Barb Lien-Cooper & Park Cooper

Tag: Gothic

  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part THREE): The Dark Shadows FAQ

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part THREE): The Dark Shadows FAQ

    It’s the Dark Shadows Frequently Asked Questions… list!

    –WHY ARE SOME EPISODES IN BLACK AND WHITE? At first, it’s because they hadn’t started using color cameras yet. But then, some episodes can still only be watched by us in this century because they didn’t always save all the tapes of the color episodes—but they did save (almost) all of the black-and-white recordings of the shows. The easiest way to explain it is that they broadcast the show in color (once that started) on most stations. But some stations didn’t show Dark Shadows at the same time—for just one example, California is three hours behind New York (where the show was made) time-zone wise. So some stations would show a black-and-white recording of the show (oh well—not everyone had color televisions yet, so they’d hardly notice). So when no one saved a color copy of an episode, modern Dark Shadows viewers watch the black-and-white copy.

    –“I HATE X CHARACTER—BECAUSE X CHARACTER IS SO MEAN//ANNOYING! WHEN WILL THEY GO AWAY?!?” This is a complex question because the answer depends on who we’re talking about. Let’s hit the most common characters that people say this about.

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  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part TWO): How To Watch Dark Shadows

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part TWO): How To Watch Dark Shadows

    Okay so: Dark Shadows. The 1966-1971 gothic soap opera. Maybe you are thinking about watching it.

    Here’s some stuff you need to know.

    You have two options:

    1. Start at the very beginning. NOT RECOMMENDED UNLESS YOU ARE INTO 1960s SOAP OPERAS IN THE FIRST PLACE. OR unless you are not used to scary/supernatural stories in the first place. If you are not used to scary/supernatural stories, then yeah, maybe you di want to start with episode 1. (But if either of those don’t sound like you, then come back and watch the first 209 episodes later, after you’re totally hooked.)

    2. RECOMMENDED for some people : You might want to consider starting with the vampire. The vampire is where practically everyone, at the time, started paying attention.

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  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part One)

    WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK SHADOWS (Part One)

    Okay, Barb and I have been talking about ourselves, but now we need to talk about Dark Shadows.

    NO, not the 2012 Tim Burton movie. We try not to talk about that (although if it attracted some new fans to the real Dark Shadows— and it did– then fine, whatever). No, I’m talking about the TV show it was based on, from 1966 to 1971, the world’s first gothic daytime TV soap opera, Dark Shadows.

    Barb got me into Dark Shadows.

    Barb loves Dark Shadows. And, now that she got me into it some years ago, so do I.

    When I was growing up, I saw ONE episode of Dark Shadows on TV– as a re-run. It was during what’s called The Leviathan Storyline, which happens to be the one where a Lovecraftian monster dude not entirely unlike Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror” –but who can turn himself into a normal human-lookin’ dude as long as he can get back to a specially-prepared saferoom back at his lair place– is trying (reluctantly) to help an ancient evil cult take over the world (starting with the New England town of Collinsport).

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