Used to watch DS in 60's

[Blondie]

Are there any other fans now watching DS that use to watch from the 60's?  I loved it then and I think I am enjoying it even more now.  I can't believe what great storylines were created.  It seems that all other shows and movies, books etc. with vampire themes all came from this show.  I laugh alot, too like at the fly landing on noses, sounds coming from the background and missed lines, etc.  The storyline of the past is so campy.  I especially loved Joshua being turned into a cat!!  Any feedback?

[VAM]

I watched it in the '60's. My older sister introduced me to the Series. In fact if I was not home, I would listen to the show on my AM/FM car radio. This was the case sometimes since I was attenting college and also working part time.
Having met most of the actors and actresses at the Festival, The Series has added meaning. Even in reruns, DS keeps getting better!

[kuanyin]

Oh, yes, there are a bunch of us. Though we do have some young'uns who are watching for the first time too!
I love DS more, the more I watch it. I was a fan then, but rather a fickle one, I got put off by a time switch and quit for a while. Now, I get more out of it each time I go through the series!

[Raineypark]

How nice to know there are others who were there the first time around.  I was in Junior High and school ended just in time to make it home and in front of the TV....at my 20th High School Reunion there were still people who remembered me as the resident Dark Shadows Expert.  How scarey is that!?

[Thom]

Hi Sharon. I posted something similiar to the query about fave 1795 character. I watched the show from day one. I recall the previews before it premeired, the waves crashing and shot of the mustang pulling into Collinwood with David watching at the window. All of that stuff had a huge impact on my little five year old brain! Who needed cartoons when you had Dark Shadows? I watched the show until it ended in 1971. There were periods where my local ABC station in Cincinnati wouldn't air DS - around the time Angelique went to Hell and the New Vicki came on but another station, an independant station picked it up for 1897 and then it went back on the ABC affiliate. So watching the MPI videos and the Sci-Fi reruns over the past several years I've been able to put together the missing pieces and storylines. You're right too about other soaps'borrowing' from DS. When it went into bigtime syndication in 1982 other soaps of the day were running time travel storylines(As The World Turns in particular) and Guiding Light had a moody mansion; all of it I felt had to do with DS's renewed popularity. And of course it didn't hurt that Alexandra Isles was back in the news at the same time on CNN testifying in the lst Claus Von Bulow trial!

[TERRY308]

I sure did!  I would run home from school to watch it.  I loved DS then and I was amazed to find out that Sci-Fi had it.  One wall in my kitchen is dedicated to DS. Pretty soon it's going to be two walls.

[MrsJ]

Count me among the "oldies" here...I was probably 9 years old when I started watching the show.  My sister and I had to take the bus home, and we'd miss about half of the show until they moved it to 4:00.  My favorite characters the first time around were Julia, Barnabas, and Willie.  
As I watch the show now, I still like watching Grayson Hall...although Julia does lose some credibility as time goes on (especially in 1995).  I've come to appreciate the work of Nancy Barrett, Thayer David, and Louis Edmonds as I watch DS through more "mature" eyes.  

Quite an impressive board BTW, and thanks MB for the help with registration, I will never understand AOL.

MrsJ.

[RingoCollins]

First Gen Fan, as should be painfully apparent by my hairstyle [pls see avatar of TLATKLS & Ringo]

Welcome? another newbie:

One wall in my kitchen is dedicated to DS. Pretty soon it's going to be two walls.

If you need any help with that second wall, you can contact:
Bricklayer@so-called.rev
ask for 'Barn'

Ringo, FGF

[ROBINV]

First, Ringo, I want to thank you so very much for the lovely things you say about me and Robservations--but for God's sake, man, I'm just a mortal woman!  This goddess stuff makes me blush!

I am also a watcher from the 60's--saw the first ep with my mom (God rest her soul) on June 27, 1967.  Mom wanted to see Joan Bennett, but I was the one caught up in the drama, romance and excitement generated by DS, especially when Barnabas was freed from his coffin by the hapless Willie.  I loved the 1795 storyline best of all, but each and every one contains gems that are dear to me, even the Leviathan storyline!  

I never had to run home, since I was always done with school a little after 3, so whether it started at 3:30 or 4:00, all that was required was a 10 minute walk home and I never missed a moment!  There was a point when I had all my friends watching, too, but I think my fanatacism turned them off, and soon I was watching alone.  I didn't mind, since I had a tough teen life and DS was my very welcome escape.

Welcome all newbies to this FABULOUS board!

[Thom]

I love this board and the intelligent posts. I've been to other DS sites and was turned off,but this one seems excellent. I have to tell a story on myself during the DS craze of the 60's. I proudly purchased the glow in the dark Barnabas fangs and since I went to a parochial school my principal - a Nun - took them away from me and accused me of being ghoulish! I got them back at the end of the year but I was deeply affected by that! LOL. Ah the memories this show brings back! There wasn't one rotten apple among the cast and the music fit the show so well. I hope Dan Curtis brings back what's left of the original cast and has the 'next generation' - the children of carolyn, Maggie & Joe, etc. to jump start it. I could even imagine Frances Fisher(Titanic) as a new Julia Hoffman; she reminds me so much of Grayson Hall. My dream would be for Hart Bochner to play a grown up David Collins who returns to Collinwood after Roger's death to find Carolyn nuts and the family business in trouble and thena ll his memories of the crazy place start coming back..

[Craig_Slocum]

My first memories of Dark Shadows go back to 1968 when I was 4 years old. I used to watch the show with my Mom and brother, up until the show ended in 1971. Sometimes we would go to our neighbors houses and watch it too. My brother and I had all of the Dark Shadows bubble gum cards. We bought several packs a week. I also had the 16 and Tiger Beat mags with the actors in them. I remember watching the show again for a short time when it was re run in 1977. They were showing the pre Barnabas eps. Then in 1991, I caught some of the revival series, after coming home on Friday nights. I wasn't aware of any Dark Shadows fandom until 1998 when I found out there was going to be a Dark Shadows Festival here in Las Vegas, NV. My Mom and I attended, but it had been nearly 30 years since we had really seen the show, so we didn't remember much except for bits and pieces, and we only knew who a few of the actors in attendance were. I have been attending the Dark Shadows Festivals since 1998, and other events, have met a lot of the actors, and have quite a Dark Shadows collection now. It is my absolute favorite show. I also have all of the MPI videos, so now I can watch it whenever I want. It brings back a lot of memories. It sure was and still is a great series. My little girl watches it now too. It's fun when my Mom comes over and we all watch it together.

[scott]

Yep--there are a lot of us. Now my daughter (13) is a fan!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

thanks MB for the help with registration, I will never understand AOL.

I was happy to help.

[Gerard]

I saw the very first episode!  It was the summer of '66, and I was watching some game show on the ABC affiliate, 10:30 in the morning.  Why I was doing that rather than playing outside is beyond me.  Anyway, at the end, they had that commercial and I thought it looked fascinating, the new show coming on next at eleven.  Obviously, it was a delayed broadcast since it came on in the morning.  From that point on, I watched it on and off, only partially interested because it wasn't really "scary" yet, but I clearly remember the story of David trying to kill his old man and all that.  I and my friends even played our own version of it (hiding one of those old hotel key chains that read drop in the nearest mailbox in place of the brake thingamajobby.  My interest remained pretty much partial during the rest of the first storyline, as well as the Laura plot, and really picked up during the Barnabas fracas.  By that time, Dark Shadows had moved to its mid-afternoon time slot.  From that moment on, I was hooked.

There were battles with my mom, who didn't want me watching "such crap", plus it came on opposite Art Linkletter's House Party, a show which many 60's housewives viewed as sacred as Lawrence Welk.  However, I won that war, and Art was eventually canceled anyway.  Plus, whenever Joan Bennett appeared, my mom would sit for a few minutes to watch her on "that crap".

Gerard

[The charming Mr. Blair]

I only saw the last few months of DS's original run. I watched everyday with my sisters after school. I remember holding a lottery with my sisters to see who had to spend  night in our "haunted" basement.
Before I started watching the show I remember hearing stories of Barnabas Collins, who was supposed to be such a scary villian. The only Barnabas I saw the first time around was not very scary, perhaps even a nice guy.
I am gald that I had the chance to see the "bad" Barnabas and I can't wait to see him grow as a character.

;)Brian