Innovation's '91 DS Comic, Book 4, The Book That Never Was

[patrickm]

I remember the Majenta Jets performing at the fest ... so I would say Marcy got her notes wrong.  Kind of understandable I suppose because the Majenta Jets weren't very memorable ... lol.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

For a change there are several worthwhile things in this section that are worth sharing:

When it comes to Saturday Night Live, little did Alec Baldwin know in 1996 who he'd be impersonating on the show 20 years later...

Imagine, something written about DS was incorrect. 

I wonder if Scott Hull ever played Whitman's actual Dark Shadows Board Game, as opposed to Milton Bradley's Barnabas Collins Dark Shadows Game, which is what he professed was good? If he did, I can't imagine he would have enjoyed BCDS quite as much. But then, if he was really young when he played BCDS, that might explain it. Though the really interesting thing is that he even played BCDS at all because he wasn't born until 1972.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The FILMING LOCATIONS FOR DS section from SG #75 for the '91 Series:

I didn't try to clean up the photo of Greystone because, as was the case with MTW's Jeffrey publicity photo, I was able to track down a much better version of the photo:

(Click here for a 2860X2250 version)

(The various locations for each version of DS are more detailed than usual in SG #75, probably because of all those new subscribers.)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

For some reason SG #75 combined the Video and Merchandise sections into one:

I don't recall when MPI rereleased the 25th Anniversary with footage of a Frid Q&A replacing his one man show footage. Though while it was nice to get the rest of the compilation on DVD with the Q&A, replacing the one man show footage was a mostly useless endeavor. As I already said, people who wanted to own the original release already did, which means they had Frid's one man show footage. Replacing it was mostly like fixing the gate after the horses had already escaped from the corral...

Hmm - the '96 LA Fest was going to be in June. MPI said the DS RESURRECTED VHS would come out in July. Or perhaps MPI meant it would become available in July to the general public. I suppose we'll see...

I haven't played the 30th Anniversary CD in ages - I wonder if the version of "Joanna" on it is different from the versions on the movies soundtrack? I should check that out one day...

And speaking of the HOUSE OF DS/NIGHT OF DS SOUNDTRACK, that track list is incorrect. For example, there are no "Daphne's Room" or "Party Music" tracks in the hoDS section or "Alex At The Greenhouse" or "Trouble In The Tower" or "Quentin's Theme (Chimes) (unreleased)" or "Quentin's Theme (Turmoil) (unreleased)" or "Quentin's Theme (Saxophone) (unreleased)" or "Love Theme From Night Of Dark Shadows (Piano) (unreleased)" tracks in the NoDS section. However, in the NoDS section there is a track called "Quentin And Tracy (Love Theme From Night Of Dark Shadows)" between "Tracy Investigates The Tower Room" and "Angelique's Assault". Though, also missing from this CD is the track "House Of Dark Shadows Radio Spots," but that track actually appears on the 30th Anniversary CD...

It's really interesting that more than two years after the Innovation comics ended, SG is still hawking Glass House Graphics as the place to buy copies of the artwork...

And it's fascinating that the Abbelare watches deal is still going on in SG #75 from February of 1996 despite how it was supposed to last a limited time, ending back on October 31st of 1995. And even more fascinating is that the price for both watches has dropped from $38.45 to $34.45...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

It's hard to definitively know if the "Quentin And Tracy (Love Theme From Night Of Dark Shadows)" track, which is also a piano version, in the NoDS section of the House Of DS/Night Of DS soundtrack is the same as the proposed track "Love Theme From Night Of Dark Shadows (Piano) (unreleased)". But I would say not because of two reasons. One, "Quentin And Tracy (Love Theme From Night Of Dark Shadows)" does appear in the movie, whereas the proposed track says it was unreleased. And two, the 30th Anniversay CD includes a track entitled "Joanna (original soundtrack: unreleased version)" and as we know "Joanna" and "Love Theme From NoDS" are the same piece of music that was renamed for the movie. Plus, the version on the 30th CD is decidedly different than any other version.

And while we're on the subject of the 30th Anniversary CD and missing NoDS tracks from the movies CD, the proposed track "Quentin's Theme (Saxophone) (unreleased)" is on the 30th CD under the title "Quentin's Theme (Night Of Dark Shadows original soundtrack: previously unreleased version)". And one thing that's quite interesting is that the 30th CD's booklet says that it was at one time considered to be used as the main title music for NoDS. Thank heavens it wasn't because it would have been all wrong. It's much too lighthearted and would have been much more suited as background music for the costume party sequence in hoDS, just as a different lighthearted version was actually used in that movie.

And all that leads us to this from SG #75:

Who knows why things are back to saying "12+ DS tunes" when SG #73 correctly reported that the book contains 18? Though they've wisely stayed away from repeating the book will be 80 pages when it will actually be 112.

And I'm sure this will come as a huge shock, so I hope you're sitting down, but MPI's 1996 mailing didn't actually say a thing about the DS Music Book. So shocking, right? ...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

From SG #75:

Including DC's version of Dracula - and as I said, the sendup of a sequence in that is one of the best things in Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

SG #75 also shared this publicity photo:

And that photo comes from the following scene, which is a real hoot and a sendup of so many scenes in many vampire movies, including somewhat when it comes to Carolyn and Todd in hoDS and Daphne and Joe in the '91 Series:

Dracula: Dead And Loving It: I'm British

Also in SG #75 in this fan photo of Michael Cavanaugh from when he was doing the play Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been... at the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble in LA:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

More from SG #75:

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And more from SG #75:

I didn't even notice the Joanna Going/Jean Simmons connection when it was mentioned in SG #74. However, when I post the Jean Simmons section from SG #75 I'll precede it with what was said in SG #74...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

What was missed from SG #74 regarding Jean Simmons and Joanna Going:

There'a only a small bit in Joanna Goings' SG #74's section - basically about how both of them appear in How To Make an American Quilt. Everything said in that section is basically repeated in Jean Simmons' section above, so I'm not bothering to share the Joanna Going section because it would just be repeating info.

It's nice to see that many of the reviews loved Joanna...

And yet more from SG #75:

I didn't even remember that Ely Pouget had done a sequel to Lawnmower Man. I watched the original only because she was in it. She was good - the movie was OK - but as much as I enjoy science fiction, in that case I don't think I was the intended audience for it. If I see the sequel available somewhere, I would watch it - but again, only for Ely because I've definitely enjoyed her whenever I've seen her in something...

It's quite funny that Jean Simmons' agent wouldn't let her retire. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And yet more from SG #75:

Rebecca Stabb's profile on IMDb has several photos from her version of The Fantastic Four:
Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four
Jay Underwood, Alex Hyde-White, Michael Bailey Smith, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four
Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four
Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four
Jay Underwood, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four
Jay Underwood, Alex Hyde-White, Michael Bailey Smith, Rebecca Staab The Fantastic Four

Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing where the Barbara Steele photo is from because nothing in SG #75 indicates it...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The 8-29-95 article from Soap Opera Weekly:

It's funny that I have no memory at all of this show having been on. And that's odd becuase I tend to pay attention to any show that looks like it could have soap elements, plus I was a fan of Rebecca Stabb even before she was on the '91 DS because I enjoyed her work on the ABC soap Loving...

[Uncle Roger]

I had never heard of the show either. But it aired during the early days of the UPN network, so it's entirely possible that the show didn't air everywhere. UPN had an affiliate in the NYC area but it was the least desirable of the three independent stations in the market. And not every market had a UPN station.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Who knows who produced the Sci-Fi commercial for them to have given the wrong address for SG? It would seem like anyone actually connected to DS knows the difference between the SG address and the Fest address. Though at least they should.

This was actually a more confusing situation than I'd originally thought. I tracked down my VHS tape of DS on Sci-Fi from 10-26-95 expecting to simply see the wrong address or to hear KLS simply say something like, "You can subscribe to ShadowGram by writing to P.O. Box 92, Maplewood NJ 07040" - but that's not how things play. SG claimed the Fest address was "accidentally" given - but when you watch the video below you'll see that it's clear that the Fest address was specifically given, even going so far as to state it is the address for the "official Dark Shadows fan club." Very strange.

But before I post the actual video, I have a story that goes along with it. Unfortunately I had to use my phone to shoot a video off of a TV screen to share the SG commercial. I have video capturing software for my computer (obviously, since I've shared videos), but for some very odd reason when I tried to capture video from the VHS tape the commercial is on, the video portion of the capture jumped all over the place. At first I figured it was because the VCR I'd used when I'd taped the 10-95 eps was experiencing tracking problems that I was unaware of at the time and the tape simply wasn't compatible with my current VCR. However, when just for the fun of it I checked to see if the VHS tape played fine on a TV, much to my shock, I discovered that it did. And that made the fact that it didn't play correctly through my video capturing software even odder than I'd originally thought. Why things should work on the TV and not through the video capturing software, who knows (especially when I tested other VHS tapes just to make sure it wasn't the software and they worked fine)? But anyway, the phone video is fine enough, through the image does move a bit from side to side because holding a phone to shoot off of a TV screen isn't the steadiest of actions. But if I'm ever able to figure out how to get a better quality video, I'll just make a new version. But for now, here's what I shot:

Now, what gets even more interesting regarding the commercial, SG #75 indicated that "a new revised" version would "tentatively" air on Sci-Fi on 2-15 or 2-28. But guess what? That's right - I checked the VHS tapes from those dates and there's no SG commercial to be seen. Perhaps SG #76 will have an explanation for that. But the good thing is that I checked the entire VHS tapes for that period and what I did discover was two Lara Parker commercials had aired. So, I used my phone to also shoot video of those and I'll be sharing them as soon as I finish formatting them for the forum...

(ADMIN: Actual video has replaced the phone/TV video)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

And here are the other two commercials I discovered. And apparently I'd managed to perfect my technique of shooting off of a TV screen because these two are much steadier than the ShadowGram commercial.

First up, the commercial that actually ran on 2-15-96, Lara Parker hawking MPI's DS Vampires & Ghosts VHS tape compilation:

I suppose it's only fitting that Lara got to do that commercial considering that her "never-before-seen bonus interview footage" was never included on the release.    And something struck as I was just watching the video to make sure it plays correctly: as much as I've always loved the photo that appears on the video's sleeve, isn't it an odd choice given that only one of the characters depicted fits the bill as either a vampire or a ghost? The other three are something else entirely. 

And the second commercial that I discovered ran on 03-05-96, Lara promoting the '96 30th Anniversary Fest:

Given she's wearing the same clothes in both, apparently Lara shot both commercials on the same day...

(ADMIN: Actual videos have replaced the phone/TV videos)

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Continuing with February 1996's SG #75's CURRENT EVENTS - 1991 DS PERSONNEL section:

Last year and earlier this year I watched and recorded both seasons of The Invaders on MeTV. It's still on MeTV but they've moved it to 5am ET on Sundays. Though I suppose the downside of having it on at that hour only matters if someone wants to watch while it's actually on rather than recording it. It's starting over from the beginning starting on 12/27...