The final Dark Shadows episode. Spoiler Alert.

[Gothick]

Bit more history here... They went to Parallel Time after 1840 because Frid's contract was coming up for a renewal towards the end of 1970.  Somebody on here mentioned that he walked off the set one day and refused to return until he was assured that he would get to play another character besides Barnabas.  Lara Parker had also long expressed a desire to play a "good" character.  The only way they could think of meeting Frid's demand was by constructing the 1841 storyline, with its obvious roots in Wuthering Heights.  Also, Director (and at this time, Producer) Lela Swift believed that the largest contingent of the audience wanted to see Frid and Parker's characters in a happy romantic story, which is why 1840 took the turn of a framework for [spoiler]Barnabas realizing he had "always really loved" Angelique for the final weeks of that story.[/spoiler]  I believe that these ingredients led to the creation of the PT1841 storyline.

I believe that local network affiliates dropping DS are as much an explanation for the decline in the ratings as anything else.  However, I have read that the ratings began to rise again in January-Feb. 1971.  Apparently, when the announcement was made at the March '71 ABC board meeting that DS was going to get the axe, there was genuine concern that such a popular show was being dumped.

My theory for several years now has been that if it was the network's idea to cancel DS, Dan Curtis was more than happy to meet them halfway.  I still think that the timing of the cancellation had more to do with the need to go into production for NoDS than it did any other factor.  Since JF reportedly refused to "do the fanging thing" any longer, and also refused to do the sequel film (which had been originally constructed around him), DC probably felt it was more than time to move on.  Sam Hall's notes for the final storyline, published in that TV Guide article, were all about Barnabas' final cure from vampirism; they couldn't really have played that story if the actor did not want to portray a vampire any longer.

G.

[Raineypark]

I think that no matter WHAT was intended by anyone involved, if they had "cured" Barnabas, the show would have ended anyway.  The character would no longer have been the "tragic" hero everyone (Well, almost everyone... ) found so romantic.

My take on it has always been that Dan Curtis never intended to make a life's work out of that show and was not sorry to leave it behind, when the convenient moment arrived. 

[FireRose]

My take on it has always been that Dan Curtis never intended to make a life's work out of that show and was not sorry to leave it behind, when the convenient moment arrived.

Perhaps that is true, but Dan Curtis sure does keep trying to bring Dark Shadows back to life.

Now the million dollar question is will he ever succeed in doing it?

FireRose

[michael c]

perhaps dan curtis now realizes who butters his bread...i don't imagine there is a large and lucrative fanbase for "supertrain".

[PennyDreadful]

  That was some interseting information Gothick.  Thanks for posting that.  I didn't know about JF walking off the set.  He must have been really frustrated over having to play the Barnabas role at that point.

I think that no matter WHAT was intended by anyone involved, if they had "cured" Barnabas, the show would have ended anyway. 

   You have a point...

 [spoiler]  Since Barnabas was technically "cured" by the end of 1840, it seems you are right!  I assume if they had gone back to 1971, the curse would have come back to Barnabas somehow.  Actually, in the present, he was suffering from the curse Jeb Hawkes inflicted.  Shouldn't he still be under THAT curse, regardless of whether Angelique took her own curse off him in 1840?  When he comes up the stairs in 1971, he's cured.  I imagine he would have soon reverted back to vampirism shortly after returning to the present because of Jeb's curse.[/spoiler]

[MagnusTrask]

   You have a point...

 [spoiler]  Since Barnabas was technically "cured" by the end of 1840, it seems you are right!  I assume if they had gone back to 1971, the curse would have come back to Barnabas somehow.  Actually, in the present, he was suffering from the curse Jeb Hawkes inflicted.  Shouldn't he still be under THAT curse, regardless of whether Angelique took her own curse off him in 1840?  When he comes up the stairs in 1971, he's cured.  I imagine he would have soon reverted back to vampirism shortly after returning to the present because of Jeb's curse.[/spoiler]

Depends whether a curse is lifted on a soul or a body, and if soul, which version of a soul when there are two in the one body, from two different time periods.   I saw it as-- [spoiler]Barnabas was uncursed in 1840, and 1840 comes before 1970, so no vampirism for BC after 1840.    This means a drastic restructuring of events after 1840, even including BC not being freed by Willie in 1967, since he wasn't a vampire any longer, then.    The events with Jeb and Barnabas are undone.    In fact, events are totally different from 1840 on, to the point where E Stoddard should never have recognized Barnabas when he "returned" to 1971.    The death of Angelique in 1840 alone screws up the timeline so badly that they didn't dare pursue the 1971 story any further.[/spoiler]     They slapped together an unexplained and unexplainable "happy ending" in 1971 that could not possibly have happened, and hoped viewers would ask no questions.

[AndreDuPres]

Yes, I've been trying to figure out how everything would change after the 1840carnage--so many deaths that should not have occurred!  Everything in 1897 and thus 1971 would have been utterly changed and different.  It gives me quite a head-ache thinking about it.

[MagnusTrask]

What I'm about to say doesn't reconcile any of that, but as for how BC and Julia continue to live and interact with the Collins family after that in 1971, despite their memories being completely different and at odds with what the family remembers about the past few years, I thought this might be an interesting device:    BC and Julia have two complete sets of different, overlapping memories.     At the same time, they can remember the way we saw events unfold over the last few years, while simultaneously remembering the very different series of events that Elizabeth and the others have now lived through instead (because of the changing of history), which presumably BC and Julia also lived through.   Never mind though that they would never have made it to 20th century Collinwood in the first place.