she wrote, finito! [easter_grin]
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Sorry to double post...but wanted to make it clear that the rehash was not needed at all and I totally get what your saying Magnus. Judah [spoiler]could have destoryed Collinwood without using a male and female ghosts![/spoiler] I just wanted to point out the fabulosity that is 1995! IMO [easter_wink]
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Yes, it's easy to see how such a storyline could unravel in short order. [easter_tongue]
quite the card. .quite the card! [easter_grin]
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Groan! One of these days I am going to take you aside, and leave you there. [easter_evil]
Yes, it's easy to see how such a storyline could unravel in short order. [easter_tongue]
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I know that 1995 was tied to 1840, however, I wouldn't really conglomerate it with the 1840 rehash! For me 1995 was the highlight of the shows last full year and it quite possibly is my FAVORITE storyline of the entire run, peroid, that is all she wrote, finito! [easter_grin]
The thing is, though, the purpose of 1995 was to set up 1840, so while 1995 may have been the most original portion of 1995-1970-1840, it was still part of the reworking of 1897, a more extreme version of 1969 with Q driving everyone out of Collinwood. I like 1995 too, but I also like 1840. Once they committed to spending what feels like a year redoing 1897, they threw in enough satisfying twists to make it worthwhile. I wonder if they had compiled a list of lost opportunities in 1897 that they wanted to make sure they did this time around... mainly having everything more extreme, with more death and destruction.
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with such a great regular cast it's strange that the writers felt that they needed to come up with a new monster,or gimmick,or time travel element every few months.
there was so much great material right there in front of them every day.
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I think that was DC's doing, not the writers.
He wanted more and more, bigger and bigger every day.
Nancy
with such a great regular cast it's strange that the writers felt that they needed to come up with a new monster,or gimmick,or time travel element every few months.
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WORD MSCBRYK! I agree totally. [easter_grin]
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I would have like to know what the writers came up after the 1841 Parallel Time. We have read about a possible return to 1971 where Liz and Roger finds out that Barnabas was a vampire and Julia travels to Asia to search for Adam. That would have been a great story.
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You know Doug I was thinking the about starting a thread about that. We know from the Sam Hall interview in TV guide that they sort of had a map of what they wanted to do. When JF resigned did he say he would "NEVER" play Barney again or just wanted to play someone else for a "while" to give him a chance to try his hand with something else?
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If DC, who I think was the force behind this, wasn't so quick to run through storylines, I think the result would have been a lost more interesting. Many points were dropped, never explained, never mentioned again. To me, this is a lost opportunity.
I remember an interview with James Storm on one of the dvds and he said they were fitting him for another costume but then word came the show was canceled. Wonder what that story would have been? I agree Taeylor, this would be an interesting thread.
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Well Taeylor I do remember reading the book "The Dark Shadows Companion" where it said that JF wanted to play another character besides Barnabas for the 1841 Parallel time.
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YES...I am aware he wanted to play someone else...but did he sign a contract saying he would never play Barney again or just wanted to play another character for a while. then if they returned to normal time he would resume Barney! This is if the show lasted. I am pretty sure he signed a long term contract because at that point they didn't know the show was going off!
Hugs
Tae
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I would have like to know what the writers came up after the 1841 Parallel Time. We have read about a possible return to 1971 where Liz and Roger finds out that Barnabas was a vampire and Julia travels to Asia to search for Adam. That would have been a great story.
It sounds like an interesting idea. The removal of Adam was very abrupt and it would have been interesting to present the return of an educated, scarless Adam, perhaps with the ability to assist Barn, Julia or Stokes in some supernatural dilemma (hmnnn...involved with Nicholas Blair, perhaps?).
As someone stated, many storylines were incomplete or abruptly ended to go on to another situation, which was unfortunate. A little more time to develop stories and characters would have been an asset.
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We never actually found out if Adam went to the surgeon, and I prefer to think he did not. I like to imagine that Adam, disgusted with the horror of what he was, ran out into the night. I imagine that he separated himself from the rest of mankind for some time and went to an isolated place to contemplate his own monstrous nature as well as the monstrous nature of humanity. Perhaps he eventually came to befriend someone who liked him just the way he was - scars, pallor, sweater and all. When Barnabas went back in time to 1897 either his bond with Adam broke or, maybe, Adam went into the past as well. And you can bet Stokes knew where he was the whole time. Stokes always struck me as someone who knew a lot more than he let on.
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I wish we hadn't been subjected to the boring part of his maturation, with his then leaving DS the moment things were about to become interesting for him.