WB Hopes to Hide in ’Dark Shadows’

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WB Hopes to Hide in 'Dark Shadows'

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - If P.T. Barnum were looking over the history of The WB, he might note that a bloodsucker is born every minute. The WB is looking to sire a new vampire franchise, reportedly greenlighting a new version of the popular daytime serial "Dark Shadows," which first aired on ABC from 1966 to '71. NBC resurrected the franchise for a short-lived primetime revival in '91.

darkshadows_240_001.jpg
Original "Dark Shadows" creator Dan Curtis and "ER" and "West Wing" producer John Wells are the creative forces behind the WB update, along with Mark Verheiden ("Smallville"), who wrote the pilot.​

Is there room for two vampires in The WB's drama family? Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" shared time on the network's schedule for two seasons, before "Buffy" migrated to UPN. Since that time, the David Boreanaz supernatural private eye drama has had the monopoly on the network's share of stakings, bloodlust and holy water aversion. Whedon is willing to share. Speaking with reporters at the semiannual Television Critics Association press tour, Whedon discussed making room for another ghoul in the WB crypt.

"There are a certain amount of things to say; there are innumerable people to say them," Whedon says. "I have created a world that is people be the actors I love, the characters that I care about, the themes I need to talk about, the writers who understand that. Somebody else is going to take that very ancient thing -- the vampire -- and do something completely different with it. It really doesn't worry me."

Executives at The WB are also quick to distinguish between the shows.

"Anytime John Wells walks in the door and says he's excited about wanting to do something differently ... I think that's something you're going to pay attention to," WB Co-CEO Jordan Levin says. "I think that two shows could co-exists. One is an action-adventure franchise and one is a very gothic soap opera."

It remains to be seen how many new high concept franchise-type dramas The WB is going to have room for next fall, particularly considering the failures of heavily promoted series like "Birds of Prey" and "Tarzan." In the fall, the network spend big money for the rights to develop a new version of "Lost in Space"

One thing that's for sure is that even if this "Dark Shadows" remake never makes it to the air, there will always be undead yarns for The WB to unspool.

"Clearly, I'm the 97th guy to use the vampire metaphor to tell stories," Whedon jokes. "I have no problem with there being a 98th."

Source:Zap2it
 
Im sort of confused by this, from what I can gather, there is a new show that could possibly start on the wb called "dark shadows" and has something to do with vampires........
 
This is a remake of an old soap opera from BACK in the day that I think they still may show on the Sci-fi network. There was a remake of it in the late 80's, early 90's (I think) which didn't work. The original was a classic, but the remake didn't fly. I ask you this...why try again?
 
Duh.............I am lost and confused....huh...? I didn't follow that to well. I got the re-make of an old show part, I think. But I still don't quite understand. The WB is looking into this? What? Why? It's a soap opera? Like a daytime soap opera? What? Huh? Cliff notes version please, someone.....help me please...before I am forced to repeatedly smash my head against a wall and destroy what little of my brain that actually works....
 
I'm uh not completely sure, but I think it was a Night time soap opera, Dallas was as well right? My dad used to watch the Barnabas Collins one...first vamp with a soul or something...I heard something about it before but I'm hazy on the details. He was older looking too....the 60's dude didn't look anywhere as good as DB (but thats only from what i remember a pic in this one book i've got.)
There was another show in the '70's. Night Stalker..or something similar, there was this newspaper reporter that may have been the first vamp slayer on a tv series or something like that...thought twas an interesting tidbit.
I dunno if I helped any but...
The WB might be looking into it cuz of the success of Buffy and Angel...not sure, just a theory...I'm sure theres others here that know more bout this and the show, but if wanted I can go look up B.C. in my book....
I'm not quite sure what the premise of the show was anymore but....the guy was cursed by a witch or something...still had a soul, lost love...doesn't sound too horridly bad, but...hafta be careful with remakes. dun get me wrong, I'd rather Angel than this, but...maybe it'll be half decent. I don't think they could do any worse than the orginal, lotsa flubbed lines
salon com ( whole w thing and a . instead of the dot things necessary)...i haven't 15 posts yet so i can't quite paste the link but search dark shadows and in the lil blurby thing something should be mentioned bout Buffy.
 
I don't even wanna know about the other show, I'm not going to watch it period!
 
So The WB are canceling one well established, good rating cult classic vampire show to replace it with a tried and tested and failed vampire show...........is it only me that doesn't see the sense in this??
 
It doesn't make much sense to me either, but from what I gather, the orginal version of Dark Shadows was quite popular, it did spawn two movies, I dunno ratings or anything but I think it was sorta big when it was on first.
The WB'd prolly do better with both, then at least if DS bombs they'll still have a show with good ratings.
If i understand it correctly DS was the first cult classic vamp show, and Night Shadows was the first show centered on a slayer of vamps. It'll just take a bit to get the fanbase at least as large as before, and more to get it larger. There's prolly a few really loyal DS fans, but unless you've got it on DVD 40 yrs makes the memories of the show a lil off.
They're gonna hafta do a lotta work to make it as good as Angel, and with the shows history,....execs aren't the smartest ppl around, sometimes they make the worst mistakes, sometimes, they get lucky, sometimes they make no sense.
I'm all for the non-cancellation of Angel, but I think I'm more likely to give Dark Shadows a chance if Angel's still around.
 
Now its making even less sense.........if The WB kept Angel on and showed DS as well I believe that DS could maybe be a success (if its any good) BUT seeing they are cancelling Angel and the fans of Angel are the ones that are going to watch DS aren't they sota shooting themselves in the foot. If you anger the fans that you want to watch your 'new' program well........it definately doesn't say 'good ratings'!

This is all so wrong! ::dk::
 
They did not cancel Angel to replace it with Dark Shadows. They are two very different kinds of shows. They had initially planned to air both Angel and DS.

The originally DS was a daytime soap opera - I *think* it was set in the past. The 90's version was a prime time soap.

Cliff's notes version:

Barnabas was cursed by a witch (his spurned lover) to be a vampire. 1800's or abouts. Present day, he returns to his family's estate as the great-grandson/cousin/etc of the original Barnabas. They don't know he is a vampire.

The family hires a governess to teach their son. Lo and behold she closely resembles Barnabas' lost love that he dumped the witch for.

Then they had cool flashback episodes, and where they went back in time and was past-lives-y.
 
There was also an article about it in the latest SFX which I have somewhere. When I find it i'll type it up.

But personally i'm going to approach this show with an open mind, like Buffy said its not replacing Angel. Dark Shadow's has been in production discussions for several months now, its just a new show that happens to have a basis in vampires. Its not the fault of the producers, writers, actors etc that The WB has cancelled Angel.
 
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