Shark Bytes

They obviously ran out of ideas after the original Quenten storyline ran out. It wasnt very good after that.

DJ, I couldn't agree more with your post about the dismal Leviathan story. I also agree that Thayer David was probably one of the best actors on the series (if not the best!). I think Prof. Stokes was in only about four episodes of the entire cruddy Leviathan story!

I just read a comment from someone who said the show was terrible because it had "nothing whatsoever to do with reality." Gee, ya think? What was she looking for, The News Hour with Johnathan Frid? It's about escaping reality. The show was wonderful for that, even though there were amusing little tugs on the reality line from time to time, like coughing technicians, window blinds falling down, entire walls threatening to do likewise, characters who are supposed to be dead pointing and squirming around because they don't realize they're still on camera, and, once in a while, cameras nearly running into each other in plain sight of the audience. We'd giggle (sometimes we'd laugh ourselves sick) and push it out of our minds so we could get back to 1897 or 1840 or wherever they were taking us that day.

I recently did an E-Bay buy-a-thon, eventually picking up the entire series. Over 1,200 episodes. Wow. I'm disabled and bedridden, and since there's not much else to do I sometimes have my own private Dark Shadows marathons.

Guess what...

I couldn't finish the Leviathon storyline. I tried, because I wanted to know what was happening with the secondary story (about Quentin and Charles Delaware Tate), but I couldn't do it. I finally had to use one of the episode guides online to read my way past the rest of the Leviathan BS. The story was stupid, it was impossible to care about developments, and the only tension was negative tension care of "Megan's" horrible "scream-and-hyperventilate" acting style, which kind of worked as Quentin's insane ex-wife in 1897 but did NOT work during these Leviathan nightmares. It was also during this storyline that Maggie was reduced to a Meganesque whine queen, which broke my heart even as an amorously-minded little ten year old. In fact, just about everyone lost twenty points of acting IQ during this period. Julia Hoffman's stutter-style became distracting as she added the constantly blinking, fan-length eyelashes and the "deer in the headlights" stare that never seemed to leave her face (possibly a reaction to the crap they were making her read), and the best actor in the entire company, Thayer David (Professor Stokes) was completely wasted and given little to do. Hey, it's gotta be bad for me to decide to never watch a DVD I just spent forty bucks on so I could skip past the whole dismal affair.

Which is where I am now, and from several posts I've read here I fear I'm not going to get much relief for a while. It just makes me want to rewind to 1795 or 1897 and watch some great escapist TV again.

So just when IS Harry Johnson going to come out of his room, anyway?

I really liked that Cockney tune "I Wanna Dance With You" by Pansy Faye (Charity Trask). The 1897 period on Dark Shadows was the GREATEST.

yes the Leviathon episodes were the beginning of the end.... but the absolute most annoying of all time was Nancy Barrett constantly singing that really annoying song.."i wanna dance with you...."
Petofi rocked and so did Angelique!

birdbrain,

I just hope the Leviathan episodes don't bum you out, after the exciting 1897 ride with Petofi, Magda, King Johnny, and Aristede. Not to mention Rev. Gregory Trask.

I haven't seen Dark Shadows in years and am now enjoying watching it again (thanks to Netflix)
I started renting from the beginning of the 1795 story-line and I'm
now at the point in the series where the ghosts of Quentin and Beth possess the two children.
Great stuff! and considering the reportedly small budget they had to work with, the sets and costumes look pretty good.
So far, I only find myself fast forwarding through the Victoria Winters/Jeff Clark/Peter Bradford plot lines. Replacing Alexander Moltke with Betsy Durkin was a worse disaster. It could have become a jump the shark point but thankfully the Vicki character was written out of the story-line. So, in IMO at this point the show had yet to jump. I'm trying to keep an open mind for if/when I reach the Leviathan period of the show.

Dark Shadows jumped the shark with the Bramwell episodes. Even the Leviathan episodes can be forgiven. Yes, it was a clunker. However, anytime you throw Angelique and Nicholas Blair into the mix you have my vote. Besides...it was because of the Leviathans that Barnabas reverted back to vampirism. And Marie Wallace as Meagan Todd is a dream. Any episode that featured her is wonderful in my book. They couldn't figure out how to wrap it up. But whatever it's a soap opera. And I like the head of Judah Zachary, too. There I said it!

"Dark Shadows" jumped the shark after the classic 1897 episodes (March-November 1969). Next to Barnabas Collins, Count Andreas Petofi (Thayer David), was the best character the series produced. Petofi should've been brought back on the series. The Leviathans were such a let-down after the roller-coaster ride in 1897! I hated Paul Stoddard and the entire Antique Shop bullcrap!!! Dan Curtis should've known better!

I FLOVED every episode of DS! It was like 'Edge of Night' at a billion miles an hour. The early shows rocked but the supernatural were phenomenol! The Leviathins story were light years better than most crap on tv today! my fave storyline was the 1795 with Baranbas, Josette, Jeremiah, and Angelique.

No doubt, Dark Shadows jumped the shark with the dismal Leviathan story. The plots were bad enough (I got nauseated everytime there was a scene in the Antique Shop) but they had to turn insult into injury by coming up with a crazy side-story about Vickie being killed in 1797 by Jeb Hawkes! What the heck! What purpose did that serve? But overall, I think DS was the best series ever, daytime or primetime. The best episodes were those with Count Petofi.

Casey, you should read "The Dark Shadows Companion" edited by Kathryn Leigh Scott. On page 146, it states that Dark Shadows reached it HIGHEST ratings during the 1897 episodes (March-November 1969). The vast majority of DS fans were not interested in stale plots with Carolyn dancing with some biker guy. There were a dozen other boring soaps where a scene like that could be seen. The majority of DS fans wanted the SUPERNATURAL, and I'm glad the character of Barnabas Collins was introduced to lead the way. If DS had stayed as you wanted it, it would've been cancelled sometime in 1966-1967.

Micah, did you watch (even in good detail)the eps when Carolyn was dating Buzz, the biker. Buzz was dancing on the dancefloor at the Blue Whale as cool as they come. Later, Carolyn went deep inside herself as through her relationship with Buzz she rebelling against her mother Liz so much. This was drama much more like reality that people could realistically relate to ( at the same time Maggie was farfetchedly kidnapped by 200+ year old Barnabas--sorry I can't remember the last time I saw a talk show with lady-guests on who were former victims of captivity by centuries-old vampires). Look, the farfetched Barn-Maggie subplot had some intrigue to be sure but it was well counterbalanced superbly by Carolyn's far more realistic subplot. Later, DS was as totally far fetched and immature as the Munsters and yet they were still playing it seriously on DS.

Dark Shadows jumped the shark when they got rid of Count Petofi. COUNT PETOFI ROCKED! Petofi was the best villain on the series and they should've brought him back! Carolyn and a motorcycle guy? BORING!!! You can see hum-drum stuff like that on any boring series.