That is very disappointing, thanks for sharing it.  I, for instance, can only afford to run my site because of the support of visitors using its affiliate links, and increasingly that's the route fan website owners have to make to provide a free service of any quality.  

But yes, very underhand and unnecessary... sigh

I assume it means the second box set will debut at the fest ahead of its street release -- as has been the case with many past MPI releases.

However, it definitely won't be a festival-only DVD set of any sort -- the economies of scale are too narrow, and the attendence level too low to make something like that viable.

Steve, it's interesting you comment on him looking very healthy in his final roles -- I read that shortly before his death, he was planning to remarry his ex-wife Valerie French, so presumably he would have been approaching a good time in his life had he survived.

He really was the finest performer "Dark Shadows" ever had in its cast --  he was meticulous and had such a range and precision to his work.

Yeah, I'd put my money on DVD any day...  The quality improvement might not see a major leap to the unindoctrinated, but it really is something -- I've watched some discs taken from videotaped TV shows and it's just astounding the wya you get the whole ambience and clarity of the studio floor... impossible to explain in writing, so it's probably the best qualification for DVD I can manage...

Okay, here's my thoughts [rant]:

Celebrity photographs -- how much time is wasted in the signing lines with people contorting to try and have pictures taken with the guests?  They usually look lousy, are impractical, and create bottlenecks.  What would be great is to do what a lot of the other cons do, and have celebrity photoroom, offering scheduled appearances with a professional photographer on hand.  They could even have a minor set put together (eg. the Collinwood or Old House mantle) to pose against, with each of the celebs scheduled over the weekend, with the proceeds going to a charity.  

So yeah...  I don't like the idea of receiving all the tickets, etc, through the mail, as overseas people like myself have to risk not having them arriving before departure, and you're bound to have heaps of people whining: "Wah! Where are my tickets? I've lost/dropped/eaten them... wah! etc..."

And cut down the signing lines.  Stop people from re-queuing -- have the actors sign for now more than two hours at a time and cut it off there.  They could sign all weekend and people would still be queuing up to get the gazillionth thing signed.  It's insatiable, so why bother trying...

I'd like to see more dramatic readings, skits, etc -- I think it would be great to have a staged reading of some DS scripts [maybe some of the abandoned 1969 scripts cited in the 2000 Almanac, maybe with music too]

Erm... that's it

I always think Anthony George had a bit of a raw deal -- face it, Burke Devlin was such a pale version of the embittered, calculating original by the time Barnabas arrived -- character-wise George inherited a much weaker character.

I agree with the comments on 1795 -- Mitch Ryan was probably much too contemporary in both his acting style and physical appearance to have meshed well in that particular time period.

Roger Collins was the show's best rogue for me -- in the early episodes, the character was simply reprehensible, but Louis Edmonds played it with such charm and humour.  

Louis just had that wonderful ability to play a blackmail scene like the most cultured and agreeable dinner guest -- I always found myself liking Roger in spite of myself