Rating: 
Summary: Great.
Review: Like many other reviewers, I grew up watching this series. I remember not being able to wait until school got out so I could run home and watch the latest show. Where the quality of the films are lacking, the story-line more than makes up for it. Highly recommended for anyone who likes gothic suspense/horror.If you watched this show as a kid, watching it as an adult is both nostalgic and at frightening -- and remember this was produced more than 30 years ago. Television's golden era?
Rating:
Summary: Dark Shadows dvd collection #3
Review: My Dark Shaodws dvd collection #2 has not yet arrived in the mail and I am already anxiously awaiting set #3. This show has that effect on most people. Truly addicting, pure and simple. I just would like to point out that set #3 would contain the first color episodes....According to the Dark Shadows Almanac Millenium Edition, the first episode taped in color was #294, however it was aired in B&W. The first episode aired in color was #295, however the original tape no longer exists and they use a B&W kinescope for syndication. So episode #294 is now in color and episode #295 is in B&W despite it having a voice-over at the beginning announcing that Dark Shadows is now in color.
Rating:
Summary: DS Color Episodes on DVD!
Review: The Dark Shadows saga is back for DVD Collection 3! The 3rd Collection (VHS Volumes 13-20) pretty much begins the countdown to the first flashback in 1795 (which begins in Collection 4). In these episodes, we see the introduction of Dr. Julia Hoffman, who discovers Barnabas's secret and offers to cure him of his vampirism. Although he is reluctant, he lets her try. The ghost of Sarah Collins appears to David several times, and the rest of the family and friends try to search for her, for she knows about Maggie's disappearance. Also in this Collection, episodes in color begin (about 5 episodes into the first disc) but every now and then an episode in black and white will occur. As usual, we have 5-minute interviews at the end of each disc with a member of DS, including Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), Sharon Smyth (Sarah Collins), Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins), and Lela Swift (director of the show). Great episodes as always, and I'm looking forward to Collection 4 which includes the start of the 1795 Flashback.
Rating:
Summary: DS Color Episodes on DVD!
Review: The Dark Shadows saga is back for DVD Collection 3! The 3rd Collection (VHS Volumes 13-20) pretty much begins the countdown to the first flashback in 1795 (which begins in Collection 4). In these episodes, we see the introduction of Dr. Julia Hoffman, who discovers Barnabas's secret and offers to cure him of his vampirism. Although he is reluctant, he lets her try. The ghost of Sarah Collins appears to David several times, and the rest of the family and friends try to search for her, for she knows about Maggie's disappearance. Also in this Collection, episodes in color begin (about 5 episodes into the first disc) but every now and then an episode in black and white will occur. As usual, we have 5-minute interviews at the end of each disc with a member of DS, including Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins), Sharon Smyth (Sarah Collins), Louis Edmonds (Roger Collins), and Lela Swift (director of the show). Great episodes as always, and I'm looking forward to Collection 4 which includes the start of the 1795 Flashback.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Shadows Returns
Review: The first two DVD sets are outstanding. I can hardly wait for subsequent volumes. Overall the quality is high-- given the amount of time since these episodes first aired. With each set you are given 40 episodes, which despite one reviewer's comments is a bargain. This really brings back memories -- coming home from elementary school in the afternoon and switching on the TV to watch Dark Shadows. Jonathan Frid is compelling as Barnabas. I had forgotten how frightening and yet strangely vulnerable he was in this series. Now I've introduced my kids to DS, and my eleven year old daughter is absolutely hooked!
Rating:
Summary: SINK YOUR TEETH ... YES, AGAIN!
Review: There are grand operas, horse operas and soap operas. But we're not horsing
around when we say that there's only one grand, gothic soap opera --- the
indestructible Dark Shadows.
Premiering on ABC in 1966, it ran for five years, chalking up 1,225
episodes. And now it's time, once again, to sink our teeth into one of TV's more
quixotic offerings. Pass the garlic, please.
And pass the DVD sets issued by MPI Home Video, dedicated folk who
have worked tirelessly to bring the series out of its forgotten shadows and into
an era of rediscovery. Each of the 5 DVD sets contain 4 discs, a chronicle of
Dark Shadows episodes --- approximately 75 hours of our favorite fanged ghoul,
Barnabas Collins, and the dark doings set in the small fictional fishing village of
Collinsport, Maine. Be forewarned, however, that as much as we have a stake in
the revival of the series, we question why MPI only included episodes #211 to
#412. (We asked the question, but they never answered. Talk about being kept
in dark shadows.)
The late '60s were an odd time in our cultural history, a kind of a
maturation into reality after the bland '50s and a precursor for the entitlement
and permissiveness of the '70s. Violence permeated our society and its
entertainment ... and escape was the order of the day. Dark Shadows brought us
to a strange set of performers playing even a stranger set of characters.
Grayson Hall and Joan Bennett came from the movies, Jonathan Frid and David
Selby came from the stage, and they were supported by actors and actresses
who had spent literally decades gracing some of the most popular soap operas
from radio and television.
Adding to the escapism was the time element. You were never quite sure
what century you were in while visiting the New England branch of Transylvania.
It could be modern-day Collinsport, or it could be the late 18th century.
Performers could be playing the present-day characters, or their great
grandparents. Still, one thing was sure: High on Windows Hill stood the family
manse, Collinswood (the name most likely came from Wilkie Collins, the author
whose gothic gems graced book stalls in late Victorian times), and, regardless of
the century, it was here that the haunted Collinses plied their depraved trade.
Dark Shadows had a narrative link in a way, but the performers never
seem to know exactly where they are, were they've been, or, most importantly,
where they were going. To be sure, there were the normal and accepted gaffs of
daytime television, such as a boom mike boinking a performer on the head or
people tripping over cables. But, there was the added zest of poor Joan Bennett
looking confused, calling performers by their real names, and trying to cover
rising panic with a look of sheer exotic boredom. Bennett made her first film well
before the talky revolution, but she hadn't seen or heard everything yet, until she
sojourned into daytime television.
As a matter of fact, the growth and development of the television show
parallels to a greater or lesser extent the growth and development of theater of
the absurd in America. The players and the set remained basically the same, but
the period and action varied wildly. And, ultimately it didn't matter where you
were, or where you thought you were, or where you thought you were going,
because you were under the spell of the Collinses, in Collinsport, and they were
in control. If the reality seemed fractured, hallucinatory and vaguely scary, well,
then, wasn't life exactly like that?
Dan Curtis, who also brought us War and Remembrance, The Winds of
War, The Night Stalker, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both with Jack
Palance) and the cult film Burnt Offerings, spawned the series. But the greatest
success of this veritable one-man cottage industry is undoubtedly Dark
Shadows. The brooding gothic setting, the sprawling, elephantine plot twists and
the idiosyncratic, not to say colliding, acting styles come together to create
something unique and strangely satisfying.
For the last 20 years, there has been an annual Dark Shadows Festival,
held either in the Los Angeles or New York area. This year, it will be held in
Brooklyn at the end of August. An ominous press release informs us that this
year marks the final full fledged festival, the last of its line.
Knowing the denizens of Dark Shadows, we don't believe it for a moment!
Rating:
Summary: SINK YOUR TEETH ... YES, AGAIN!
Review: There are grand operas, horse operas and soap operas. But we're not horsing
around when we say that there's only one grand, gothic soap opera --- the
indestructible Dark Shadows.
Premiering on ABC in 1966, it ran for five years, chalking up 1,225
episodes. And now it's time, once again, to sink our teeth into one of TV's more
quixotic offerings. Pass the garlic, please.
And pass the DVD sets issued by MPI Home Video, dedicated folk who
have worked tirelessly to bring the series out of its forgotten shadows and into
an era of rediscovery. Each of the 5 DVD sets contain 4 discs, a chronicle of
Dark Shadows episodes --- approximately 75 hours of our favorite fanged ghoul,
Barnabas Collins, and the dark doings set in the small fictional fishing village of
Collinsport, Maine. Be forewarned, however, that as much as we have a stake in
the revival of the series, we question why MPI only included episodes #211 to
#412. (We asked the question, but they never answered. Talk about being kept
in dark shadows.)
The late '60s were an odd time in our cultural history, a kind of a
maturation into reality after the bland '50s and a precursor for the entitlement
and permissiveness of the '70s. Violence permeated our society and its
entertainment ... and escape was the order of the day. Dark Shadows brought us
to a strange set of performers playing even a stranger set of characters.
Grayson Hall and Joan Bennett came from the movies, Jonathan Frid and David
Selby came from the stage, and they were supported by actors and actresses
who had spent literally decades gracing some of the most popular soap operas
from radio and television.
Adding to the escapism was the time element. You were never quite sure
what century you were in while visiting the New England branch of Transylvania.
It could be modern-day Collinsport, or it could be the late 18th century.
Performers could be playing the present-day characters, or their great
grandparents. Still, one thing was sure: High on Windows Hill stood the family
manse, Collinswood (the name most likely came from Wilkie Collins, the author
whose gothic gems graced book stalls in late Victorian times), and, regardless of
the century, it was here that the haunted Collinses plied their depraved trade.
Dark Shadows had a narrative link in a way, but the performers never
seem to know exactly where they are, were they've been, or, most importantly,
where they were going. To be sure, there were the normal and accepted gaffs of
daytime television, such as a boom mike boinking a performer on the head or
people tripping over cables. But, there was the added zest of poor Joan Bennett
looking confused, calling performers by their real names, and trying to cover
rising panic with a look of sheer exotic boredom. Bennett made her first film well
before the talky revolution, but she hadn't seen or heard everything yet, until she
sojourned into daytime television.
As a matter of fact, the growth and development of the television show
parallels to a greater or lesser extent the growth and development of theater of
the absurd in America. The players and the set remained basically the same, but
the period and action varied wildly. And, ultimately it didn't matter where you
were, or where you thought you were, or where you thought you were going,
because you were under the spell of the Collinses, in Collinsport, and they were
in control. If the reality seemed fractured, hallucinatory and vaguely scary, well,
then, wasn't life exactly like that?
Dan Curtis, who also brought us War and Remembrance, The Winds of
War, The Night Stalker, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both with Jack
Palance) and the cult film Burnt Offerings, spawned the series. But the greatest
success of this veritable one-man cottage industry is undoubtedly Dark
Shadows. The brooding gothic setting, the sprawling, elephantine plot twists and
the idiosyncratic, not to say colliding, acting styles come together to create
something unique and strangely satisfying.
For the last 20 years, there has been an annual Dark Shadows Festival,
held either in the Los Angeles or New York area. This year, it will be held in
Brooklyn at the end of August. An ominous press release informs us that this
year marks the final full fledged festival, the last of its line.
Knowing the denizens of Dark Shadows, we don't believe it for a moment!
Rating:
Summary: DARK SHADOWS
Review: There's something about Dark Shadows that always forces you to come back for more. This classic always delivers the greatest and most shocking story lines that one could ever want. If supernatural themes filled with vampires and ghosts interest you, then Dark Shadows is the one and only show that will deliver all the goods. MPI has done a great job with the first two releases of this series. The picture and sound quality allow the viewer to experience each episode in a whole new way. If you've every enjoyed watching Dark Shadows, then the DVD set is the answer to all your prayers.
Rating:
Summary: Cure for a vampire?
Review: This DVD set will begin the storyline in which Dr. Julia Hoffman begins her treatment of vampire Barnabas Collins in an attempt to cure him of his curse. One of the most famous of all the major Dark Shadows storylines, this will be a DVD set not to be missed. I just wish we didn't have to wait so long between each set, the show is so addictive! It won't be too long now before the beautiful witch Angelique makes her devilish debut on DVD.
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