1897 Laura Collins is unique in many ways but one is that she was there with the pre-cursed Collins family of the 1780's, and Barnabas is the one other character who can actually make that claim. 

[spoiler]When she returns from Egypt she has a unique perspective comparing the grim, despair state of the current family as opposed to the content, normal family she probably left behind over a hundred years before. 

...Possibly wondering why Jeremiah took over a decade to marry again and both he and his wife dying so soon after and then almost the entire family she knew after that.

...Joshua managed to build the larger house on the hill he always talked about, telling people he expected a larger family (with Jeremiah, Sarah, & Barnabas and their families being too crowded for the former mansion) though she suspected it was to better look down at the common townsfolk. 

...Moving into this new house seems to have brought a curse as the family experienced tragedy immediately afterwards and continuing to the present.[/spoiler]

Sam Hall made a comment in the 80’s in one of the old fanzines that (paraphrasing) “one writer, who will remain nameless, suddenly went into hysteria while Gordon and I look on stunned. He said Dan hates him and belittles him. I told him DC hates everyone but that did nothing to calm him. He was soon gone from DS.”

Any ideas who this could be?  I can only think of Ron Sproat or Ralph Ellis,, who wrote only two episodes.

Was this ever mentioned again after 1968?

A funny comedy web series about a gay father & straight son, who are both fans of Dark Shadows!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4S5lzoO8rI

1840 is unique among the flashbacks in that we never see the "legacy" character.
Daniel was 1795's legacy and Jamison was 1897's, but 1840's legacy character is unnamed and far away at boarding school (which actually makes him one of the lucky ones).

There's a detachment to this storyline in that there isn't any clear path to the future that the audience knows is there.
This Collins family is detached to begin with and [spoiler]The change in history where those who originally died now live (Quentin, Desmond, Daphne, Carrie, Tad) and those who originally live now die (Gabriel & Edith) while Samantha dies both times[/spoiler] doesn't help matters, it actually creates MORE.

There isn't anyone to root for as none of them really have redeeming qualities that at least Judith & Edward of 1897 did and Joshua & Naomi of 1795.  All the characters are one big mess and not fleshed out.

The writers could have at least had either Samantha/Quentin or more likely Edith/Gabriel more grounded for the audience.  It makes you wonder how they managed originally to get the family to the present time.

I just got an email from Amazon stating they are cancelling my order due to lack of availability.

I was always sort of disappointed terry crawford never appeared as a "present time" character. she's the only major female player we never got to see in "modern" clothing.

Terry Crawford had a cameo as a nurse in HODS.

I posted once about her not being in the present time and most people agreed it was because Dan Curtis didn't have a part for her.

This looks like it will be the right size to read the daily strips as the first book made the dailies way too small.

http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Complete-Newspaper-Dailies-Sunday/dp/1613450710/ref=sr_1_27?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399071699&sr=1-27&keywords=dark+shadows