New Strange Paradise Blog

[Gothick]

Fans,

My dear friend Curt Ladnier has started a new blog for the 1969-70 cult series STRANGE PARADISE, often described as "Canada's answer to DARK SHADOWS."  It was actually the brainchild of Steve Krantz in New York, and was an early attempt at a series produced in Canada and aimed at US/Canadian syndication markets--a phenomenon that was to become very widespread in the 1990s, but this forerunner didn't do so well.

One of the most amusing entries is this one, in which Curt presents some very rarely seen materials documenting an unsuccessful attempt to market the series in the 1980s with an Elvira-styled hostess, "Dracena Morg."  The luridly colored photo of her is a real hoot. 

https://maljardinblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/12/who-the-heck-is-dracena-morg/

G.

[The Doctor and K9]

Thank you for sharing. I just finished watching the first arc.  It was slow in the beginning, so slow I almost gave up on it. The payoff in the end was worth it though.

[patrickm]

Would like to see these two versions to see what they had in mind. Course I wish that MPI can come to terms on putting out the series on dvd.Only seen about 2/3 of the series. Thanks for sharing.

[The Doctor and K9]

Check Youtube PatrickM. At one time it was all on there. I don't know if that's still the case.

[Gothick]

The rights owner reportedly has no interest in releasing it in any home video format.  I don't know why that is.  Maybe somebody who actually wants to release it will buy it.  One of these days...

G.

[The Doctor and K9]

Gothick, I don't know if I was successful in sending a message to the blog owner. I tried and never got a confirmation it went through. I have a pic of the cover of the German reprint of the novel Raxl Voodoo Priestess, if he's interested.

[Gerard]

I tried, I really tried, to watch and appreciate the show when all of it was loaded onto youtube.  I don't remember how many episodes I watched, really trying, and I really tried, to give it a chance.  But it just didn't work.  To me, it was just a cheap rip-off of DS.  I had to stop.

Gerard

[Uncle Roger]

I watched it during its original run. I enjoyed the initial storyline, where it seemed that all of the major characters seemed to be modeled after Dark Shadows characters. I was somewhat surprised when they killed off the majority of them and abruptly changed the location of the show. But just as I was sorting out the new cast and new direction, the NYC station moved the time slot to the middle of the night and I never saw it again. I wouldn't mind seeing a few episodes for old times sake.

[The Doctor and K9]

Gerard, it really picks up after Robert Costello takes over.

[Gothick]

Doctor & K9, I will check with him and ask him if he got your message.  I had no idea that any of the books came out in Germany.  I wonder if the show ever ran there?

All the episodes are, or were on Youtube... there were still at least a substantial number last time I checked.

G.

[The Doctor and K9]

I have no idea, but the book doesn't seem to indicate it's a tie-in with a TV program. The Germans have or had a couple of digest size magazines that reprint some American books along with domestic books. Some are romance, others are horror, and other genres. A bunch of Ross novels were reprinted in a title called "Vampir Horror Roman" under the subtitle "Barnabas der Vampir." 4 of the first 5 were printed in a romance title. These were random offerings over the course of a couple of decades. Except for the copyright info, none of them mentioned DS. Each cover had a different version of Victioria. In Barnabas Der Vampir, Barnabas was consistently drawn as a grotesque Dracula type vampire. There was one exception. A few years earlier "Barnabas Collins and the Mysterious Ghost" was published with a more romantic Barnabas, slightly reminiscent of Bela Lugosi. If one was reading the Victoria Winters novels, you'd never know they were part of a series based on the covers. You'd have to read the novel to find out it was about a heroine that had appeared years earlier in another installment of the magazine. I have no idea if any of the other Strange Paradise novels every saw print over there.

[KMR]

I have the three Paperback Library novelizations of Strange Paradise, by Dorothy Daniels. The titles are Strange Paradise; Island of Evil; and Raxl, Voodoo Priestess. I had always thought that Dorothy Daniels may have been one of Dan Ross' numerous pen names, but apparently not.

[Gothick]

From what I recall, Daniels was female and a fairly prolific novelist in her own right.

IMNSHO she was a much better writer than Dan Ross, who was a hack... but given how quickly he churned the stuff out, he could hardly be expected to produce work of a high calibre.  I loved this one article that explained that he was under deadline as always for some publisher and he took the typewriter and a ream of paper in the car with him and he sat in the car at the typewriter and typed the entire last chapter, then stuffed the completed MS into an envelope and dashed inside to mail it just before closing.

Email makes this kind of thing so much easier...

G.

[Gerard]

Gerard, it really picks up after Robert Costello takes over.

Do you know about when that was in the series, Doctor?  I'll try to give it another shot.  When I initially tried to watch it on youtube, it not only looked like a rip-off of DS, but a youtube sarcastic comedy version like the one done by that guy who plays both Julia and Barnabas.

Gerard

[Gothick]

Bob Costello's first episode was episode 45.  I personally would recommend starting around episode 50.

G.