Dark Shadows (1991) Information

Dark Shadows (often referred to as Dark Shadows: The Revival Series, and The New Dark Shadows) is a re-imagining of the original 1966"1971 Dark Shadows television series that aired from January to March 1991; both versions were developed by Dan Curtis. It aired weekly during primetime on NBC, and was later shown in reruns on the Sci-Fi Channel and Chiller.

Series story line

The 1991 Dark Shadows tells a streamlined version of the original storyline " the arrival of governess Victoria Winters at Collinwood, vampire Barnabas Collins being released from his coffin, Dr. Hoffman's attempt to cure Barnabas' vampirism medically, and finally Victoria's time travel into the past to witness the still-human Barnabas' encounter with Angelique, and his transformation into an undead creature.

Production

The 1991 production was produced by MGM Television, whose parent company had produced the two earlier theatrical films (now owned by Warner Bros./Turner Entertainment). A majority of the series was filmed at the Greystone Park and Mansion in Beverly Hills, California.

Cast

Ratings and cancellation

Though the series premiered to great success, watched by nearly 1 in 4 households according to ratings of the period, NBC frequently pre-empted or abruptly re-scheduled later episodes in favor of news coverage during the onset of the Gulf War. Ratings rapidly declined in turn and the show was not picked up for a second season as a result. Protestors would demand its renewal.

VHS and DVD releases

The original VHS release from MPI Home Video features an extended pilot episode and extended final episode, and also presents the original one-hour versions of episodes 2 and 3 (for broadcast, NBC combined them into a movie-length version so they could air that and the pilot as a 2-night mini-series to kick off the series premiere), so the home video presentation of episode 3 restores the "I'm Victoria Winters" opening narration that was left out of the movie-length version (the one-hour versions of these two episodes are also the ones that were shown when the series was repeated on the Sci-Fi Channel).

The October 18, 2005 DVD release of the series, although re-mastered in High Definition, contained alterations to the original image presentation. Firstly, the overall image was cropped from the original full-screen image to a 1.78:1 widescreen ratio. Secondly, after remastering, certain scenes that were shot "day for night" (shot in daylight, but meant to be altered in post-production to look like night-time) were incorrectly left untreated, presenting the problem of a vampire walking around in broad daylight. Also, this release presented the episodes the way they were shown on NBC, meaning episodes 2 and 3 were the "movie length" version and the unaired footage from the MPI release was not included at all (not within the context of the episode or even as a bonus feature).

The DVD version has been re-released since that time in different packaging, but the episodes are exactly the same as the 2005 version (the only difference is the package).