Darker Shadows

[Uncle Roger]

An interesting listing popped up on Amazon called Darker Shadows. It's a 52 page outline for a proposed DS revival from the late 1980's. It was rejected by Dan Curtis and seems to be different than the NBC series. The two authors listed are Lisa Morton and Scott Young. Their names mean nothing to me. But the cover also credits Ron Sproat, Violet Welles and Joseph Caldwell. However, it does mention Sam Hall, Gordon Russell or Art Wallace.
The price is relatively inexpensive, so I may just have to order it.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Yes, Scott Young proposed that as a direct sequel to the original series. There's a whole interview with Young in one of the DS Files books. I'd scan and post it if it wasn't for the fact that it's packed away while I'm having the ceiling replaced in my office because of a leak. But after the work is done (and I have no idea when that will be - Contracters!!  ) I'll scan/post it...

[dom]

Sounds fascinating. Looking forward to the interview, MB, and your opinion of the outline if you purchase it, Unc.

[ProfStokes]

Lisa Morton is a past president of the Horror Writers Association, a renowned expert on Halloween traditions and lore, and manager of the Iliad Bookshop  in Hollywood that was recently firebombed.  I can't believe I never heard of this project!  I've been seeing her at local meetings and gatherings over the past five years. That would have been something to chat about.

ProfStokes

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I'm pretty sure Lisa Morton's name doesn't come up at all in the DS Files interview and that Uncle Roger's post is the first time I'd ever heard of her involvement. But then maybe she didn't come onboard the project until after the interview was done.

Scott Young's interview is really quite interesting because he laid out exactly what he wanted to do, why he wanted to do it, and what original DS storylines he was going to ignore. Though it never surprised me that the project never went anywhere because DC didn't give him the rights. DC had always said that no one would ever revive DS unless it was him, he wasn't in any frame of mind to revive DS when Young proposed the project, and I'm sure we all remember how hard Brandon Tartikoff had to work to persuade DC to revive DS for NBC.

[patrickm]

I too hadn't heard of this project before, so looking on Amazon and seeing it was only like $6.30 + tax, I was like why not.

At only around 50 pages, it's a quick easy read but has lots of interesting tidbits. It's basicalliy in 3 parts ... the first is a short description of each of the characters. Part 2 is a short projected outline for first season of 21 episodes and a cliffhanger. Part 3 might actually be the most interesting ... it's copies of correspondence from various DS writers and DS alumni with some suggestions and what their level of interest in participating might be if the project goes beyond the development  stage.

Without giving too much away, the project includes some original characters with some new characters mixed in. it would have taken place nearly 20 years later after the original show ended. Prolly more along the lines of what Mark Perry is/was attempting to do with his interpretation a la DS Next Generation rather than what DC ultimately did only 3 years later ... a big budget retelling of the original DS.

I do believe had this project come to fruition, it was with the intent to bring back original actors. An example was Quentin not being involved in the story due to David Selby being committed to Falcon Crest at the time but that Quentin could be brought back later on. Also, a way was thought out to age Barnabas somewhat just in case Frid was willing to participate. Angelique was a major character in this reboot, so goes without saying, they would have wanted Lara Parker.

Won't give any more away, but do think it is a worthwhile addition to my DS collection.

P.S. The cover art is pretty cool ... It's a drawn reinterpretation of the House of Dark Shadows movie poster.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Prolly more along the lines of what Mark Perry is/was attempting to do with his interpretation a la DS Next Generation rather than what DC ultimately did only 3 years later ... a big budget retelling of the original DS.

That's because Scott Young wanted the rights to DS without DC's direct involvement, whereas the '91 DS totally involved DC's direct involvement and DC insisted the only way to bring DS back was to retell the original Barnabas story. And look how many times he used or tried to use that: the '91 series, the proposed film(s) based on the '91 series, a Fox pilot script, and he even wanted the potential WB series to adhere closely to it but he was outmaneuvered by John Wells and Mark Verheiden in that case.

P.S. The cover art is pretty cool ... It's a drawn reinterpretation of the House of Dark Shadows movie poster.

Though those drawings don't particularly flatter most of the character, do they?! 

[PennyDreadful]

Here's the interview with Scott Young from the DS Files Magazine mentioned by MB. I remember being intrigued by this back when I first read the interview in the 80's. There's a followup piece in one of the other DS Files which mentions the project didn't pan out and provides some details from the proposal, which I assume must have come from this treatment being offered on Amazon.

Here's the Scott Young interview...

[PennyDreadful]

And here's the followup article...

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Thanks so much for posting the articles, PennyDreadful.    At the rate my ceiling repair is moving (it's at a complete standstill), who knows when I would have been able to get to it?! 

[dom]

Thanks for posting this. Very interesting.

[Uncle Roger]

Received my copy of Darker Shadows. It's a very interesting read. Scott Young was an old friend of Jim Pierson, which explains how it got as far as it did.
The story picks up approximately twenty years after the Leviathan era. It ignores parallel time and all that came afterwards, which is not necessarily a bad thing. The most important developments are that Maggie has remained at Collinwood as Elizabeth's personal assistant/companion and David has married and left Collinsport.
Angelique seems to be the central character here. She has been sent back to hell for some reason. She returns to Collinwood with vengeance on her mind and her first target is Elizabeth. She is abetted by a sexy, swarthy chsrnamed  Anton Rakosi who may or may not be related to Magda and Sandor.
Maggie is attracted to a new employer at the cannery named Seth Martin. In an earlier draft, he was called BEN Martin which was just a little too cutesy. Seth is as nice a guy as Joe Haskell but, like all good Collinsport residents, he suffers from a curse. He turns into something that sounds like The Creature of The Black Lagoon. The only way to rid himself of the curse is to make the devil a counter offer.
David returns to Collinwood with his wife Susan, who functions as the ingenue here. The family likes Susan who is promptly seduced by Anton.
That's the basic set up for the first season. Definitely intriguing. But there are some continuity glitches that stick out. When we last saw Angelique in the present, she was Mrs. Rumson. She had become an acquaintance of the Collins family, if not an actual friend. Her utter ruthlessness needs to be explained better. A lot can happen in 20 years but everyone now seems to know the truth about Angelique and Barnabas.
And what about Barnabas? He's there but definitely a supporting character.
Most of the core cast appeared to be interested in signing on. They would need to recast David of course. But even Alexandra Isles expressed an interest, depending on the script.
But I think that the new characters would need to be played by recognizable tv names. DS alumni might not be enough to pull big ratings. Young William Devane would have the right amount of menace and sex appeal to play Anton. And Pamela Sue Martin or Heather Locklear would work as Susan.
Other characters would include Dr. Melissa Stokes, the daughter that no one knew about. She takes the place of Eliot and Julia, at least in the beginning.  There's also Armand, a white magician who is an ally against Angelique. The char description describes him as black but he sounds like a possible place holder for Quentin..
It's certainly an interesting set-up and it's nice to see an attempt to do something different.
The cover lists Diana Millay as a contributor. But, aside from a brief statement (My son is not an alcoholic!), I don't know what other input she had.
As Patrick mentioned earlier, the letters from the original staff and actors are great reading. TLATKLS wrote a brief sentence about the project and a paragraph touting Scrapbook Memories. The response from Sam Hall came from attorney Richard Blumenthal who later became the Attorney General here in Connecticut.
The big mystery is why it took so long to find out about this. It has a copyright of 2016 but wasn't printed until this year. Legal matters, I suppose.
It's on Amazon and it's reasonably priced. I do recommend it.

[dom]

Interesting. Thanks for posting all this.

[syoung]

Hi everyone...

It's a little strange to find out people have been discussing and writing about something I worked on so long ago. This same sort of thing happened a few years ago when I learned an unproduced TV script I wrote had been the topic of much discussion and writing for nearly 20-years. And now, last year I was contacted by a writer about this old Dark Shadows proposal and I happen across this forum to learn things like Darren Gross was looking to contact me over 20-years ago, and this proposal has been the topic of much discussion. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great! And I appreciate the fact that something I had my hands in has sparked so much interest, especially since I thought it was a completely dead topic. So, I've gone through this thread and have answered some of your specific questions and comments.

Specific replies:

Mysterious Benefactor: Regarding Reply #4, Lisa Morton isn't mentioned in the DS Files articles because they predate her involvement. The whole project was actually TWO attempts to launch a new DS project, not just the one. With the first attempt (mentioned in the DS Files articles), we didn't have any sort of storyline attached to the proposal. It was simply an attempt to gain the proper permissions from Dan Curtis to proceed ahead with developing something new for TV. When that failed, we came back two years later with a full blown proposal to launch a brand new continuation series based on Dark Shadows. That's where this outline (known in TV lingo as “the bible”) came from. Lisa is one of my oldest friendships (50+ years now!) and during the 80s we collaborated on many TV pilots and episodic scripts. I went to her and we spent nearly two months writing the original first draft of the First Season Story Projection, which was no easy task. I was on the phone constantly with Jim Pierson picking his brain on original series story details. Plus there was Frid's reluctance to express any sort of interest, not to mention his aging 20+ years. I know there are continuity issues from where DS left off in 1971 and where we picked up in this storyline, but they were minor enough that we felt they wouldn't ruffle too many feathers with the fans. Jim acted as our sounding board. I would throw an idea at him and ask if he thought we could get away with it since it didn't fit 100% into the original series canon.

patrickm: Regarding Reply #5, The “new” characters, like Dr. Melissa Stokes or Susan Collins or Anton Rakosi, were never meant to be filled by DS alum actors. And you hit the nail on the head about the involvement of David Selby. We didn't even talk to him when we were developing this proposal because he was busy playing Richard Channing over on Falcon Crest. Since I worked at Lorimar at the time, I knew how much he was making per episode, and I knew if this series idea got off the ground the producers would never have been able to buy him out so he could return as Quentin. The unspoken plan was if the show got off the ground and stayed on the air long enough, and if Falcon Crest ended, we would approach Mr. Selby at that time to try to woo him back into the Quentin Collins character.

Mysterious Benefactor: Regarding Reply #6, indeed we never wanted to go back to Square One and rehash the Barnabas origin story yet again. Curtis did it in the original series, then again in House of Dark Shadows. We wanted to follow what revival TV series of the time were doing, a la Star Trek: The Next Generation or The Brady's or Return to Mayberry, all of which brought the original series forward into the modern day. So, yes, it's much the same idea that Mark B. Perry decided to follow with his Dark Shadows: Reincarnation proposal.

Penny Dreadful: Regarding Reply #7, thank you for posting these articles/interviews. I had completely forgotten that we attempted to approach Mr. Curtis twice about a revival or reunion show, and re-reading those pages helped me sort out the memories and timeline.

Uncle Roger: Regarding Reply #11, your casting ideas are interesting, but I should point out that we wouldn't have been able to go after William Devane at that time, as he was a regular on Knots Landing. I addressed the continuity errors in an earlier reply, so won't repeat myself here. And the only reason it took so long for this to surface in book form on Amazon is that it was tucked away in an archival file cabinet for decades, pretty much forgotten. When I came across it, Amazon's self-publishing unit made it so easy to format and release that I couldn't resist putting it out there. However, in the roughly 7-years it was available on Amazon, it sold a whopping 17 copies, which is why I retired it last year. As for Diana Millay's involvement, she was a good friend that I had known by that time for several years. On one of her visits to L.A. we got together and I filled her in on what we were doing. She insisted on being in the loop throughout the process, whether or not we were developing a character for her to play. In the early drafts of the bible she offered quite a lot of valuable input on the storytelling, but it was all verbal via phone calls or sitting and talking over lunch. I took copious notes when she had anything to say, but none of her input could be called “writing,” which is why I opted to mention her as a story consultant only, which wasn't an issue for her in the least. Ultimately, she was like a cheerleader for us, keeping us going when we knew the odds were stacked against us.

Naturally, if anyone has more questions, please feel free to ask me at any time. Thank you all for keeping this topic alive all these years. I still think it's a little strange, but I'm not going to argue with anyone about it.

I'm a terrible proofreader these days, so please forgive any typos you might stumble over. All best wishes from Scott Young.

[Uncle Roger]

Thanks for the response, Scott. I would be interested in hearing your ideas for casting the new characters. I think that we would have loved to see an Angelique/Maggie catfish. Either with or without magic. Also, were there any plans to reintroduce Nicholas Blair?