I haven't been watching, but it does sound like fun.

G.

michael, you needed to fix Tracy with a frigid glare and intone, "Did you EVER stop to think that perhaps you don't belong here?"

(A line Grayson/Carlotta has in the movie, in a scene with Jackson/Tracy)

I still remember a dream I had of being at Collinwood when the show was originally on.  This would have been in the late Sixties.  I remember being very happy to be there but then I started to worry whether "the vampires" would get me...

cheers, G.

michael, the kind of thing you mention was, from what I have been able to figure out over the years, largely controlled not by the writers or producers, but by an office at the network that, if memory serves, bore the name "Standards and Practices."

I've just pulled out my copy of a book entitled "Dark Shadows: the introduction of Barnabas," a fan publication from 1988.  I was fortunate enough to be able to secure a copy when I first found the organized fandom in the early 1990s. (I may even have purchased it at New York's Forbidden Planet!)  On p. 132 there is a photostat (for you youngsters, that's sort of like a scan) of a memo headed ABC Dept. of Broadcast Standards and Practices, Eastern Division--New York.  I don't have the energy to type out the entire text, but the memo seems to imply that the script AND videotape for every episode of DS had to pass review by this office--essentially, an internal censorship board the network ran.  The photostat gives approval, with the proviso that corrections or suggestions as outlined be adopted, for the script, and mentions a screening report that would be issued once "the finished film" had been submitted for review.  (I frankly doubt whether the office had time to screen every episode of DS before it went out for broadcast, particularly on weeks when the schedule got tight between taping and broadcast, but who knows.)

This memo contains the often-quoted notation:  "Please ensure that Jason's wisecracks [to Willie, in a scene at the Old House] about 'light housekeeping' and 'the lady of the house,' as addressed to Willie are delivered so that there is no insinuation that Jason suspects a sexual relationship between Willie and Barnabas."  (One wonders if they were aware that many fans have seen the whole Jason/Willie thing as a thinly veiled sexual "friendship" with what appear to be bondage undertones!)

You can really tell that things have changed with what they were allowed to get away with, with the Yeagar character's Maggie obsession in 1970 and how Yeagar "expressed" it onscreen, and then the most dramatic change of all, when [spoiler]characters played by Jonathan Frid and Lara Parker actually went to bed almost in camera view, in circumstances that imply a rape (or at least some heavy coercion), in the PT1841 sequence.[/spoiler]  I don't know what the status of script review by the S&P office was at that point.

All this notwithstanding, speculation about hanky-panky between various characters is a lot of fun, and I'm enjoying this thread.  I also love it in 1970 when Carolyn informs anyone who cares to listen that "hypocrisy above all is the Collins family motto"--a great moment, in a GREAT storyline *wink*.

Cheers,

GothEEK

Hi Retzev, I guess you missed the latest discussion of this in the Malcolm Marmorstein thread.  Quoting MB's Oct. 31st post there (I apologize for not using the site's copy and paste software--I looked for it but couldn't find it):

As for the actual creation of Barnabas on paper before Frid was cast, that honor would seem to go to Art Wallace. Robert Costello has said that Wallace created the character and came up with the whole backstory connecting him to Josette and Jeremiah, and that that backstory is what they went with during the entire '67 present day storyline (until it was completely thrown out the window during the 1795/96 storyline). And, well, there's also how Wallace's law suit against DC for a share of the profits from all the Barnabas/DS merchandise was settled in Wallace's favor - and that wouldn't have happened if Wallace hadn't had a provable claim to Barnabas. (end quote)

I don't know anything more about this event other than what MB has shared in this, and previous posts.  Art Wallace's success in this suit is the reason why Wallace gets a credit every time another redaction of DS hits the screens.

G.

Latarnia posted three good screen shots of the new hoDS disc here (look for page 6, middle of page, in this thread):

http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/topic/42499/master/1/?page=6#.UKHFGY7FXu0

He gives comparison shots from what he says is an Italian DVD--it looks a lot like the previous iteration we've seen of the movie, although I haven't seen the version Amazon offered for streaming/download.

I have to say the color, particularly on the third shot (Maggie lying on the altar from the final sequence of the movie) is stunning.  It actually looks a lot more crisp than what I recall from what was shown in the local movie house in Aberdeen Maryland in 1970.

G.

Thanks, Darren.  As I am sure I have mentioned multiple times, I own the laserdisc and my VHS tapes of the films are sourced from that.  The friend who made the tapes for me (I have never owned a laserdisc player) was kind enough to include the trailer from each disc. 

Even then WB home video was cheap, lazy, and disrespectful of these films.

Just calling it as I see it.

Steve

Let the Devil take his own!

lol...

G.

My apologies for an off-topic announcement in this thread; I think there are some fans here of the old "The Avengers" TV series from England in the Sixties, the one co-starring Patrick Macnee and Diana Rigg.  I just heard through the grapevine that the "Steed and Mrs. Peel" comic book series has been revived.  There are a couple of 2012 entries on Amazon and one for next May (maybe the latter is meant to be the first few issues collected in graphic novel format).

Just giving the heads-up here for any fans who might be interested.  I had heard nothing about it, but would like to check it. The 1991 redaction, though written by Grant Morrison, had inferior artwork and I couldn't get past that.

G.