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Current Talk '08 I / Re: Dark Shadows: Why Such a Huge Gay Following?
« on: January 15, 2008, 08:52:00 PM »
Didn't Star Trek and DS being broadcasting the same year (1966)?
I'm a fan of both....I did go through what was for me a biisexual "phase" (hmmmmmm). I'm gay identified now.
As the show wound up in the early 70's, I'm surprised Captain Kirk didn't drop by Collinwood....every other "alternate universe" was tried.
But seriously, as a gay man, I look back on the early years of DS with a lot of fondness.....I was 13 (lucky number...) when the show premiered....I thought the ads made it look scarey and mysterious.....and, yes, even then I was a big fan of the old-time movie queens (for a star of Joan Bennett's fame to appear ona soap was considered quite a big deal then...but remember, Joan Crawfiord, Bette Davis, Oliviia DeHaviland, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Paige and other "older" actresses were starring in thrillers like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Straiit Jacket and Lady in a Cage, DS gave Ms. Bennett a great role and a chance to win over a new generation of fans in a role that did NOT require her to be confined to a wheel chair or wield an axe). Also, the show aired after school...good timing. DS also provided a welcome escape from the horrors of the Vietnam War and the intense political strife our country was going through....
I enjoyed the show a LOT, but I though it really took off when Barnabas arrives...he gave the whole thing more mystery, suspense and a deeper, more primal sense of menace (his blood lust)...he was a shunned tortured man, but he also had POWER, and that is very attractive as well to a generation of gays that just began to feel it's political influence.
The show also engaged our imaginations in a way that conventional soaps never could...not only did we have a vampire who aroused our sympathies (Dracula never did THAT), but most of America never heard of the I Ching before this show and the idea that reaility iis a concept more flexible than Westerners usually consider. Also, maybe witchcraft is not such a bad thing after all if you can look like Lara Parker and possess her power.
--Osnafla
I'm a fan of both....I did go through what was for me a biisexual "phase" (hmmmmmm). I'm gay identified now.
As the show wound up in the early 70's, I'm surprised Captain Kirk didn't drop by Collinwood....every other "alternate universe" was tried.
But seriously, as a gay man, I look back on the early years of DS with a lot of fondness.....I was 13 (lucky number...) when the show premiered....I thought the ads made it look scarey and mysterious.....and, yes, even then I was a big fan of the old-time movie queens (for a star of Joan Bennett's fame to appear ona soap was considered quite a big deal then...but remember, Joan Crawfiord, Bette Davis, Oliviia DeHaviland, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Paige and other "older" actresses were starring in thrillers like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, Straiit Jacket and Lady in a Cage, DS gave Ms. Bennett a great role and a chance to win over a new generation of fans in a role that did NOT require her to be confined to a wheel chair or wield an axe). Also, the show aired after school...good timing. DS also provided a welcome escape from the horrors of the Vietnam War and the intense political strife our country was going through....
I enjoyed the show a LOT, but I though it really took off when Barnabas arrives...he gave the whole thing more mystery, suspense and a deeper, more primal sense of menace (his blood lust)...he was a shunned tortured man, but he also had POWER, and that is very attractive as well to a generation of gays that just began to feel it's political influence.
The show also engaged our imaginations in a way that conventional soaps never could...not only did we have a vampire who aroused our sympathies (Dracula never did THAT), but most of America never heard of the I Ching before this show and the idea that reaility iis a concept more flexible than Westerners usually consider. Also, maybe witchcraft is not such a bad thing after all if you can look like Lara Parker and possess her power.
--Osnafla