Brandon, question.... what if original DS had been able to spend a bit more and do retakes, to eliminate bloopers and things such as wobbly tombstones...as of course they wished they could do, at the time.... would DS have lost "charm" to you, and would it have been of less interest to you?   Not trying to be a smartass, just wondering.   

No, it wouldn't lose it's original charm, but this is what gives it part of its charm. I'm not sure if anyone was around when I first burst onto the online DS scene, but I was very defensive about people laughing and poking fun at the mishaps and bloopers that occured in DS. I couldn't believe that people were taking this wonderful program and completely shredding it to pieces by making fun of the actors mess ups. Soon I came to realize that it was part of DS, that it is what drives the fans to be so passionite about it. It reminds us of a time when things were simple, when they could be laughed at (well, except for all that war and rights and liberation stuff etc). DS provided an escape from real life, all that stuff listed previously in the parenthesis. This is what made DS what it was. Of course you have the occasional good story telling and the wonderful actors, that's a given.

As far as the rest of your post about retelling the same old story, or remaking DS--I agree with you as far as what you said about not using the original characters as a "crutch" to carry the show. This may or may not grab the original viewers, and probably would confuse the newer viewers if it weren't explained in a good way, because the new people wouldn't get these characters because they didn't see the original series.

As I talked about in another post, I've been working on a DS Pilot script for my own amusement, and David is master of Collinwood. Roger is VERY OLD, and a number of characters are dead, and some I haven't decided what to do with yet, in terms of the story. I have Barnabas (in my plan, though not yet in the script because I haven't gotten past the first act) involved, but by no means does he carry the show like the character did originally and in subsequent remakes. He does have a very interesting storyline, IMO, which involves a mysterious new relative that happens to be Barnabas' son. Introducing this new character has allowed me to plan to not involve Barnabas too heavily, but to keep him on deck should he be needed, and this also eliminates the need to completely write him out of the show.

I think perhaps the biggest problem with doing a new DS is alienation. The original viewers are a big audience, though not that large when considered with the masses that this new version would have to reach in order to stay afloat. Still, they are not small enough to be ignored. The outcry against the show should it take a wrong step would be enormous, as we have seen with other issues that have popped up here recently. With this pressure, as well as considering a new audience and how to draw them in without making them go "WTF is up with this show?" is a daunting thing. Sure, some may say that a writer shouldn't worry about the audience, either new or old, because they you just open yourself up to catering to the audience and what they want. But this is something that can't be ignored because if you kill a major character you might upset people. Here I fear I'm not getting my point across well enough. My point is that you can't take an audience's wants from a show into consideration, but you can't ignore them either, at least not with this particular audience. To snub all the original fans would be like saying "Yea, we know you watched when it was on in the 60s, but that's too bad because if you don't like this one then don't watch it and screw you." And that is something that would not be good.

In all honesty, you can't try to cater to them because you're going to end up offending someone anyway. The way to go about a new DS IMO is to age the younger characters from the show--like David, Amy, Hallie, etc, because you don't know what their personalities would be like when they are 40. You can make assumptions, yes, but you don't know. Not only that but it also provides many years to have passed that you can explain backstory with, and open up interesting plot points. Some of the original older characters--Roger, Liz, Maggie, Quentin, Barnabas, Julia, etc will have aged or even died, but they could also be changed by what has happened in the years since we last saw them, though they can't be changed as much as the original children were.

Basically I'm just prattling on here about something that I can't seem to find my way through the fog to. Hopefully you all will see my point and get what I'm trying to say. Basically it is this:

No matter what you do, people will be critical of you. In recreating DS there is no way to capture the allure of the original for the old fans, so you have to create something new and risk alienating some of them in order to gain a newer, younger, bigger audience. And you can't have too much confusing backstory based on the original becaues then the new viewers won't be able to pick up what you are talking about. Like you couldn't have Barnabas and Julia in the opening scene talking about their trip to PT in 1970 and all their time travels, throwing in random nods to the previous series, because the new viewers would just not get it.

So, there is definitely a challenge here. Maybe when I get my "fun" pilot (lol) finished, I'll post it somewhere so you guys can judge what you think. Hell, maybe I'll just put the teaser up somewhere if anyone is interested. Just let me know in a PM and I could send it to you.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for the things you have brought up is the fact that the writers where very inconsistant in certain aspects of the show. I don't know when the mansion used for Collinwood was built, but I wouldn't have any other one as my Collinwood.

Maybe the Old House was built overlooking the village because the town is called "Collinsport" which means that the Collins founded it. In LP's The Salem Branch, if I remember correctly [spoiler]The Collinses originally settled near or in Salem, as they were present there in 1692 when Miranda was hung as a witch.[/spoiler] which could mean that since a branch went up to the upper part of what was Mass. as you have said, they were looking to bring commerce to the area and make bank in creating another port farther up. This no doubtedly would bring more settlers to the area because of work opportunities and the new ability to get supplies up there by sea rather than by land. The house was built above the town because, as illustrated many times by Roger, Edward, Joshua, etc, family pride was A number 1 on the list, and this would have told anyone coming into the town "Hey look at us rich folk all the way up here and not down in the dirty dirty dumps that we've created for you nasties to live in." Maybe a little harsh, but something to that effect.

Or I could've just went with the most simple excuse that the original premise of the show was a "Jane Eyre" type story, so a house on a hill was kind of necessary. 

Happee burfdai yew aul bat!

Break out that walkin' stick cause you're gettin old!

lol <~~~~Experience the horror!

Okay, I've heard of St. Mary's, you guys are the ones always getting snow days, LOL!    Hey, keep me posted about that trip to Point Lookout, maybe I can talk Selby D. Pearson, who also lives in MD, into going as he's into this stuff as well.  

You've got us right! It seems that even a centimeter of snow cripples all the idiots down here. Well most of them anyway! I personally don't see what all the fuss is about, but I sure did enjoy all those snow days while I was in school! lol! I'll definitely keep you posted on the trip, if it happens.

Fascinating stuff, Brandon. I am a civil war buff and made the trip to Gettysburg on the recommendation of my friend the late Dean Wilson (who was also a big DS fan) and a collector. Dean was a ghost hunter for several years, belonging to a ghost hunting organization in his native Indiana. It's not a surprise that DS fans would also develop an interest in the paranormal.

I collect books of ghost stories from all over the world. Currently, I am writing a novel of a "ghostly" nature that I hope to have published in 2008. I should consider dedicating it to DS!

Great! Do let us know when this book is completed so that we can respectively give you our money! lol! I'd be happy to read it.

in my opinion this remove is what gives the show alot of it's charm and one of the many reasons that i found this book to be completely out of whack.

I so like OMIGOD totally agree with this! lol! The whole hippie scene present in the book was definitely unwelcome, and when LP originally spoke about it at the fest this year, she even said that she included it because it was something she had experimented with/something that she had gone through! YUCK! Keep your non/unmentionables to yourself lady!

I said earlier that the hippies completely took away from the universe that DS created, and many others have said it as well. DS is used as an "escape" from the "real world" by many people, and this completey shattered it! I prefer to stick to my DVDs and other various items for canon stuff. (Despite my constant usage of this thing I totally don't want to wear a wig! lol)

Since others are plugging, I will plug away too!

I haven't written much DS fanfiction. I wrote a little diddy called Murder in Collinsport that upon re-reading it really not too bad, but given the time that has passed (like 3 or 4 years) since I wrote that and now, (I've become much better, at least I like to believe that) it really lets me know how far I've come. So if you do read that, please please please please ignore the plot jumps, the passages that have run-ons and the various other mistakes that occur here.

But what I think is really something for me to marvel at is an extremely little diddy I wrote called "Firefly Dreams." It's about Vicki and Burke, and a lot of people have told me it's pretty good. I wrote it as a result of a writing challenge on some DS group or other, so check it out on FanFiction.net. If anyone goes to read it let me know what you think, good, bad, or ugly. ---->

I'm not sure exactly which I could say I hated the most. I practically agree with everything everyone has already said, and I agree with what DSBF said about Peter being okay, except for the fact that he was nice to look at because I'm not much for looking at men. lol. Other than that, yes.

But, I can say that I am enternally greatful for the following thing that happen w/Dirk in 1897:

Barnabas: Now you will go back to Collinwood and tell them that you saw nothing here.
Dirk: Oh, thats great! But what am I gonna tell 'em?
Barnabas: (Frid looks like GEEZ EVEN I DON"T SCREW IT UP THIS BAD!!)  THAT YOU SAW NOTHING HERE!!!

That gets me rolling every single time I watch it.

On a side note, I just saw the episode where [spoiler]Quentin threatens Petofi (or Finn-Gibbon as you may have it) with a gun, and Petofi says "You have a taste for the melodrama!"[/spoiler]

That was CLASSIC!! LMAO!    Me pushing Roger Davis' characters off a cliff!

Sunday, August 27th

Schedule of Events:

11:00am   DS Fan Panel
12:00pm   Guest - Diana Millay
12:30       Guest - Chris Pennock
1:00         DS Memoribilia Auction II
2:00         Remembering Grayson Hall
2:30         Guest - Jerry Lacy
3:00         Guest - Kathryn Leigh Scott
3:30         Dark Shadows 1991 Screen Tests
4:00         Guests - Dark Shadows Cast Presents First and Last Episodes Live on Stage
5:00         Autographs
7:00         Banquet Dinner with the Stars

Another late morning, and boy was I ever thankful! After having stayed up until 2am the previous night to watch HODS, I was definitely tired. I can only imagine what those who stayed up all night to watch all the movies felt like.

We didn't get downstairs until sometime after 11am. I think it was around 11:15 or so, and Marcy Robin was on stage, seated in the drawing room, speaking about a number of different things. She talked about the fest, how it came to be, and how exciting it was that there were still fans out there and that the fanbase is evergrowing. She took questions, and a number of things were asked. The thing that stood out for me the most, however, was a man who asked about Jonathan Frid. He asked Marcy why Frid doesn't come to the fests any longer. Marcy seemed stumped at first, but in actuality I'm sure she was trying to formulate an answer that wouldn't offend the fans nor betray Frid's privacy and believes. I thought what she finally said was particularly adequate.

She said, and I'm paraphrazing here, that Frid was greatful that he had gotten the part of Barnabas, and that he realized what it did for his career. But, he was always a Shakespearen actor, and even though he played Barnabas for a good long while, Shakespeare was what he was always about. She explained that actors and actresses tend to get typecast in certain roles once they play a character for a number of years, and the Frid was afraid of this happening, and that it would not allow him to go along the route he wished to pursue. She said that he did attend a number of fests when they first sprang about, but that here lately he's retired and he's just trying to live a quiet life. Now, I'm sure that many weren't happy with this response, but come on! I'm sure it would be troublesome for him to do so, livin in Canada. Personally, I was estatic that at my first fest not only did he send a video, but he also talked over the phone to us as well! Good enough for me!!

Diana Millay was next, and mom and I left the room. I believe we went out for lunch. That's not important. But, what I can tell you about is our experience with Diana. I don't remember what day it was on--possibly Friday--but my mom went out to get her autograph while I was doing something else. (Let me just mentin here that I would never have gotten all the autographs without my moms help and her going to one line while I stayed in the other). Anyway, my mom took our program books up to her table and placed them down in front of her, saying hello. Diana looked up and said "Well what do you want me to do with these?" and my mom asked her to sign them. She wrote "Hi Brandon" in mine, and then looked up to my mom again. "Should I write my name?" and my mom said yes. This may seem normal to those of you who are reading this, but mom says that Diana seemed weird, a little off, or something. Not your normal everyday cookie.

Anyway, now that we're out of THAT flashback, we returned with our lunch and are it, finishing during Chris Pennock's time on stage. I wanted to see what he had to say, so we went into the Grand Ballroom, and he was reading one of his comic books. I didn't know anything about what his comic books were about, and he assumed that we had all just already read them. Apparently, judging from the way they looked on his table, not only did he write them but he drew them as well. His comic was very odd--he talked about blowing up some building, and made light of some things from DS--the only funny parts. He said that after he played Gabriel, he was going to be written off the show, but that Dan Curtis called him in his office and sai "Chris, our ratings are down! So I've decided to invent a totally stupid and incomprehensible storyline to go with, and you're in it!" Everyone laughed.

The second part of the auction was next. Today they had a number of different things. They had another blueprint from and episode, which showed what sets they would be using that day and where they would be placed within the studio. They also had an unopened copy of HODS, that was still in the plastic wrap foil stuff. Tey had one Barnabas dool, dressed in present day clothes, which Jim Pierson said that they were sold out of and didn't make anymore. That fetched over $100. They also had two Quentin dolls and one Barnabas 1795 doll that they had been selling over the two previous days, and had also sold out of. These were selling for $35 a piece, which is a good deal, IMO, from what they cost directly from the manufacturer. These went for a little under $100. Last, but certainly not least by any means, was the Barnabas portrait from HODS. This brought in a wopping $13,000! There were a number of bidding wars between a number of different people. Normal, everyday people were bidding $6500! $8500! etc, and I wondered if they were just trying to drive up the price of it they were really serious. An old woman in the front row was firm and solid throughout all the different bidders that bid on the portrait, and she won it for the $13,000. She was dressed expensively, with some obviously pricey jewelry strung around her neck, wrists, and fingers. I heard from Tim, mentioned in DS Fest Pt 1, who was a volunteer at the fest, that she was a lawyer. Ah, no wonder she could afford it. Many people ran up and took last minute pictures of the portrait, fearing that she would take it to her room or something, but she got up on stage and posed with it, and allowed others to post with it as well.

We left during the Remembering Grayson Hall thing, during which I believe the woman who premiered her new book about Grayson got up on stage and spoke. We went into the dealers room, where MPI was located, and looked around. They had DVD sets on sale for $30 a piece, and you can imagine that I bought some!! Who wouldn't!!? I couldn't believe this price, given that it is half off of their regular price and cheaper than Amazon or DeepDiscount. I also wanted a couple of bobbleheads they had, but alas, they weren't on sale just yet. We walked around a little more, and I spotted Craig Hamrick sitting behind a table, so I abruptly stopped and got him to sign my copy of "Barnabas & Company". Remember earlier in DS Fest Pt 1 that I mentioned that I wanted to buy a copy of the "DS Collectibles" book, but when I returned later to KLS's table, she was sold out. Thankfully, Mr. Hamrick had ONE copy left at his table, and I snatched it up and had him sign it as well. (Thanks Craig, we miss you!!)

Returning to the Grand Ballroom, I saw Trask...er...I mean Jerry Lacy on stage seated in the drawing room. He had been on for a while  now, and was taking questions from the fans. He was very gracious and entertaining, though unfortunately I don't remember what the questions were. They ended not long after we had come back into the Grand Ballroom.

We ran out to the dealers room where MPI was located. I wanted to come back to see if they had marked anything else down so that it would be dirt cheap (sort of). THey had marked the bobbleheads down, but had also run out of Angelique and Quentin, so they only had Barnabas, Josette, and the Wolfman left. They were marked down to $20 so I bought Barnabas and Josette. I ran upstairs to my room and got my Quentin doll and had David Selby sign it, then ran over to KLS, just before she was heading inside to get on stage, and had her sign my Josette bobble.

KLS was next on stage, for her fourth time this weekend I believe. She spoke a little more about her book and then took questions. Someone asked her how long it took to do the makeup for the Ghost of Josette, when Barnabas brought her back from the dead in 1795, and she said it took only an hour and a half, and praised the makeup artist that they had. She laughed and made a joke about how she had an eye hanging down on her face.

After she left the stage, they played screen tests from the 1991 DS Revival, I suppose to kill time while the stars rehearsed for their live on stage performance that came up next. They had screen tests for Roger, Barnabas, Vicki, and David. The highlight of this reel was when Ben Cross was auditioning for the part of Barnabas opposite the woman who eventually played Vicki. The scene was Barnabas giving Vicki Josette's music box, but the music box was merely an empty soda can, and everyone roared with laughter.

The recreations of the first and last episodes came up next. In the first episode, David Selby played Roger, Lara Parker played Vicki, Marie Wallace played Liz, Donna Wandrey played the woman on the train that sat next to Vicki, and the director of the foundling home, Nancy Barrett played Sandy (Vicki's friend at the foundling home), John Karlen played Burke Devlin, Chris Pennock played the man Devlin had check out the Collinses, and Jerry Lacy played the hotel clerk. There were several highlights here which included Donna Wandrey playing her dual roles. The roles were back to back--Vicki was talking to the older woman on the train, then has her flashback to the foundling home. When the transition needed to be made from one to the other, Wandrey stepped back from the mic and did a little two-step spin in one direction the first time and another direction the second time, and everyone roared with laughter. The second highlight was Lara Parker uttering Vicki's very first "I don't understand." She looked directly into the crowd with a smile on her face and said the line, and everyone laughed.

In the last episode, everyone played their original roles, except for a few. Jerry Lacy played Bramwell, Chris Pennock played Morgan, Marie Wallace played Flora and David Selby played the ghost of Brutus. There were a number of different hilarious highlights here. Rich Halpern read the narrators part i.e. Bramwell enters the room. When the scene came up when Bramwell is tracking Morgan and Catherine to the roof, and he goes through the secret passage and finds a handkercheif, Jerry Lacy came up to the mic, looked to the floor, and picked up the pretend hanky saying "OOH! A handkerchief!!" and returned to his seat. Chris Pennock was wonderful as Morgan, using his forfinger and thumb as the gun present during the scene, and when the moment called for him to use Catherine as a shield, or to grab her and pull her away, he did it to much hilarious avail. David as Brutus was very well done--they made the sound effects of the ghost's voice echoing and everything, and it was very very spooky.

This ran slightly late, and the autograph session and banquet thickets line was to being at 5pm. However, the recreation of the episodes lasted until around 5:20, and my mom, forever the standby, missed half of the last episode to go out and stand in the banquet tickets line so we wouldn't have to stand there forever. This is the part that irks me. They were scheduled to being giving out the tickets at 5pm. However, they didn't start until after the episodes ended at 5:20. YOu would think that they would've begun before that, because they already had a long line, and by the time they had gotten through the line that was currently there, they would have been just in time for the episodes to be over. I had gotten up before the episodes ended and walked to the back of the room to stand by the door to watch, so  could dart out the door and get in line. I did just that, and there were several people in front of us asking the workers behind the table if they were going to start because it was after 5pm. Not one of them paid any attention to us until the flood of people was released from the Grand Ballroom. Geez!!

We came downstairs just about 7pm for the banquet, and discovered that the line was extremely long. KLS had just changed and emerged from the door to the left of her window stand--where she was seeling the pictures. Someone was cleaning up her table, as that was the only thing left out, and she made her way through the line a couple times, zig-zaging in and out, and she looked directly at us and said "I don't know what's going on! I'm confused--there are just so many people!" and she laughed and we did along with her. Once we finally got into the ballroom we were steated at table #40, way in the back of the room. There was something like 45 tables with at least 8-10 people at each table, and most of the stars sat up front somewhere. Marie Wallace and Donna Wandrey took the stage to call out the door prizes. They had one of those gold raffle tickets things that you spin around and mix the tickets up in, and when Marie tried to spin it, it spun off its stand, hit the stage, and crashed to the floor below. She was all laughs about it and so was the audience. Marie instructed everyone to count off from number 1, going around the table. She picked a ticket from the ticket bin, which represented a table, and then Donna picked a number from a bowl which represented a seat. The prizes included a copy of "Written and Directed by Dan Curtis," with the new supplement that highlighted what he did in the last 2 years of his life. These books retailed for $15-20 in the dealers room, and wherever else they were selling them I believe. Other prizes included the number 25 DVD set for someone at our table from Tampa, and t-shirts, and other things.

The banquet was rather nice. They had a green salad with ceaser dressing and crutons waiting for us on the table, along with freshly baked bread. It was hard on the outside, but good nonetheless. THe main course was a boneless chicken breast, that tasted like it had been seared in mustard or something, which shredded carrots, squash, and zuccini in a cute little colorful pile, along with some sort of gravy for the chicken. The dessert was cheescake, with a bit of fruit topping. It was all very delicious, even though the chicken did run slightly late. Jim Pierson joked "That's what you all get for not being vegans!"

They replied the Jonathan Frid video during the banquet, and played Dan Curtis' PSA about alzheimers which was very heart-wrenching. Towards the end, a few people spotted Jim Pierson over in the corner by the door through which everyone entered. There was a number of boxes piled there behind a table, and he was starting to unpack some. We went over, because I told mom that if we didn't we would miss the negatives from the episodes that they were giving out, as many did. We went over and Jim was unpacking some smaller boxes that had calenders from 01 and 03 as well as the program book for the 1998 fest, and the supplement to the Dan Curtis book mentioned earlier. He asked if someone could take the plastic wrap off them, and mom and I were happy to help. We unwrapped all the things he put out on the table, and arranged them. We moved behind the table to get a better handle on things (mistake!) and soon we werre mobbed by people who asked what they could take and all that. We were instructed to tell everyone that they could take one of each thing on the table (4 items total per person) and told nothing about the kinescope negatives piled behind us. People began taking the, and soon Jim returned and told everyone to sit down, that they were supposed to pick these things up upon exiting the room. So, of course, many people said they were leaving and got their kniescope copy of an episode and returned to their seat. We left Jim there, and took our kinescope copies--we got episodes 114 and 250. Jim soon abandoned his post, knowing that there was no way he was going to control all those people who wanted one.

Apparently they didn't have enough of them for everyone at the banquet. Either that, or some people took more than they should have. So Jim got up on stage and said that they were out, and that if you didn't recieve one that they'd be taking names and addresses and they would ship one to you. He said that the warehouse needed to be cleaned out, and that these were just sitting there doing nothing so that's why he was giving them out.

We returned to our room and changed our clothes, stuck with the chore of finding out how to fit these kinescope reels in our suitcases. They weigh like 5 pounds a piece, and there are two reels inside the metal can, which has the original paper that says ABC Dark Shadows on it, with handwritten notes about each reel. One reel is the music and the other is the actual episode.

Overall, my first fest was a very productive and exciting one. I unfortunately didn't get to meet that many people outside of the starrs, but the people I did meet were just wonderful. I can't wait to go to another, and hopefully I will be able to go again soon! Thanks for reading!