DS Watching Habits

[BangsnFangs]

Howdy all,

I've been catching up with the Collinsport Historical Society Podcast lately and recently listened to an episode where Patrick McCray talks with Tony Trigilio, author of 'The Complete Dark Shadows of My Childhood'.  At one point they were discussing the bizarre habits and rituals they have when watching the show and I got to thinking about my own.

There have been a lot of strange things I've done while watching the show but these are the most consistent:

1. I always have to watch at least three episodes in succession during one viewing.  I've worked out subconsciously that this gives me enought time to be absorbed in the story and also not feel like I'm stopping and starting abruptly.  In other words, I get a nice flow going.

2. I always have to watch DS on a television.  I don't think that watching it on a laptop or desktop computer gives it the "spectacle" it deserves.  Pretentious, I know, but there you go.  (This one's going to be a problem when I head off to Uni next year.)

3. I always have to watch DS in an isolated room with as few distractions as possible.

4. I prefer to watch DS during the evening, but otherwise I like to have the curtains drawn and the lights switched off to create the appropriate atmosphere.

5. I always have to start off each viewing session with a strong brew of herbal tea and one of my cats on my lap.  (Although I'll always remember one of them went absolutely bezerk at Joshua Collins-cat during 1795.)

So... do any of you guys have any odd habits or rituals you have to conduct while watching DS?

[dom]

Nowadays, no, except maybe to say I like to be 'settled in' before I start.

Back in the day (1969/70) I used to put blankets and towels over the living room windows so it would be dark when I watched. More to block the sun from directly hitting the TV screen but I think that's just why that habit started as I am sure one towel would have sufficed . One time my parents came home early and wondered what was up - needless to say I was embarrassed, not to mentioned annoyed because they were interrupting the show, lol. Funny, I wrote about this, this morning in another thread but canned it when I realized it was off-topic

[Uncle Roger]

These days, I just want to be comfortable.

But it was a whole different ball game back then. I watched DS in the living room until I got my own set. My bedroom door was closed and the window shut and locked, even in the hot, humid summer. I was audiotaping the show and I did not want anything to intrude on my DS experience. It was kind of understood that I was not to be disturbed while Dark Shadows was on the air. Not by anyone, for any reason. Fortunately, dinner time was usually an hour or so after DS! Looking back now, I am somewhat amazed that my parents indulged me to that extent! And, yes, I still have the audiotapes.

[dom]

Don't they need the audio to the missing episode? Are you holding out you scoundrel! 

[Gothick]

Dom honey, we have the audio for the missing episode.  If I remember correctly, it came from the collection of a fan from our time who was always known as Josette.

G.

[BangsnFangs]

It was kind of understood that I was not to be disturbed while Dark Shadows was on the air.

I wish my family extended me the same courtesy!

[Uncle Roger]

Well, there's a bag of about 40 or so tapes in my closet. None of them are labelled. And, even if they were, I no longer have a reel to reel tape player.

[dom]

oh, and oh.

[The Doctor and K9]

Lately, I've been trying to watch the eps on the exact day they aired in '66-71. For example, today is November 11, 2014. That date in 1969 was a Tuesday, just as today is. Unfortunately that does not usually work out exactly. '68 was a leap year and '13 was not. So, I was out of sync by a day for a while. I will be again in 2016 for the last month or so of the show. The last DS ep will "air" on Friday April 1st.

[MagnusTrask]

We have the Watching Project, you know, Dr+k9, and while it's no longer a day-for-day by-the-calendar viewing, we do watch it all together and make what we hope are interesting comments.

I actually had favorite conditrions set up for my weekly Dr Who viewings in the 80s, I tremember graprfruit jiuce and white or dark chocolate working out nicely, asometimes with vodka, but nothing comes back to me for DS.  I suppose we had no time to make elaboarate arrangements, being lucky if we could just manage to catch it from the beginning while breathing hard from the running.

Now?  I try to stay steady with the Watching Project, so I stop myself from watching more than two at a time usually, occasionally three.  Sometimes I've been marathoning a different timeline also, while WPing.  Then I can't stop with three.