Thanks very much, Josette.  I shall.

It's probably by now a situation of Too Little, Too Late, but I did email MPI and expressed my disappointment over this matter.  Will it do any good?  More than likely not, but at least I expressed my views.    Below is the text of my email, for anyone who may be interested:

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Thank you for releasing Dark Shadows on DVD.  I have fond memories of the show from younger days when it first went into syndication, but had missed many episodes, even when they were aired on the SciFi Channel.

However, I am writing to express my disappointment over the content in the DVD boxsets.  I did not notice at first but I have come across several instances where the episodes have been edited to remove extraneous sounds (such as off camera cues) or hide an a special effect that is not entirely successful, despite claims that the episodes are unedited.

I would very much like to know why this was done.  As a fan of the show for many years, I like my Dark Shadows "warts and all"  and I am sure that you have received other complaints of this nature as well.

Frankly, I avoided purchasing any of the series on VHS, because at the time DVD was in its infancy and I knew you would probably re-release the series in DVD format eventually. I understand that the VHS editions have not been edited in this way, and I am extremely disappointed to learn that I am not only getting the DVD series in a different format but also with different content as well.

I hope you will consider for future releases simply making the picture and sound quality as high as possible and refrain from any further editing of the episodes that remain.

f.y.i,i contacted mpi and they did tell me that the pre-barnabas eps. would be released on dvd when they finish releasing the rest of the run.i highly recomend them,some stories are a bit dull,but the laura collins story rocks!

That's good to know.  And hopefully a boxset of the revival series too!

But I don't understand why you would even get mad unless they are advertising that they are unedited. Would you prefer that the DVD's contain the bloopers as well? I definitely can't get rid of my VHS tapes because they are editing the DVDs.

hmmm, perhaps silly of me, but I thought (hoped) that MPI would make the picture and sound quality of the episodes as good as possible, but leave everything else alone.  I like my DS "warts and all"  and for me anyway, it's part of the charm of the series.

One of my favorite moments when I was discovering DS for the first time when I was in high school (it was syndicated on a local station) was during the episodes leading up to the 1795 flashback.  It was around the time Tony Peterson first appeared. Julia was in his office and completely forgot everying about what she was supposed to say.  After floundering for a few seconds, I distintly heard the director say "cut!" and Grayson broke character and looked off screen.  The picture went black and stay that way for a long time then the picture came back and Grayson was talking with someone (the director perhaps or the script supervisor) looking at was must have been the script.  The picture went black again and when it came back.  They started the scene from the top.  Now I didn't realistically expect that they would leave that in on either the  vhs or dvd versions, but my point is that is one of the things I love about this kind of taped as live TV and if the blooper doesn't result in having to stop camera, I do expect that MPI ought to leave it alone.  And, I think there are a great many fans who would agree with me.

I guess I am just disappointed is all.

The decision to cancel Angel may be tied to WB's decision to add another vampire drama to its lineup this fall; ER producer John Wells is producing a new version of the gothic soap opera Dark Shadows.

Well the piece you quoted states that the decision to cancel Angel only "may" be tied to the WB's decision.  I am a bit of a Buffy/Angel fan and FWIR, the WB decision had more to do with budget than than ratings.  That was at least one reason why the show this year has been so focused on staying inside the Wolfram and Hart offices.  It's also an action series and those are expensive.  I suppose that a new Dark Shadows series might appear attractive as it far more a talk drama than an action drama and yet still has supernatural elements (oops, looks like I just argued myself back to the beginning)

Nelson

I suppose only the map maker knows what the thinking was for having 3 different #4s.  :-

Maybe there is more than one caretaker's cottage?  And the caretaker had his choice of where he could live?

Like, is the cast too young?? 

hmm, not necessarily.  I mean, how old were the characters on the original DS?  Victoria, Caroylyn, Maggie, Joe, Chris, Willie, etc, were all late teen or early twenty-somethings, weren't they?  Granted Alec Newman seems a bit young for Barnabas, but it makes more sense from a story point of view.  Frid was 42 when he joined the cast (and frankly, he looked it) but when you think about it, 42 was pretty old in the 1790s when Barnabas was alive.  In reality (if such a thing applies  )He probably would have been much younger.  Years ago when I first started watching DS, it occurred to me that the gulf between Barnabas' and Sarah's ages is very large.  It seems unlikely that Naomi would have had only two children 30 odd years apart.  One could argue that she bore many more children that were stillborn or died crib deaths (maybe that was why she started drinking so much).

Hmmmm, Mr. Oddsson seems to have also left out the train station where Victoria arrived from New York.