Jonathan Frid did a Q&A with fans at the Dark Shadows Festival in November, 1984 at the Gateway Hilton Hotel in Newark, New Jersey.
If there is any interest in these Q&As, I will post another Q&A, an earlier one in fact, from 1982 at a ShadowCon that was Frid's first convention. In that Q&A he talks about Dark Shadows, DS cast members, and other items not covered here.
This is part 1 as it is too long for one post.
I'm afraid I don't know where I got this transcription from.
Jonathan Frid Q&A
Dark Shadows Festival
Gateway Hotel, November 1984
Newark, New Jersey
At the time of this Q&A the public television station New Jersey Network had started running "Dark Shadows" in syndication generating a lot of publicity in that television market area. Frid's emergence from his self-imposed hiatus from the limelight
gave the publicity a much needed push as he made himself
available for radio, television and printed interviews in
addition to attending large and small "Dark Shadows" conventions
all over the country. He frequently would make appearances all
three days at the Dark Shadows Festivals - he would do a "Best
of Barnabas" or a "Best and Worst of Barnabas" on the Friday
night opening the Festival. This would be a series of clips from
the series he would comment on plus a Q&A with the audience. On
Saturday afternoons he would do a solo Q&A or, more frequently
as the years went on, a Q&A session with other DS actors.
Sundays were reserved for a performance.
Frid did the following solo Q&A on a Saturday afternoon. Bear in
mind when reading that many of these fans had not seen Dark
Shadows since its original run and there were not the MPI DS
tapes then that there are now available to fans.
Jonathan Frid: Now, who has a question? Anybody?
Question: When you were filming the show, if something drastic
went wrong, did you film it and if so, was an example of that?
JF: Well, there were plenty of examples, I regret to say. But
no, we were not supposed to stop. It cost quite a bit of money.
I suppose it went into the hundreds, if not thousands of dollars
every time we stopped, and that meant we had to take it to the
editing room after the show, after we taped and had to go up to
that special department of ABC and that cost money. Like, for
instance, that Chromokey business -- ghosts would appear or
disappear. Those were special shots and there were a couple of
times when the boss himself directed the show and of course he
would do anything he liked. As a matter of fact, there was one
day with the film -- I can't even remember the story. We used
the whole studio for somebody to take a long, long walk. Maybe
you haven't seen it, maybe it's a later episode, but I remember
we did it like a movie. Curtis directed it and he did like he
was doing "The Winds of War". It was a very, very involved
thing. We did one little bit and another little bit. But that
was a rare exception. Normally you do it all in one take. Now, I
understand that modern soap operas are so much more advanced
technically that they could stop and correct each scene, because
it's all done right in the cameras. They don't have to go to an
editing room later. I've heard this but I'm not sure.
Q: When you do Chromokey, you're not really in the background?
JF: Where are we?
Q: You're in a black background?
JF: We're in the studio but on a different set. Don't ask me to
explain Chromokey. (Laughter) I know that we had to be in a
different location if we were going to be in the studio. Behind
us would be this blue paper so your figure would blend into
whatever scene was taking place and that blue would disappear.
Let's just skip this subject. (Laughter)
Q: Are there any other places in the US or parts of Canada where
DS is being shown right now?
J: It has been on and off. It was playing on the west coast then
in New Orleans, Dallas, Detroit and San Francisco. They've only
released 2 years of this thing for some reason or another. It
has something to do with Worldvision charging too much. You
know, they just don't want to pay out this kind of money [the TVstations]. I don't know whether they're successfully holding out
for more or whether they've just decided to call it quits. But
anyway, they've only released 2 years and when people run out of
those two years then there isn't anymore at this point. Now, of
course, you know if you go after it. It's just like elections.
If you go after the local precincts, then force them to go after
so and so . .. Certainly with the healthy activity with DS here
it looks like they might well fight for you [New Jersey Networkpublic television] and go after Worldvision and continue it. I
mean, keep watching it. The only way to do it is to spread the
word and it's on and tell everybody else you know to watch. And
I'm sure the network will at least fifth for you and maybe will
press Worldvision to come forth with some more or at least
strike a bargain. I mean, you know, go after the network. I
understand they're here broadcasting all this while I'm here
telling you - go after the network. (Laughter)
Q: If Worldvision is distributing, who owns the copyright They
would be the ones who'd also be involved.
JF: Well, Dan Curtis, I think, owns the copyright. I don't know
what the whole arrangement was, whether they turned it all over
the Worldvision. I think they're managing the copyright but
whether they own it outright, I don't know how that works, but I
still think it's probably his property, or Curtis Productions or
whatever it is. But don't ask me. I'm just an actor. (Laughter)
Q: Would it help if we contacted him?
JF: No. I think your best bet is to go after Worldvision. No,
he's too busy with his other things. Write this home base (New
Jersey Network). Go after these people. Le them go after
Worldvision. They'll go after Worldvision if they know they have
enough people in New Jersey watching. It works that way. Work the
grass roots. It's the grass roots that count.
Q: Given the complexity of Barnabas and the rush of the schedule
you had to do, what do you credit for the fact that you were able
to get through it, your lines and the make the character . ..
JF: Are you trying to embarrass me? . . . . (Laughs)
Q: I mean, was it your stage experience that sort of got you
through all that and able to hang in there or was it sheer guts?
JF: It was like jumping off a tall rock into water thousands of
feet below. Every morning I had to do it whether I liked it or
not. I pushed myself. No, it was very difficult for me. There
were some of the actors that could go and learn their script
going home in a taxi and go to have a ball the rest of the night
and come back the next morning and not miss a single line. I
don't know how they did it, but there's some people, you know,
who have that kind of mind. I certainly do not. I'd go home and
thought I had HAMLET every night. And I started worrying about
it. I worried through it. You know: what is he doing in here?
(Laughter) So much so that I didn't even know what the plot was
half the time. I was in a fog. I used to make excuses for that
because in real life we don't know the plot that's going on
around us. We're so busy living our lives it's only 10 years
later that we recall and see what we were doing at a certain
time and in the context of a bigger thing called plot. So it
never bothered me very much at the time if I didn't know the
plot particularly well. It's just as well I didn't. The
surprises kept coming.
I'd make good excuses for myself. I didn't know the plot. I just
didn't know the plot. I didn't have time to figure that out. As a
matter of fact, I remember one day Dan Curtis came in and he said
"Jon!" and he as like a kid, very boyish in a way, "I have a
great new idea for a whole new story!" And meanwhile I was
saying "Yes, Dan, yes", meanwhile trying to lean the lines for 5
minutes later I was playing on the set. And he starts telling me
about a story 3 months later. But you know, I was just thinking
- leave me alone, leave me alone. (Laughter) I tired to tell him
but I couldn't. I had to listen to him. I couldn't care less. I
had a plot right there to deal with, that problem right there
for that particular day. I used to know the plot within 2 or 3
days. That's all I needed to get the wheels going,
characterizations going. But it was very, very tough for me.
However, most of my life has been in stock where I've had to
learn lines and with all that experience I just learned. I
learned something really valuable on DS. I always to think "Oh,
if I only had a long run". I had a long run but never in a big
role. But all my big runs were short roles. And I thought "Oh,
if I could only have a year to play a marvelously big role". And
I think probably wouldn't be as good as that because I think I
learned to make the instincts work and I'm when I'm not in too
much control. I think when I get too controlled, you lose
something . That's life, that's one of the ironies of life. When
you think you've got everything you want, it's not all that
great. It's struggling that makes things more electric in life.
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