"The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis"

[Midnite]

This is new....

The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis
Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions, 1966–2006
by Jeff Thompson
(Foreword by Jim Pierson)
2009, McFarland
hardcover

[Philippe Cordier]

Best wishes for this book's success!

[RachelDrummand]

$55? Why is it so much?

[Gothick]

MacFarland's books are always expensive.  They cater mainly to libraries, especially academic libraries.  I find that their books are always laid out in a very workmanlike fashion, usually with a lower grade of people and black and white photographs that are in text.  No color photos, no glossy paper, and nothing remotely exciting about the look of the books (I work in an academic library so I have had the chance to peruse many of them).

And I seriously doubt whether this title is going to make a dent in the reputation of the PomPress books as the go-to source for documentation on DS.  Didn't PomPress also do a book on the Night Stalker films and series, too?

cheers, G.

[Nancy]

I would take author Jeff Thompson's "word" on a DS point over KLS' books any day.  I don't know how many people know Jeff Thompson and his years with the Collinsport Players.  Jeff has been a DS "historian" for decades and is by nature and profession a very precise, organized individual.  I would be very surprised to learn of any factual errors in anything Jeff has in this book.

Nancy

[Janet the Wicked]

It's available on Amazon few a fews bucks less. No reviews on it yet.

[David]

I've already read the book.
I got a free review copy, and will be reviewng it for Videoscpe Mag.

Nancy is correct~~Jeff did his homework. Regarding Curtis' work, there are no factual errors at all.
The book flows quite well.

I was amused by one thing: towards the end of the book, Jeff mentions several shows that were inspired by DS.
When he discusses Here! TV's The Lair & Dante's Cove, he does not mention that Here! is a gay network or that both shows are meant to be gay themed remakes of DS, right down to certain plot points.
His description of Dante's Cove makes it sound like the storylines features straight characters, which it certainly does not.

I'll be giving this book a largely good review, which it deserves, but I do find it profoundly sad that in 2009, people are still afraid of the G word.

RE: the Pom Press books: empty fluff.
This book tells the true history of Dan Curtis' career.

David

[Darren Gross]

I find that their books are always laid out in a very workmanlike fashion, usually with a lower grade of people and black and white photographs

I take it you mean "paper" not "people"?

[Gothick]

Yes, I meant paper--forgive the egregious typo.

Perhaps surprisingly, I feel moved to defend the PomPress books.  I would say the written content of the books is uneven, not one hundred percent brilliant or totally worthless.  The text in the books that I use most frequently and keep on a reference shelf with my DVDs is the episode guide from the revised DS Almanac (if I am remembering correctly), which I believe was the work of Ann Wilson.  Other pieces I have gotten special enjoyment from include Lara Parker's essay "Out of Angelique's Shadow," KLS' interview with David Henesy, Alex Moltke's preface to one of the books (in which I think she described Grayson as, I'm paraphrasing, "Auntie Mame meets Charles Addams", and wrote fondly of Thayer David), and a two or three page series of photographs documenting Thayer David's trip to an actual Manhattan antique shop in the very first of the books, which unfortunately has been unavailable for many years.

There are no doubt mistakes in the books--my Sun is in Leo so I'm too sloppy myself to be bothered by those.  I see the expressions of "faulty memory syndrome" and all-out blatant mistakes as the literary counterpart to all the flubs on the original series.

These books have given me many hours of pleasure over the years.  I've always found them to be reasonably priced, and before I was able to have the luxury of owning the show in home entertainment formats, it sometimes gave me comfort at the end of a particularly weary day to take one of the books down and commune with my childhood favorites.

As for Mr. Thompson's work, I will leave that to others to review, as I doubt whether further comment from me would be welcome here.

Best,

Gothick

[Nancy]

I, for one, would enjoy reading a review or further comment on any DS-oriented book.  I don't believe in sacred cows.

nancy

As for Mr. Thompson's work, I will leave that to others to review, as I doubt whether further comment from me would be welcome here.

[Bobubas]

These books have given me many hours of pleasure over the years.  I've always found them to be reasonably priced, and before I was able to have the luxury of owning the show in home entertainment formats, it sometimes gave me comfort at the end of a particularly weary day to take one of the books down and commune with my childhood favorites.

I agree Gothick. When I first became involved in Fandom, the Pom Press books were a valuable source of information, and answered many questions I had about the show. They occupy a special place on top of one of my video cabinet where many of the DS videos are stored, and I still refer to them on a regular basis whenever I'm trying to remember something about the show.

[Janet the Wicked]

Hey, Blobubus, yer pitcher ain't showin'. Fix it.

[Philippe Cordier]

The Pomegranate Press books have been important to me, as well. When I first discovered them only a few years ago, it was like the fulfillment of a childhood dream. Not that the books are childish in any way.

I have enough distance from them now not to view them as quite so sacrosanct as I did at first, but I still appreciate them. (In fact, I think I'll check that box I think they're in.) In addition to the enjoyment I received from all of them, there is a lot of good information about the series despite the errors, which I've since learned of. I know I was enthralled with the family tree in one of the "almanacs" (although I'm pretty sure there was at least one error that I discovered). Today I think I'd find that family tree rather paltry since I've devoted much of my time in the following years to my own genealogical research; but it is fictional, after all, and really taps into the themes of DS, with its layers of history and generations.

I also consider "Shadows on the Wall" a valuable resource, as well as the Episode Guide book. There were a couple of errors I noted in that one, but not many. I consulted it almost daily when first viewing the entire series on the SciFi channel a few years ago. I've always thought it would be fun to read that episode guide through from start to finish, but I've never found the time to do so.

[Nancy]

The PomPress books and this new book about Dan Curtis' horror works are two different things, IMO.

The PomPress books started out with the "Scrapbook Memories" which is a personal take on the series from one of the main actors on the show.  Fans also assisted KLS in writing some parts of that book having to do with the series' plots and even the next one.  The following PomPress books were written with the cooperation of actors and production personnel from the series.  The overall feel of the content in these books brings fans closer to the entire show because those who were involved engage in the memoralizing of the heydey of the series and its "cult" status and are, in a sense, part of the book. 

This new book expands beyond DS and covers all of Dan Curtis' horror-oriented work.  It's written by someone who is a fan of these works, including DS.  The feel is going to be very different.  The fan who wrote this book is someone who has watched the DS series not once but many, many times.  KLS has not seen the series through even once by her own admission.  KLS has mis-remembered things that supposedly happened on the DS set.  That isn't worth getting upset over but where it is necessary to look up a plot point or some other like information, I will go with the person who has seen the series many times over someone who has not seen it even once. 

The PomPress books and this new book on the work of DC in the horror genre are not comparable.

nancy
 

[Taeylor Collins]

I have to defend the pom press books too.  When I pull my copy of The Companion it floods memories back to my mind. The amazon guy who created that new gadget that holds like 250 K books digitally says he researched why we like the smell of books and its a mix of glue, must, and something else.  However, to me the smell (whatever is) can't be explained away because it brings back the memories for me.  I think scent is one of the most powerful memory retriever's there is.  Anyhoo...I have read the POM PRESS book many times and I still really need to get the revised versions of Memories and Almanac!  Are they worth it??  I love them warts and all!