The 2004 WB Pilot

I'm still a bit too out of it to make a coherent enough post to adequately express all my thoughts concerning the WB pilot. However, I will say this now: I LOVED it. And quite frankly, once it was over both Midnite and I were sooooooo depressed for what should have been. And the revelation from TV critic Mark Dawidziak (of the Cleveland Plain Dealer), who hosted the showing, that the WB actually realizes what a mistake they made by passing on it only compounded that depression. (I mean, fat lot of good that admission does us all now!    )

But the real reason why I wanted to start this topic now was to remind the people who were lucky enough to see the pilot of the "possible ad campaign" poster that I'd posted just as a joke back in 2004. Little did we know that somehow I really was tapping into Joe's first scene (with Carolyn):

Vlad's most recent post (in the WB ODERS FILMING OF NEW DS PILOT) about Jason Shaw's casting as Joe Haskell got me to thinking. Haven't we had enough of the comely heroine, dressed in the flowing nightie, holding the lit candelabra type of ad campaigns to promote DS? Why not go for something bolder, sexier? And when you've got someone like Jason Shaw as one of your stars, why not use his, er, attributes to their greatest advantage? Right?

So, I present to you one of the possible ads the WB might want to consider using to promote DS:

[click on the "Quote from: Mysterious Benefactor on April 07, 2004, 02:56:50 am" link]

Well, not so much with the "secrets" part - but apparently with the "bare" part.    (Sorry to tease those of you who have yet to see the pilot (hopefully it will be shown again next year), but all will be revealed in due time.  )

Wow, WB admitted it was a mistake.
That must mean they think it would have been more successful than what they did go with.
Maybe hindsight will make them consider it as a possibility for a future show.

In the mean time I hope they make plans to release a DVD of the movie so they can make some profit,
give other fans a chance to see it, and drum up interest in yet another show.  Well . . one can hope . .

Or, maybe they could still use it as a pilot, but it would probably be difficult.  

I'm guessing that you saw the whole pilot at the fest. Please give an in depth review! I too am more depressed now that I keep hearing from people how good it was, and it wasn't picked up. I hope that WB might consider showing it on air and producing a new show!

Misa 

I definitely want details on the WB pilot. I feel like they really cheated us now. 

There were several attractive young men in that cast.  I'm pleased to hear that the director did not neglect some of the obvious opportunities that, um, arose (?).  And after all, this was a pilot for the WB.  I sometimes call it the "candyboy" network because of those endless shots of pouting, doe-eyed young men endlessly rolling about in the throes of soap opera angst.  Madge, cue the suds!

Did everybody have to leave their cellphones in a basket at that showing?  I've heard some hilarious stories about the security overkill at some of these events.

G.

There were several attractive young men in that cast.  I'm pleased to hear that the director did not neglect some of the obvious opportunities that, um, arose (?).

Well, not only did we learn that Joe and Carolyn were quite obviously euphemistically "sexually active,"  but Willie actually had a girl friend with whom he was quite obviously euphemistically "sexually active" as well. (What a huge step up for the character - particularly his '91 series incarnation.  ) Though, unlike Joe, poor Willie fell out of bed before he could, uh, get down to business. But more on all that later...

Did everybody have to leave their cellphones in a basket at that showing?  I've heard some hilarious stories about the security overkill at some of these events.

No, they weren't that bad - just the usual Fest announcement that there was no photo taking or videotaping allowed. (Though, of course, that never stops some people.  )

i thought the pilot was well done. it wasnt another remake of h.o.d.s. it was similiar yet different. blair brown was kind of a ditsy elizabeth. seemed like roger was the more stable one in this version. i wish the wb would reconsider. the pilot could still be used. i know the actor who played willie has moved on to gilmore girls but i have seen series where certain actors were replaced in the 2nd+ episodes. as long as they can retain the lead actors, the pilot could still be used as the 1st episode. 

Wish I could've been there to see the pilot. I'm still curious about it, even after all this time. Matt Czuchry as Willie is really the only casting choice that I was really confident about (more so after glimpsing him on Gilmore Girls - he really would've been a perfect Willie, IMO. I adore him.), but I would've liked to watch it.

If the WB (or any network) ever attempts DS again, I'd expect an all new pilot though.

What I found most fascinating about the WB pilot and what I'd like to deal with first are the things that are different from what was previously done in other versions of DS. And one of the really good things about the pilot is that it IS different. Thankfully, it isn't yet another remake of hoDS. Though, that having been said, it's also very much based in what we expect DS to be. I have to say that writer Mark Verheiden did an exceptional job of balancing the old with adding new twists.

[spoiler]First off, where Willie had no family in the original DS and hoDS, and he was Mrs. Johnson's nephew in the '91 series, Willie has a sibling in the pilot. The Sophia character, who is basically a 20-something version of Mrs. Johnson, is Willie's sister. (It could have been really interesting to see how their relationship might have developed and how it might have caused conflicts in Willie's relationship with Barnabas - but alas...)

Next, it isn't Willie who's first interested in doing some grave robbing - it's his girl friend Kelly Greer. It seems as if Kelly is some sort of research assistant to Prof. Stokes, and she's the one that figures out that gold has been buried in the Collins mausoleum. Willie is actually more interested in making love with Kelly, but she knocks him out of bed and onto the floor because she wants to go to the mausoleum right away. In fact, Willie's first scenes are really played more for humor than anything else, and that works well, though in a completely different way than humor was used with Willie in the '91 series.

Once Willie and Kelly get to the mausoleum, the same "lion's head watches the dove" clue for finding the secret room comes up. But rather than the lion's head being the way into the secret room, it's the dove. A very minor change there, however, Kelly injures her hand while trying to activate the mechanism to open the room, and that injury plays very significantly into the next few changes.

After the two open the coffin, no hand wearing a black onyx ring comes shooting out to grab anyone by the throat. In fact, Barnabas' rotted corpse looks deader than a doornail. Barnabas doesn't revive until after a drop of blood from Kelly's injured hand lands on his corpse's lip while she's searching inside the coffin. From there wildness ensues as, much to Willie's horror, in one of the most amazing sequences ever in any version of DS, Barnabas suddenly springs into action and attacks and completely drains Kelly. (Definitely check out Interview: Andrew Clement over on Stuart's Dark Shadows Journal site for photos of Barn's corpse, his newly resurrected self, and a bug-eyed Kelly after Barn's little treatment.)

The next major change comes when Carolyn is attacked while walking to her car from Joe's house. Yes, we've seen the walk to the car with the Daphnes from both hoDS and the '91 series. However, the way Carolyn's attack plays out is very, Very, VERY different. There are no quick cuts between Barnabas stalking and Carolyn running, and there's no hand grabbing the throat once she gets into her car. In fact, Carolyn never gets into her car. In fact, she barely has a clue of what's about to happen to her until it's much, much too late. What she actually sees are a few leaves falling from a nearby tree. She looks up and sees nothing - but the audience soon sees a figure stealthily stalk across one of the tree's branches. Carolyn then sees a larger group of leaves fall. She looks up again, and this time she sees the withered (but now recognizable) face of Barnabas with fangs bared. He swoops down, grabs her, and carries the screaming girl up into the tree to feast upon. After having seen the attack on Kelly and then watching that sequence, basically everyone at the screening was going, "Whoa - this is amazing!!"

Another change that I suppose some might consider minor but one that I thought was very effective happens when Vicki and Barnabas first meet. As in hoDS when Barnabas first gazes upon Maggie and in the '91 series when he first sees Vicki, the pilot's Barnabas is virtually rendered speechless. But the interesting thing about the pilot is that it's Vicki who asks Barnabas if they've ever met before. It's quite apparent that their connection goes both ways.

The final major change, but one that most of us were already aware of, is that Angelique makes her appearance in the pilot as well.

What one might consider to be sort of an intermediate change is how the subject of Josette is first introduced. It isn't by way of an explanation of her history in front of her portrait, as is the case in hoDS (though a scene similar to that does take place near the end of the pilot when Barnabas shows Vicki Josette's portrait after she makes an unscheduled visit to the Old House while running after David), nor do we simply see Barnabas telling Josette's portrait that she has come back to him, as is the case in the '91 series. No, Verheiden combines other tried and true DS elements into the introduction: Barnabas shows up at Vicki's bedside, proclaims that Josette has come back to him, and prepares to bite - however, once again he can't go through with it and flees from the room. But the really interesting bit comes when Vicki awakens and looks to see if anyone was in her room, and Barnabas is hanging upside down clinging to the exterior wall of Collinwood above her window and out of her sight.

And what I suppose is the final minor change is that Julia isn't brought to Collinwood from Windcliff (as in the original DS) or from NYC (as in the '91 series) or already living at Collinwood (as in hoDS) - apparently she's already on the staff of the hospital. Liz already knows her when she arrives at the hospital after learning about Carolyn's attack.[/spoiler]

   I really wish this pilot had been taken up...it sounds so awesome...especially compared to the dreck on today's TV.

It's been a year, so I don't recall......was there EVER any direct comment from Dan Curtis on the 2004 pilot, or on the WB's  decision not to put it on their schedule?

 MB, thanks for all this fascinating information on the pilot.  There are certainly some interesting differences from the original and the remakes.  Did they complete the missing special effects for the Fest screening, or were some of the fx still missing from the pilot?

I believe the only time DC publicly commented was during his Museum of TV and Radio salute before the pilot was completely edited when he said of the pilot, "It looks pretty good." However, the other two producers, John Wells and Mark Verheiden, both made comments after the WB passed on it. Wells disputed the WB's Garth Ancier's claims that he thought the pilot was "unsalvageable" (which, as anyone who has seen it knows, is an utterly ridiculous description). And Verheiden did an entire interview with Darren that appeared in issue #239 of Fangoria.

Did they complete the missing special effects for the Fest screening, or were some of the fx still missing from the pilot?

No, they didn't. But it wasn't like there was a black hole where the effects should have been. It was certainly quite easy to picture what would have been there.

It really wasn't going to need many special effects because the story was there.  The pace could have been slowed just a bit and a few of the scenes saved for episode 2.  I might have moved one of the scenes to the end instead of what they had.  But, that is my thing.