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Dark Shadows Movies on TCM Oct 4th (posted 9/30/2002)

House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows will air on Oct 4th on TCM...

House of Dark Shadows @ 3am Eastern, 12am Pacific
Night of Dark Shadows @ 4:45am Eastern, 1:45am Pacific

(Might want to fire up the VCR).

Don't get too excited but... (posted 2/26/2002)

1. It appears that FOX has ordered "a" script for "a possible" pilot (1 episode) of "a possible" new Dark Shadows series. (a lot of qualifiers in there). But with FOX broadcasting such fecal matter as "Temptation Island" and "Glutton Bowl" is shouldn't be hard to come up with something better. Also keep in mind that this is the last season for the X-Files, so FOX could use something in this genre to fill the hole. (again, a script is a very very long way from an actual new series).

2. MPI Home Video has been saying for a while now that they are going to release the original Dark Shadows series on DVD but have provided no details. It is starting to look like they will do it this summer. Apparently the DVDs will be sold in sets of 4, each DVD will contain 10 full uncut episodes. That works out to 40 episodes per set at a list price of $69.98 (retail discounts are expected), I did notice that Amazon.com recently started taking pre-orders for sets 1 and 2. (Ouch, it took me 8 years to buy them all on VHS).

Color and Black & White, hopefully made clearer. (posted 1/5/2002)

When Dark Shadows went on the air in 1966 it was Black & White. However in the summer of 1967 production was stopped for a couple weeks to convert to color. Starting with episode #295 Dark Shadows was in color. I often hear from fans who watched the show in the 1960's who are surprised to find that the show switched to color, because they only remember seeing it on B&W sets. Some have also mentioned that the show seemed spookier in B&W. While people may have their own opinion on the subject, TV networks did seem to go overboard with the use of color when it was first available, which probably plays into that LSD-Technicolor-Rainbow feel that 1960's always seems to evoke.

Now that the color episodes have started, I've been getting a fairly frequent question. "Why are some episodes still in black & white?". Dark Shadows was originally recorded on video tape. In the mid-1960's video tape was still a very new and expensive technology. Some ABC affiliate stations did not have the capability to play video tape, so ABC also made B&W Kinescope copies of Dark Shadows episodes so they could be aired in the event that an affiliate could not directly air the original ABC feed from video tape. After the color episodes have started the b&w episodes you are seeing are actually kinescope copies, this is because the original video tape master copies are missing. In fact there are many missing and damaged episodes and all that is left are kinescope copies in Black & White (many of the original B&W video tape episodes are also missing however it is less noticable when subistituted with B&W Kinescope copies). ABC stopped making kinescope copies of DS in 1970 and there is actually 1 episode near the end of the series which is completely missing, however a poor quality audio soundtrack exists which Sci-Fi plays over still images of the characters along with some additional narration by Lara Parker.

For those of you unfamiliar with "Kinescope", it is the process of basically pointing a motion picture camera at a TV screen and filming it. Many people don't realize that in the very early days of TV there were video cameras however there was no video tape! Most early TV broadcasts don't exist today because they were done live and never recorded. Many of those that do exist are Kinescope. This means that a video camera was pointed at the actors which was used to broadcast live and a separate movie camera was pointed at a TV screen to record it. Generally most people can tell the difference between video tape and Kinescope which produces a picture of noticably poorer quality.

Updates (posted 10/2/2001)

It has been almost 5 months since I last posted an update, again I would like to apologize. I work for a "dot-com" company and despite all the grim news, our business is still good and keeping me very busy. Ok...

-After a long slow summer we can expect Barnabas Collins' arrival on Oct 18th (just in time for Halloween!).

-I have updated the Sci-Fi viewing schedule

-Give $$$ or Blood to the Red Cross!!! (Barnabas would approve!).

-I have run this web site for over 4 years without any ads and I hope to continue to do so for as long as I can afford to do so. That being said I would like to recommend a product which I am not being paid or compensated in anyway to promote, The Tivo. I recently purchased a Tivo and it makes recording Dark Shadows a no-brainer. Those not familiar with this device should check it out, it records programs to a hard drive (up to 60 hours of programming), it works with your cable or DirectTV service. For as complex as this device is, it really is easy to learn (if you can program a VCR you can use this thing). No VHS tapes to rewind, no VCR to forget to program. There are some downsides in addition to buying the machine you have to pay $9.99/month for service otherwise the machine is just a $300 paper weight. Those of you who religiously try to tape Dark Shadows should really check this out.

Sci-Fi starts with Episode #1 (posted 05/22/2001)

The Sci-Fi channel recently completed the run of Dark Shadows and has started the series from the very first episode. This great for hardcore DS fans, but it means thats Barnabas will not show up until October. It is going to be mid-July before the first ghost even shows up.

Server is moving (posted 02/20/2001)

I am going to be moving the server which this site is on either later today or on Wed. The result is that the site will probably be down for an hour or so. I don't expect any problems. However if you are one of the folks who link directly to the episode guide you are not going to know what is going on (before or after).

Update: DS in 2001 (posted 01/10/2001)

It appears that the Sci-Fi Channel is going to begin airing 2 episodes Dark Shadows at 10am and 10:30am (check your local listings) each weekday starting Jan 22! Also I have posted a new Sci-Fi viewing schedule for Jan.

Dark Shadows in 2001?

After a rather rough year of schedule changes and reduced airtime, it appears that Sci-Fi Channel is going to keep its word that it will continue to run Dark Shadows through the end of 2000. It also appears that DS will continue to run in Jan of 2001. At the sloooow rate of 1 episode per day it would likely take most of 2001 to complete the current run (then again the Sci-Fi Channel has made no promises for DS in 2001!). Also I have posted a new Sci-Fi viewing schedule for Dec (let's just see if Sci-Fi can stick to it).

Time Zone Changes for Sci-Fi Channel

Until recently most cable and satellite companies were carrying the Eastern timezone feed which meant that shows broadcast at 10am on the east coast were sent directly to the west coast where it was 7am (no time delay). Now the Sci-Fi Channel has multiple feeds. Basically this means that for many of us folks on the west coast Dark Shadows now airs at 10am, like it does on the east coast (with a 3 hour time delay). However as the saying goes, "check your local listings", as it is up to your cable or satellite company to decide as to which feed they are going to carry.

Maggie Evans in TV Commerical?

I have received several emails either asking if (or telling me that) Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) is in a new Mercedes-Benz TV commercial that has been airing during the last week or so. Apparently the plot of the commerical is that 2 women (Ms. Scott being one of them) meet in a parking lot and have not seen each other in many years and they both lie to each other how great their lives have turned out. I have not seen the commericial yet, however it is quite likely as she has been spotted in several TV commericals over the years.

House of Dark Shadows to air on TCM Oct 17th

'House of Dark Shadows' will air on Turner Classic Movies(TCM) Oct 17th at 8:30pm (might want to double check with your local listings). As a side note: airing immediately before that on TCM at 7:00pm is 'House on Haunted Hill', which is the 1959 Vincent Price cheesefest classic, (highly recommended viewing, imho).

New Server Update

After a couple of bumpy days it appears that DarkShadows.com is now comfortably residing on a new Dual Pentium III 500 system. For those who are interested in the tech stuff, the new server is running FreeBSD 4.1.1 with Apache 1.3.12 web server. Everything appears to be stable at the moment, however there are several things that still need to be done to the server, so don't panic if you have trouble with the site. I am hoping to work out any bugs over the next week or so.

Latest DS Time Slot change courtesy of the Sci-Fi Channel

Dark Shadows currently airs on the Sci-Fi Channel (10am EST, 7am PST). 1 episode is aired each week day.

A Message from the Webmaster

Dear Dark Shadows Fans,

I have a couple of issues which I would like to address regarding this web site, and its future.

1. Server problems: as many of you probably know from your own experience, there have been several problems with the server, the hardware which runs this site is now approaching 4 years old (which is almost an antique by web server standards). The hard drive appears to have developed some media errors during the last few months which I have been able to recover from on a couple of different occasions. I currently am planning to replace the server, hopefully before the end of October.

2. Email: currently I get a lot of email. I used to try to respond to every email up until a year or so ago. However the popularity of the web site has continued to grow at the same time changes in my work schedule and personal life have severely decreased the amount of time which I have to devote to the web site and answering email. I would like to sincerely apologize that I have been unable to keep up with and answer all the email, unfortunately I just don't have the time. I plan to start a Frequently Asked Questions page which will hopefully help address the questions which I most commonly receive from people.

3. Sci-Fi Channel: As you probably are aware the Sci-Fi Channel has made several changes to the Dark Shadows schedule, skipped episodes, and ultimately they are now only airing one episode in the earlier 10am (7am Pacific) time slot. For all of 1999 and the first half of 2000 I tried to post a list of episodes and their air date on Sci-Fi, however recently this has been very difficult and very frustrating. For the time being I have decided to stop trying to play keep up with them. I may add this again in the future.

4. Thank you: I would like to thank everyone who has appreciated Dark Shadows Dot Com. The vast majority of comments that I get are positive, and again I would like to thank you for visiting, sharing and enjoying the site.

-Brian (webmaster)