DARK SHADOWS FORUMS
General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '26 I => Current Talk '04 II => Topic started by: michael c on December 16, 2004, 02:58:39 AM
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i'm not sure if this is already old news to everyone but while browsing the magazine rack at "border's" today(kls and her book club not in sight) i saw the january issue of "fangoria" magazine and it had a cover story on the ill-fated 2004 version of d.s..i never buy the mag($7.99!)but of course i bought this issue.
for those who haven't read it it's pretty interesting and has a few good pics..it's such a shame that we'll never see this show! [sadg]
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I enjoyed it too. Darren did an outstanding job. Angelique looks so ghastly, especially with those black eyes, brrrr.
it's such a shame that we'll never see this show! [sadg]
<sigh>
(Speaking of forum cousins with DS-related articles in current mags [what a segue, heh!], David's review of Bobubas' CD of the Ron Barry interviews is in the current Filmfax.)
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While I was out tonight doing the last of my Christmas shopping, I picked up the magazine and I just finished reading the article. I swear, the more I see/read about the pilot, the more upset I get that the WB didn't have the foresight to see a good thing when they had it. (Though, karmicly speaking, they're really paying the price for that now. For example, one of the shows they picked over DS and that they were very high on, The Mountain, was recently beaten in the weekly ratings by its competition on PAX. (Yes, I said PAX!!) It only pulled in a measely 1.35 million viewers!!) And combining the article with the synopsis of the pilot (located on Darren's restoration Web site (http://home.earthlink.net/~moviemandg)) is almost too much to bear. :'(
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my goodness! i just realized that the article was written by our fellow member darren gross.nice job darren.i love the "access" you had to the show...there has been so much blind speculation.
i could swear i posted this in the "calender events" section.[rleyeg]
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You did post this topic on CE/A '04, mscbryk. I moved it over here because all the other topics dealing with articles about the WB pilot have been posted to Current Talk.
I normally leave a redirection topic whenever I move something, but I guess I must have accidentally unchecked that option. My only excuse is that I was practically asleep at the time [a345] and I probably didn't even realize half of what I was doing. [wink2]
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I finally managed to pick up the January Fangoria issue. (The store I was in had many copies available-hopefully everyone here will pick one up along the way as a sign of support). I was really impressed with the 5 page article four of which has some real cool color photographs.The article is well written and very polished, filled with interesting information on the pilot that I was not aware of. I like Verheiden's idea of a new 12 hour Dark Shadows mini-series on the Sci Fi Channel and Dan Curtis' statement that a new (DS) "would make a great feature film..." Let's hope this article generates additional interest in a new DS. Actually, I am hoping that Darren has enough material to write a book on the 2004 pilot. I think the fans will eat it up. Great job Darren!
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I'll definitely pick up the magazine. I've made my hotel reservations for the fest. $139 plus tax even after mentioning DS! [santa_shocked].
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I hope I can remember to look for it. I never buy magazines anymore, never even hit that isle in the store, but I would love to read it and see the pictures (especially the pictures). I should have asked for a copy for Christmas...oh well. I am going out shopping today, I hope I remember to look for it. ...maybe a x-mas present to myself? [santa_azn]
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(Though, karmicly speaking, they're really paying the price for that now. For example, one of the shows they picked over DS and that they were very high on, The Mountain, was recently beaten in the weekly ratings by its competition on PAX. (Yes, I said PAX!!) It only pulled in a measely 1.35 million viewers!!)
Perhaps I'm easily amused because as I just read this on Zap2it.com (http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|92614|1|,00.html) I was LMAO:
"What The WB lacked in quality, the network made up for in dreck. The five lowest rated programs on any of the networks last week were on The WB. Worst of all was "The Mountain" at No. 104 with a 0.8/1 and fewer than 1.1 million viewers."
And that wasn't even a repeat - it was a *new* episode. Can anyone honestly believe that a WB DS wouldn't have done better than that?!
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Can anyone honestly believe that a WB DS wouldn't have done better than that?!
So...is it too much to hope for, that the people responsible for the gawd-awful choices made by the WB will be shown the door? [90d1]
Perhaps then the decision to change the line-up so drastically will be re-considered...and something like DS will look better in retrospect.
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So...is it too much to hope for, that the people responsible for the gawd-awful choices made by the WB will be shown the door? [90d1]
Actually the person who was in charge at the time that nixed the DS pilot and staked Angel was replaced a while ago... and there's already been a lot of talk that they know they made a mistake getting rid of Angel so I'd be very surprised if they weren't having similar feelings about DS04 (not to mention Lost In Space).
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to tell the truth i'm glad it didn't make it only to be yanked after a few weeks
they did that in 1990 after much hype and i was so p...ssed!
jennifer [santa_angry]
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The bottom line is how much damage did the WB do the the Dark Shadows franchise and what impact if any that will have to a future DS project? The WB in essence told the media that the DS producers (collectively) did not present to them a salvageable pilot-poor directing, poor casting,etc....Because of this perceived bad publicity (and unwarranted), I am afraid that another network will not want to look at another DS project for a long period of time. Hopefully, the media now realize how incompetent the WB executives are and the stench over the failed 2004 DS pilot will fade quickly.
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Hopefully, the media now realize how incompetent the WB executives are and the stench over the failed 2004 DS pilot will fade quickly.
Not so long as reports like this one (from the Relish Now! (http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_RelishArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031779903937&path=!news!entertainment!television&s=1037645508994) Web site) continue to appear in the media:
Tim Clodfelter's picks
Thursday, December 30, 2004
By Tim Clodfelter
relish staff writer
It was another interesting - and at times infuriating - year on television in 2004. Viewers finally started rejecting the increasingly slimy reality shows and turned back to TV dramas. Sitcoms continued to flounder with no reprieve in sight. Censorship reared its ugly head after America went absolutely nutzo over a distant glimpse of a nipple. And Howard Dean killed his political career with a rebel yell that became one of the most-repeated video clips of the year (excluding that nipple shot, of course). Here are some of the best and some of the worst moments of the year that was....
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Ten bad things about television in 2004
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4. The cancellation of Angel: WB foolishly decided to snuff producer Joss Whedon's classy vampire-with-a-soul drama in favor of a revival of the old angst-ridden-vampire drama Dark Shadows. Then when Dark Shadows proved to be a fiasco (trust me, I've seen the unaired pilot), the network was left without either show. On a bright note, Angel's "never-ending-battle" finale was first-rate.
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(And thank god that, not only does this article get to diss the pilot - it continues to spread the false notion that Angel was canceled to make way for DS. ::) One has to wonder when and how he managed to see the pilot when it's been reported that the only people who've seen it are the people who were involved in its production and the WB execs? [hdscrt]
Granted, I've only seen the excerpts that were shown at the Tarrytown Fest - but what I saw was far from a "fiasco".)
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Well MB so much for my wishful thinking. At the moment it almost seems unimaginable that a network will now invest 6 million dollars on a new DS project after the "recent" fiasco. Wonder if DCP has done enough, if any, damage control to offset the negativity surrounding the failed pilot. Hopefully, the networks have not been scared off by the failed pilot. DS needs some positive buzz and it is up to DCP to try to create it. The failed pilot should not permanently tarnish the legacy of Dark Shadows.
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Darren did an outstanding job.
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.
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Unless I run across this 'zine in a supermarket, I am never going to see it - which totally bums me out. The only thing that would be more of a bummer would be if I got my hands on one and there were no pics of Ivana as Angelique. I became totally obbsessed with her in this role, and was so disappointed by the pilot being dropped because I knew I'd never get to see her in it. What I saw of it at the fest was not at all satisfying in this regard, which made me wonder if she was not able to pull off the role. So little has been said about her or her performance in it that it made me start wondering about it.
Hopefully the article will appear on the Forum (on the appropriate board) when all the boards reopen. I am really eager to see the pic's and read the article. I am desperate to read anything positive about it.
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Unless I run across this 'zine in a supermarket, I am never going to see it
If anyone can't find the issue in a store, it can be bought from Fangoria's Web site (http://www.fangoria.com/current_issue.php).
The only thing that would be more of a bummer would be if I got my hands on one and there were no pics of Ivana as Angelique.
There are some great pictures of Ivana (in and out of ghastly make-up). There's also a wonderful photo of Alec Newman's Barn in Barn's lavish bedroom. And even a photo of Kelly Hu's Julia.
Hopefully the article will appear on the Forum (on the appropriate board) when all the boards reopen.
Perhaps - at some point. But the reopening the Members' Archive is still quite a while away...
I am desperate to read anything positive about it.
Then the article would not disappoint. And one thing's for certain - every cent of the budget showed up in the production values.
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If anyone can't find the issue in a store, it can be bought from (URL)
I'm glad you reposted this. When Midnite posted the URL the website wasn't displaying the issue w/DS in it, so I ignored the site, being unsure if it was the correct issue.
Now, do I need to worry about this phantom site exploit thing that's going on?
There are some great pictures of Ivana (in and out of ghastly make-up).
Geez, how can I resist now!?
Thanks for the info, MB.
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Finally got around to reading the article tonight. From what I got out of it, it sounds like the rush job they had to do on filming the pilot is what did it in. Everyone seemed to think it was a great script, but then apparently they had to trim a bunch of stuff and completely cut a big important scene, and apparently the WB people were too dumb or too impatient to realize how awesome it would be if they had more time to work on it. [santa_angry] Which really doesn't make too much sense since they were so high on the script in the first place. So the fact that the idiots in charge wanted to take the network in a new direction probably had something to do with it. Glad their new direction backfired on them! [santa_evil] You'd think somebody at some network (or the WB under the new regime), though, would have seen the potential in it and would have run with it -- don't really understand why that didn't happen. Wonder if there's still something we're not being told. Anyway, glad Mark Verheiden still seems interested! [santa_smiley]
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Once again, The WB's "The Mountain" was network television's least watched program. The freshman dud was No. 109 with a 1.0/2, hooking only 1.36 million viewers, fewer than an "America's Funniest Home Videos" repeat on PAX.
Yes, I freely admit that I'm obsessed with the poor performance of The Mountain. But my obsession will have to come to an end because the WB halted production on the show and this past Sunday's episode was the "Last first-run episode of the season." Yeah, right - like the show has a snowball's chance in hell of getting a second season? ::)
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Yesterday was my first chance to visit the forum in about three weeks (two weeks away, then an Internet connection in my building that has gone down every night this week before I've had the chance to get here) ... so when I saw this thread about the "Fangoria" article, I remembered that I had received a $5 gift certificate from Borders for using their credit card and rushed to their store last night. I knew my local Borders carried Fangoria, but to my dismay, when I spotted the magazine, they already had the February issue out.
Major disappointment, though maybe I'll consider purchasing it directly (thanks for the link to the website, MB).
Not sure I would have been sold on the new series from the publicitiy pix I've seen of the "monsters" or reading about the breakneck pace of the pilot, which seems geared toward those with MTV attention spans. But of course I haven't seen the pilot so can't judge. The lavish sets sounded intriguing though.
(An aside - as consolation for not finding the January issue of Fangoria, I was able to use the $5 gift certificate towards "The Essential Frankenstein," which I happily discovered has just been reprinted after about 20 years.)
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If you go to www.barnabasundead.com (http://www.barnabasundead.com) they have more information about the WB pilot and the writer of that pilot talks about what he had planned for the series that was never picked up by the WB for their fall schedule.
I am so disappointed that the WB chose not to add "Dark Shadows" to their lineup. And now I find out that the writer of the new series was going to add my favorite character, Burke Devlin to future episodes.
I don't understand why the WB didn't even have the new "Dark Shadows" for their midseason lineup. A lot of the shows they had for their fall lineup have failed. DS would have been a great series for midseason.
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I hear talk that the January 2005 issue of Fangoria Magazine has an article about the making of the WB pilot for Dark Shadows. I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. Hopefully someone here can fill the rest of us in what it's about.
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I hear talk that the January 2005 issue of Fangoria Magazine has an article about the making of the WB pilot for Dark Shadows. I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet. Hopefully someone here can fill the rest of us in what it's about.
Miss_Winthrop,
I think you'll find the info you're seeking, in addition to how you can go about ordering a copy, in the pages of this newly merged topic.
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I looked at that Fangoria issue in a store, and there wasn't much new there that I could see. There weren't many photos and none were an improvement on the ones published on Collinwood.net.
The article seemed to argue that network execs short-sightedness and budget issues were what doomed it, which was pretty much what I had gathered from the numerous posts here over the past year.
It's an expensive magazine, so I would say--only order it from the website if you're a completist with the "remakes of DS" stuff.
G.
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Well, as I said, the picture of Alec Newman's Barn that was taken in the Old House is really quite wonderful. But is it worth $10.00 (which I think is Fangoria's back issues price)? Probably not - unless, as Gothick puts it, you're a completist. Many of the other photos are quite similar to ones Stuart has posted on his site - though the one of Kelly Hu's Julia is unlike any I've seen of her.
The things in the article that I found very interesting were the potential storyline directions that Mark Verheiden laid out. A particular one dealing with Barn seems as if it might have been a radical departure from how we've come to expect his introduction to play out, and I keep meaning to post a topic about it. Hopefully soon because I think it could stimulate some interesting discussion...
(One other incentive for me to actually buy the issue was the article on Blade: Trinity. If you're into the Blade movies, it's a must have - for just so many reasons. ;))
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Thanks, MB.
I'm not into those Blade movies, but I may rent Blade: Trinity when it's out on disc because of those scorching shots of Ryan Reynolds from the film a friend sent to me...
It would be nice if the material presented in the Fangoria article had percolated into the lore of those media columnists who keep repeating that the WB canceled Angel to make room for DS, then ditched the latter because the material was "unsalvageable."
I didn't have time to read anything about the storylines in that article.
G.
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It would be nice if the material presented in the Fangoria article had percolated into the lore of those media columnists who keep repeating that the WB canceled Angel to make room for DS, then ditched the latter because the material was "unsalvageable."
If only. But it certainly appears as if the people who keep repeating that line are determined to stick to it - no matter how much info comes out to the contrary. ::)
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Steve,
I'd highly recommend picking up the Fangoria...
I have a fondness for everything written (well, almost everything) by that particular writer who penned the DS piece..
;D.
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Yes, I obviously didn't catch your byline when I had my very brief brush with the piece (pick up zine, flip past pages, go, "seen that, done that"), return to rack.
As you know, my enthusiasm for the topic for the WB project was never very high, and the tude of those suits left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth for the whole thing. I'm sure your writing enlivened an otherwise sad subject.
Kudos!
Steve
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For great examples of Network executive thought (or lack of thought) patterns, the behind the scenes featurettes on the SEINFELD DVDs provide an excellent perspective...
Watching NBC network head Warren Littlefield openly admit his original befuddlement about what are now classic, innovative episodes is a hoot.
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Well, I give you due credit for having the patience to work out there, in the middle of all that.
Even attempting to watch Seinfeld is enough to reduce my language to words of the 4 lettered anglo-saxon variety.
We are very fortunate to have someone like yourself who understands the mystique of DS in the trenches, fighting the good fight!
Doffing my cap,
Steve
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Steve,
I'd highly recommend picking up the Fangoria...
I have a fondness for everything written (well, almost everything) by that particular writer who penned the DS piece..
;D.
I too Darren have a fondness to that particular writer who penned that piece. LOL In all seriousness, I think it is defintely worth the money and to read the article. Come on, there really has not been many credible articles recently written on DS and in a major publication. To me it was worth every penny.
I just read Stuart's recent interview of Jim Pierson at his collinwood. net website. I was truly surprised to see how Pierson opened up and spilled some interesting facts and gave his opinions on many DS issues.(Stuart what type of weapon did you place to his head? lol) I did not not know for example that at the time the WB-DS development got off the ground, there were also other "entities" who also wanted to bring DS back to television. I wonder who they were and where they are now? We can certainly use them now.
Not sure if I agree with Pierson that Wells is still interested in revisiting DS. This interview is absolutely worth reading.
Thanks Stuart and Darren for providing some real intriguing, informative and entertaining DS articles.
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Once again, The WB's "The Mountain" was network television's least watched program. The freshman dud was No. 109 with a 1.0/2, hooking only 1.36 million viewers, fewer than an "America's Funniest Home Videos" repeat on PAX.
Yes, I freely admit that I'm obsessed with the poor performance of The Mountain. But my obsession will have to come to an end because the WB halted production on the show and this past Sunday's episode was the "Last first-run episode of the season." Yeah, right - like the show has a snowball's chance in hell of getting a second season? ::)
But look - now I can start a new obsession:
While The WB has removed the stench of "The Mountain" from its schedule, the critically admired "Jack & Bobby" ended the week as the lowest rated new show on any network with a 1.4/2, only beating out repeats of The WB's "Summerland" and UPN's "Road to Stardom with Missy Elliott."
It sure seems like The WB is two for two with the drama series they picked over DS. Everyone - let's join in a collective "Awwwww" because we all just feel so bad for them, right? [vryevl]
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Perhaps we ought to look at this from a different angle.......
Maybe, (just maybe) it was a lucky thing for us that the DS pilot never ended up on the WB.....
With their gawd-awful track record for new shows, DS might have withered and died waiting for an audience to find it. And once the show had actually failed, what chance would we have had at another shot in our lifetimes?
At least now, there is always hope for another chance at getting the right pilot made, and the right outlet found.
Hope springs eternal.