'91 DS will air on Chiller Sunday 3/29

They are running the entire series as a marathon beginning at 6:00 AM Eastern time.  According to the listings, they are running most of series again, ending at 5 the follwing (Monday) morning. 

This makes me wonder if they are testing the waters to invest in the original show.

Wow, that's quite a step!  Thanks for the tip!

nancy

Chiller was a good channel for awhile: then they started showing the same damn insect/lizard movies that run on
Sci Fi.
I hope this is a first step at getting back to the classics, at least on a part time basis.

David

How fabulous! This is great news. Hopefully, it is a big step toward airing the original. And I agree about the network in general. It started out well enough, but then it descended into just another clone of the Sci-Fi channel, also owned by NBC Universal. Now, however, it seems they're making changes again. They're even airing Beauty and the Beast, one of my fave shows from the late '80s.

Rather amazing to see the number of posts (tweets) on Twitter today from people saying they were watching the marathon.

I watched the pilot & the last episode~~always nice to see any incarnation of DS on the air.

There will be additional DS marathons on Sun 4/26 & Mon 4/27.
I'd love to know what kid of rating they got today: I wonder if this would be a good time to email Chiller & request the original series?
(-:

David

It couldn't hurt to try, David. There's been a running "Witch List" for the original DS for years now, but it would appear Chiller's moving in the right direction with this by starting with the '91 series.

I did watch the whole thing yesterday and also DVR'd it. Of course, I had some issues with it where it diverged from the original (Maggie and Sam running the Blue Whale -- eeew!). However, all in all, I thought it was very well done. The casting, for the most part, was spot on. Ben Cross, though, really blew me away. He captured the essence of Barnabas so well -- the angst, the self-loathing, the undying love for Josette -- I so enjoyed his performance. I have to take issue with the character of Angelique, though. Lysette Anthony did a good job given what she had to work with, but I thought the writing made her very one-dimensional. She was evil incarnate. There was nothing even remotely sympathetic about her character. In the original, I found Angelique to be quite sympathetic, even early on, despite all her dastardly deeds. Another thing that struck me was, Barnabas so completely rejected Angelique in this series. If you recall, in the original, when he goes to visit Angelique in her room, supposedly to lay down the law about his imminent marrige to Josette, he can't resist her -- he grabs her and kisses her quite passionately. In the '91 version, it's obvious that she disgusts him.

OK -- I'm done nitpicking. The bottom line for me was, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Seeing this series again and having watched the 2004 pilot, I'd venture to say the WB remake wouldn't have been able to compare. Then again, maybe I'm not being fair since Dan Curtis himself was appalled at the 2004 pilot and wanted time to tweak it.

They're even airing Beauty and the Beast, one of my fave shows from the late '80s.

I tuned in on Sat. to watch Beauty and the Beast for the first time in years.  I was disappointed to find the Poltergeist was on instead of the scheduled  'Beast marathon.

I agree that Ben Cross did a wonderful job with Barnabas. I thought he was the best thing about the series. And I might mention that I truly enjoyed this 91 version and thought those in charge were really stupid-heads for canceling it.

I had to get used to Barbara Steele as Dr. Hoffman as Grayson Hall did such a wonderful job and I could never picture anyone but her doing that role. And Jim Fyfe as Willie was awesome.

I tuned in for Beauty and the Beast as well on Saturday and was highly disappointed. I have no idea why they changed the scheduling, but I believe B&B will air sometime this week, so check out the schedule.

About Barbara Steele, I thought she did a good job as Julia, despite Grayson Hall being indelibly etched in my mind. However, for me, Jim Fyfe didn't cut it as Willie. It's not that he didn't do justice to the part as an actor. I just couldn't get used to him at all. He seemed, to put it bluntly, too simple. Of course, that's totally subjective.

It's nice to see that the showings are getting publicity on the Web:

Cable Channel Chiller Running Ben Cross-Led Dark Shadows 1991 NBC Revival

This report also mentions that the '91 series is available on Hulu and provides a link to and the text from the recent MTV Blog report on the status of the Depp/DS film, so people get all the latest DS news in one fell swoop - and that's never a bad thing. 

Sorry to post OT, but is Chiller running the old 1990s series Poltergeist: the Legacy as part of their regular schedule? I ask on behalf of a friend who has the channel and would probably like to tune in. She was a Poltergeist fan way back when (as I have been).

G.

About Barbara Steele, I thought she did a good job as Julia, despite Grayson Hall being indelibly etched in my mind.

Suffice to say I think  everyone  here  knows  my love for BS.    She  rocked Julia!!  Her  and  Joanna  were  spot  on  PERFECTION in my opinion.   So  glad  Chiller is airing this...DS on tv is never a bad thing.  I just wish I had the channel!

Taeylor, you can get Chiller by switching to sattelite: it's on Dish Network & Direct TV!

David