This article was originally posted last year on Wallace McBride's DS blog, but I don't recall having seen it.  It was reposted earlier this week on a DS Facebook page that's on my roster:

http://www.collinsporthistoricalsociety.com/2016/04/who-killed-dark-shadows.html

Interesting that the author found an interview with Jay Duffy where the latter took credit for axing our show.  That was new to me, though doubtless others are long familiar with this material.

Credit or no, it's been my personal belief for many years now that Dan Curtis took the initiative to get the show off the air.  A number of the lead actors also wanted to move on.  Curtis wanted to move into directing movies and, as we know, he was extremely possessive about DS.  "If I can't have you, nobody can!"  He did designate Lela Swift as Producer during the final months, and apparently she also took over his unofficial role as story consultant if not actually dictating how the plot went (I am not sure how this all played out--it was stated in one of the fan newsletters towards the end that Lela came up with the idea of the big reveal at the end of 1840 where Barnabas made a certain controversial declaration regarding another major character).

G.

As a kind of footnote, I was interested last night to see that Joe Certa worked on a title called Tomb of Terror for Harvey Comics in the early 1950s:

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=21050

The above site is an incredible repository of comics from all eras.  I've visited it intermittently to catch up with the horror comics of the early 1950s.  My favorite thus far is a groovy little book called Chamber of Chills.  I'd never heard of any of these.

After reading a couple of issues of Tomb of Terror, I looked at still another title, (True Stories of) Black Magic (you search it under the short title, Black Magic).  That one features some really early work by the legendary Jack Kirby.

My very fleeting impression from Tomb of Terror is that Joe Certa did work of fairly decent quality back then. I do not know what had happened to him by the time he worked on the Gold Key DS stuff.  His work for that was at such a crude, ugly level.  I'm sure there are websites and no doubt, a Wikipedia entry which might explain what was going on.

It may be that neither he nor his editor cared so he just churned out the lowest grade of work for these.  As Gerard said, we still bought the books though I gave up on it after issue 15 or thereabouts, I think.  I honestly can't recall why I stopped reading.  One reason I do remember was that it got really difficult to find the book. I was surprised to learn years ago that so many issues had been published.  I think I just stopped seeing it at the local newsstand at some point.

G.

I just love Roger's disdainful chin-tilt in today's photograph.

Gosh, I miss Big Lou...

Thanks again for everything, MB.

G.

I am glad you enjoyed it, Onyx Treasure!

cheers, G.

It looks as if the 2004 slideshow (with dialogue, etc.) is back--has it been running all this time?  I'm pretty gobsmacked this a.m. by various things so maybe it has and I just wasn't paying attention.

Also I just had a weird experience, trying to find the thread for the 2004 show but unable to do so--I just looked at one thread that seemed to have 1991 dialogue but the images were from NoDS.  I wonder if it's something to do with my own computer?

And we may get snow today, in honor no doubt of tomorrow's occasion of April Fools...

Best!  G.

Again, awesome work!

G.

He (or they) is a fairly well known fan.  I don't think it would be proper to further identify in a public forum for obvious reasons.

G.

Fans,

Ever wonder what DS might have looked like had Agnes Moorehead and Jonathan Harris been cast in lead roles?  A hint of what might have been is offered in this 1960 hour long adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's HOUSE OF THE 7 GABLES, originally presented on the anthology series, THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE SHOW:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XLlqBHr3vo

The cast also includes Shirley Temple in the ingenue role (born around 1928, she would have been around 32 at the time), with Martin Landau, Robert Culp, and John Abbott.

Vincent Price also appeared in an adaptation of the Hawthorne novel in the film TWICE TOLD TALES in the early 1960s--this one wandered even further afield from the Hawthorne source novel, and had an even more explicit horror atmosphere.

G.