A Date That Will Live in Infamy

[Gothick]

Fans, on this date back in 1971 (that's THIRTY-THREE YEARS ago, gang--makes some of us here feel OLD), the very last episode of Dark Shadows was aired.

It was a sad and strange occasion for many of us.  The final moments of the last episode did seem to hint that further stories might be in the wings, though at the very last darling Thayer David's voiceover informed us that the dark shadows that had plagued the Collins family were now a thing of the past.

Nevertheless, I tuned in the following Monday, only to see Password (a gameshow based on charades) in DS' time slot.  It was a truly miserable moment for me.  I remember sitting there staring at the cathode ray tube like a drowned rat.

I have friends who remember fellow students going door to door collecting signatures for petitions to keep the show on the air, as had been done for Star Trek a couple of years previously.  In my neighborhood, I don't remember anything like that.  Most of my friends had stopped watching the show during 1897 or Leviathans.

Anybody else recall stories of the DS cancellation?

G.

[Julia99]

Well from my crib i cried. . oh wait, that's b**chy ain't it??   Well i ache now that certain obvious things weren't resolved onscreen with the actors. . .we have only  the voiceover  . .which some still refuse to accept. . .although that always where it was gonna go. . .

[Brian]

I remember going into the kitchen during a commercial break [spoiler]just after Catherine was suddenly possessed ("My name is Amanda!")[/spoiler] in the April 1st episode and telling my mom that I didn't know how they could end the show the next day [spoiler]since "Catherine is possessed."[/spoiler]

Silly 14-year-old me.

I also thought maybe the whole cancellation was a big April Fools' joke on us.

I spent the biggest part of the summer following the end of the show writing my own television soap opera called "Evil Secrets," which included a Collins-like family, a vampire, a few ghosts, a witch, etc.--and even a parallel time travel section.  I wrote about 100 15-page scripts (running time would probably have been about 15 minutes, as  recall) of probably the worst plots and dialogue ever put on paper.  (Oh, wait, I've seen slasher films and Halloween sequels that were worse. . . )

Fortunately, I had a cassette tape of the last four shows that gave me a DS fix when I needed one over the next 18 years until the MPI releases.

[Mark Rainey]

I also thought maybe the whole cancellation was a big April Fools' joke on us.

Same here exactly. The only other time I'd been so heartsick was when Gretchen Wickliffe told me she wanted to be "just friends."

And yes, I tuned in on Monday, hoping against hope, only to find that dratted gameshow. I started scribbling Dark Shadows stories in my notebook at school, putting my hair into pointy locks (I had hair back then, you know), and generally all-around doing everything I could to make sure DS lived on in my heart till it could come back round again.

--Mark

[Gerard]

Even though I knew it was coming, in the couple weeks before that hideous day I kept hoping that it wasn't true, that ABC had changed its mind, that on April 5 it would still be there, picking up where it had left off before the PT1841 storyline, with Barnabas, Julia and Eliot accompanying Elizabeth to hear Roger's speech.

On that day itself, I ran home from Washington Junior High School like I always did, not wanting to miss a minute of it.  So I watched it, still hoping, but with the closing monologue of Thayer David, I knew there was no denying that it was over.  While the credits rolled for the last time I began to sniffle and then sob, my lower lip quivering, and I walked around the living room, wringing my hands.

In the days, weeks, months and even couple years afterwards, I consoled myself and got my fixes by continuing to purchase the Marilyn Ross novels and the Gold Key comic books until they ceased publication.  And during that time, I still hoped that somehow they would bring it back, even as a prime-time show, once again picking right up where it had left off.

Gerard

[denise]

The only thing that came close to it was a series called Strange Paradise that took place on a Caribbean island and involved voodoo and a strange curse on the lord of the manor.

[jennifer]

Well from my crib i cried. . oh wait, that's b**chy ain't it??

aah yes.....

jennifer

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I've posted this on previous versions of the forum - but for the sake of new people who may not have seen it, this is the post card response fans received after writing ABC about the cancellation:

While it's true that someone "lost interest," it wasn't necessarily the fans...

[Gothick]

Thanks for posting that, O Mysterious One.  I don't remember having seen it before (now, I may have seen it, but with the kind of amnesia I'm coping with, it's entirely likely that I did see it and have plum forgotten.  As my beloved Great Grandmother said:  "Don't git old!")

I had to laugh when reading that, given that the Dark Shadows ratings were going up again in February-March of 1971, and the ABC executive board members at the March board meeting expressed concern that the network was shutting down such a popular, high profile series.

Substitute "who had followed" with "who had worked upon" in your card, and it does get a bit closer to the truth...

G.

[jennifer]

LOL i can see that since we are still talking about it over 30 years later that we lost interest!

jennifer

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Substitute "who had followed" with "who had worked upon" in your card, and it does get a bit closer to the truth...

Exactly.

[Joeytrom]

I heard that in the first Password on April 5, 1971, Allen Ludden was wearing fangs in the opening of the show announcing they have replaced DS>