“I don’t understand any of it — or maybe I’m afraid to.”
She had these golden yellow protuberances all over her head, that was the first thing I noticed about her.
I mean, it’s called hair, obviously I know that now, but I was only three weeks old, and I didn’t know all the words for human components yet. I just liked the way that they fell around her face, these tiny tendrils, golden and moist, like she’d dominated a thousand jaundiced worms and made them cling to her head, shaking and sweeping every time she moved, always dancing, sighing in ecstasy at their chance to serve her. She looked like the queen of clotted fluids, empress of all the seeping things that pool in clumps. But she wasn’t, obviously. Not yet.
Hive leader Megan made some noises, and then Carolyn folded in the middle, and showed me the little bits of skull that humans keep in their mouths to kill small things. She moved her organs around to push air through her mouth, and she said, “How do you do, Alex?”
They were the sweetest organ noises that I’ve ever heard. They weren’t low and gristly like hive leader Megan’s or the customer creatures that moved around this space sometimes. Carolyn’s organ noises were like tiny burning animals, squeaking as they fell at my feet, charred and blistered.
I will always remember it. That was eight weeks ago, but I’ll never forget it, even if I live until July.
And then I picked up the ritual tool that I found in that crate. I don’t know what kind of people made it, or what dark dances they used it for, but I know a ritual tool when I see one. You don’t exist as an unclothed spark in a wooden box for thirteen ages without knowing a thing or two about rituals. I’ve seen them all.
Seriously. All of them. I have literally seen them all.
I held the wooden mask over my flesh mask, and I made a gurgling rushing sound as I moved towards her. And Carolyn screamed.
Oh my black goat of the woods with a thousand young, I can not even describe what that sounded like.
I’ve heard people scream since then, of course, but that’s the normal kind of screaming, like the stupid sheriff who defiled my room, when I came in darkness to obliterate him. His screams were the usual type, where it’s a sign that he accepts my dominance, and agrees that it’s natural and correct for me to snap all of the bones in his neck. That’s how screaming usually works.
But Carolyn’s screams were like burning ice shards buried under my skin. Carolyn’s screams were a dare, and a promise. She was asking to be hunted.
I know, that sounds super weird. I was too young to even know what that meant, and it’s not like she was saying it out loud or anything. Hive leader Megan didn’t even notice it was happening. But she knew what she was doing. She knew it and I knew it, and it was a furnace and a punishment, and later on that week, I stole her childhood skin and ran around her house, and I loved her, deep wells of night, how I loved her.
So I am not going to fuck this up tonight.
Barnabas knows that I’m supposed to be with her, that her destiny and mine are tangled in smoke and fiber. But he thinks it’s too soon, because the book has a timetable and a list of blood sacrifices and a seating chart.
So he’s sent her away, to a house on an island where he thinks I can’t find her, as if I don’t know how to use owls. I’m eleven weeks old, Barnabas. I know how to use owls.
Barnabas says that he knows more than I do, but how can he? He still uses a corticospinal tract to control his motor functions, which is old-fashioned and ridiculous. I’ve tried to explain to him in smells how stupid that is, and he acts like he doesn’t even notice.
So tear up the book, and Barnabas too; tear them both to pieces, and raise them from their graves. This is how it’s going to go down.
First, I’ll change into my true form, which is totally easy, now that I figured out I could just digest the soft furry meat pelt with my own acid spines while I’m tearing through it, thanks for not telling me that in the first place, Barnabas, you sure do know everything about being a titanic nth-dimensional nightmare god. And then I’ll squeeze through that patch of alt-space that I noticed in the lower atmosphere that’s been vibrating for a couple weeks now. The one behind the record store.
That should allow me to travel practically anywhere in the lower third of the nine realms under the Hach’ch’ch boundary, like for example maybe right outside the house where she’s staying, where I can force-generate a new pod-cycle in the bushes. Like a boss.
She’ll be alone in the house, so she’ll probably be doing some hobby that humans do to pass the time, when I’m not around to tell them what to do. Whispering, maybe, or gulping, or thinking about hiding places. Humans are always doing boring stuff like that.
But I’ll let her know that it’s time to relax and have fun, by breaking something in the room. I’ll push a painting off the wall, or shatter a doorframe, or maybe I’ll create stress fractures in the floorboards. Probably the painting, though. I don’t want to get her too excited, right away. We’ve got all night, we might as well take our time and enjoy it.
Then I’ll make the door blow open, and get some thunder and lightning going, so she knows I’m thinking about her. But I’ll be humming in the upper electrical frequencies, of course, because I don’t want to be rude.
Then I’ll kill the lights, to get her in a romantic mood, and break a couple windows. Or I might do it the other way around. Which way is cooler, darkness and shattering glass, or shattering glass and then darkness?
You know what? I’m not even going to decide that right now. I’ll just do whatever feels right at the time.
By that point, she’ll probably be super excited, knowing that I’m coming for her, and I don’t want to make her overheat while she’s still in her human body, so I’ll send one of my slaves in, to give her a drink, and say some lies with his mouth. Humans like that; it makes them feel at home.
But that’s all leading up to the best part — the dream. I’ll drone a dream straight into her consciousness, where I’ll tear all the lies to bleeding shreds, and drop them at her feet.
I was Joseph, I’ll tell her.
I was Alexander. I was Michael.
I am the new thing that is to come.
You will love me, just the way that I am,
and I will love you, just the way that you will be.
And then I’ll show her how my hands are still dripping with her father’s warm blood.
You know what’s the coolest thing? Nobody even told me how to do this; I figured it out by myself. This kind of next-level lovecraft comes naturally to me.
And after that? No more tricks, no more words. Just me, and the girl I love, as I gently take control of her lymphatic system, and turn her blood into poisonous gas.
Monday: Universal Monsters.
Dark Shadows bloopers to watch out for:
Angelique asks Carolyn and Liz, “Would any of you — either of you like anything?”
On the phone, Jeb asks Liz, “You know what I — who I am, don’t you?”
At the end of his call, Jeb tells Liz, “You will not tell anyone that Mrs. Johnson called.” She responds, “Yes, I understand, Mrs. Johnson.”
Liz assures Carolyn, “You won’t be along — alone for long.”
After Liz drives away, a music cue starts up and then suddenly fades away as the scene cuts to Carolyn inside.
Don’t you have to take a ferry or a helicopter to get off Little Windward Island? Angelique and Liz both drive off in separate cars, as if they’re going to drive to the airport and Collinwood, respectively. If they’re just driving to the dock to catch the ferry, then whose car is Liz driving? And how does Jeb get to Sky’s place, in his monster form?
Julia had to make a copy of “A View from South Wales,” to replace it on the wall of Sky’s drawing room. Today, there’s a different painting in that spot. Maybe it was switched out because the painting falls down, and they didn’t want to damage “South Wales,” just in case they use it again?
When Carolyn tells Sky, “I had the most frightening dream,” someone coughs in the studio.
Why does Carolyn lie down on the bed and go to sleep fully clothed? She even has shoes on; you can see them when she gets up to close the windows.
The shutters banging in the wind don’t match the banging sound effect.
Monday: Universal Monsters.
— Danny Horn
Dark Shadows Every Day 
That’s just beautiful, Danny.
I have heartily LOLed at many, many of these dark entries but this must be the actual apex. Bloody sublime. My flesh-mask contorted and writhed and became the semblance of the facial symbol that humans call a ‘grin’, and my air-sacs emitted air in a barking sound like that of the primaeval hyena. What can this mean?
You’re a hyena.
This is your Nobel winner Danny!
Actually, there’s many. Right up there with the one written in Professor Speech, one of my persfaves.
I knew it would be great when the mpov vibe was apparent.
Danny, your virtual mantelpiece has now run out of room.
Gotta buy another house.
Is it too late to contact the Nobel Prize committee? I mean, it’s not like Dylan seems remotely interested in his prize, so I think you should get it, Danny !
I had wondered about the access to Little Windward Island back when Barnabas and Julia were plotting to get Carolyn there, when Julia was supposed to say that the car had broken down (presumably right outside the Rumson estate). I decided that there must be a bridge or causeway that gave access, or perhaps (like Collins Isle in the comic book) you could just walk there at low tide.
And maybe Jeb has developed teleportation skills now that he’s in adult form.
And maybe the Rumsons have spare cars for guests.
And maybe the Rumsons didn’t want to display a crappy copy of a C. D. Tate masterpiece.
And maybe Carolyn knew she was going to have a dream sequence, and wanted to be sure it wouldn’t be one of those “…oh, no, I’m in front of everyone in my UNDERWEAR!” dreams.
And maybe that’s a different set of shutters banging. It’s a big house.
And maybe everyone needs to memorise their lines, or they need to make the print on the teleprompter much, much bigger.
And maybe they need to look and see where the music cues actually go.
And maybe they need to have big bowls of cough drops all over the studio, because the coughing thing happens A LOT!
Or maybe they wanted us 10 year old boys to get the thrill of looking up Carolyn’s skirt.
We did.
Frankly she was in front of everyone in her undies anyway! When she falls back and hits her head that’s a full upskirt shot, and the other ones where she’s lying down they have to shoot her foot just right to block her personal area. She would have been better off in a giant Maiden In Distress Victorian nightdress.
I’d like to be in a band called Next-Level Lovecraft.
“I’m eleven weeks old, Barnabas. I know how to use owls.”
It’s killing me to know I’ll never be able to work that into a conversation. This is, indeed, a monsterpiece of a blog entry.
Barnabas is the absolute worst father figure to all the young monsters in his charge. At least Jeb will never know the ignominy of the babysitter taunting him with a chicken drumstick.
As I was reading through this I could actually hear the voice of a young Chris Pennock Jebologuing this with all his headstrong petulance.
I was reminded of a scene from the audio drama Return to Collinwood where Sebastian Shaw (Chris Pennock) shows up at the Old House and raps on the door repeatedly with the silver knocker much to the annoyance of Jessica Loomis (Marie Wallace):
[Two double knocks on the front door]
Jessica Loomis [approaching]: I heard you the first time!
[Another single knock]
Jessica: Oh, zip it, already! I’m comin’.
[Sound of front door being opened]
Jessica: Hey there.
Sebastian Shaw: Hello.
Jessica: You got a thing for knockin’ on doors?
Sebastian: I like the sound… metal on metal!
Jessica: Okay… that’s fantastic. How can I help you?
Sebastian [swallows anxiously]: I need something.
Jessica: You and me both. Are you selling something? Who are you?
Sebastian: I am the arm of The Mistress.
Jessica [sharply]: What?
Sebastian [matter of factly]: I am the sword she wields.
Jessica [dubiously]: Yeah. Uh, time for you to go.
Sebastian: You have something… [sound of door being jerked violently by the knob] I need.
Jessica: Hey! Hey let go of the door.
Sebastian: She sees everything!
Jessica: Get out! Get… [sound of scuffling footsteps] Let go of me!
Sebastian: She will not Be DENIED! [sound of door slamming shut behind him]
Jessica [frightened]: No! Ahhh-Uuuh-Ahhh-Uuuuh-Ahhhh!
‘Jebaloguing’ should totally be the title of the first EP released by Next-Level Lovecraft.
Also, this reminds me that i still don’t own Return to Collinwood. Amazon, here i come!
Yours sincerely, a Hyena.
Oh, dear. More stains on the floors; and we know Angelique is just no good at cleaning those!
Nice to see Bill Malloy getting work again.
Red Red Wiiiiiine…..
RE: “You know what I — who I am, don’t you?”
Are we sure that’s a “blooper”? I mean, maybe it’s not the actor’s blooper, but the character Jeb’s “blooper” being performed correctly by the actor, letting it slip that he’s not human. Then again, I haven’t gone back to watch this again, and maybe the fact that it really is a blooper is more obvious in context.
You stole what I was about to write. I think it was ad lib, and a pretty good joke.
Same with Liz and “Mrs Johnson.”
Hey, Danny: Completely off the current topic, but–seeing that there will be holiday interruptions in the schedule ahead, and you’ve only got one more episode of the reboot series, could we persuade you to do entries on House of and Night of Dark Shadows? Would love to hear what you have to say . . .
Would love to hear Danny on HODS.
Not trying to stir things (there have already been PLENTY of comments on this), but perhaps an entry on the 2012 film? I have not actually seen it, and the sense I get from this blog is…how do I put it…unenthusiastic. But as DS91 has been discussed, perhaps a foray into the ‘reimagining’ (UGH, how I hate that word!) is possible?
PS I do intend to see the film; as soon as I empty the dishwasher… 😀
PPS in weblog time, the 2016 holidays are coming; but in Dark Shadows time, it is February of 1970, no pre-emptions scheduled. (And whenever you read this is, of course, NOW.)
I would love to take a somewhat “objective” fan view of the 2012 film. There are things it gets horribly wrong (Julia from start to finish) but Depp’s Barnabas is preferable in many ways to Cross’s. He seems legitimately engaged with the Collins family. And Angelique’s vendetta with the Collins plays out fairly well.
I have very mixed feelings about the 2012 film myself — I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it, either. Actually, my absolute favorite thing about it is a slight and fairly subtle nod to the original Laura storyline. [SPOILER ALERT for those who haven’t seen the movie yet.] During one of the dining room scenes, Dr. Hoffman notes that young David Collins believes his late mother possesses “some sort of cyclic immortality.” At the very moment she’s saying those words, the camera focuses on David with a fireplace intensely blazing in the background. It would mean absolutely nothing to viewers not familiar with the original show, but it was a real “Easter-egg treat” to devotees like us! I only regret that the movie didn’t follow through with it as effectively as it could have, such as by having the “Laura spectre” use fire against Angelique during the climax — but, then again, since they were already surrounded by fire in that scene, perhaps Tim Burton et al. felt it would have been redundant.
I watched it up through the montage scenes to the Carpenters’ “Top of the World.” Had to turn it off when Johnny Depp – as Barnabas giggled – Frid would never be caught DEAD giggling.
It’s unsafe for me to say it here, but….
I like the Burton film, a lot, and I own it, too.
And I don’t compare acting performances.
The film is just a much different kind of animal.
Danny’s review of the 2012 film points out exactly what it gets wrong, and what it gets right. Things start out promising and then it falls apart and becomes nothing more than bloody, escalating action. What they do with Julia is totally misogynistic, disrespectful and horrible. Other than that, enjoy.
Once we get to Parallel Time and the cast thins out I suspect we’ll start hearing about HODS. Its production and release, I would think, is integrated into the overall progression of the Dark Shadows phenomenon so hearing about it now might be a little premature. But Danny’s timing on posts about show vs. phenomenon has been unimpeachable thus far so I patiently wait.
Yes, I will definitely be writing about HODS, NODS and the 2012 film. I’ll even do the 2004 WB pilot, if someone can find a copy of it. There’s only one more 1991 episode left, and a bunch of pre-emptions to fill. I might even cover some of the later comic book series if I’ve got extra time towards the end. My goal is to say everything that I have to say about Dark Shadows by episode 1245.
The one thing that I am absolutely not doing, just to clarify — I am not going to write about the 1966 pre-Barnabas episodes. We are only traveling forward into the future, like some sort of a carriage ride.
Well, I won’t say I’m not disappointed with this (and I will guess there are other readers to share the sentiment); I enjoy your insights, analysis, and (most of all) your humour, and hoped to have them applied to those early days of DS (which, I know, WAS a very different show before ‘the box’ was opened). But I am here for the ride, wherever it goes, and will trust to your judgement in the cartography.
But, on a completely different subject, I found this chandelier crystal over in the East Wing, I’d like you to have a look at it…isn’t it beautiful? You know, every piece of crystal has an exact center, look at the crystal, try and find the center, the exact center…(yawn)…look deeper…’n deep’r…see’f yuh…c’n…Zzzzzzzzzz…Zzzzzzzzz…
I thought the show really began to define itself once Vicki was kidnapped by Matthew; the supernatural stuff had really begun. The Laura storyline was the first full-throttle storyline and I found it to be really interesting. I think it was what truly saved the show at first. ABC decided to cancel the DS lead-in soap, The Nurses. It could have cancelled DS instead, but I think the execs saw that the supernatural stories DS was beginning to feature were worth the gamble.
“…full-throttle supernatural storyline” I meant to say.
Despite being given an initial run of 26 weeks, the show was going to be cancelled after 13 weeks due to poor ratings. So that’s when Dan Curtis decided to “pull out all the stops” and bring a ghost on. This was for episode 70, broadcast on the last day of September 1966, the Friday of the show’s thirteenth week. Then the ratings “shot up”. According to writer Malcolm Marmorstein, it was the Phoenix story that got the show renewed once again.
So, without those supernatural touches in the pre-Barnabas episodes, the show never would have even made it to April 1967.
There is only forward. As we all know, going back into the past is only worthwhile if you can change things, and make different people commit suicide.
Yes, of course, you’re right. 🙂 One has to write about what moves one.
Perhaps I’ll start a blog to cover those episodes. I could call it “Dark Shadows: Forever Yesterday”. Or “Dark Shadows: 1966 to 1967 and Back Again”.
Great idea! I’m all for it.
Good idea. I’m overdue for trip to the early days.
I love Laura’s first visit. In some ways, it’s Dark Shadows at its creepiest. The first Laura was scary. She blew into town like a wayward ember.
I was kind of joking, actually… but, then again, maybe not. 🙂
I mean, I’d love to read such a blog myself, something really comprehensive and complete. So, if the mountain won’t come to so and so… And, hey, two potential readers/commenters to start with, well, that’s quite a plus! 🙂
I’m warming to the idea more and more. Would have been better to have started something like this to coincide with the 50th anniversary, so that those early days could have been covered in real time, according to an identical calendar. But, again, I feel they’re timeless, so what does that matter?
You know, I was really enjoying The Dark Shadows Diary that Cousin Barnabas had going over at The Collinsport Historical Society, where those early episodes in particular were being highlighted, and was really disappointed to find that this blog was not finished — it didn’t even get to episode 100.
I’ve recently discovered my built-in computer Snipping Tool for screen shots, which I’ve been adding to Dark Shadows Wiki. I own a copy of Art Wallace’s story bible, Shadows on the Wall, and the out-of-print collector’s item Dark Shadows: The First Year. I even have a hand-crafted book of 41 of Sy Tomashoff’s official set blueprints. And, no matter how many times I see these episodes, and I view them religiously, especially when doing research for Dark Shadows Wiki, I never tire of them. Instead, I only marvel at the emotional complexity, the marvelous noir-like atmosphere.
So, well, I’ll have to try and write something on an early episode, see if I can do it. Thanks for the encouragement! 🙂
Yes Yes Yes!
Oh please write a Dark Shadows ’66 blog!
I am so curious about all those pre-Barnabas episodes and only have faint memories of a few of them. It would be fascinating to read how the story evolved up to Willie and his decision to go grave robbing.
As a matter of fact I have been brainstorming on the idea (it was actually something I’ve been pondering for a while). I even have a working title for the prospective blog (“Dark Shadows: From the Beginning”).
Right now, I’ve ordered some more books to research, including cast member biographies, so it’ll be a few months at least.
I picture, that in addition to screencap photos, posts would include as well animated GIFs, so that these early episodes can really be celebrated and come alive in all their noirish glory!
So, sometime in 2017…
too funny, Danny, and that on such a laurel-filled day.
And probably no Passions.
bahahaha…seconded.
sorry ,this comes out nowhere near the comment it refers to, and you can’t edit. It’s to John E.Comelately’s original comments here regarding sadness over the early episodes not being covered, and his total enjoyment of all aspects of the blog, and being along for the ride and trusting your judgement.
What if we start a GoFundMe page for you to cover the pre-Barnabas episodes…everyone has their price.
Back in June, I decided to start watching the show from the very beginning–50th anniversary and all that, plus the june1966/june2016 calendars aligned. Originally I thought I’d watch one episode each weekday, just as it was originally transmitted, but was too hard not to binge-watch, so now I’m near the end of the Laura storyline.
ha ha, good idea. I’m in.
@ Danny re: carriage ride. Körkarlen?
Re ratings, I’m not sure how quickly they were made available back in the 1960s, especially for a daytime soap. Did they even break them down on a daily basis for shows that aired 5 times a week? So I’m a little leery about claims that one episode – the Friday of the 13th week! – somehow saved the show; I’m sure the ratings climb had to be more gradual. (Malcolm Marmorstein has some interesting things to say on the DVD interview extras, but I’m never too sure he’s giving the full story).
I’ve wondered about that myself, how often besides the quarterly Nielsen sweeps periods they had access to ratings. However, it’s always known how well a World Series or Super Bowl does for ratings, and these events are outside the Nielsen periods. And when the final episode of MASH aired, it was known exactly how the ratings stacked up against, say, the average Super Bowl broadcast.
So they must have had some feedback at the time. Speaking of the DVD interview extras, Robert Costello (for disc 16) says regarding the first foray into the supernatural with Josette appearing in episode 70: “…the reaction from the audience was so great, and we, actually our reaction to it was so great, we just think we found our niche in this thing. So we began to play more with the weird and the spooky, and the story unfolded and more and more we led into Barnabas Collins….”
I may have been mistaken about the cancellation after 13 weeks; from the interview with Leonard Goldberg (following episode 502), head of ABC daytime who Dan Curtis pitched the idea to, Goldberg says how Curtis came to see him after the show had been going through its initial run and that he told Curtis that the numbers weren’t good and the show would have to be cancelled; so Curtis told him “then let me take the lid off” and “let me really push the envelope” and since there was nothing to lose he told Goldberg “let me do these next 13 weeks the way I want to do it.” So this implies that Curtis would have had the 26 weeks he was promised at the outset no matter what. Actually, 13 weeks (91 days) from June 27, 1966 was Monday, September 26 — so 13 full weeks of programming had already elapsed as of the previous Friday. Curtis wasted no time in changing the story around and turning to the supernatural to kick off the next 13 weeks. And, of course, the show was renewed 13 weeks later, by which time the Phoenix story was in full swing.
That the word was out by the first 13 weeks that the show was going to be cancelled was confirmed by Dan Curtis (DVD extras interview following episode 644), and he also refers to a sudden ratings boost as a result of the ghost of Josette appearing from the portrait at the Old House in episode 70: “The first day that the ghost appeared, the ratings shot up.”
So they must have had some idea how the show was doing beyond just the Nielsen periods, although I’ve never been able to locate (online) these apparently more specific sources.
I do wish we knew for certain, but Dan Curtis made many conflicting statements about the show from time to time.
out of interest, does anyone know the comparative levels of ratings between when the show was first threatened to be cancelled, and when it actually WAS cancelled?
For the 1965-1966 season, Dark Shadows had a 4.1 share and for the 1966-1967 season a 4.3 share — the average daytime rating for ABC at that point was a 6 share. It’s worth noting that four other soap operas from the 1965-1966 season, two with 3.9 ratings and two with 4.1 ratings, were cancelled after just one season.
The “current” season (that is, 1969-1970 season) had a 7.3 share (equal to its 1967-1968 season), but the 1970-1971 season would see the show having dropped to a 5.3 share.
The source article is “List of U.S. daytime soap opera ratings” as compiled by Nielsen Media Research”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._daytime_soap_opera_ratings
Thanks, that’s interesting. They cancelled it when it wasn’t far below average and much higher than it was at the point when they decided to continue it. I sometimes wonder whether Dan Curtis was involved in the decision to cancel.
Whenever the library makes me return one I haven’t finished, I break out the First Forty,
Cuz that’s all I own from then. I love the clarity of black and white videotape, I love VW playing a much smarter and happier person, and I adore early Carolyn and Maggie….KLS played smarter and happier, too. And Mitch Ryan.
And camera angles! At the very start they bothered to do all these interesting shots and angles.
Interesting thread re: ratings. I tend to go with the belief that they didn’t know specifics regarding ratings for individual episodes or even weeks beyond the network execs. Recently read the 3 seasons of “These are the Voyages” detailing behind the scenes of Star Trek, and they were kept pretty much in the dark about ratings and specifics. Basically the whole “low rated” mythology about Trek was just that-a myth. The execs kept the ratings from actors and producers, and both had much less leverage then in negotiating money etc.
Yes, that’s my point. I’m sure they had ratings for individual primetime shows (weeks later), but for individual episodes of a 1960s daytime drama? One that’s not even carried then by all of ABC’s affiliates? I’m tending to doubt that.
So now we hear the ratings “shot up” with the introduction of a ghost… and later a phoenix… but we’ve also heard that the show was on its way to cancellation before the appearance of the vampire. That all can’t be true. What I’ve heard is that yes, ratings went up the more they went with the supernatural, but it still wasn’t enough to justify continued renewals until Barnabas came out of the box.
Monsterkid1963 (a very good year, I might add!), it’s hard to really know all the specifics about ratings from that period (1966 – 67), but here’s something to ponder…
In early 1967, ABC had three soaps on the air: General Hospital, The Nurses, and Dark Shadows. GH was actually doing well in the ratings, and The Nurses was a logical show to follow GH; it should have held over most of GH’s audience.
DS was finishing up its third quarter by the end of March of ’67 with so-so ratings, yet it was doing a little better than The Nurses. ABC canned Nurses and moved Dark Shadows up into The Nurses’ time slot (3:30 p.m. Eastern).
The Nurses had been on the air approximately a year when DS began. I think it’s fair to say that ABC must have seen enough growth in the ratings of DS to warrant renewing it for another quarter and ax The Nurses. During the third quarter (January – March 1967), DS presented the story of the phoenix, so I think it’s a good assumption that this particular storyline was responsible for a fourth quarter renewal. By the end of the fourth quarter (April – June of ’67) the Barnabas story was in full swing (Barnabas having kidnapped Maggie), and the rest is history.
It might just have been Manhattan ratings. I can imagine dailies from those newfangled boxes from the future, being submitted by a scientifically(snort!)
Chosen Few in New York City.
Danny’s review of the 2012 film points out exactly what it gets wrong, and what it gets right. Things start out promising and then it falls apart and becomes nothing more than bloody, escalating action. What they do with Julia is totally misogynistic, disrespectful and horrible. Other than that, enjoy.
I’d just like to second… err.. third… um… twenty-sixth the notion of a ‘darkshadowsthebeginningeveryday’ blog (though perhaps with a less unwieldy title!). I’d certainly read it.
Of course, now I have to buy the rest of em, The Beginning.
They’re not at my library Dammit.
Yes, I’m all in, POTN.
It’s like the two best worlds.
I also think a blog covering the early months of Dark Shadows could be very entertaining as well as highly informative.
I’m actually watching these early episodes with my younger brother, who was surprised to learn that Josette and the Old House weren’t story elements invented for the Barnabas plotline.
We just got up to the death of Dr. Guthrie, and lately it’s been a series of firsts: the first seance, the first opening of a grave… stuff that would later occur with clock-like regularity! 😀
Yeah, that was my surprise, about Josette being a character as original to the show as VW and Maggie, and core Collinses, even Burke…..she hadn’t heard of that old Barney yet!
Yes, I thought it was rather clever of the writers to incorporate Josette’s story, which was already broadly hinted at (such as being one of the Widows Hill suicides) from the start of the show with Barnabas’s story, so that by sending Vicki into the past they could kill the proverbial two birds with one stone: two important “origin stories” for the price of one. And introducing Angelique to boot. A real game-changer, that.
I can’t believe this. I was looking for The Beginning on my library website, and they didn’t have it. So, on a Halloween Chance, I requested it. Yesterday.
Today, on the site, it shows that they now have three sets On Order.
It’s like….I knew the secret magic number of the library system.
All things are now possible.
okay, hysterical, John E Comelately, and Danny, you’re on an exquisite roll. but, quibble as it is, i just want to point out. “At the end of his call, Jeb tells Liz, “You will not tell anyone that Mrs. Johnson called.” She responds, “Yes, I understand, Mrs. Johnson.”” is NOT a blooper. that was the correct way to relay to her what he wanted her to say, and she grasped it. this has been done in film many times. it’s a standard trope.
They’ve figured out how to make Pennock look like a good actor: put him in an episode with Geoffery Scott.
Nancy Barrett does a very good job of portraying Carolyn at the very end of her rope.
Angelique’s outfit is particularly flattering.