1969

Dark Shadows: The Leviathans – Week 2

Posted on by

Monday 11/24/69

Dark Shadows was preempted for ABC coverage of the Apollo 12 splashdown. Coverage was slated to run from 3:30-5:30pm Eastern time. The splashdown occurred at 3:58pm Eastern Time. I am guessing that this preemption was not planned for because for the next several weeks the episode numbers will be off by one. More on this in a later article.

Episode 891 – Tuesday 11/25/69

Are we surprised that the Todds were at the door? I wasn’t the first time I saw this plot in the late 90’s on the SciFi Channel. And oh my, what a charming locket indeed.

So if the audience paid attention to the closing credits last week they already know this mysterious guy hanging around Collinsport is Paul Stoddard. Guess nobody thought to keep the surprise a secret, did they? He calls Collinwood, asks Maggie Evans for Elizabeth, then hangs up. Looks like a standard soap plot to me at this point.

Barnabas decides to give the Leviathan box to the Todds. Just you wait until you see what you bargained for!

Paul Stoddard shows up at an empty Evans cottage and talks to Maggie about what is going on at Collinwood. This is a really creepy scene to me because he keeps dodging questions about who he is. It’s also sad because this is the last time we see the Evans cottage set in the whole series. It’s one of the original sets from the earliest days of the show’s life (it first appeared way back in Episode 3.)

Back to the Antique Shop and everybody is stepping over each other’s lines! That is part of the charm of this show.

So would you do what the Todds do at the end of this episode? Want to open a mysterious box so badly that you just happen to find the key in an envelope? Neither would I.

Episode 892 – Wednesday 11/27/69

So there is a scroll inside the box with a mysterious message. The Todds naturally think its weird but then have a debate about having spaghetti for dinner for like the umpteenth night in a row. Such unusual dialogue for Dark Shadows!

Then Barnabas shows up in a dream of Megan Todd and says that the room she’s in must be prepared for something. I can just see all the Barnabas fans in the audience throwing things at their TV sets in protest of our favorite vampire being 150% evil now. Oh, and Phillip had the same dream and walks in with lumber to board up the windows.

Let’s be clear here, both Greg and me are sitting here watching this unfolding and thinking that the audience needs a lot more of a clear explanation as to why Barnabas has turned so so so evil. I think the plot background of the mysterious happenings at that altar are insufficient. Remember when I said miss an episode miss a lot? Oh people who haven’t been watching are way way behind now!

So there’s this cradle…

If I’m not mistaken, this was the same cradle one of Quentin’s children was in back in 1897. But now it will be the recipient of a child you don’t want to mess with.

So Maggie is in the Blue Whale with Carolyn trying to pressure her to have another drink and Paul Stoddard shows up again and decides to properly introduce himself at long last. If only his name wasn’t in the credits five episodes ago it might have been a bigger surprise!

Thursday 11/27/69 – Thanksgiving Day

Dark Shadows was again preempted, this time it was planned for the Thanksgiving holiday. Starting at 2pm that afternoon, ABC Sports carried coverage of a College Football game: Texas Tech at Arkansas. A very big matchup indeed since Arkansas was ranked #2 in the coaches poll at this time. Arkansas won the game 33-0.

Friday 11/28/69 – Episode 893

So we end up with a really soapy scene in which we get lots of plot recap from way back in the summer of 1967. I don’t think a majority of the audience would have remembered the Jason McGuire blackmail plot going on during the early Barnabas days. It’s not a bad idea to get the audience up to speed on it.

I must say, why is Carolyn skeptical for only a brief second then all too trusting?

Unseen baby alert! The Todds have some kind of child now.

Another soapy scene at the front door of Collinwood. Who should be skulking about but David Collins himself, listening at the door. Guess his new lease on life is full of his usual garbage.

So the baby has a name now, Joseph, pulled out of thin air! And who else should come in but Amy Jennings and David and then Paul shows up. Paul is acting mighty weird and now it starts to connect a bit to all the other weird stuff going on already. On a side note, I am loving all of the mysterious cues from the first music cue package that haven’t been heard for a while on the show.

So David in his usual bumbling ways accidentally tore a page in the Leviathan book and then has to steal it. Only he didn’t have it in his hands in the previous scene when he was shooed out of the antique shop. I know, reader, I know, suspend your disbelief. But it is an egregious continuity error.

Megan goes evil/shocked/evil and vows to kill whomever stole the book. This leaves us with a Wednesday cliffhanger pushed back to Friday. I guess it works!?

So, we are one-ish weeks into the story. It’s moving pretty fast, but like I said, I feel some fans are left behind if they didn’t catch the first few episodes. I hate to be in ABC’s network correspondence during the month of December 1969.

Dark Shadows: The Leviathans – Week 1

Posted on by

Episode 886 – Monday 11/17/69

So the Countess duPres shows up just in time and stops Josette from jumping. Fair enough.

Barnabas bites the Countess. OK.

Barnabas convinces Josette to meet him at the old house. Alrighty.

Barnabas discovers an altar. Oh boy. Here we go. A bunch of nonsense dialog from these two white ashen beings in black robes, Oberon and Haza, are doing something to our hero. And that in a nutshell is the beginning of this tragic tale.

Episode 886 – Tuesday 11/18/69

So after a strange ceremony on this altar, Barnabas arises and is 100% pure evil… or so it seems. He’s being referred to as Master and gets this thing called the Leviathan Box.

Remember this box well kids, it will annoy you so much as the weeks go on.

We are now back in the present, to the day, with Dr. Hoffman reading a journal entry. Oh how we missed the great plot expositor that is Julia! Oh, and what’s this, a mysterious man!? Do go on.

I keep trying to put myself in the shoes of the viewers in 1969 who have no idea what in the hell is going on here.

Carolyn is wrapping a Christmas present for her mother. This is a rare reference to the time of year on the show. Believe me, it almost never happens. We also get our first mention of this bloody antique shop. More on that later. Feelings of doom and gloom are permeating this conversation. This is even further driven home when Julia starts hearing voices. I love how Lela Swift uses fast cutting between the portraits of Barnabas and Josette to drive the terror factor up to the max. Add to that the great skill of Grayson Hall as an actor and this is one of the better scenes of the week.

So now we have this old man skulking about. He finds the altar. He is in the old house. Then Julia happens to intercept him. Wuh-oh!

The plot seems good enough at this point. I sincerely think that if someone has missed this episode, they missed some very essential plot points. On your typical soap you could miss one, two, maybe even three episodes and still not miss essential points to understand what has been going on. Not on a show paced like Dark Shadows. Miss an episode and miss a lot!

Episode 888 – Wednesday 11/19/69

So the man has a face and a voice. But the audience still hasn’t a clue as to who he is. (Well, the end credits of this episode will spoil that!)

Antiquing-we-go! Say hello to the Todds, Phillip and Megan. Greg quipped “Oh look, it’s the antique shop ran by Eve and Alan Spaulding!”

It’s great to see Marie Wallace back on the show. The seem normal enough at first. Julia makes a big deal out of a Charles Delaware Tate painting, paying $300 for it (in 2017 money it would be worth $2,003!) OK, so I can grant Julia a pass on this, she is as she explains after the portrait of Quentin.

Alas, Carolyn meets the strange man and verbally kicks him off the property. Forget that the Leviathan altar is there just as a point.

The Todds turn weird towards the end of the episode. Just what do they mean here? And why is that altar splitting apart all of a sudden?

Episode 889 – Thursday 11/20/69

Barnabas appears all of sudden with that box again in the latest edition of Chromakey Theater. Somehow the effect is better utilized here than other times.

Professor Stokes is back and he’s seeing Sabrina Stuart – the victim of Chris Jennings.

Julia and Barnabas are reunited. The box is there, of course. He is acting all strange. Oh yeah, and the box is very old.

So Sabrina is talking all of a sudden and wants to see Carolyn. She warns her that Chris Jennings will try to kill her. There is a device in soap operas called SORAS… Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome. I think we need to come up with some other version of that for people that make miraculous recoveries for the convenience of the plot. There are more crazy examples of this in later years on other soaps.

At the end, Julia wants to open that damn box. We are treated to the first of many times of having just some random person (probably a stagehand) breathe into the boom mic. Are you frightened at 4:26 in the afternoon?

Episode 890 – Friday 11/21/69

Of course Barnabas shows up to prevent Julia from opening the box. I think everyone in the audience knew that was going to happen.

So a mysterious Corey is interested in buying Tate paintings as well. Julia thinks it’s Quentin. That is too easy and such a naive solution, way out of her character. But she can’t stop fawning over how much Barnabas is out of his usual self. The audience is just as confused and mystified. Remember when I said that if you miss a show you miss a lot? It’s been said that people starting writing in when Barnabas went back to evil ways in this plot in protest. I can certainly understand why they did so. Imagine Star Trek fans doing the same should Mr. Spock or Captain Kirk do the same thing. Fans are a strange breed, you never can predict what they are going to do or how they are going to react. Maybe someday I will dig through local newspapers of the period to see if there were a lot of letters to TV mailbags complaining about this.

Oh look, a pentagram!

Barnabas wants guidance from Oberon on how he is to know who the chosen ones are. And, of course, right at the Friday cliffhanger, they are at the door!

So, after one week of this plot where do we stand? I think the massive ticking off of the audience has well and truly started. It’s only going to get worse from here. I don’t know if anything could save the course the writers and producers have went on at this point. There was definitely no turning back.