Announcing Watching Project #2: A Love Story Beyond Time

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Inspired by this wish from earlier today:

I wish I could find someone (on the boards)...who loved the 1991 series too. ... It would be nice to converse with someone who shares my love for the show.

we're teasing by simply announcing Watching Project #2 - The '91 Series: A Love Story Beyond Time.

Details to follow...*

(* simply because all the details are still being worked out - but we couldn't resist teasing...)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Details are as follows:

Beginning Friday, September 12th and continuing through Friday, December 12th, the forum will conduct Watching Project #2 - the '91 series: A Love Story Beyond Time. Each Friday (with the exception of November 28th, the Friday after Thanksgiving) we will begin discussion of one of the 13 hours of the '91 series. That will require that the pilot be broken up into two parts. The first part will obviously begin at the beginning and it will end with [spoiler]Barnabas announcing to Joshua at the Old House that he's come home.[/spoiler]The second part will begin with [spoiler]Vicki attempting to teach David only to have to deal with what he's hiding in his desk[/spoiler] and it will obviously conclude with the end of the pilot. There will also be two side discussions with regard to the pilot: the differences between the restored pilot on VHS and the originally broadcast version that was shown on NBC and released on DVD, and how certain scenes in the pilot were presented in a different order from how they were chronologically scripted. And there will also be a similar discussion about a scene that was scripted for one ep but was included in a completely different one, as well as at least one scene that was originally shot including a certain character but which was later edited resulting in that character not even appearing in the ep at all. Also, look for other surprises along the way.

There's one major stipulation about this project, however, and we want it completely understood from the outset: we'll be approaching the show completely on its own terms and as if the original series never existed (basically recreating the experience that newer DS fans had in '91 when they came to love DS via their first exposure to it through the '91 series). It will certainly be perfectly fine to criticize the show on its own terms, but no comparing any aspects of it to the original. Any such comments or even hints of such comments will in all likelihood be subject to deletion. There are already plenty of topics on the forum that dissect and discuss the differences between the original and the '91 series - however, this project will exclusively focus on the '91 series as a stand alone version of DS.

So, with all that out of the way, the viewing schedule is as follows:

09/12: Part one of the pilot
09/19: Part two of the pilot
09/26: Ep #2
10/03: Ep #3
10/10: Ep #4
10/17: Ep #5
10/24: Ep #6
10/31: Ep #7 (Halloween - how appropriate  )
11/07: Ep #8
11/14: Ep #9
11/21: Ep #10
11/28: (Skipped)
12/05: Ep #11
12/12: Ep #12

Happy viewing and we'll see you on September 12th for the start. (Midnite and I are getting excited already!!  )

[Lydia]

OK, I'm in!

[Taeylor Collins]

I am definitely in!  That also gives me plenty of time to get my DVDS back!!   Thanks MB and Midnite for doing this project!  I know it is for everyone but I also know it was prompted by one of my posts!!  I am so excited! Can you tell???

[Midnite]

Sooo, Taeylor, how do you really feel?   

[Gothick]

I applaud the intent to discuss the 1991 DS as a stand-alone project.  Comparisons are invariably invidious (even if inevitable for some of us).

cheers, G.  (one of the very few posts I am likely to be making in this thread)

[Midnite]

invidious

::runs for dictionary:: 

(one of the very few posts I am likely to be making in this thread)

Oh that's too bad.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Comparisons are invariably invidious

Some would like to think so, but not always. The '91 series received many excellent reviews - and, yes, even from reviewers who were original fans...

[Gothick]

Perhaps I should have said that comparisons, *as a class*, tend towards the invidious.  I was speaking more generally as regards criticism--not specifically stating that 1991 was invariably the loser in a comparison with the 1966 original (even if that IS what I personally think).

I know that having had the pleasure *winces* of seeing the trailer for the remake of The Women (a 1939 classic) yesterday, I can bet dollars to doughnuts that many of the reviewers of the new production will have their nails sharpened with the most lurid "jungle red" (as was said in the original) as they merrily shred the performances of Meg Ryan et al.

G.

[Taeylor Collins]

I guess I look at both shows as separate entities much like our watching project will be. I don't really look at the 1991 as a remake.  I simply view it as Dark Shadows if it had been produced (for the first time) in 1991.  I am glad that I can enjoy all forms of DS as it makes my DS experience (in general) all the better!! When I first started watching the original show I decided that I would not compare it to my FIRST DS experience and I think that is why I took to it immediately!

[barnabasjr]

I'm in! This will be sweet, thanks!

[Taeylor Collins]

YAY!! We have another one who will watch with us!  Welcome to our party BarnabasJr!! 

[victoriawinters]

Count me in!  This will be very fun and enjoyable. 

[Zahir]

I'd like to, but need to get a copy of the 91 series.  My videotapes, alas, have not aged well.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I am glad that I can enjoy all forms of DS as it makes my DS experience (in general) all the better!!

I feel the same. And I suppose the idea of a general notion that any sort of comparison of the '91 series to the original is going to come up lacking greatly saddens me because that's not at all the way I feel. In fact, I've often cited places when I believe the '91 series improved on the original - but I won't get into any of that again until this project gets underway. What does gladden me, though, is that, as the years have gone on, it seems as if an increasing amount of original DS fans are coming forth to express their enjoyment of the '91 series in basically the same vein as it took years for the increasing amount of fans who came forth to express their love of NoDS. And I salute both groups.