WB ORDERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT

[Stuart]

Given the nature of the show, which has a lot of mystery and suspense with cliffhanger endings, if they repeat the same story, they would lose almost all of the initial "built-in" audience.

There isn't a "built in" audience - existing fans might number 50,000 at a very generous estimate...  Fine to keep an old entity alive, but not very much for a new show that needs an audience of millions to survive.

[jimbo]

There isn't a "built in" audience - existing fans might number 50,000 at a very generous estimate...  Fine to keep an old entity alive, but not very much for a new show that needs an audience of millions to survive.

This is just my opinion but I would like think there are probably several million fans that constitute Dark Shadows' fan base. I do not think if DCP told the WB that its loyal audience consisted of only 50,000 individuals, that they would have gotten to first base on this project. I remember reading somewhere that the WB was initially impressed with DS's large fan based-franchise. Perhaps you are not including original fans of the show who numbered into the high millions who may have been out of touch with DS but who may have tuned in to see the 1991 series and may tune in to see the new DS. I think I need a clearer definition of what is considered a "built in" audience.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

While from the casting it would seem that it's the same basic situation, I would have to assume that they've come up with some drastic story changes.

I would tend to think this too, Josette - if only for the fact that DC had been shopping the same old same old with a few twists here and there for more than ten years before the WB got interested. With John Wells and Mark Verheiden now involved and Verheiden (and not DC  ) writing the script, I'm expecting quite a few surprises - some which might even shake the "purist" view to its very core - and that can only be a good thing so far as I'm concerned.    If one thinks about it, the great irony is that some people complain, "Oh, they're just rehashing the old characters/storylines, blah, blah, blah" - but the minute something really deviates from what went before (like the way Willie was portrayed in the '91 series, or Maggie) those same people are complaining that things were changed. Go figure.  :-

[coterie-mc]

Just read about some new people added to the new 2004 DS at  http://www.barnabasundead.com/

Head make-up artist of Buffy tvs & emmy award winner Todd mcIntoch signed on.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Oh, wow! The addition of Todd McIntosh to the show is just too wild because earlier today I was rereading a short piece about him in Entertainment Weekly's Ultimate Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer issue from back in October 1999. I'll scan and post it...

[coterie-mc]

http://members.tripod.com/~llwyd/buffy/index.htm

here is some of Todd McIntosh's work on BTVS. click onto each picture for full process of make-up.....

He is also a fan of DS and credits "House Of Dark Shadows" master make-up artist Dick Smith as a major inspiration.

New DS 2004 Hair Stylist Lisa Maria Alpert is also from the Buffy line-up

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And look - his favorite Buffy episode was "The Wish" - obviously a man after my own heart! (Even if he liked it for different reasons than I do, since mine have to do with character and plot - not makeup.) 

If they've hired McIntosh to do vamp transformations similar to the ones on Buffy/Angel, well, I think that sound you just heard was half of fandom passing out and hitting the floor. (But what was I just saying about shaking things up?  )

[coterie-mc]

MB check out my last post, Willow as a vampire in "The Wish" episode is featured also the werewolf make up mentioned in the article you posted is shown. - Robert

[Mary]

This is just my opinion but I would like think there are probably several million fans that constitute Dark Shadows' fan base. I do not think if DCP told the WB that its loyal audience consisted of only 50,000 individuals, that they would have gotten to first base on this project. I remember reading somewhere that the WB was initially impressed with DS's large fan based-franchise.

You've got a point, Jimbo!  I hope you're right!  Does anyone have any information about actual figures for our fan base?  Maybe we should take a door-to-door poll!  LOL!

[Midnite]

Yet another article on McIntosh, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer magazine, Summer 1999--

Personal Demons

BY TODD MCINTOSH WITH MIKE STOKES

     If you've ever wondered why new demons always seem so surly from the moment they show up in Sunnydale, the answer may lie in Todd McIntosh's makeup trailer.  If it isn't bad enough that they're already facing certain death at the hands of the Slayer, villains often experience a bit of a hazing from McIntosh before they are unleashed.  The demonization period for the actors beneath the masks involves spending upwards of four hours having various hideous features glued to their faces.  With those characters who have names deemed by McIntosh as too complicated to keep track of, he temporarily changes their often intimidating monikers to something more descriptive and much less awe-inspiring.  After all, if your name was "The Judge" and your reputation was built by destroying cities and wreaking havoc around the globe, how would you react if you spent four hours in a makeup chair with some Hollywood mortal calling you the Smurf demon?  It'd probably make you want to incinerate everybody in the mall too.

     "After a while, all the demon names blend together," contends Buffy makeup supervisor McIntosh.  "I'm not good with names anyway--Lagos, Kulak, Kralik, Balthazar.....help!"

     When it comes to turning men into monsters through specical makeup effects, McIntosh is the best in the business--and he's got the Emmy Award to prove it.  A longtime fan of the vampire lore, McIntosh seems to be the perfect fit for a show like Buffy.  His career unofficially began when he was just a kid trying to replicate the look of the vampire Barnabas on the T.V. series Dark Shadows (1966-71).  When he was a teenager, he was doing makeup effects for a local theater company in his native Canada, and he began work as the head makeup artist on Buffy in 1997.

     Whatever he chooses to call them, the creatures which McIntosh and Optic Nerve (the show's visual effects house) work together to create each have a distinct look and are uniquely unforgettable.  Having worked on dozens of homicidal uglies and creepy bloodsuckers since he began work on Buffy, and as his third season with the show rolls to a close, we thought we'd ask Todd for his favorite villains and let him explain what goes into making the best of the baddest.  We found that there's never a dull moment for McIntosh, and each week brings a new challenge that winds up being more rewarding than the last.  Here are five demons that stand out in his mind as the most challenging and enjoyable he's done.

(to be continued )

[Nancy]

I did see on imdb that he's from Scotland and -- O.T. -- Geraint Wyn-Davies is originally from Wales but his family moved to Canada ... wonder what's with all the "Celtic" vampires ... I admit I generally think of vampires as dark and brooding, but it's best not to stereotype people ... 

LOL, then you had Frid who is two generations removed from Scotland.  The Celtic tradition seems to be popular.

[Midnite]

Personal Demons cont'd

No. 1  (Episode 14)
Balthazar

     I called him "The Pudding Man," but the 1500-pound demon, Balthazar, is one of the most interesting creatures we've done for a while.  It was very ingenious the way Optic Nerve designed the suit and the cooperation between al the departments to make it work.  The construction department built a tank so that it looked like Balthazar was floating in water, but inside, there was an inner ring of the tank walled-off into a separate section where the actor was actually sitting in a chair, so he was dry.

     Optic Nerve had this huge suit that went over the inside ring, so the actor could put his head through the neck hole, and there were two holes for his hands to go through.  Gloves were put on over the hands, and the cowl and face were blended on to his body.  It was quite a procedure getting him in and getting him out of that thing.  The makeup itself took about four hours, but once we got him into the situation it only took about 20 minutes to glue him in.

     That was far from the end, however, because in the middle of the day, Buffy kills him--electrocutes him--so we then had to go in and paint him while he stayed in the suit and makeup.  We had four makeup artists working at the same time, painting the whole suit and his face to make him look burned.  I was on a plank stretched across the pool at the back with an airbrush laying on my side trying to paint in all the burn marks, which was difficult, but the poor actor had to sit there the whole time.  It was very interesting.  I've never done anything quite like that before.

No. 2
The Master and Vampires Willow and Xander

     We were delighted to do the Master again when the character returned for "The Wish" episode.  The Master has always been one of my favorites.  The makeup is in a number of sections and is fairly complicated to put on.  This episode was also special because, of course, it also allowed Alyson Hannigan and Nick Brendon to break character.  Seeing them in their evil vampire outfits was so much fun; they both relished that completely.  The days were hectic because Nick and Aly had three looks to be changed in and out for the way scens were scheduled:  Good Nick & Aly, Bad Nick & Aly and Vamp Nick and Aly.

No. 3  (Episode 16)
D'Hoffryn

     This is a demon that we had to throw together very quickly.  It turned out we had a scheduling change and he had to work sooner than we all expected.  "Mr. Hodgepodge" became a combination of monsters from five different episodes all thrown together.  His head was rebuilt from the Judge--or what I used to call the Smurf creature from "Surprise" and "Innocence."  That big cowl and headpiece with the horns was then combined with the pointed ears from some she-demons in Xander's episode "The Zeppo."  An aging face piece was added from somewhere--another show Optic Nerve has done--and the hands are from the Rage Monster in the "Jekyll and Hyde" episode.  So he's got a little bit of all our monsters glued on him somewhere, which isn't a common practice.  Usually Optic Nerve custom makes masks and appliances for each character, but this time around, the schedule could only work if the actor worked the first day of filming, not the last.  We were really hard-pressed to do something there.  This is an example of how Optic Nerve and I work together so well.  We are both capable of improvising--something a novice can't usually do.  We work very well together.


[Tired now]

[Stuart]

This is just my opinion but I would like think there are probably several million fans that constitute Dark Shadows' fan base. I do not think if DCP told the WB that its loyal audience consisted of only 50,000 individuals, that they would have gotten to first base on this project.

Would that it was true, but there simply aren't those numbers out there.  Look at the merchandise sales, convention attendance figures, Sci-Fi viewing figures, and you'll see that "Dark Shadows" is very much a fringe fandom.  Moreover, the existing fans by and large aren't the demographic group WB will be pitching a new show to.

My view is that the WB have bought DS for its franchise potential - it's clear that the format can appeal to a young audience, and the massive existing library of scripts offers a stronger thematic base than an entirely new show would. 

[jimbo]

I agree that that the WB is not interested in the demographics of the original fan base(us old bats) and I agree that they are banking on DS potential audience. I just think that the number you stated, as DS built in audience, is much higher. There are many "inactive" DS fans out there-I hope.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Again with the notion that Angel was canceled so that it can be "replaced" by DS! And this time it's not only on the 'Net on a fringe message board - it's printed in a newspaper with no rebuttal as if it's accepted fact. Wonderful! 


Q: Dear Chuck: What's up with the networks these days? I mean, the WB canceled "Angel" for a remake of "Dark Shadows"? And Fox's strange decisions to make horrible reality love shows, one about a little guy ("The Littlest Groom") and another about detecting gays ("Playing It Straight")? And then there's the canceling of other shows, including "Karen Sisco," and not promoting shows such as "Alias," which was on such a long hiatus that people like me have missed the recent episodes. By the way, how is "Alias" doing ratings-wise?

-- Anonymous


A This is a particularly tough time to be a fan of broadcast TV. The networks are in such a desperate fight to maintain their ratings that they're throwing shows around left and right, yanking them off the schedule and trying them in different time slots, etc. But in this state of utter panic, they're alienating viewers like you.

As far as "Alias" is concerned, ...