Watching DARK SHADOWS on the Decades channel

I never realized how much Grayson looked like Joan Crawford...or is it just bad reception?

Dr. Hoffman should give you something and put you to bed.

In her early seasons, she was a very competent doctor with a bag full of drugs.

I'm just happy to be able to watch anything not involving the royal family.

But we are the Royal Family...of Collinsport.

...and Barnabas is our Queen!

^ Come to the Mausoleum after sunset, Willie.

And I'll deal with your impertinence.

(And maybe we can make out a little too.)

^ Ok, but don't leave any marks on my neck - you know how jealous Dr. Hoffman gets.

If Barnabas was the Queen, what did that make Miss Roger?

Miss Roger was just a "queen"...lower case if you know what I mean.

Why wouldn't Eve let Adam fuck her? He had BDF for days and was the sole heterosexual resident of Collinsport.

[quote]Come to the Mausoleum after sunset, Willie.

R6 Is that Willie the groundskeeper from the Simpsons?

"Aye, I 'ate your dog, and I 'ate the mess he made on the floor!"

"But when Barnabas stares into me eyes, I feel a stirrin' deep in me loins..."

P.S. I pitching the reboot of "Dark Shadows" as a new animated series (a la "The Simpsons")...trade mark, trade mark, trade mark...my intellectual property!

When Susan Collins was elected Senator from Maine I thought of Dark Shadows immediately..

She reminds me of a vampire anyway.

^ Susan Collins is absolutely no relation to our fine old family, and we resent the implication deeply!

Good day, Sir.

I said, "Good day, Sir."

Concerning.

Gay Barnabas and Gay Burke have a conversation loaded with innuendo.

This video always cheers me up if I’m in a foul mood:

R16, there was another homo loaded scene with Roger Collins and the original Burke Devlin, Mitch Ryan, that both actors play to the hilt. Burke is all but pressing his angry hardon into Roger’s quivering asscheeks.

Joel Crothers is off in the corner alone, watching expectantly.

Has OP started drinking again to be ready for Dark Shadows in the pre-dawn hours?

Barnabas was all man. Julia wanted that dick bad.

R19 Yes, I am preparing myself; hopefully I won't fall asleep before it starts tonight.

How many episodes do they run in a row?

What storyline is happening now on Decades?

To me, Angelique MADE that show. You literally couldn't take your eyes off her.

I think the show lost something, though , when the original Victoria Winters left. She kinda centered the show, even though most of her dialogue consisted of "I don't know what's going on!"

Best scene ever: Barnabas putting the final bricks in the wall, behind which Reverend Trask will spend eternity.

R22 I drift in and out so can't answer your question intelligently. The last episode I saw, Grayson was trapped in a mausoleum and was conversing with a little girl ghost. No idea what the hell that was about but the little girl recited her lines well and Grayson looked wide-eyed and terrified so I know it was supposed to be spooky. When I woke up again, Grayson was out of the mausoleum don't know how that happened) and she was alone in the study and the piano was playing ghostly music ALL BY ITSELF and Grayson looked wide-eyed and terrified.

[quote]trade mark

Oh, dear.

I saw Barnabas' oil portrait, cane and ring when I had dinner at Frid's NYC apartment.

R26 How old are you?

One of the most interesting things about Dark Shadows is that the characters never learned anything from past events. I remember one episode where Elizabeth didn't believe that Maggie and Mrs. Johnson had seen Quentin's ghost - because ghosts didn't exist. Elizabeth had just been under Angelique's curse to appear to be dead and she was still doubting the supernatural. Roger was like that too. He never believed David.

Our 'suspension of belief' was boundless, R28.

I stopped watching a few months ago during the parallel timelines storyline. It seemed to be losing something at that point.

Thank you, R17, for the video.

Dr. Julia had a sort of Lucille Ball gravely voice.

And she always seemed to make the choice to start her hysterics at a 10, which didn't really leave her any place to go - but it was only a half-hour show.

You know, Willie later married Tyne Daly, i.e., Mary Beth Lacey.

^ poor bastard

I am so confused right now...Willie the caretaker in the Simpsons married Tyne Daly? I started drinking 3 hours ago and need to stop following this thread for a bit. The booze is starting to kick in; I'll wait to join in later.

Tyne got so fat she crossed over into the animated world...it all makes sense if you just go with it.

OP, whatever you do...don't follow the ghostly little girl through the secret door in the drawing room!

It's actually a portal that will take you back in time!

Is the little girl ghost named Sarah?

I’m watching the series on Tubi and am up to the parallel world storyline. It’s like the writers didn’t know what to do with the original characters so they just came up with a whole new storyline for everyone that feels like it started in the middle.

[quote][R26] How old are you?

60. This happened in 1990. I accompanied a friend who had done a student film project with Frid and didn't clue me in on whose apartment we were going to. I didn't recognize him when he answered the door and didn't see the items when I first sat down. Took about fifteen minutes to figure out where we were by way of the other guests' conversation. Then I slowly turned around and they were on the wall behind me. Extremely charming man and we discussed his one-man show. Shadows didn't come up at all except for me to pass along that my older brother had been a HUGE fan.

I absolutely love that Frid had his Barnabas portrait on the wall.

I've always been curious about what was Frid's post Barnabas life was like? Was it a nice apartment? Did he have a partner? How was he making money? Dark Shadows residuals and plays?

I know he did theater work as we discussed him bringing his one-man show to Lancaster PA, where I was living at the time. My roommate worked with the local theater and I was able to pass along her information. I moved before I found out if it did any good. The apartment was small and nicely furnished. Nothing grand.

R37 / R38 That's her! Sarah was the little girl in the episode I was watching when I first posted this thread. It might help my descriptions if I would watch these episodes when I'm sober.

In a nod to woke culture it will now be known as SHADOWS

OP should have a blog called Drunk Dark Shadows, detailing the evening’s libations with a few notes on what is happening on the screen.

Well I'm at Season 22 and Dr. Hoffman is at it again! She's not just giving out sedatives left and right she's forcing them on nearly the entire Collins family! She's even trying to use one on a ghost!

When I saw House Of Dark Shadows, it reminded me what the show could have looked like if it had rehearsal time and a decent budget. The movie was pretty good and scary.

I wonder who viewers considered the biggest ham on the show? Dr. Hoffman and Reverend Trask would have to be frontrunners.

All the DS threads and nobody prepared me for Jan Brady. She's so annoying. Lol

I'm assuming you're on the Gerard Stiles storyline or Quentin 2: Electric Boogaloo, R49.

I loved this show as a. kid. I'd race home from school at lunch time,just to watch it..I haven't watched it.( I didn't know you could) in years. Thank you, OP.

R42 Jonathan Frid was born into money in Canada so he was never wanting for money. After Dark Shadows he made three movies, did some stage acting and had a one man show. He kept as busy as he wanted to.

Which of the male actors, if any, were gay? Frid? Edmunds?

House of Dark Shadows a 1970 theatrical release is quite good

Tim Burton's version is a waste of film. Utterly awful.

R53, an easier question to answer would be, “Which actors were straight?”

Yes, R55, it was AWFUL. I was so disappointed by that too.

There were a lot of straight actors on DS. For starters, John Karlen, Chris Pennock, Jim Storm, Joel Crothers, David Ford, Mitch Ryan, Tony George, Robert Rodan, Humbert Allan Astredo, Don Briscoe. Thayer David, David Selby, Roger Davis, David Henesy. Need I go on?

Don Briscoe. I'm not so sure about the "bi-polar" business mentioned in this link, but something did happen in those years that sent him away from acting, abruptly. I have heard that he was gay-bashed in NYC, also, and that made him leave show business...There is nothing very definitive online about what happened to him or his later years, a few photos on Google Images. He moved back to Mississippi and died at about the age of 60, in 2004. He was a real hottie.

Another one, with Joan Bennett

R59, are you fucking kidding?

Anthony George and Joel Crothers?

[quote]Tony George

Gurrrrrlllll...

Everyone hated Roger Davis, except apparently for Lara Parker. Joan Bennett wrote about him unflatteringly in her bio, and Kathryn Leigh Scott threatened to quit when she heard that she was going to be romantically paired with him after Alexandra Molte quit. He sure was hot back in the day.

Tony George, Val Dufour and George Reinholt were known as the Pussy Breaker Trio, going from straight club to club every night and scoring as much pussy as they could. They were "bros" before the term was even invented.

The 1795 Storyline was the Crown Jewels of Dark Shadows.

R66 ........

The show got it's highest ratings during the1897 story, but that storyline went on way too long and became a little too much.

My favorite period is the Laura Collins storyline, just pre-Barnabas, when there was still a sense of character development among the increasing supernatural element. I loved or liked just about everything else until mid-way through 1897, when the storylines became too convoluted. I'm probably one of two people who actually liked the Leviathan storyline.

I liked the whole thing, although had started "growing out of it" by the last year or so. The entire series is on the internet here and there, if you know where to look.

I agree R69. I loved loved loved the entire pre-Barnabas period, but when Laura showed up it was so good. Why does this bitch keep staring in the fire?

Poor Louis Emonds. He was meant to be show's heavy, but when Frid/Barnabas took off, Roger became irrelevant. Louis was spectacular as Joshua in the 1795 time travel storyline. The sexual hate chemistry between prissy Louis and alpha Mitch Ryan was pretty palpable.

Mitch Ryan was hot in DS.

He was also drinking so much that some people didn’t expect him to live to see another year.

I read that Nancy Barrett was married to David Ford. That just seems like the strangest coupling, age-wise, looks-wise, etc.

Oh thank God, a new Dark Shadows thread. I'll try to think of something relevant when I'm less high, so here's a bump in the meantime.

Love me some Grayson Hall. Grayson as Magda was a hoot. She played her characters to the hilt, and then some.

I loved Roger when he was married to Cassandra. It was implied that Cassandra wasn't fucking him and he was frustrated. That's when I knew Louis Edmunds was a good actor, because I actually believed that Roger was sexually frustrated.

R58 It was well known that Joel Crothers was gay. He was out to his castmates but in the closet to the public. He died of AIDS.

Last call at The Blue Whale, OP.

Damn, Joel Crothers was only 44 when he died.

R76 Did you know she was nominated for an Oscar? I want to see some of her non-DS work.

Remember when the show aired, it was only one episode a day, no re-runs or vcrs so if you missed an episode, tough luck.

Remember when Carolyn began fucking Buzz to get even with Liz for her relationship with Jason?

I'm quite a bit behind most of you; I've just got to the Barnabas storyline. It's on Amazon Prime U.K. again after a long hiatus.

Elizabeth seems to be forgetting her lines more often than she did and Roger has less screen time now.

R84 Do you know when it first aired in the UK, and whether it was on the BBC or one of the local independent channels that eventually became ITV?

I'm afraid I don't know, Magda, I only found Dark Shadows during the pandemic. I'd never heard of it before.

[quote]Tony George, Val Dufour and George Reinholt were known as the Pussy Breaker Trio, going from straight club to club every night and scoring as much pussy as they could.

All three would have run screaming in the opposite direction from the first pussy they saw.

R58: Don Briscoe was gay. The rest of your list, I don't know too much about.

Grayson Hall played the lesbian hag villainess in *Night of the Iguana* with R. Burton and Ava Gardner. She's really good in it. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress in '65, did not win.

The Parallel Time story was so goofy, but fun. David Henesy was playing Daniel Collins, not David. but the number of times they mistakenly called him David was hilarious. Like people in his family couldn't get his name right, lol.

In the 1795 story, Joan Bennett's Naomi mistakenly refers to Daniel as David, and Joshua as Roger on at least 2 occasions. Joan also once called Collingwood, Hollywood. It was one of the few times that they had to stop tape and reshoot.

Joel Crothers was a notorious pussy hound!

^ "On November 6, 1985, Crothers died from AIDS-related lymphoma in Los Angeles at the age of 44."

Of course, of course.

Tell me about it, r92. He was insatiable with me!

Velekka, I’m sure that Joel smashed that pussy of yours everyday.

I never saw the series, but I have seen and liked 1970's House of Dark Shadows and was wondering how fans of the TV show felt about it.

. . . or about the 1971 film Night of Dark Shadows (with Kate Jackson)

The happy couple!

He may NOT have been gay, but his mustache certainly was.

Joel and Louis Edmonds searched for pussy every night.

Hall and Gardner in John Huston's The Night of the Iguana (1964)

Hall as a fashion editor in Who Are You Polly Maggoo?

r100, are you headless? Louis Edmonds was the gayest man whoever gayed. Check your gaybar.

I think Joel was bi at the very worst. He really seemed to be truly in love with Velekka, and I think he and Kathryn Leigh Scott were more than just friends. It's a shame that he died so young.

[quote]I think Joel was bi at the very worst. He really seemed to be truly in love with Velekka

At the very worst? Bugger off, delusional frau.

Joel was in love with Jayne Bentzen, his EON co-star. Veleka was crushed.

[quote]Joel was in love with Jayne Bentzen, his EON co-star. Veleka was crushed.

Was gay "Edge of Night" actor Dennis Parker also crushed? Perhaps he was also bisexual "at worst."

Straight actors on DS:

David Henesy

John Karlen

David Selby

Thayer David

Roger Davis

Jerry Lacy

Robert Rodan

Mitchell Ryan

Dennis Patrick

Christopher Pennock

James Storm

David Ford

Conard Fowkes

Tom Happer

I loved it when Dan Curtis figured out that he needed hot guys on the show. Then came Tom/Chris, Quentin, Gerard Stiles, Jeremy Grimes, Jeb Hawkes...

r108, you omitted Michael Stroka, Humbert Allan Astredo, Robert Gerringer, Keith Prentice, and two of the Sheriff Pattersons--Dana Elcar and Vince O'Brien. O'Brien btw is the father of Emmy winning director Conal O'Brien.

Thanks R109, I wasn't sure about Stroka and Astredo, as the kids say they seemed "sus".

I think Astredo was bi. I think Marie Wallace said so in one of her interviews.

Louis Edmonds said in his bio "Big Lou" that he made a pass at Briscoe, but Don politely declined. Frid, Edmonds, George, Bernau, Crothers and Prentiss were definitely gay.

I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Louis was making that pass at Don.

Do we know for sure that Chris Bernau was gay? I loved him on GL and he was the only Alan for me. He had great chemistry with Elvera Roussel's Hope.

The funniest thing to me was that even though Louis Edmonds was a big old flamer, he always played the most conservative characters on Dark Shadows. And poor Joan Bennett: they could put her in any time travel situation, yet she alwaays played the exact same character. Though I think I read that she enjoyed her DS days.

R114, gurl did you see the way he played Philip Todd? I had to keep a fire extinguisher next to the couch because of all the flames every time he had a scene. He was a great actor though.

R108 Anyone as handsome as Tom Happer has to be gay.

So who from Dark Shadows went on to other daytime soaps? Off the top of my head I remember the following: Louis Edmonds - All My Children Joel Crothers - The Edge of Night Jerry Lacy - Love of Life, The Young and the Restless Chris Bernau - Guiding Light Christopher Pennock - The Young and the Restless, Guiding Light James Storm - The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful

Lots of others: Mitch Ryan, AMC; Tony George, OLTL; Nancy Barrett, The Doctors, RH, OLTL; Grayson, AMC, OLTL; Dennis Patrick, Dallas; Chris Pennock, GH, GL, Somerset; Marie Wallace, Somerset; Michael Stroka, Edge; Vince O'Brien, Texas; Robert Gerringer, Texas, Edge; Clarice Blackburn, GL (and longtime AMC writer). I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

David Henesy is straight but has a son who is a flamer. He is the co-creator of the cannabis infused drink, Cann, and took his husband's last name. That is him on the right.

Chris Pennock and Joel Crothers were on Somerset at the same time. Pennock's Dana Moore character kind of went nowhere, despite looking great and his sexy voice. Joel became the leading man to the end of the show.

Tony George was on SFT as Jo's husband, Dr. Tony Vincente for several years, He wanted out, rumored to be because Mary Stuart and he did not get along.

[quote]Tony George was on SFT as Jo's husband, Dr. Tony Vincente for several years, He wanted out, rumored to be because Mary Stuart and he did not get along.

The same thing later happened to me!

I've posted this request before to no response. Does anyone have the OLTL clip with 4 actors from DS in one scene?

Which four actors? Nancy Barrett, Tony George, Grayson Hall, and who else?

R124 Carolyn Groves.

This show is fun to watch with a gay eye. You find all types of great gay subtext. It's obvious that Roger desperately wanted Mitch Ryan's Burke to fuck the living shit out of him, that Barnabas and Tony George's Burke wanted to fuck each other like crazy, that Barnabas was fucking around with Willie, that Jason and Willie were more than just fellow sailors, that Julia was every fag hag who wanted the gay man (Barnabas) that could never love her in return, etc. I sometimes wonder if the actors played it that way, with a wink to their gay male viewers.

R86 That's cool. A British company called Big Finish has been making new DS audio dramas starring as many surviving cast members as they can get. They started out doing Doctor Who audios during the wilderness years and have added many fine old series.

I never understood, until years later, why Willie got bit on the wrist and everyone else got it in the neck. It was ABC standards and practices.

R128 when Roger Davis played Dirk Wilkins during 1897 sl, Dirk was bitten by Barnabas(as a bat), and later Dirk attacked sexy Tim Shaw(Don Briscoe), and of course we just saw Dirk with fangs bared, advancing on Tim. Would love to have seen Dirk feast on Tim's neck....

Grayson Hall chewing every bit of scenery she can lay her hands on is my favorite thing about "Dark Shadow.s."

Grayson Hall is a hoot in the made-for-TV GARGOYLES. She has a drink in her hand in every scene.

I loved how at first, Julia was just a guest at Collingwood, under the guise of a historian doing research on the Collins family. Then she pretty much took over the house, becoming the mistress of the house for all intents and purposes. Why did Liz even continue to let her live there after her historian cover was blown? You think she would've learned her lesson when she had undesirables Jason McGuire and Willie Loomis as house guests.

Liz loved the sedatives Juls gave her.

You beat me to it R133. Liz was not going to cut off that sedative supply. Julia was the original Dr. Feelgood.

Were there any juicy hookups besides Nancy Barrett and David Ford?

[quote]Grayson Hall chewing every bit of scenery she can lay her hands on is my favorite thing about "Dark Shadow.s."

That Carolyn was quite the little hussy. She reminded me of you-know-who. How many DUIs has SHE racked up?

Carolyn dated a werewolf, a man made creation, Leviathan, biker, lawyer and a fisherman.

Didn't Carolyn only fuck Tony to get her hands on Julia's diary? I loved her vampire slut phase.

Jerry Lacy, James Storm, Christopher Pennock all on Y&R but not at the same time. Jerry 1980-1982, James 1983-1985, Christopher 1986. They each missed each other by a year. I wonder if Bill Bell was a Dark Shadows fan and if he thought of any other Dark Shadows actors for roles on Y&R.

OP, are you still watching Dark Shadows? Are you still drunk?

Did OP ever make it to the Leviathan storyline?