This Q&A with John Karlen was recently posted on the
JonathanFrid@yahoogroups.com.com list. I don't know who transcribed it.
This Q&A at a California ShadowCon was done in 1977 after DS had just about ended its first run in syndication. It's very interesting to see the state of fandom back then, read about the
relationships of the
actors, as well as the state of Karlen's own career. Little did he know then
that a regular
TV series (Cagney & Lacey) was definitely in his future - and that he would win an Emmy for his role in it.
___________
This is a Question and Answer session with John Karlen conducted during a
ShadowCon at the El Cortez Hotel in San Diego, California in 1977. It was
originally
published in The World of Dark Shadows fanzine, December 1977.
John Karlen: Has anyone ever been down to the studio where we used to shoot
it? In
New York, if you shoot at CBS you have these great big complexes, but we had
this little
studio on 53rd Street.
Audience: Did you move the sets in and out? I don't see how you could fit all
of them in.
JK: They had these main sets, like the main room at Collinwood shot, but we
squeezed
ourselves into this little room and the moves that we'd make ... it always
amazed me
when I used to watch it; they didn't look like the moves half the time
because we couldn't
get behind chairs with the cameras. And the little stairway going up just
ended (in the
Old House). It was 7 or 8 steps, and then you'd just have to stand there with
your back
against the wall until you came down again. That show was probably the most
fun I've
had in this business, just as far as fun was concerned. Everyone did care for
each other
on the show, pretty much. It was the only show being shot there, and it was
all DS
people.
Audience: What character are you most remembered for?
JK: Willie. I almost forget the other characters I played. I can go on for 28
years and be
spotted by people on the street, and they'll never say anything but Willie.
The other ones
just didn't count. I wound up playing three or four characters. Willie was
pretty bad at the
beginning. I mean, he got bit and that took all the stuff out of him; he had
to find another
way to survive. Did anyone ever notice that my accent used to fail me? I
didn't know if I
was from South Brooklyn or South Georgia or South Texas or South California
Audience: When people muffed their lines, they go "uh-uh-uh" and somebody
commented to me that Willie had an easier time of it because with him he
could go
"uh-uh-uh."
JK: That's true, and then it's not true, because I'm pretty good at lines.
I'll tell you the truth,
and this is all fun, Jonathan was tough on lines and many of those shows I'd
have to turn
my back and give Jon his lines. But he had more lines than anyone else did,
and he was
on five times a week, show after show after show, and it was pretty
difficult. We had the
teleprompter going next to the camera, and you could see your lines if you
flubbed them,
but there are certain positions where you couldn't see the camera; you
wouldn't think you
could sweat in an instant. You can if you're in front of the camera and all
of a sudden you
don't have a line and you can't get to that teleprompter, and nobody's going
to help you.
Some of the best stuff was probably improvised on that show. The only time
they would
stop the camera is if the set fell down or something, otherwise they would
keep it going
under all conditions because tape was money and time. I don't think there
will be another
soap opera like Dark Shadows. It was a first. We really don't know why it
went off. We
were going along pretty good there and all of a sudden we looked at the
ratings and they
weren't there. They just went off on so many different storylines at the end.
The great
attraction was, of course, the whole vampire thing at the beginning and when
that started
to disappear after a few years it was difficult to find new trends. The
writers didn't know
what to put down next after awhile. But it was a good time, a real good time.
I was the
only person on that show for years who didn't have a contract, just a
handshake with the
producer. I was allowed to come and go, which was fortunate. There was
another Willie
Loomis at the beginning, three or four shows, but he couldn't cut it. I was
on my way to
California. This was 1967, and was about five days from taking my wife and
son to see
what was cooking out there, and I got a call from the casting director to say
they would
like me to do this part in this show, and that lasted until 1969, when I did
come out to
California for six months, and then came back to go on the show and to make
the
movies. I came back to do the movies mainly. All in all, I was on and off
that show about
equally.
Audience: Did you do any work in New York after the show ended?
JK: I did a soap opera for awhile All My Children, I think.
Audience: Which character did you play?
JK: I don't remember. A dope dealer. Willie was fun. I was living on the East
Side in New
York most of that time, and I would walk to the studio, which was about two
miles. We
weren't too far away from the docks, so at lunchtime we would go down and see
the old
Queen Mary and walk around that area. It was one of the better experiences
I've had in
this business. You thought that you did like it and you didn't like.
Actually, there were so
many different opportunities, where else
Could you go bananas like that or play such cosmic crazy things? You could
really do
almost anything on that show and get away with it, at least my character. The
response
to that show, at the beginning, was really tremendous. They ran the first
part of it, the
phoenix thing, when I wasn't on the show. I guess I came on a month before
Jonathan, to
set him up. Dennis Patrick, he played Jason, I couldn't keep a straight face
when I
played with him. He was the funniest guy, he wasn't intending to be, but he
used to do
something with his eyes and I would have to go through these great emotional
bits, and I
was breaking up, I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep from laughing.
Audience: When you played the role of Danny Taggert on Medical Center, were
you
thinking of Willie?
JK: You know, I wasn't thinking of him, but after I finished, I said, "Gee,
this is a lot like
Willie." Old Willie, whatever happened to him? He's in San Diego now. He
never found
the jewels ...
Audience: I saw House of Dark Shadows the other day and the only part I
didn't like was
when the crossbow was fired off and hit you. It looked so real. How long did
it take to
shoot?
JK: We had an oldtimer come in from Hollywood, and the arrow was shot on a
string,
and I had some kind of built in thing that they put on my back. I took about
three days to
shoot that massacre. I remember lying in that dry ice with that smoke coming
up,
wondering what it was doing to my lungs.
Audience: What was it like working at Lyndhurst?
JK: It's so crazy. We shot in the same locations so much of the time that
both movies
intertwined, even though we played different characters. They second movie was
supposed to be with Jonathan. It was an entirely different script. It didn't
work out and the
second movie was really the end for DS. It just didn't work without Jonathan,
who really
was Dark Shadows.
Audience: Did you two get along, because when I saw that part in HODS where
he was
clobbering you with that cane.
JK: Jonathan was my best friend on that show. We lived about three blocks
from each
other in New York, and I helped him move into his apartment and he helped me
move
into mine, and he's one of the sweetest, probably the sweetest guy I've ever
met in this
business; just a totally wonderful gentleman, a great person. I love him, I
really love him.
Between you and me, I feel he made a great mistake by not doing the second
movie,
because he was right on the verge of becoming one of the greatest horror film
characters in this country. That was totally his prerogative. I think he had
it at the moment
with that kind of thing as an actor, but to me, if he would have continued on
with it, he
could have branched out into just about anything. It just didn't work out
that way.
End of Part I.
