Discuss Dark Shadows
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Who here watched this back in the day (or since)?
posted by genplant29STAFFMOD on March 5, 2017 at 8:16 AM
Growing up, I think myself and pretty much every kid (and many adults) I knew regularly watched this neat series. I - and seemingly everyone - was crazy about it. My big brother and I used to play vampire (specifically "Barnabas Collins") with one another and put on our bathrobes and would take turns lying in a cedar chest that we'd take everything out of first, then the other one of us would close the lid (which had a click latch on it). I'll never forget the time dear big brother decided he wasn't going to let me out until I practically kicked the lid off first, and of course I also did a massive amount of loud hollering! He never pulled that on me again, as I got him in big trouble with our mom for nearly suffocating me. 
This past summer I came into possession of the Volumes 1-4 Dark Shadows DVDs sets. During the summer, it was truly addictive watching one episode after another. I still haven't yet gotten around to watching most of what's on DVDs set Volume 3, or any of Volume 4, but look forward to doing so. As I recall, there's something like 13 hours worth of episodes in each DVDs volume. So still lots more to watch. What all I have goes to some point during Spring or so of 1967. (Multiple more years of the series followed.)
Please check out the following list of titles and celebrities I've created TMDb threads for: https://www.themoviedb.org/list/118052
Reply by bratface
on March 17, 2018 at 5:17 PM
I used to watch it every day after school and loved it. It was so cheesy but that is what made it fun.
One of the things that confused me at the time was how a decent actress (Joan Bennett) could have deteriorated so much. But I was young and didn't realize that maybe at the time she was in the early stages of senility and needed the work?
One of my favorite scenes has to be the time when Barnabas and Victoria were supposed to be in the cemetery and the camera 'zoomed in' on a grave and when they moved you could see that the grass was actually a 'green carpet', so funny.
Reply by genplant29
on March 17, 2018 at 7:40 PM
Indeed, the series' campiness (which apparently was unintentional), and the off and on cheesiness, was for sure a large part of what made it so much fun and so addictive to watch and follow. Also the fact that it was a gothic soap opera, in which pretty much anything (including time travel) could happen. Nothing even remotely similar was being produced for daytime t.v. back then.
I agree about Joan Bennett. Her acting was decidedly bland in DS. Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was always the least interesting character or thing about the series for me.
Reply by genplant29
on January 23, 2023 at 11:50 PM
This thread hasn't seen the light of TMDb day in nearly five years, so I'll reactivate it, via this comment, to see if anyone currently on the message boards may have viewing recollections they'd like to share.
See also...
And
Reply by bratface
on January 24, 2023 at 12:05 AM
A little warning (lower the volume) on the first one would have been nice.
Boy, she was a scenery chewer!
Reply by genplant29
on January 24, 2023 at 12:09 AM
My mom, brother and I used to crack up watching Grayson Hall's OTT acting. lol
Reply by bratface
on January 24, 2023 at 1:24 AM
You know, she was nominated for an Oscar & a Golden Globe for Night of the Iguana!
Reply by Dedoc1967
on February 5, 2023 at 10:44 AM
Bratface, did Hall play the titular Iguana?
Reply by Dedoc1967
on February 5, 2023 at 10:49 AM
Funny, I loved Bennett. I knew she was a big star long before the show, but didn't really know who she was personally. She gave great face with her perpetually taciturn frown, and she seemed very theatrical without being over the top like some of the other actors. I found her extremely endearing and was sad to see the show generally moved past her after the first year. I also really enjoyed her line deliveries even if she did struggle frequently. You have to remember this was an older actress whose vision didn't allow her to read cue cards or teleprompter (as you can tell the younger ones awkwardly did), hence she struggled with pages of stilted dialogue to learn five days a week. Daytime is very hard if you don't have a photographic memory.
Reply by genplant29
on February 5, 2023 at 1:05 PM
For sure kudos to actors/actresses who can sufficiently remember and satisfactorily pull off new dialogue daily, five or so different times each week.