I think you have to be careful purchasing DVD's from these places (I would think the videos would be OK so long as you are sure they are NTSC standard).  A lot of currently available DVD players do not seem to do well with DVD-R's and RW's.  I have a couple of friends who share their tapes of Queer as folk (the popular, trashy gay soap opera) and this year they tried to upgrade to DVD.  Well, the rewritable DVD's their burner turned out would not play on several different make of players (I have a friend who works in an office with a whole galaxy of media equipment), so we had to go back to using VHS.  We even tried putting the DVD burner setting on VR format and that did not work either.

So, buyer beware on these discs.

That said, I'd love to have good copies of some of those films you mentioned.  I think I read that the Louis Jourdain Dracula is finally being released by BBC on both VHS and DVD formats, this summer, if memory serves.

G.

OOOHHH!  IT'S JOE HASKELL'S CLEAVAGE!!!

YUMMMY!!!!

*g* G.

A few observations:

(1) You can't "save" a television program that's never even been on the air.  The network's decision was clearly part of a programmatic shift in the direction of material they perceive as being more where the market is moving now.  I doubt whether they did more than glance at the NWBDS pilot by the time it was finished since they had made these programmatic decisions separately from the process of generating the pilot.

(2)  Reality TV shows *are* scripted.  I imagine the writers who are getting jobs are the ones who (besides having the right personal connections--that's how H'wood has ALWAYS worked) are good at coming up with the situations/concepts that non-actors can parrot successfully.

(3)  Far from "dying" I think the Dark Shadows "franchise" is enjoying adequate success, given that we're talking about a television show that is nearly 40 years old (ugh, you don't know how old that makes me feel!).
Not only has the entire series been steadily in print on VHS format for the past decade. it is now enjoying a success on DVD to the point where MPI is accelerating the schedule for the release of the episodes.  The honoring of Dan Curtis at the TV Museum, the spate of articles around the pilot, and the fact that TV Guide is running a piece about the original series in a week or two, all shows a lot of health, as far as I can tell.  Of course I hardly have my finger on the pulse where today's entertainment scene is concerned.  I am afraid I do not have the stomach for that.

Let's hope we see the return of the original episodes to broadcast television in the near future.  I would think the events I have outlined above would be enough to show how "viable" (as we used to say in the 70s) the property still is.

G.

Wow, Darren, what a great project!  From the bottom of my dark little heart, I thank you!

I haven't seen ANY of the DVDs yet, though I am contemplating purchasing at least one set (the one with the Julia/Tom Jennings storyline).  That storyline included a notorious technical defect which appeared to originate in the master tape.  I believe it happened in the episode where Julia comes stumbling in like a wino at the tail end of a bender babbling about "Tom."  As I recall it, there's this shrill beep that lasts about 2 or 3 seconds at one point as the action is moving from the foyer into the drawing room.  I wondered whether that scene got snipped in the interests of "tidying up" the DVDs.  (sorry, I don't know the technical lingo)

I discussed this at one point with Richard Holt--there's a post from him buried in the archives about this scene, and how it originated in the master tape.  I think he may have checked with somebody at MPI about it.

That happens to be one of my favorite episodes, and I'll be upset if I learn that it now circulates in a trimmed version.

G.

Thanks for that, darling.

[spoiler]I thought that at this point in the game, the journo was being exceptionally kind in describing Boreanaz' character as a "youthful-looking 250-year-old vampire."  Tuning in occasionally this past year, I've been shocked at how worn-out DB has looked.  I hope everything is OK with his life and health.  I well remember the first time he showed on on BtVS and how charming and beautiful he was.  sigh.
[/spoiler]

Midnite darling, I am soooo THERE.

G.

Well, the birthday scenes were doing the Quentofi mind/body switch period (one of my favorite eras in DS--soooo deliciously loopy, and Selby had such fun playing the ruthless, hedonistic Quentofi), which makes it October rather than Sept. I believe.

The episode guide Ann Wilson compiled for the DS Memories book would have the definitive answer.

G.