# Dark Shadows with Barnabas Collins - WTH? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308 "2003-04-08T13:40:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/61 "2003-04-13T02:13:47Z")
**McJohn** , no for several reasons. First, I am old enough to have watched years of **Dark Shadows** during its original run in 1966-1971. I have watched only part of one episode on the Sci-Fi Channel. So, when I say that a character will go _immediately_ from one scene to another, wearing an entirely different costume, I am not talking about over a now-missing commercial break. Second, it is simply a matter of recorded fact that **Dark Shadows** was always taped, not live. Cast members have written memoirs of the making the show, e.g., David Selby’s _In and Out of the Shadows_. Also, the kinescope films and the videotapes were made _simultaneously_ by the network. As [this](http://www.mpimedia.com/darkshadows/history/hist8.html) website explains, > [@](#): > > Each episode of Dark Shadows was recorded and broadcast on the then network standard 2-inch videotape. In addition, through the fall of 1970, ABC-TV also made filmed kinescope copies of each episode. These kinescopes were shot in black-and-white on 16mm film. . . Although videotape became available in the late 1950s, the television networks continued to simultaneously make kinescopes of shows that were presented live or originated on videotape. Although vastly inferior in quality to video, kinescopes were still made in the mid-1960s because various stations across the country did not always telecast certain shows at the exact time that the network would transmit them. Since some stations did not yet have the expensive videotape equipment needed to record a program for a later playback, the network would provide filmed kinescope copies within days of the original broadcast. > > By the fall of 1970, the kinescope process had become outdated, and ABC ceased making them for _Dark Shadows_. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/62 "2003-04-13T02:21:33Z")
Yeah, what was up with them always wearing the same clothes? Especially in the flashbacks? Sheesh, they’re rich, you’d think they’d get some nice new threads. Oh, this is a really funny site: [http://members.aol.com/graemecree/dslinks.htm](http://members.aol.com/graemecree/dslinks.htm) Check out the captions and cast lists. Plus, if you’re a fan of MST3K, on the SciFi channel website, they have a thing called “Caption This”, and if you watch DS, you can MSTie the show! > **[Scifi.com](https://www.syfy.com/scifi)** > > Visit Syfy.com Look under shows and MST3K and then Caption THIS! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/63 "2003-04-13T02:29:21Z")
BTW, on **Dark Shadows** you can always tell where a commecial break was positioned. A music cue comes up, and the scene fades out. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/64 "2003-04-13T02:56:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\ ***McJohn** > > Second, it is simply a matter of recorded fact that **Dark Shadows** was always taped, not live. \*\* Then the two stories that made me think it was live are apocryphal: In a conversation with Julia, Barnabas falls down. When an episode ended early, the camera was showing the set and caught Johnathan Fridd walking across in street clothes carrying his costume. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/65 "2003-04-13T03:12:59Z")
Those two anecdotes may be apocryphal, **carnivorousplant**. But as the cast members have related over the years, the network pinched the budget for **Dark Shadows** so tight that they were loathe to stop the taping for a retake. If the mistake was minor, they would just try to ignore it and keep the scene going. ---
**Author:** ![Tinkertoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f19dbf/32.png) [@Tinkertoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinkertoy)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/66 "2003-04-13T03:25:57Z")
We didn’t have a television until I was seven. We got our tv about the same time Dark Shadows started it’s run. After watching it for about two weeks the episode where Willie opens the coffin came on. I had never been to the movies and had no idea what vampires and werewolves were. Holy Moley! I was hooked. Barnabas was my first crush. Haven’t stopped try to scare the Hell out of myself since. Who was the guy who played Reverend Trask? He was a dead ringer for Humphrey Bogart. ---
**Author:** ![I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@I\_can\_t\_believe\_that\_s\_butter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/67 "2003-04-13T05:10:38Z")
There’s a certain aura about the show that I feel is largely in part due to the black-and-white videotape (in the earlier shows) and the lenses that would flare upon "seeing"a bright light; just like a human eye. I also feel that the on-the-fly acting is very appropriate for the show; I mean, come on, are you really going to be calm and composed when all this weird crap is happening? The uneasyness of the actors translates well as a “frightened/mystified” vibe. I enjoy watching the flubs not to have a laugh at the flubbers expense but to see how well they save themselves, which is often pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/68 "2003-04-13T05:26:32Z")
Jerry Lacy, who played the Reverend Trask, also played the ghost of Humphrey Bogart in the Woody Allen movie _Play It Again, Sam_. ---
**Author:** ![zoogirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b9bd4f/32.png) [@zoogirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoogirl)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/69 "2003-04-13T05:47:18Z")
Woohoo! Dark Shadows! I have the whole set of Marion Ross novels and I used to have all the Gold Key comics, but they were stolen a few years back. I loved the show so much that I went over to my friend’s place EVERY day to watch it. (She had cable.) If I couldn’t go there, i was desperate enough to go to the local Woodwards Department Store and sit in front of a display TV - usually with half a dozen other kids! I even made my poor grandmother sit through a double feature down at the Columbia. “House of Dark Shadows” and “Night of Dark Shadows”. I couldn’t get in without an adult 'cause thery were “Mature”. Poor Nanny! I did try to watch the show years ago on one of the local chanels. It was on at some horrible hour of the morning, about six, I think. I just couldn’t stay awake for it. I’d love to see it again, though. Hey, I also have a copy of the 45rpm record, “Quentin’s Theme”. The flip side is “At the Blue Whale”. Anyone remember it? Btw, Jonathan Frid is a Canadian! ---
**Author:** ![Mame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/70 "2003-04-13T13:17:57Z")
Oh, thank you all so much for this thread. I bought a copy of Dark Shadows on DVD in the US a few years ago, assuring Mr Mame that it was the gothic horror/humour TV show I’d really enjoyed in the 60’s, the name of which I’d forgotten, but which he’d heard me occasionally rave about. Came back to Aus, played it, and it was absolutely s\*\*t-awful. Not even the campness of Batman to redeem it. No plot, no humour, no subtlety. Nada. Zip. Eventually, hanging head, agreed with Mr Mame that I must have obviously STILL forgotten the name, as I couldn’t have enjoyed (and remembered for so long) something so totally without redeeming features. I’ve just told him (with an air of smug self-congratulation) about this thread! A whole bunch of people who remember the same show and experience, which doesn’t quite seem to have quite translated across the deacdes. Anyone else remember HR Pufnstuff and Guestward Ho? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/71 "2003-04-13T13:40:43Z")
Clearly somebody who thinks Dark Shadows has no redeeming features is not SDMB material. For the record- I never watched an episode until the Sci Fi channel began showing them. The episodes I’ve seen actually strike me as moving _faster_ than many soaps I’ve seen. Though the actors are in full scenery chewing mode, most of them seem capable of turning out fine performances in serious drama. BTW- Why do I never see poison rings made for men? Don’t people realize that while wedding people to the dancing maiden(I have a fine flamberge blade) is tremendous fun, it necessitates extensive cleaning that, as bachelor, I feel it is my solemn duty to avoid? It would be so much simpler if I could discreetly slip arsenic or cyanide to my guests. But nine times out of ten, they notice I am wearing a woman’s ring. ‘Hey, Doc’ they enquire ‘What’s wit the chick joolry?’ I, of course, become enraged. And then it’s time for them to marry the Dancing Maiden!!! ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/72 "2003-04-13T13:42:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Walloon \* > \*\*BTW, on **Dark Shadows** you can always tell where a commecial break was positioned. A music cue comes up, and the scene fades out. \*\* It’s been almost 40 years. Nothing has changed in this regard. ---
**Author:** ![McJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@McJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/McJohn)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/73 "2003-04-13T14:53:40Z")
Ah. Gotcha. Thanks, Walloon. I guess that time was like access cable–you know, very little in the way of resources to do stuff like reshoots. It may well be that they shot and then broadcast them the same day or the next day… that would’ve left, like no time to go back and fix screwups. I just remember that, from the very beginning of the very first ep, they had those ghastly, nerve-wracking flubs, like when the matriarch couldn’t remember the name of the town she lived in–“What brings you to Collingsworth–Collinstown–Collinsport?” and then she went for the sherry. (For all I know, the bottle really was loaded. If I’d been on that show, you can be damn sure it would’ve been.) I’m certain that the producers never intended one viewer to be scared out of her wits only by the prospect of seeing another on-air booboo, but each horror fan brings her own experience to the appreciation of the show, I suppose. When she was a kid, my wife did a fake seance featuring the 45 of “Quentin’s Theme” revolving slowly on the record player… she says this was at church. As she grew as a Southern Baptist, I am rather surprised at this, but her innate truthfulness speaks for itself. I just thought of something. Perhaps the occasional bowing set wall, actor in street clothes walking through the scene with costume in tow, or unintentional pratfall was intended as a Brechtian moment–a reminder to those immersed in the moment that this really was a show, not a, you know, documentary. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/74 "2003-04-14T00:37:16Z")
I’m with **DocCathode** -I’m only 24, so I’ve only seen it on Sci-Fi. It’s one of those so bad it’s good things. I think, if you like MST3K, you’ll probably like DS. I have an idea for an MST3K/DS crossover fan fiction. I can see Pearl square off against Angelique! And if Barnabus tried to bite Brain Guy-wouldn’t work! Heehehehe… ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/75 "2003-04-14T02:09:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\* I have an idea for an MST3K/DS crossover fan fiction. > > I can see Pearl square off against Angelique! > > And if Barnabus tried to bite Brain Guy-wouldn’t work! > > Heehehehe… \*\* I have to keep fighting back the urge to write a crossover of my own. Angelique is holding a black mass. As she calls on the devil to appear, there is a strange grinding sound. Something begins to materialize inside the pentagram. A wind blows out the candles. Then a strange voice ask Angelique a bizarre question, “Jellybaby?” ---
**Author:** ![effac3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@effac3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/effac3d)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/76 "2003-04-14T02:46:18Z")
I think its safe to say that Joss Whedon was a fan of DS as a kid 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308/77 "2003-04-14T16:53:41Z")
BTW, did men really wear mutton chops that big? Sheesh, like on this one site, it looks like someone replaced Quentin’s aftershave with Rogaine! And hey, they also had the dad from _Dharma and Greg_. The rich one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dark-shadows-with-barnabas-collins-wth/167308.md?page=3)