Forbidden Fruit

[Mysterious Benefactor]

The thrill of watching DS when it was forbidden. But obviously the real appeal of the show is lost on this person. 

Check out: she treads softly: Forbidden Fruit

[Taeylor Collins]

Blah!  Fooey on her! Of couse it is her right.   

[Gothick]

There was a lengthy period when I also had to watch DS in secret because my Mom decided it was too gruesome and too violent and I shouldn't be watching it (the episode where Cassandra's hand was turned into a fleshless, skeletal horror actually gave my sister nightmares).  Watching it became my first act of rebellion against parental authority.

G.

[Taeylor Collins]

GO GOTHICK!

[michael c]

and dressing up as cassandra for halloween was your second act of rebellion.

[Nancy]

My mother had concerns about me watching Dark Shadows though she finally gave in.  I argued and whined until I got my way.  I wish I could say that at the tender age of nine that was my first act of rebellion but, alas, it was not.   I told Mom (and Dad) that they wanted me to read the Bible for church school and I found just as much violence, if not more, in that sacred book.  That's how I won the argument.

[Janet the Wicked]

Heh. Why am I not surprised?

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I told Mom (and Dad) that they wanted me to read the Bible for church school and I found just as much violence, if not more, in that sacred book.  That's how I won the argument.

That was a brilliant tactic! 

My parents never objected to me watching DS. In fact, my mom almost always watched it with me. On the other hand, my father hated it when I watched Lost In Space because he hated Dr. Smith. Go figure. Murder, mayhem and/or Satanic rituals/sacrifices were fine - but apparently a cowardly screw-up really set a bad example.  

[Taeylor Collins]

LOL  Cute story MB!  And also Nancy, I must commend you as well on that tactic.  Being a child of regular church attendance I never thought of that one.  I consider myself a spiritual person but don't get into religious dogma!  There was only one time when my parents said something about DS and it was about the Revival.  During the summer of 1991 while awaiting the upcoming second season (that would never come)   I would say I watched the series about 10, maybe 15  times.  They told me I had to quit for a few weeks as they felt I was getting obsessed.   Perhaps they were right??  My love affair with Dark Shadows has been going 18 years strong!!

[MagnusTrask]

My father hated anything with imagination, and might have banned most shows I watched if my mother had let him get away with it.  It wasn't on religious grounds.   He approved of religion but wasn't religious himself, being one of those people whose egos were just too large to worship anything supposedly greater.

[Pansity]

My parents never objected to me watching DS. In fact, my mom almost always watched it with me. On the other hand, my father hated it when I watched Lost In Space because he hated Dr. Smith. Go figure. Murder, mayhem and/or Satanic rituals/sacrifices were fine - but apparently a cowardly screw-up really set a bad example.  

LMAO!  Maybe Dr. Smith just got on his nerves!  I know he annoyed the heck out of me as a kid! (On the other hand, Jonathan Harris, rest his soul, was a very friendly funny guy who told great stories and loved hanging out with the Volunteer Squad.)

I never had any objections raised to watching DS as a kid either.  My grandmother (who was the one home with me raising me -- my mother was widowed when I was very small and went to work) had no problem with it.  She's the one knew about Joan Bennett from being a fan of hers in the 30s, and filled me in on that stuff.   Only comments I remember her making were about liking the way Mr. Frid and Mr. Selby spoke (she was English, so I think she caught the intonations in both their accents).  She also never complained when I played the "Quentin's theme" track of the DS album for HOURS at a time.

My mother, on the other hand, bears all the blame for getting me interested in Science Fiction.  Back in those dim dark days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and people only had ONE TV set, it was her fault I was raised on Twilight Zone, Outer Limits , Chiller Theater, Universal and 50s horror movies, Alfred Hitchcock Presents.   You get the idea. If it was Science Fiction or Horror and was on TV, we watched it. Yet she never understood what I saw in Trek fandom....  Funny thing is, she never saw DS -- and I can't get her to watch my DVDs now -- because she hates history (yes, I'm a changeling  ).  Yet she does know who Barnabas and Angelique are.

Come to think of it, I don't remember being really scared by anything on DS except Count Petofi.  Think it was the whole concept scared me, or maybe it was the creepy floating hand....  The only horror thing I DO remember being scared by was some Boris Karloff movie which was the 2nd half of a double feature my grandmother took me to.  I think I was about 5, and the opening scene, where someone cut the heart out of a body, had me hysterical and we had to leave.  Oh, and Carnival of Souls, I just remembered before hitting send.  The ghosts haunting the driver of the car in the spooky amusement park creeped me out.

Jeannie

[dom]

No parents at home. I could watch anything I wanted to, and had all of 13 channels to choose from (and some of them were snowy channels), lol. I used to drape towels and blankets over the windows to make it totally dark while I watched DS. It's brought up at every family gathering. 

[Mysterious Benefactor]

I used to drape towels and blankets over the windows to make it totally dark while I watched DS.

Wish I'd thought of that.    But then, did you write and produce your own original DS stories/audio tapes, complete with actual DS soundtrack music AND the sounds of splashing waves courtesy of sometimes (whenever appropriate) recording in the bathroom and having someone splashing water in the bathtub?    Though no one mentions that at family gatherings because only my friends back then and I know I did it - my family still remains clueless. 

[Taeylor Collins]

Me and my cousins made several DS movies. They are a fun to watch.  I love working in video editing so they were actually pretty good...the last one was the best.  We also did three Bionic movies which are so fun to look back on! The final one we did include a large cast.  I had all my friends in on it, not just family. We had a production schedule and worked one full week 8 am to 5 pm every day!  One of the best fight scenes took a whole day to shoot!  I plan to upload it to youtube as soon as I get it reedited.  I will alert you all when it's uploaded. Its a bout 13 years old and the tape isn't looking so good.  I am gonna get a second DVD burner and do it all digital this time so it will be in good condition for generations to come. Those were the days.....

[MagnusTrask]

When you're young and have all that enthusiasm and imagination going, milk it for all it's worth, I say.   Friends and I did attrempted comedy on audiotape when I was 12-17 or so, and some of it's funny still, to me anyway.   When I was supposedly far too old for it, I participated in Doctor Who fan video parodies.   My acting was bad and I didn't get to write enough on them...