Black and White, Color, Black and White, Back to Color

[Michael]

Originally posted by Michael on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 30, 2002 at 18:18:57:

How did ABC manage to lose so many color episodes? Almost every day at least one of the episodes is in black and white because the color one for it was lost.

[Bobubas]

Originally posted by Bob on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 30, 2002 at 20:48:04:

Michael wrote:

How did ABC manage to lose so many color episodes? Almost every day at least one of the episodes is in black and white because the color one for it was lost.

The real question is; How did they manage to only lose one episode out of 1200+. It wasn't uncommon to trash the tapes of old soaps back then, and many of them that were more popular then Dark Shadows were trashed. Thank god for whomever it was that perserved the Ds eps. Bob

[Julia99]

Originally posted by Julia99 on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 30, 2002 at 21:14:41:
In Reply to: Re: Black and White, Color, Black and White, Back to Color posted by Bob on January 30, 2002 at 20:48:04:

what do you mean more popular? I guess at this time DS wasn't too popular but later, it was hysterically popular, the x-files of the 1960s. . .J99

[Linda]

Originally posted by Linda on January 30, 2002 at 22:42:29:
In Reply to: Black and White, Color, Black and White, Back to Color posted by Michael:

Actually, DS fans are VERY lucky...it's a miracle that with the exception of one 1840PT episode, the entire series is available at all.

In any case, I rather like the old kinnescopes :-) The color episodes are pretty, but black and white enhanced the eerie atmosphere, IMO.

Cheers,

Linda

[joe integlia]

Originally posted by joe integlia on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 31, 2002 at 01:22:37:

u can thank dan curtis for preserving the show. most soaps were owned by the netwworks or procter and gamble. they seemed to think nothing of erasing over an old tape. dan curtis owned ds from the beginning and i believe he went to the trouble of saving the tapes and i guess the b-w kinescopes too. the only reason one episode is missing is because they stopped making kinescopes in 1971 so there were no kinescopes for the last few months of the show. from what i have heard, a blank reel of tape was in the case for that one episode. the frequency of the b-w kinescopes dies down around the 1795 time period. but we are very lucky to have them instead of skipping the missing episodes.

[Ben]

Orginally posted by Ben on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on January 31, 2002 at 06:54:16:
In Reply to: Re: Black and White, Color, Black and White, Back to Color posted by Linda on January 30, 2002 at 22:42:29:

While I prefer the color eps overall, the grainy video quality of the kinescopes added a whole new dimension to scenes shot in spooky places like the mausoleum, graveyard, and Old House basement.

There were a few b&w kinescopes that I preferred even over the b&w videotaped eps from the first year of the series. One in particular had a scene in a mausoleum (not the familiar Collins mausoleum we regularly see) where Vicki and Frank Garner were searching for the tomb of one of Laura's alleged ancestors, against the orders of a frightened elderly caretaker. The dark, shadowy, and fuzzy quality of the video, as well as the background hiss of the audio, gave it a classic 1930s or '40s horror/thriller atmosphere.

Ben

[Bobubas]

Originally posted by Bob on January 31, 2002 at 09:25:28:

I agree with you Linda, b&w adds something to the show.

[Paul]

Originally posted by Paul on the Dark Shadows: General Discussion Forum on February 05, 2002 at 13:52:24:
In Reply to: Re: Black and White, Color, Black and White, Back to Color posted by Julia99 on January 30, 2002 at 21:14:41:

I read somewhere that Dan Curtis saved them because he planned to sell them in syndication after the network run all along. I wish he would have mentioned it back then to ABC, NBC, CBS, and Proctor and Gamble. I also read somewhere that Mary Pickford was concerned about future television rights in 1933.