The Dark Shadows Almanac: Millennium Edition

by David Selby

Ed Riley—1

  Kathryn Leigh Scott—75

  David Selby—46

  James Storm—12

  Gail Strickland—1

  Michael Stroka—6

  Brian Sturdivant—1

  Virginia Vestoff—10

  Marie Wallace—9

  Donna Wandrey—2

  SHADOWS FACTS

  In the beginning, each episode’s opening voiceover is spoken by Alexandra Moltke, who starts by saying, “My name is Victoria Winters,” although this line is omitted by mistake in episode 6. She speaks this line for the last time in episode 274. After this, the voiceover is spoken by various actresses, including Alexandra, and, later, actors, who do not identify their characters, for the remainder of the show’s run.

  Alexandra Moltke left the show because she was going to have a baby. Her departure was abrupt; her last episode was 627, and in 630 Betsy Durkin was introduced as Victoria Winters. Carolyn Groves assumed the role for the character’s final four appearances.

  Bob Lloyd is the ABC announcer who provides the closing voiceover beginning in episode 1: “Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis production.” The last day on which his voice is heard is September 27, 1967, at the end of episode 328. During a few subsequent episodes, the closing voiceover is made by the actress who speaks the opening voiceover and who also makes the mid-break announcement. The actresses who make these announcements are: Grayson Hall, for episodes 332 and 333 on October 3 and 4, Alexandra Moltke for episodes 334, 336 and 338 on October 5, 9, and 11, and Joan Bennett for episode 335 on October 6th.

  Bil Baird, noted puppeteer, supplied the bat that bit Barnabas Collins, leading to the curse of the vampire, in episode 405, repeated in episode 406. Other bats by Bil Baird appear in episodes 403, sent by Angélique Collins to spy on Barnabas, and in 330, repeated in 331, sent by Barnabas to attack David Collins.

  Ratings

  NATIONAL VIEWERSHIP

  Source: Nielsen Ratings *Season Averages

  A rating represents the percentage of homes with a television that are viewing the program. The share refers to the program’s percentage of viewing homes with sets actually in use while the program is airing. For example, the July, 1966 figures indicate that 4.3% of all homes with television were watching Dark Shadows and that 17.8% of all homes watching television were viewing Dark Shadows.

  The 1971 figures reflected lower ratings which partly resulted from lower clearances. Beginning in the fall of 1970, several ABC stations across the country had taken the show off due to falling viewership. Ironically, Nielsen ratings for March of 1971—the last full month that Dark Shadows was on the air—revealed that viewership of Dark Shadows had risen in its final weeks.

  Don Briscoe relaxes in the studio rehearsal hall.

  TV-Q RANKINGS

  The TV-Q Rankings rate programs and personalities for their recognizability and popularity. With a total Q-score of 37, Dark Shadows tied Bewitched for the number one spot for daytime television in the spring of 1968.

  By achieving an average Q-score of 46 among young women and female teens, Dark Shadows topped all other daytime shows to rank number one in that demographic group.

  The Best Liked Daytime TV Series—March, 1968 Top Three Programs

  Source: March, 1968 TV-Q

  Carl Collins (John Karlen) and Pansy Faye (Kay Frye).

  Syndication

  SHORTLY BEFORE DARK SHADOWS ENDED ITS ORIGINAL RUN ON ABC-TV, it was announced that the series would be seen in reruns on local stations. This was a landmark declaration, since no other daytime soap opera had ever been rebroadcast.

  It was highly unusual for a former daytime program with such a large inventory of episodes (1,225 shows) to be offered for repeat showings. The large number of episodes would mean high residual payments for the actors, writers and directors. That factor, along with general resistance from television stations, kept the series from immediately rerunning as planned. The station managers weren’t entirely convinced there would be a large enough audience to watch an extended daily serial which had just finished a widely viewed network run.

  Around this time, the Federal Communications Commission forced the networks to sell off their domestic syndication companies, which further delayed the launch of Dark Shadows repeats in the United States. ABC Films, which owned the syndication rights for Dark Shadows and had been selling the series in foreign markets, was spun off into a new independent company entitled Worldvision Enterprises.

  By 1975, Worldvision had mounted an aggressive campaign to place Dark Shadows reruns on stations across America. To maximize the series’ chance of success, Worldvision chose to skip over the early 1966-67 shows and begin the syndication package with episode 210—the introduction of vampire Barnabas Collins.

  Stations were still cautious about the unorthodox broadcasting of an old daily network soap opera, and initially only 130 episodes-running six months—were released into syndication. This cycle ended with episode 340, the day before Dr. Woodard’s murder.

  Out of the handful of stations who initially aired the reruns, WOKR-TV in Rochester, New York, was especially successful—rating number one with Dark Shadows in the 4:00-4:30 afternoon time period. Partially as a result, Worldvision released another 130 episodes in 1976, making an entire year’s worth of episodes available for rebroadcast. Lucky viewers were now able to see the 1795 flashback for the first time since 1967-68.

  However, not enough cities had picked up the reruns to make it cost-effective to release additional episodes. For the next few years, the syndication package remained limited to the first 260 Barnabas episodes. Various stations would purchase the batch and then run out of episodes, unable to offer viewers the remaining years of the show. By the early 1980s, the syndication of Dark Shadows died down.

  With the growth of new UHF independent stations throughout the United States, Worldvison decided to give the show another push. The 1981-82 relaunch was fueled in part by a group of NBC affiliates, including flagship station WNBC-TV in New York, who had purchased the repeats for airing beginning in the spring of 1982.

  Unfortunately, in highly competetive markets such as New York, demands and expectations were intense. Where Dark Shadows was not the blockbuster that station managements expected, it was taken off the air, usually after six months or a year.

  At this time, Dark Shadows reruns fared better on smaller independent stations which possessed more reasonable aspirations. As a sign of good faith, Worldvision began with releasing more episodes (beyond 260) for rebroadcast. But another setback occurred when one of the supporting stations, WWAC-TV in Atlantic City, went out of business in early 1983. At that time only 50 additional episodes had been issued for a second year of syndication, and the release of further episodes was stopped.

  By the fall of 1983, additional stations had progressed to the point of demanding more episodes. Worldvision released an additional 210 shows to complete a second full year of syndication, making a total of 520 episodes available, including the first few weeks of the 1897 storyline.

  In March, 1982, Public Broadcasting station WYES-TV in New Orleans had quietly become the first non-commercial station to air Dark Shadows reruns. The show proved to be an incredible success at fund-raising time and brought an expanded viewership to the station. As a result, the New Jersey Network system of four PBS stations covering virtually all of New Jersey and parts of New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, picked up Dark Shadows for airing in the fall of 1983. Slotted in the early evening news hour, the show was extremely well received.

  Meanwhile, several other stations reached another halt by the middle of 1984, when they were denied a third year of episodes to rerun. Once again, the sporadic nature of Dark Shadows’ syndication and the difficulty in coordinating enough stations to finance the release of more shows seemed insurmountable. A major obstacle was the inability to synchronize stations to need the “new” episodes at the same time. If a station ran out of shows, they usually wanted additional ones immediately.
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  In the fall of 1985, New Jersey Network completed airing the available batch of 520 shows, and they wanted more. Aided by the support of the Dark Shadows Festival fan convention, NJN had achieved success with the show, and the loyal viewers were clamoring for the rest of the series. With the help of a few other stations who had already exhausted all of the available episodes, NJN was able to debut a third year of syndication, offering 260 more shows in reruns for the first time. This would enable devotees to view the remainder of the 1897 story through the beginning of 1970 Parallel Time.

  Spurred by NJN’s success, more PBS stations picked up Dark Shadows reruns. Even so, a management change at NJN brought about the unexpected termination of Dark Shadows in October, 1986, at the close of the third syndicated year. There was still nearly a full year of episodes remaining to be seen.

  Over the next couple of years, prospects for releasing the final year into syndication wavered back and forth. Unfortunately, a renewed sense of traditionalism at PBS stations caused the series to gradually disappear from member stations, despite its years of popularity.

  By 1990, Dark Shadows reruns had completed rerunning in the various markets and was no longer airing anywhere in the United States. The home video releases of the episodes had begun in late 1989 and appeared to be the only likely distribution method for the series—including the elusive final year and the first year before Barnabas.

  Once more a new lease on life was granted in the form of an upstart national cable service, the Sci-Fi Channel. It was announced that Dark Shadows was the channel’s first series purchase and that the entire run of 1,225 episodes would begin in 1990 or 1991. Due to the increased competition of the cable industry and other financial matters, Sci-Fi delayed its launch until September of 1992, after being purchased by the USA Network.

  Eventually, Sci-Fi aired the full run of Dark Shadows, beginning with Victoria Winters’ 1966 Episode 1 arrival and also including an abridged version of MPI’s reconstruction of the infamous missing episode 1219. Sci-Fi aired two episodes back-to-back on a daily basis (later reducing the schedule to one episode on Fridays) and began reairing the series for a second time in March of 1995.

  Although the entire series has been released on home video, the traditional broadcast on (cable) television, remains a vital form of exposure for Dark Shadows. For as long as it chooses to air the program, the Sci-Fi Channel possesses exclusive broadcast rights.

  BROADCAST SYNDICATION CYCLES

  As noted in the syndication history section, Worldvision Enterprises began syndicating Dark Shadows reruns with Original Episode 210, the introduction of Barnabas Collins.

  During its initial syndication from 1975-1990, the Worldvision package was comprised of six-month cycles, containing 130 episodes each. It is important to mention that these cycles were specifically structured for broadcast syndication sales, where individual stations would purchase the reruns in cycles. Worldvision eventually released six cycles, covering approximately the middle three years of the series.

  After an episode was placed out of sequence in the reruns and six missing episodes were added to the syndication package, some of the cycles were revised, as detailed below.

  Broadcast Syndication Cycle I

  Original Episodes 210-340

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 1-130)

  Syndication Cycle II

  Original Episodes 341-472

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 131-260)

  Syndication Cycle III

  Original Episodes 473-603

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 261-390)2

  Syndication Cycle IV

  Original Episodes 604-735

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 391-519)3

  Syndication Cycle V

  Original Episodes 736-867

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 520,6454

  Syndication Cycle IV

  Original Episodes 868-1001

  (Worldvision Rerun Episodes 646-7755

  OUT OF SYNC SHADOWS

  As mentioned above, Original Episode 771 was originally rerun out of sequence in syndication. A brief synopsis follows:

  In 1897, Carl Collins returns from Atlantic City with Pansy Faye, a mentalist and music hall performer. In a trance, Pansy declares that Dirk Wilkins has been murdered. Later, Barnabas finds Pansy dead at the Old House.

  CABLE TV RERUNS VS BROADCAST SYNDICATION

  When a program such as Dark Shadows is sold to a cable television channel for exclusive airings, it means that regular local broadcast channels or other cable channels cannot buy the program for the period of exclusivity. This is different from syndication, which involves selling a program to individual television outlets in different cities.

  The sale of Dark Shadows to the Sci-Fi Channel cable outlet, which began airing the series in 1992, also meant that the final and first years of the show could be rerun for the first time, primarily because of lower residual payments to the actors, writers, and directors for cable usage.

  Accordingly, the Sci-Fi Channel began Dark Shadows reruns with Original Episode 1 and repeated the entire series, through Original Episode 1245.

  Should Dark Shadows return to syndication on regular local broadcast stations, the first and final years of shows remain unavailable for rerunning unless enough stations are willing to buy them simultaneously, allowing enough funds to cover the extensive broadcast residual costs to the actors, writers, and directors. However, the entire series remains available for reairing on cable channels indefinitely.

  KINESCOPED SHADOWS

  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. Even when Dark Shadows went to color, the kinescopes were still filmed only in black and white. (The networks rarely made color kinescopes.)

  Kinescopes are simply copies of a program which are filmed off a television monitor. Kinescopes were conceived in the early days of television, before videotape was invented, as a method to preserve shows that were broadcast live. 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.

  Fortunately, the kinescope negatives for Dark Shadows were preserved along with the videotape masters. In the years since the episodes first aired on ABC, some of the videotape masters have been lost or damaged. This is why, when the series is shown in reruns and on home video, filmed kinescope prints are seen for several of the episodes. These episodes are now seen only in black and white, even after the series went into color.

  The following is a list of Dark Shadows episodes which only exist in kinescope form:

  Episodes 83, 120, 145, 149, 151, 193, 194, 211, 260, 296, 300, 318, 320, 323, 325, 335, 341, 344, 351, 352, 368/369, 437, 509, 683, 797, 813, 1006, 1017

  Episodes 289 and 367 were previously rerun in kinescope form, but videotape masters were located in 1989 and have replaced the kinescope versions.

  MISSING SHADOWS

  The fact that tapes and filmed kinescopes of all but one of the Dark Shadows episodes have survived is nothing short of a miracle. Very few tapes of other 1960s daytime dramas still exist. At the time, no one had any idea that there would be a future use for those shows. In more ways than one, Dark Shadows was a ground-breaking series.

  When Dark Shadows was activated in syndication, it
was discovered that videotapes of several of the shows were missing. Fortunately, filmed kinescope copies were usually found to replace the lost tapes. However, a few episodes proved elusive.

  Episodes 509, 683, 797, 801/202, 805, 813 were skipped in the 1975- 1990 syndication package. This was because the syndicator, Worldvision Enterprises, did not realize that kinescopes for these shows were available. One of the shows, Episode 805, had not been rerun because the master tape was ripped.

  However, when Dark Shadows was licensed for home video release in 1989, extensive research was conducted to locate the missing shows.

  Black and white kinescope negatives were found for Episodes 509, 683, 797, and 813. In addition, the color videotape master for Episode 801/202 was located, and the damaged color tape for Episode 805 was salvaged by inserting sepia-tinted kinescope footage for the brief segment that was damaged on the tape master.