WB ORDERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT

....... and will at least keep the "franchise" going.

And speaking of the "franchise".....the thing that concerns me most about the "New" DS is the possible impact it might have on the return of the "Old" DS to TV.  I've got this awful scenario in mind of Dan Curtis and the WB deciding that the new one would fare better if the original was not available for comparison. 

I am not sure if everyone received Shadowgram's 1/28/2004 cyberspace update so I will post it.

"Dan Curtis Productions has informed SG that the WB has officially ordered the highly-anticipated one-hour pilot for a potential new primetime weekly Dark Shadows series. The show, in partnership with John Wells Productions, will film soon, in time for screening by network officials in May, at which a decision will be made whether or not the program will be picked up as a series for this fall. No other specifics, including cast, have yet to be determined. It can be announced, however, that the storyline has new characters and situations added to the DS framework while staying faithful to the spirit of the original."

new characters, new situations! sounds a bit radical to me??

I would expect new characters and situations to be inevitable.

Don't forget we're talking about a daytime soap opera format from 35 years ago.  There's simply no way to recreate that faithfully.....and then expect it to be a successful prime time series in 2004.

Do we really expect it to look like it's been shot entirely in a television studio?  It won't.  It will be filmed on sets and locations.

Do we think each episode will be limited to a small number of actors because extras cost money?  They won't because that's not the current fashion in production values.

Do we expect there to be single, focused, all-consuming storylines involving all the characters at the same time?  There won't be, because multiple storylines are more compelling and intricate and viewers like stories to come together like puzzles.

I've no doubt that the people behind this new production would very much love to please the original fans.  But we're not sufficient in numbers to make or break the show.  And sad to say, but many, if not most of us, are not the correct demographic for their potential advertisers.  They almost HAVE to be appealing to a younger, broader base......and it will have to be a VERY different Dark Shadows to do that.

Perhaps not better.....hopefully not worse.....but definitely different.

I love the idea of new characters and new situations- while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original series. Nothing can change how I view or feel about the original series, the '91 version didn't. I liked that version, too, what I remember of it in it's short time on air.

I would watch if they remade the original version  or made it more like the '91 model. But I'd prefer to not be able to reasonably know what's going to happen next in a certain storyline or compare  any particular scene to how it was done back in '68 or whenever. However, I wouldn't mind thinking- "How would the original Barnabas deal with this new character of the '04 version?" or "How would this new '04 situation work if it occured before the original Quentin was introduced?"  Who knows, maybe some of the original actors can portray some of the new characters? 

I agree with Raineypark that "multiple storylines are more compelling and intricate and viewers like stories to come together like puzzles."  I think there would have to be a certain number of self contained episodes as well. Or that's just my guess for an hour long show in prime time these days, though I may be wrong.

I think the news of new characters is the most heartening development yet -- it's not just welcome, it's vital.  The 1991 series' problem in a nutshell is that it added nothing of value to the DS mythos - it was parasitic, just rehashing old characters and situations from beginning to end. And, no matter how well produced or acted it was, a copy is a copy - the poor relation by default.

Since the rumors will be flying, including casting, plot and other, in the next several months, I would appreciate that until the first episode is aired that we put any "spoilers" such as casting and/or plot into spoiler tags.  Dream casting or wishful thinking (or criticism) is not spoiler.  MB, Midnite, Dom do we still have those?

As God is my witness, I intend to remain unspoiled until it airs in the fall, if does indeed get picked up, including but not limited to and especially including casting spoilers.  My Angel viewing has paid off for me since I'm totally spoiler free!  Otherwise that [blank blank blank where did that spoiler tag go to] surprise would have been ruined if the actor [blank blank blank where did that spoiler tag go?] had been revealed before hand.

I want to turn on my telly and then find out.  I love surprises!!!!!!!!!

Thank you to Stuart for his the spoiler tags on his site!  It's great!

As I indicated in my own post, I also would love to come to the new show with no pre-conceptions and no information regarding plots or cast or anything.

But I don't think expecting the rest of the forum members to remember to "spoiler" every single reference to the new show for the next 8 months is reasonable.  It would be lovely......but really.......it would be asking a bit much.

This subject has already proven itself of enormous interest on this forum.  I don't think we can see it on the temp forum, but the thread with the most responses on the original forum was about THIS subject.

The number of posts that this will generate over the next 8 months will be huge, I have no doubt.  And all it will take is one person to forget to "spoiler" somthing and all that effort will be wasted.

I'm sure the moderators would do their best to stay on top of them.....but even that's asking for a monumental effort on their part to "protect" what I suspect is a small minority of people like us who really would rather not know things ahead of time.

I figure our realistic choices come down to not reading the forum, or taking our chances on reading things we'd rather not have known. 

I agree with Raineypark that specific spoiler information should not be indicated here. I am just not sure what the extent of the censorship should be. I'd rather not hear specific storyline details about the pilot. However, I am interested in who is being casted in the pilot. I am also intrigued about the "new" characters and would like to know what their roles are. Actually, I am confused about everything regarding the pilot. At first glance I thought the addition of several characters was a radical concept. But now I do agree that the historic storyline needs a major boost. It is just an exciting time for all of us. I guess I am still in shock that the project is really happening.

I'm a forever pessimist.  To me, being a pessimist is far more practical:  if you expect something to wrong, and it does, you're not disappointed.  If it goes right, you're happy to beat the band.  Being an optimist, if you expect something to go right and it does, big deal.  If it flops, you're ready to call Kevorkian.  So I'm remaining a pessimist with regards to the new WB version.  I was no big fan of the '91 attempt, so when it failed, I just shrugged it off.

Gerard

I'm a forever pessimist.  To me, being a pessimist is far more practical:  if you expect something to wrong, and it does, you're not disappointed.  If it goes right, you're happy to beat the band.  Being an optimist, if you expect something to go right and it does, big deal.  If it flops, you're ready to call Kevorkian.  So I'm remaining a pessimist with regards to the new WB version.  I was no big fan of the '91 attempt, so when it failed, I just shrugged it off.

"I learned a long time ago never to expect anything.  That way I'm never dissapointed"

I've always wondered if that quote (of Roger Collins in ep. 1 of the '91 series for those not familiar) was the writers referring to the incredible expectations fans of the original series had for the new DS.  I mean, it always seemed kinda forced.  One minute they're talking about David being a nutter and the next Roy Thinnes drops this bomb of a conversation stopper that leaves Joanna Going gawking.

I don't see why casting would be considered a spoiler.  If the show really does come about, presumably they would advertise it, and that would certainly include announcing and probably showing the main characters.  I can see that one wouldn't want to know how the storyline will progress, but the cast is something that presumably would be well known before it actually airs.

I think that the "new" DS is a nice change for all of us DSers (?).  I'm very sure that with the writers, who's going to play who, stage carpenters and costumers it will be a great story......but....

I'm going to remain true to the original DS, and I think everybody will.

Anyway....Good Luck Dark Shadows.   

Raineypark wrote:

I've got this awful scenario in mind of Dan Curtis and the WB deciding that the new one would fare better if the original was not available for comparison.

I really hope not because that's how I got turned on to DS. But, I started to immediately buy MPI home video tapes because I couldn't stand the endless commercials on SciFi. Now I just buy 1 tape about every 4 months.

The original DS was simply unique. As for the new show I just hope it doesn't concentrate (like so many soaps these days) on teenagers only. One of the very interesting things about DS was that it was a happy and healthy mix of old, middle and young characters all mixing and interacting together as life usually is. To single out (unless it's a specific story) ANY age group is not really a good idea.

This new DS will surely mean a new generation of fans being aware about DS (those who didn't watch the Sci Fi channel).

Last week I saw actor Tom Lenk playing Andrew on "Angel" for the first time.  I think TL would be a perfect Willie Loomis.  Angel is even on the WB network!

I don't see why casting would be considered a spoiler.  If the show really does come about, presumably they would advertise it, and that would certainly include announcing and probably showing the main characters.  I can see that one wouldn't want to know how the storyline will progress, but the cast is something that presumably would be well known before it actually airs.

Could be the main character casting would not be too spoiler....  However, sometimes special roles get cast and it would spoil a plot ahead if you knew that person was going to be in the show.  The example I have of this is a recent episode of Angel where an old character from earlier seasons shows up out of the blue.  Had I know that particular actor was going to be on the show, the big surprise at the end a particular episode would have been spoiled.  That's what I really meaning.