Forty years ago--April 2, 1971

[Gothick]

Just a line to mark the occasion forty years ago of the last episode of Dark Shadows.  I literally could not believe the series was going off the air and actually tuned in the following Monday at 4 p.m. to see if the familiar crashing surf and music that seemed like a scream turned into a melody would blast across the airwaves with more stories from our beloved Collinwood.  But alas, it was gone for good, and instead that following Monday, April 5, 1971, we got the annoyingly chirpy and misplaced intro to Password (a popular game show moved into the DS slot by the ABC suits).

One of the most frustrating things about the final weeks of the series was that every day, I would tune in wondering if they were going to switch away from Parallel Time 1841 and show what was happening with Barnabas, Julia, and the family in our own time band of 1971.  But they never did.  Evidently I wasn't the only one who wanted to know how the story of the people we knew and loved best in our own time at the Great House continued; a few months after the show went off the air, Sam Hall's article offering a possible wrap-up of the various "present day" storylines was published in TV Guide.

Happy memories to all,

G.

[MagnusTrask]

What got me at the time was Thayer announcing that the animal bites really were animal bites this time!   Anyone notice Gordon Russell inserting himself into DS at the very last minute?   

[Miss_Winthrop]

We duly marked the anniversary of the ending show on DS in our household yesterday.  Sadness was felt all around. But just the thought of getting a new DS has been very uplifting.  It seems incredible to me that Dan Curtis would have stopped the show just because he wanted to move onto other things.  I really believe that the ratings was the true cause of the shows ending when it did. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Actually, the ratings were still quite satisfactory. That's one of the reasons why, when it came time for the next ABC board meeting after the cancellation, many on the board were not at all happy that the decision to cancel DS had been made.

[Lydia]

MB, I'll thank you not to make me cry.

One of the most frustrating things about the final weeks of the series was that every day, I would tune in wondering if they were going to switch away from Parallel Time 1841 and show what was happening with Barnabas, Julia, and the family in our own time band of 1971.

Is it known whether there was any discussion among the producers and managers as to whether the show should return to 1971 before the end?  Now that we have DVDs and fan fiction, I'm glad that 1971 was left so very much up in the air.

[MagnusTrask]

I used to think that they'd set off too many land mines destroying history and thus the "present" that B&J knew, and could never return to 1971.  The present would be very different, including the fact that B&J wouldn't even have been at Collinwood in the first place.   Now though, I realize that that would never have stopped them.   They'd have just ignored they damage they'd done.

[Lydia]

Barnabas and Julia had already been recognized at 1971 Collinwood before the series ended, although so briefly that all sorts of possibilities still remained.

[MagnusTrask]

Yes, they writers hadn't intended to destroy the present through 1840, the writers wanted a happy ending for 1971 with B&J in it, but perhaps they came to realize that with what they'd done to history, trying to write that sort of 1971 beyond that one brief scene would present too many insoluble problems.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I doubt it - they never really cared about a little thing like Causality.    They would have picked up 1971 with some brief explanation of what had gone on for the months the show had been in 1841PT. And as with Quentin's haunting, some characters would have probably remembered Gerard and Daphne while other wouldn't. The big question is how they were planning to bring Angelique back because they definitely intended to. Would she have been a ghost? Flesh and Blood? A witch? Or a mortal? And we could probably speculate for days on all that and possibly never hit on what they would have actually done...

[Nightfall59]

Barnabas and Julia had already been recognized at 1971 Collinwood before the series ended, although so briefly that all sorts of possibilities still remained.

That's the part of that brief glimpse of 1971 that contains the most fascinating unanswered questions, imo anyway. If Barnabas had been free of the curse since 1841, and was not in his coffin for Willie to release in 1967, then why did Elizabeth recognize him? Why was Julia even there, since she would have had no reason to be at Collinwood if not for Barn's attack/abduction of Maggie Evans?

My personal spin--which I suppose is as good of a guess as anybody's since we've never know--is that Barn was still a vampire (he was under the Leviathan curse, not Angelique's curse when he entered 1840). And the only events changed by B&J's foray into the past, were that Gerard and Daphne had never haunted Collinwood, and Roxanne had never existed as a vampire in 1970.  Ah, the reams of fanfiction created by all the inconsistencies and unanswered questions of that return to 1971!

[Taeylor Collins]

Actually, the ratings were still quite satisfactory. That's one of the reasons why, when it came time for the next ABC board meeting after the cancellation, many on the board were not at all happy that the decision to cancel DS had been made.

Thanks for that bit of fact. As I have said before when I think I have heard it all....;0)

I will always maintain that DC had a lot to do with DS ending and he was the catalyst for the show ending. In my opinion, if he would not have been so bull headed he would have turned the show over to some wonderful staff continued and made even more money. Alas....

[Miss_Winthrop]

Yes, I had read that the ratings were going up again but not enough to satisfy the suits at ABC.  Could DC have been possesive enough to not let DS keep going on its own without his guidance all along the way?  That seems pretty selfish to me but alas.....will the truth ever be known.

[loril54]

Besides Angelique, there was Barnabas. Did Jonathan still want to play him? What would happen if you lost one of the Stars? Would Grayson stayed if Jonathan left? Julia without Barnabas, that would be an interesting storyline.  What would have happened with the chemistry of the show.

You are correct about fan fiction has come up with many different endings and continuation.

[Lydia]

Lori, my understanding is that Frid still wanted to play Barnabas; he just wanted to play other characters as well, the way other actors on the show did.  And I'm sure that Grayson Hall would have stayed, for a while anyway, even if Frid had left, because she and Sam had a kid to support.  Julia without Barnabas should logically have turned to Stokes, but I don't think Thayer David was around enough for that to happen.  Maybe Julia would have been killed off (an idea that Sam Hall had suggested) and a new character for Grayson would have been created.  But, as I said, I don't think Frid was planning to leave in the near future.

I used to think that they'd set off too many land mines destroying history and thus the "present" that B&J knew, and could never return to 1971.  The present would be very different, including the fact that B&J wouldn't even have been at Collinwood in the first place.   Now though, I realize that that would never have stopped them.   They'd have just ignored they damage they'd done.

It occurred to me recently that there needn't be much of a problem, if the following happened:

1. 1840 Quentin and Daphne have no offspring.
2. Tad dies in the Civil War, bravely falling alongside his cousin Thaddeus.
3. 1840 Quentin dies sometime after 1840 but before 1870 or so.
4. Daphne raises Judith, Edward, 1897 Quentin, and Carl when their parents die: “Great-aunt-aunt” instead of “Grandmamama”.
5. I Ching, possibly even more devoted to Barnabas than Julia is, cleans up the mess created by the fact that Barnabas, having arrived in 1840 via I Ching, leaves via the staircase.  Thanks to I Ching, there is a Barnabas in the coffin in 1967 for Willie to discover.

I agree, however, that the writers would never have given us these details.

[Lydia]

Oops, I forgot that Daphne doesn't know the Secret.  But does it really matter?