Dark Shadows has arrived!

[Daniel Avery]

If they had known they were going to be doing all the time jumps and dipping into family history as much as they ended up doing, Dan Curtis would have benefitted from sitting down and writing a "Collins family history" and using it to anchor the stories and help with all the foreshadowing. But who are we kidding? They were making it all up as they went along (during the commercial breaks!) and we still love it, warts and all.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think Naomi's tomb said that she died 1830-ish but of course she poisoned herself in 1796.

After Vicky came back from 1795 and was trying to piece together what had happened to her, she visited the secret room in the mausoleum with Julia and Jeff "I'm NOT Peter" Clark. Even then, the mausoleum set still had the original plaque hanging there saying NC died in 1826. You'd think they would have just pulled it down if replacing it with a proper date was too expensive. It was prominently displayed on the door to the secret room.

In my effort to square these goofs in my mind, I recall how Joshua proclaimed he would make sure the family history reflected what he wanted people to know, not what really happened (such as saying Barn went to England and cutting out all references to Angelique). Perhaps he went the extra step of obscuring the date of Naomi's death to make it look like she quietly died of old age. Of course that's just advanced fan-wank and not something those writers would have wasted a second on.

 

[darkshadows38]

other shows did this as well Doctor who is one of them that also has been doing it for years, but i think it was during either the Steven Moffat years or the Russel T. Davis years i forget which one that would pay more attention than normal though i will say that Johnathon Nathan Turner also did try that as well

 

[tommie]

After Vicky came back from 1795 and was trying to piece together what had happened to her, she visited the secret room in the mausoleum with Julia and Jeff "I'm NOT Peter" Clark. Even then, the mausoleum set still had the original plaque hanging there saying NC died in 1826. You'd think they would have just pulled it down if replacing it with a proper date was too expensive. It was prominently displayed on the door to the secret room.

I think it's worth remembering that people watched this show on small screens, with grainy resolution and most still in black-and-white. So unless they actually focused on her plaque the odds of people noticing (or for that matter even being able to read it!) were incredibly low. They also had no rewind button, so even if they did notice they'd be like "hey did that say---" and move on.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Solution: Naomi's excessive drinking prior to her death allowed her to appear well-preserved enough for Joshua just to prop her up in a chair in the corner of the drawing room for another twenty years. No one was rude enough to say anything (especially Naomi).

 

[darkshadows38]

the cast also has plenty of good laughs on the stuff that did make it on the air too the flubs that were made i mean since they were only able to do one take i mean they did rehearse for each episode but actors make mistakes, Frid would swear sometimes so they than were forced to do another take but they would do another take sometimes other than that but it was quite expensive back than. iv'e seen threads about the collinwood fly that shows up in some episodes

 

[Daniel Avery]

Oh, I saw a guest appearance from Mr. Fly just the other night!

 

[darkshadows38]

ya know he was in so many episodes it's a wonder how none of them slapped it to kill it i dunno if i could do that ya know?

 

[Daniel Avery]

He had a very good agent.

In addition to Mr. Fly's frequent appearances, I was always amused by the frequent use of a certain quilt/afghan as set decoration. Most frequently seen slung across the back of the sofa at Maggie Evans's cottage, it nevertheless would show up in other places (Ferncliff, Dr. Lang's), even other times (it was seen on three different sets during the 1795 story). Maybe they missed a good story point by writing that Maggie's time-traveling afghan was cursed and that no matter how they tried to destroy it, it kept turning up in other places.

 

[tommie]

In addition to Mr. Fly's frequent appearances, I was always amused by the frequent use of a certain quilt/afghan as set decoration. Most frequently seen slung across the back of the sofa at Maggie Evans's cottage, it nevertheless would show up in other places (Ferncliff, Dr. Lang's), even other times (it was seen on three different sets during the 1795 story). Maybe they missed a good story point by writing that Maggie's time-traveling afghan was cursed and that no matter how they tried to destroy it, it kept turning up in other places.

I'm kind of surprised they re-used the afghan so many times - sure, even in prime time items get recycled (see nuDynasty's re-use/re-dressing of a certain apartment set), but normally set designers will only try to re-use generic items. Usually recognizable items like the quilt/afghan would be saved for making a certain set "unique" and reflect the characters living there.

 

[tommie]

I did *not* expect this random recast of Carolyn

Something terrible has happened at Collinwood indeed.

 

[James from London]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1392887602597044230

 

[Daniel Avery]

Keitel may not have had the charisma of Bat on a String or on-screen sparkle of Mr. Fly , but he seems to have done well for himself nonetheless.

 

[darkshadows38]

he's one of my favorite actors of all time and whenever i know he's in an episode he's hard as hell to spot even in that GIF i had a hard time seeing his fact cause it was shot in shadow. i can't believe he's what 82 now it's just freaking amazing he's that age at all ya know? i want to say he did 5 or 6 episodes i think ?

 

[tommie]

If they were going to have Joe stab himself, couldn't he at least have been shirtless while moaning there on the bed while Julia took care of him?

Also, what the hell kind of doctor is Julia anyway? And why is she still living at Collinwood?

 

[Daniel Avery]

It is a major status symbol for a wealthy family to have their own doctor on premises. I mean, having your own cook or a chauffeur is great, but a doctor? That's practically Jeff Bezos-like swagger. Julia was supposed to be a psychiatrist, but of course in true soap fashion she morphed into one of those all-purpose/all-disciplines doctor who could cure your psychotic break or remove your brain tumor.

I'm sure if the family had decided to be rid of her (mooching meals, leaving her wet towels on the bathroom floor, etc.) they could have done just as well as long as she left her trusty Big Doctor Bag Full of Sedatives behind. I think Liz and Roger only kept her around because they needed someone who could move the heavy furniture when Mrs. Johnson decided to vacuum.

 

[darkshadows38]

shirtless joe? today yeah they'd do that without even thinking about it but in the 60's? shit they don't even have them sleep in the same bed in the 60's. it is really strange how you'd think why would she live there as long as she did? wasn't there another place she could live? i guess it was cheaper for them to have at little as locations as they had.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I think it is more a convenience in writing. Having her live there allowed her to be on hand for all the various insanity that goes on, rather than "Oh, Vicky's having another one of her fits...better call Julia in town. She ought to be here in about an hour, so let's sit and wait." She was so hot for Barnabas, but I'm guessing she stayed at Collinwood rather than the Old House because 1) she liked indoor plumbing and electricity, or 2) the censors would not allow a single woman to shack up with a single vampire on the move.

It's entirely the same as the situations of the big, lavish nighttime soaps where fabulously rich family members who hate one another decide to live in the same house rather than buy their own house and get away from them. Having them all under one roof is not something you'd see in real life, but it's commonplace on soaps because you need excuses for them to interact. If they lived in separate homes, they could in theory never see one another and then you'd have no drama.

 

[ClassyCo]

Certainly on my bucket list.

 

[darkshadows38]

oh i own them all on dvd but i don't have that set i wish i did. ya know it's quite simply amazing on how expensive it was back than if i recall i think Lost in Space was the one that cost the most to make though you wouldn't think to look at it now. some of the FX haven't aged well and some of them i think still look pretty good for it's time anyways. with DS though i think it was the most expensive soap and they were cheap as hell and really they had no choice to be cheap cause on how expensive it was to do another take for example cause they'd have to cut the actual film and that would be expensive. which is why you see so many flubs in the show.

i'm sure that's why Julia did stay with the family. it's really interesting what sets were changed though, for example they stopped using the kitchen around the time that barnabas showed up i think it was right before it cause Willie was in there and than they stopped having scenes with Maggie at her job once she was bit. Maggie's house too the place of something too i forget what though. maybe the cemetary i forget anymore