OK, am I going out of my mind, or has the quality of Sci Fi's DS feed gone waaaayyyy below par???

I had the show on both yesterday and today.  Yesterday's viewing was very brief, but it looked, in the scene between Carolyn Loomis and Daniel in Angelique's room, as if someone had smeared brylcreem all over the camera lens (hmmm... maybe Buzz was visiting the studio that day?)  I don't remember this problem on my tape of that episode.

And on today's show, I noticed instantly that the feed looked grainy and washed out, compared to my MPI tape.  This was during today's second show, which is one of my favorite episodes in all DS, and I've viewed my own tape of it many times.   I found myself wondering whether the source material for the broadcasts is low grade copies of the masters rather than a higher quality thingamujig?

I know NAHSSINGK (bellowed with Magda Rakosi elan) about technical details of today's television broadcasts, but I notice that TV Land always maintains a high quality image when they run old shows, and I don't understand why Sci Fi can't do the same for DS.  I guess it may be the only Sixties show they are running now, so perhaps they just don't care anymore.  (Come to think of it, on TV Land's Bewitched marathon, one of the Dick Sargent era--ca. 1970 shows ran as a blurry, grainy film copy, where clearly no one had bothered to strike a new print of the episode for whatever reason.)

btw, when they were running that TACKY Stargate promo DURING the start of Act One, and acidic schmutz was belching all over Carolyn and Barnabas, I really felt the programmers were adding insult to injury!

Makes me profoundly grateful I don't rely upon Sci Fi for my DS viewing...

G.

Vlad!  I saw this topic a few days back, but stupidly thought you were talking about the Lara Parker flick, Race for the Devil.  I wish I had realized you were talking about Eye of the Devil; I'd have had a friend tape it for me.  I used to have a tape of it (from an AMC showing of many years ago, back when they aired movies without commercial interruption) but loaned it to a friend who never returned it, and who is no longer in contact.

Interestingly I have an old magazine (from around 1965) that has a publicity article on the making of Eye of the Devil, or 13 as it was then known.  When I finally got to see it, I thought it was a real gem.  Niven, Kerr, and Flora Robson all shine in their respective roles.  I thought David Hemmings and Sharon Tate were both remarkable in what they were given to do.  I think Tate had real promise.  It's a shame she met Roman Polanski and moved to Hollywood. I have a bizarre fondness for Tate's performance in Valley of the Dolls.  Edith Efron (the evil beeyotch who wrote a nasty article about Grayson in TV guide) interviewed Tate for an infamous Look magazine spread on Dolls and implied that Tate was a brainless bimbo.

So far as I know, Eye of the Devil is not available on video or DVD.  It's a pity, because I think it is a beautifully crafted film.  It is really a mood piece that evokes the inner power that lives within the Earth, and how people in traditional communities hold that power and the sacrifices they make to honor that strength and to allow their communities to survive.  It was of course far too thoughtful and unusual a film to achieve any real critical recognition, then or now.

I'll bet David Niven and Deborah Kerr wish this had become better known than Casino Royale, a fun fluffy film they did together shortly after this.

Best wishes,

Steve

Guys--it was the Sixties!!  Just have a look at old fashion mags from the period.  They seldom got into the really outrageous stuff on Dark Shadows, like the little pearls pasted under the eyelids, or the extra-curl false eyelashes.

The same goes for the hair.  I was just watching I Dream of Jeannie last weekend.  What went on with Barbara Eden's hairpieces on that show makes Angelique's PT 1970 hair look quite restrained by comparison!

I'm now totally confused about what topics belong here.  I would have thought this topic would have belonged on current chat?  I've basically given up trying to understand.  As dear Grayson once comment, "Who can figure anything?"  Definitely applies to these boards.

Love to all, Gothick

I actually love that dress because it is so HORRIFYING!

what is a hoot is that it was at least 3 years old at this point. She wore it in the infamous 1967 seance episode.

It's kind of like seeing Grayson's most horrible outfits from 1968 resurface in the Summer 1970 sequence.

Steve

You know, I used to know this Italian lady who absolutely adored this stuff that sort of began where blue cheese left off. I remember coming across her in the kitchen one afternoon slavering over a plate of this very odd looking substance that was a rather lurid shade of aquamarine crooning, "Rrrrotten cheese... theee more rrrotten eet ees, theee more I LUFF eet!"  It was like a scene in a Hammer film.

What you say about the current phase of Dark Shadows makes me wonder if I have something in common with Stella.  Some of my favorite moments on the show are still to come.  I think Parallel Time was a great concept and an ingenious solution to the logistical difficulties posed by having most of the central characters taking a 6 to 8 week hiatus from the series.  I personally feel that PT 1970 holds up better than 1840, which started out so well and then seemed to sort of unravel halfway through.

Definitely agree with you about Barn's obsession with entering the PT world.  I think we were supposed to be reading between the lines and presuming him to be in some sort of fugue state because of things going wrong with the drugs Julia was pumping into him. Sedative, anyone?  (which reminds me, one of my favorite lines in the entire series is coming up very shortly)

I'm very, very clear that I wouldn't want to be anywhere near enough to touch Barnabas or Julia with a barge pole at this point in real life. But I LOVE watching their antics on the Tube.  It is a strangely refreshing escape from the hijinks indulged in by some of my near and dear ones in RL.

Gothick

Hi Patti,

Joel Crothers played Joe Haskell, who was Carolyn's boyfriend when the series began in 1966.

When Tom and Chris were introduced, Joe was said to be related to their family as a cousin (presumably on his Mom's side?).

Well, you know how complicated these New England genealogies can get ...

As for Babs Steele's comment about Grayson, I can't recall exactly in which interview she said that; it might have been this glossy magazine that did a feature on the 1990 DS series--Fangoria, maybe?

Steve

Well, I would have thought that by now, one of my fellow Hall-o-holics would have duly noted the arrival of one of my absolute favorite characters on DS:

Schlachthaus Kommandant HOFFMAN!

aber ja!

Every time I watch these shows again, I'm so grateful to the DS gods (whichever ones dreamed up this idea) for giving us the chance to see Grayson playing something with such understated restraint.

As Hoffman, she is nothing less than "excruciatingly good" as Barbara Steele once stated of Grayson's work on the series.

I believe that a taste of Louis Edmonds' catlike characterization of PT Roger is coming up next week.  Can't wait!  I just adore the scene where he comments to Alexis that speaking of Angelique and Maggie in the same breath is like "comparing a sable to a mouse."  A wonderful line, wonderfully delivered by Big Lou.

Gothick