Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production Announcement

[Mysterious Benefactor]

No one would have gone through episodes after broadcast and eliminated that announcement... I'm not even sure it would have been possible.   Anyway, no one would have had any reason to bother.

Tell that to Jim Pierson. He's made all sorts of changes to the eps through the years - not all of them incidental or at all necessary in many fans' opinions...

[Cousin_Barnabas]

Were the "Coming Up" announcements burned into the Kinetoscope versions of the episodes?

[joe integlia]

since the kinescopes were recorded as the show was airing, yes the "coming up next on abc" announcements were recorded onto the kinescopes.

[MagnusTrask]

Perhaps it's best to establish here what a kinescope is.   I think a kinescope consists of someone simply pointing a camera at a television or TV monitor, and recording.   Therefore, anything broadcast is what is on the kinescope.   Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Cousin_Barnabas]

So, if the kinescope captured everything that was broadcast originally, then it is possible that the audio at the end of the kinescope episodes was dubbed over in the editing process.  Whoever did this could have used the audio from an early kinescope episode that didn't have announcements, but included the DCP tag.  Perhaps the same audio plays at the end of every kinescope episode, which is why we hear the DCP announcement.  I'm just throwing out possibilities.  

[Janet the Wicked]

Perhaps it's best to establish here what a kinescope is.   I think a kinescope consists of someone simply pointing a camera at a television or TV monitor, and recording.   Therefore, anything broadcast is what is on the kinescope.   Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

A kinescope is the process of filming a TV show onto16mm film from a video moniter. I believe the reason they did this was to be able to air a program taped in New York at 4:00 PM and show it at 1:00 PM in California. Or 2:00 PM or whatever the time zone demanded. This process has allowed many old time TV shows to have been saved. It's on film, baby!

What is with this fascination with the announcer guy? Does anyone even know who he was???
IMHO, the announcer was a local New York guy who announced upcoming programming or what not. Who knows why his voice is heard on some episodes and not others? I'm guessing it has to do with whoever put the DS tapes together in the first place. I mean, lookit. Why do some episodes run all the credits and others don't? Some episodes I can run out in the kitchen and make a cheese sandwich waiting for the credits to run. Other episodes simply end with, "This has been a Dan Curtis production" and I am glued to my seat waiting for the next episode to begin.

[joe integlia]

in the old old days before videotape was even invented was when they used the kinescopes for the west coast because everything then was live on the east coast. they continued to use kinescopes after videotape was invented for the armed forces or for the few stations that would show dark shadows the next day. it was easier and cheaper to send a 16mm film than a 2inch wide videotape. i think the abc announcer is named in 1 of kls books.

[MagnusTrask]

I thought that kinescopes were never recorded officially for broadcast but for some other perhaps technical purpose.   That's based on zero DS knowledge but just what I've heard about kinescope.   Anyway, Janet, I think they jetissoned the end credits with some episodes just because they ran out of time.

[Midnite]

Bob Lloyd

[Midnite]

IMHO, the announcer was a local New York guy who announced upcoming programming or what not.

Lloyd's voiceover promos could be heard on ABC-TV through the early 70s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoBMulTGszc and he became a voiceover agent in New York (one of only a handful back then), and in 1975 switched to voice casting, earning the nickname The Voicecaster and starting the company Voicecasters, which to date is the largest voice casting studio in the country.

[Janet the Wicked]

Wicked cool info. And in the words of Warner Oland, "Thank you so much".

[Miss_Winthrop]

Tell that to Jim Pierson. He's made all sorts of changes to the eps through the years - not all of them incidental or at all necessary in many fans' opinions...

Which brings to mind, Jim Pierson-MPI all in one are the same, right? How did he originally come to have the DS tapes to begin with? If he got them from World Vision(?) what changes did he make or were these changes done by WV? Just wondering how it all came about if anyone knows.

[joe integlia]

he got the tapes because he worked for dan curtis productions. but how did he get the job at dan curtis productions? i have a theory about that but i cant post it here because it will surely be removed. anyone who wants to know can contact me directly.

[Brian]

Not to promote Jim Pierson's bandwagon, but in addition to DS, he has done a lot to get other long-time TV shows on DVD through MPI, sush as "The Doris Day Show," "The Jackie Gleason Show" (aka "The Color Honeymooners) and 'Here's Lucy."  I'm very certain that "Here's Lucy" has been released with the permission of Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr., who control the rights to use their parents' images and TV programs.  Anyway, I know Jim Pierson has been criticized for many years by some DS fans for his actions with regards to DS, but apparently Dan Curtis approved his involvement in protecting Curtis' programs.  (And NO, I am not Jim Pierson, nor do I know him--but maybe we would not have DS on VHS (from 1989 on) or DVD (from the mid- 2000s) without his championing the show.   Just my opinion, for what it is worth. Brian

[joe integlia]

i also read in a book about THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES that jim is also responsible for finding many old/lost hollywood squares episodes and that he found those while searching for lost DS episodes.