Hey Satan, don't forget Julia.  Not only was she constantly getting strangled, grabbed and roughhoused by Barn in 1967 (hmmm she must have *liked* it rough), she got her own back in the 1968 storyline in which she slapped Mrs Johnson, Cassandra and Joe.  In 1970 she had to slap Sabrina out of a hysterical episode.

Welcome to our board, and hope you continue to enjoy watching Dark Shadows (assuming you do enjoy watching it).

Gothick

The colors are indeed gorgeous.  I won't get attached to them because inevitably you will be making a change, but I just have to say... BRAVO.

The check for new stuff feels counter-intuitive to me.  No doubt it's yet another way in which I'm "special" compared to others, but I generally check things off that have already been attended to.

It was moving very slowly when I was on earlier today, but I'm using IE (haha) so have only Bill Gates to blame for that.

G.

I thought Alexander was the worst brat of all time, on ANY show.  "MISSUS STAWDDAWD!" can still strike a chill in one's bones.

Even when David was at his more borderline, in the early weeks of the 1966 storyline, he did have motivations that were very human and plausible.  Alexander was an arctic wind whistling past a keen-edged scythe.  Completely inhuman.

G.

Midnite, you accomplished the impossible.

I actually looked at those last three smilies and... smiled!

It's the smilie version of the Trimurti (Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva) at Angkor Wat!  too cute!

G.

Believe it or not, Gerard, I've read that prototype VCR's did exist already by the mid Sixties.  I've read about very wealthy people having them in the UK at the time.  I do not know whether these were available in the US or not, nor do I know what kind of playback the recordings offered.

This was mentioned in a couple of discussions I read about missing episodes of Dr. Who back in the early 90s.  There were rumors--legends, really--that a wealthy collector had made these kinescope-like recordings of every episode.  From what was written, it appeared to be something different from a home movie camera pointed at the TV set (some people did attempt those, the pickup was usually lousy however).

I wish I had more info, but it doesn't change the fact that none of us back then had access to such technology, so if we missed the day's episode, we were screwed.  I used to dread it when the school bus took an alternate route to deliver us home as it usually meant that I would miss at least some of Dark Shadows...

G.

I think they look cheap, awkward, and ungainly... but then I'm not really into dolls (not *that* kind at any rate.. heh, heh).

G. *theme from Valley of the Dolls plays in the background*

Probably its biggest downfall was its own success.  That success led to the movies, which really over-taxed the resources of the cast and production team; the first movie, because it was so violent, led to a lot of Parents groups around the country to demand that local ABC affiliates drop the series because it was perceived as too violent for children's viewing; as more affiliates dropped the show, the ratings also fell; finally, the experience of working on the movies made Dan Curtis decide he wanted to do other things besides helm a soap opera, and (in my opinion) led to his pulling the plug on the show.

btw just so you know, there really aren't any missing or never aired episodes of DS, incredible though that seems.  There's one episode that exists as a montage of stills and an audio recording because the original tape disappeared (apparently back in 1971) and no back-up existed (I think they had stopped making the filmed kinescopes).  It's kind of amazing that that is actually from the very final weeks of the series.  Up until that point, every episode exists in some form or another.  Some episodes were skipped during the 1980s syndication of the series which may be where you got the impression that there were missing shows.

G.

Wow.  Finally somebody *gets* it:

Grayson Hall was the bridge between Hollywood and Broadway, where all the actors on the show came from. She was part of the allure of Dark Shadows, and it's her presence that really kicks up Dark Shadows: DVD Collection Three a couple of notches.

I hope Darren sees this part:

These are great sets that are important to collectors of the show. MPI is a hero in my book for keeping the Dark Shadows torch burning brightly when no networks seem to be airing reruns. I've heard rumblings that the first batch of non-vampire episodes are going to see a release once MPI completes this run of the show. Now if only the movie adaptations of House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows could find their way onto DVD (uncut and with special features, please). Or is that too much to hope for? But in a world where a vampire can become a romantic leading man on a daytime soap opera, anything's possible.

Thanks for posting the link, Luciaphil.

G.