It was an idea Curtis was kicking about around Winter 69, I think, as it was reported at the time in one of the fan newsletters.  Basically, the storyline would have been suspended for a week or so, and there would have been a DS version of "A Christmas Carol" filling the void, just in time for the festive season.

Pity it never happened -- I think it would have been amazing

I've also just added a new page for Michael Stroka... go, knock yourself out... ahem

http://www.collinwood.net -- The Dark Shadows Journal Online


* NEW ON THE WEBSITE

* BIOGRAPHIES: A new page for Mitchell Ryan and Keith Prentice's page has
been updated with a rare picture of his home in Kettering, OH, courtesy of
Rhonda Foster
* FEATURES: A review of Lara Parker's novel "Angelique's Descent"
* EPISODE GUIDE: 45 summaries upgraded with high-resolution DVD captures
* NEWS: DVD news and other updates


Cheers

Stuart

I think the DVDs are great -- they represent fantastic value for money and offer the highest-quality home entertainment release of the show to date at the cheapest price ever.  Which is more than enough to keep me purchasing the sets.

There really aren't a lot of potential extras for "Dark Shadows" -- the outtakes that survive for the entire run amount to barely 10 minutes, remaining promos are in single figures and spread over a potential 30 sets, it is going to be thin.  The material just isn't there.

Dan Curtis Productions have invested in some new interviews for the discs, which will be seen over upcoming releases.  

As it stands, there are already minor technical problems that need to be addressed, and which won't improve if more disc space is given over to supplemental materials.  I'd rather see the stuff you propose used for future documentaries or special programmes, where it can be covered in more depth.

In my experience, extras on most tv-related discs don't amount to much and generally promise a lot more than they ever deliver.  My primary concern when purchasing the VHS tapes was to enjoy the episodes themselves, and that hasn't changed now I'm watching those episodes on DVD.

Impressive research -- well done.

As a sidenote, many of the photographs from the Imagine card set reuse colorized transparencies created for past MPI home video releases.

"Dark Shadows Memories" is a new 35th Anniversary video documentary/tribute.  It's been delayed to allow MPI to concentrate on establishing the range of episode DVD box sets, but should be back on the schedules before too long

Agreed, the quality of Nancy's lip-syncing for the redubbed dialogue isn't what it could be, but that's true of most aspects of that disc.

It's also true that the new series discs do have a fair bit of artefacting, though nothing like the horrendous "Special Edition" disc.  The quality is still far better than any of the previous releases, particularly on the kinescope transfer, but it could have been really stunning had they not chosen to cram so much onto each disc.