DS is on the lower end, but it's the only one to be syndicated and released on video in its entirety. A couple of the soaps were syndicated but Edge of Night's early years are lost. I'm not sure if all of Ryan's Hope was shown on The Soap channel.

Cinemark is repeating show on August 24th in my area. I assume it will be the same nationwide. Check  your local theater listings if interested.

I have enjoyed the dramatic readings. The earlier ones tended to be 2 reader stories with one actor taking on a major role and a second in a supporting one. Later they tended more towards full cast audio dramas but with a smaller cast than the other series. I loved one of the early ones, The Path of Fate. It's read by Lara and David Selby. It's written by Mark Rainey who cowrote "Dark Shadows-Dreams of the Dark." It's a sequel of sorts to 1840 with a more sinister stairway through time. I found it to be chilling and eerie.

Some of these dramas feature new characters and lots of Doctor Who actors appear in them. You might want to read about the various arcs of stories and see which ones interest you. For example, there's an entire chain of stories about the Trasks, Gregory and Charity. You can filter the stories by arcs. You might like to check out the Tony and Cassandra stories. Angelique encounters Tony by chance at an island. This is not some weird parallel time story. She's calling herself Cassandra because being the ex wife of Roger Collins opens doors. It's made clear this is Angelique. Some people on this board speculated that it was like the Gold Key comics where she was calling herself Cassandra for no apparent reason. She continues using the name with Tony since that's the name he knows her by. They become an unlikely duo solving mysteries. There's a lot of diversity. There should be something for every DS fan.

I think indentured servant and convict are basically the same thing.

A convict might be a type of indentured servant. I'm not sure about that, but most indentured servants entered into the relationship willingly albeit almost certainly out of desperation. Indentured servitude was a contract usualy exchanging labor for a specified number of years in return for passage to the country in question. Sometimes it could be used to repay a loan.

I met with some friends this weekend to watch the 2012 Dark Shadows film. They are not Dark Shadows fans, but we have watched the first two films and various episodes of the two TV series. Their reactions were mixed. The general concensus was that the movie needed a unified direction. The dark comedy did not work for them. As one said, it was not silly enough to ignore the fact that Barnabas should have burned up being out in the daylight. She was unconvinced about the umbrella's ability to protect, clouds or no.

For me, I've always had a love hate relationship with that film. I usually either like something or I don't. I can be indifferent. This one is different. I absolutely love some parts of the film, and I loathe certain other parts. I was not completely unhappy with the comedic tone. I thought the McDonalds arches scene was brilliant. I loved almost everything gag associated with Barnabas becoming acquainted with the 20th Century.

There were two aspects I despised. Jonathan Frid described the essence of Barnabas as living a lie, keeping his awful secret. He also brought up the urge to drink blood as an addiction. Burton got the latter right. I was constantly annoyed with Barnabas prancing around telling everyone who would listen that he's a vampire. This guy got buried alive for being a vampire and then as soon as he's unearthed, he blabs his secret to the world? It made him seem like a total idiot.

I also hated the sex scene with Angelique. After all she did to him and his family, he's able to feel passionately towards her?  Yes, he does say he's going to defile her, but at the end he apologizes for not being able to love her!

Burton's interpretation marred the film for me, but they did not spoil it completely. I love the relationship between Victoria and Barnabas. I was intrigued by how Julia was treated. The opening scenes were fantastic. I was enjoying the whole movie immensely until he appeared in daylight yakking about his secret.

My reactions soared into the upper reaches of the atmosphere and plummetted to the depths of the oceans so many times watching that film. Most of the ending worked for me, but I could have done without the vomit scene. It did not gross me out or offend me. It just looked fake and silly. I thought Angelique's death scene was very touching. Carolyn as a werewolf? Hmmm intriguing but out of left field and pretty much unnecessary. But we got to see Laura and she was foreshadowed adequately. She didn't come off as a deus ex machina.

This film is unique with its abilities to elicit strong and contradictory reactions from me. I would like it more if Depp had consistently portrayed Barnabas and not some generic vampire. The jealously guarded secret has been a cornerstone of every version of DS from the OS, to the Ross novels, the comics, the comic strip, the previous movies, and the 91 series. I enjoyed watching it again though. It's certainly a personal classic in spite of the diverse reactions it provokes.

Thank you for this very interesting account of the discussion! It feels almost as if I attended it.

the exteriors of the houses is somewhat different. it was more the interiors.

Really? The images I saw were of the exterior. Now maybe I was reading too much into it, but I thought I saw a similarity. I'll have to watch the movie again and look at the interior design.

Come to think of it, I need to look at the exteriors shots again. I googled LoHH and looked at the images given to me, but maybe they weren't even from that movie. That sometimes happens. It's been so many  years since I've seen that movie, I hardly remember it. In fact, I'd forgotten Roddy McDowall was in it until I saw some pictures of him.  I did see the outfit on one of the women that was definately similar to Victoria's. Although to be honest, her outfit kind of made me think of Tuesday Addams. I'll need to check out that movie again.