Synopsis
| Beginnings | Building the
Team | Casting | Design
| On Location | Scripting
| In the Studio | Broadcast
| Credits
My
name is Victoria Winters. My journey is just beginning. A
journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me, and
link my past with my future... A journey that will bring me
to a strange and dark place, to the edge of the sea, high
atop Widows' Hill, to a house called Collinwood... A world
I've never known, with people I've never met. People who are
still only shadows in my mind, but who will soon fill the
days and nights of my tomorrows...
Synopsis
On a cold October evening, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard,
matriarch of the mysterious Collinwood mansion, awaits the
arrival of Victoria Winters, who is to act as governess to
Elizabeth's nine-year-old nephew, David. Not wanting an outsider
in the house, her brother Roger confronts her in the drawing
room, but fails in his attempts to persuade Elizabeth that
David has no need of a tutor. On a train, some miles away
from the town of Collinsport, Victoria Winters is talking
to an old lady, Mrs. Mitchell, who warns her about the town.
Victoria is distracted however, and begins to daydream of
the foundling home where she has lived all her life. She recalls
the day when she received a mysterious offer of employment
from Mrs. Stoddard, a complete stranger, to work at Collinwood.
She is disturbed by Mrs. Mitchell, who brings her back to
reality. Also on the train is an enigmatic stranger, also
bound for Collinsport. At the station, the man introduces
himself as Burke Devlin, and offers Victoria a lift to the
town hotel. He urges her not to go to Collinwood, but Victoria
refuses to listen. At the hotel, the Collinsport Inn, Vicki
waits for her taxi in the adjoining coffee shop, where she
meets waitress Maggie Evans, who also warns her about the
house. Meanwhile, at the local bar, the Blue Whale, Burke
meets a private investigator, Wilbur Strake, who gives him
information about the Collins family. He tells Burke that
Elizabeth has not left the mansion's grounds in eighteen years.
At Collinwood, Victoria knocks at the door and is invited
inside by Elizabeth. Standing in the cavernous great hall,
Victoria looks apprehensive, unsure of what her future holds...
Beginnings
In
the Summer of 1965, Dan Curtis, an up-and-coming television
producer sought to make his drama debut. He had met with considerable
success in television sports coverage, but was desperate to
move on. By entering the fray as an executive producer in
a drama series, Curtis hoped to gain knowledge of the production
process without risking failure due to inexperience in the
field. His plans were to be given substance when he found
an unusual inspiration, in a dream.
In
the long process of bringing the dream alive, it was Art Wallace,
a seasoned television writer, who gave substance to Curtis'
vague ideas. With Curtis having interested ABC Television
executives, it was Wallace that he then approached to take
the project a step further. Initially offered the role of
producer, Wallace declined, preferring to write - and flesh
out the Gothic drama idea into a detailed 'story bible' that
Curtis could sell to ABC. Building on Curtis' vision, Wallace
utilised portions of his 1958 teleplay, Goodyear TV Playhouse:
The House, and successfully combined these elements with
strong storylines and characters. The completed document was
entitled Shadows on the Wall, the series' working title.
Other titles considered before Dark Shadows was chosen
were, The House on Widows' Hill, Castle of Darkness
and Terror at Collinwood. The Shadows on the Wall
document impressed ABC officials enough for them to commission
a six-month batch of episodes, with a view to renewal after
this trial period. A key factor in gaining the series a commission
was Curtis' promise to produce Dark Shadows on a shoestring
budget. With the series confirmed, Art Wallace began work
on the scripts, in preparation for the assignment of production
staff.
Building
the Team
Within
the next few weeks, Curtis enlisted the production skills
of Robert Costello, an old friend of Wallace's who had the
necessary experience Curtis lacked. Costello would bring together
the technical and design staff needed to begin pre-production.
Despite the small budget, the production team were eager to
use location filming, a concept quite alien to daytime dramas
of the time. Newly appointed art director, Sy Tomashoff, was
assigned the task of finding suitable sites, and conducted
these searches by aeroplane. Of the areas considered, the
town of Essex in Connecticut was chosen to represent Collinsport,
whilst the Seaview Terrace mansion at Newport, Rhode Island,
would become the Collins family home, at this time referred
to as Collins House.
It
was decided that music should have a high profile in Dark
Shadows and it was with this in mind that Robert Cobert,
a highly regarded composer, was approached by Costello. Curtis
was impressed with Cobert's work and immediately hired him.
Cobert started composing music for the series on Wednesday
20th April 1966, initially working on incidental cues, intending
to work a theme from them. Recognising the importance of a
strong theme tune, Curtis insisted on hearing the piece prior
to recording. With only a piano available to demonstrate the
theme upon, and feeling that it would not be appropriate for
the haunting woodwinds he had envisaged for the piece, the
Dark Shadows theme, one of the most recognisable in
American television history, began life quite inauspiciously
- whistled to Dan Curtis in his office while he was practising
his golf swing. With Curtis' approval, Cobert commenced his
recording sessions, the earliest of which took place in London.
In a major divergence from the norm for daytime programming,
Cobert employed an orchestra to perform the compositions for
Dark Shadows - otherwise practically unheard of. During
these sessions, two different versions of the Dark Shadows
theme were produced, the variant using a heavier reverb effect.
Although it was eventually decided not to use this version
on the show, a handful of first-year episodes do feature it.
When episodes would come to be recorded, Cobert's themes and
other cues would be played in live from vinyl records as the
show was videotaped - in an effort to conserve funds, Dark
Shadows had not been allocated any time for post-production
work.
Casting
With
location filming imminent, casting became a priority. Joan
Bennett, an actress with many 1940s and 50s film successes
to her name, was asked to play Elizabeth Collins Stoddard,
Collinwood's matriarch. Bennett was an expensive performer,
and insisted on a clause in her contract to allow her six
weeks leave each year to pursue other projects. The production
team knew she was worth every cent and she proved this by
garnering valuable press attention. In early May 1966, the
search for the main cast began. After testing for the role
of Victoria Winters on four occasions, Alexandra Moltke was
finally selected at a screen test where her resemblance to
Joan Bennett was noted. This fitted in with an intended storyline
in which Vicki would come to suspect that Elizabeth was her
long-lost mother. This plot strand would be explored on screen
but not concluded. Many others had tested for the role of
Victoria, including Kathryn Leigh Scott, Nancy Barrett and
Lisa Richards (who won the role of Sabrina Stuart some time
later). Other early additions to the cast included Louis Edmonds
(to play Roger Collins) and Mitchell Ryan (Burke Devlin),
both of whom were slated to appear in the upcoming location
work. Actors taking lesser parts in the early episodes were
not to be cast until a week before studio taping commenced
on 11th June. Auditions continued and Kathryn Leigh Scott
returned to test for the part of Carolyn, but lost out to
Nancy Barrett. In a late move, Scott was hired to play Maggie
Evans, the waitress at the hotel coffee shop. For initial
episodes, Scott was required to wear a short blonde wig, though
this was soon dispensed with.
Design
Having
found suitable locations, Sy Tomashoff turned his attentions
to designing the studio sets. For the initial episodes, these
included the impressive Collinwood drawing room and hallway
sets, the Blue Whale tavern interior and the Collinsport Inn
reception and coffee shop. Tomashoff's imaginative designs
made the best of limited studio space, utilising ingenious
false perspective. Construction began shortly after the appointment
of Lela Swift as director. Initially, Swift was concerned
that she had not been hired early enough to oversee the design
process, though once she saw Tomashoff's drawings, her worries
were soon dispelled. As talented as Tomashoff was, working
around the sets in the cramped, uncomfortable conditions of
the studio made for a logistical nightmare! Costumes meanwhile,
would be supervised by Ramse Mostoller, who would work in
partnership with Ohrbach's, a department store chain who would
provide the present-day clothing for the show's entire run,
in return for a credit after certain episodes.
On
Location
In the first days of June, with a skeleton film crew, the
Dark Shadows production team took several trips to
Newport and Essex, along with a shorter filming session at
the stables on the Lyndhurst Estate, which would later serve
as locations for the two Dark Shadows movies, and the
train station at Scarsdale, New York, which was seen in the
first episode. Dan Curtis and Robert Costello were on hand
to oversee the proceedings, acting as unofficial directors.
Film co-ordinator Anthony Ciccolini was present with a single
camera, with shooting conducted entirely on silent 16mm stock.
To allow for the possibility of the series lasting long enough
to make the transition to colour, certain sequences were shot
in colour, though to begin with they would only be seen in
black and white on screen.
During
the next week, establishing shots of buildings were completed,
along with specific scenes for early episodes featuring Mark
Allen (the original Sam Evans), Louis Edmonds, David Henesy
(David Collins), Alexandra Moltke and Mitchell Ryan. Night
filming was conducted, with artificial lighting, but due to
the time factors involved in moving lights for each shot,
these sequences emerged heavily truncated. For instance, the
first episode film insert featuring Victoria's arrival at
Collinwood by taxi cab was simplified to omit the driver depositing
Vicki's luggage at the doorway, and her paying him. Scripted
as a multi-shot sequence, the revised version is cut down
to a single shot, and the cabbie departs seemingly unpaid!
Other sequences filmed in the unit's time at Seaview Terrace
included those featuring David Henesy looking out of the bedroom
window and Alexandra Moltke standing at the edge of Widows'
Hill, and later, on the beach. This final shot would not appear
in an episode until the thirteenth week of the run. The film
unit then moved to Essex, Connecticut, where filming included
establishing shots of the Evans' Cottage, the Blue Whale (at
the Black Pearl Restaurant) and the Collinsport Inn (the Griswold
Inn). On location, the Collinsport Inn, the railway station
and the Blue Whale were fitted with appropriate signs, although
the Inn's placard erroneously read 'Collins Port'. Special
props and costumes were kept to a minimum, with Alexandra
Moltke and Mitchell Ryan even being asked to use their own
personal luggage in scenes. Albeit modified to include the
initials 'V.W.', Moltke's suitcase would be used in studio
also. Other Essex footage included several shots of Louis
Edmonds walking along the pier towards the cannery office,
and at the Evans' Cottage exterior, along with night sequences
at the railway station featuring Alexandra Moltke and Mitchell
Ryan. Accompanying the production staff during filming sessions
was an ABC photographer, on hand to take publicity stills.
The film footage itself was utilised to form the first trailers
for the series, which would entice viewers to tune in to the
mysteries of Collins House.
Scripting
On
June 6th, the final draft of the script for the first episode
- now allocated the production reference code ABC1-DRK66 -
was typed and distributed to the cast and production team.
Structured to contain three acts and a 'tag', the script was
relatively straightforward, but included two flashback sequences,
which proved impossible to mount live, along with scenes which
required cutting with location footage. The complexities presented
by this necessitated a special recording session in which
scenes on particular sets would be pre-recorded and then played
in live on tape day. These sequences, along with inserts for
the rest of the opening week, were scheduled to be recorded
on Saturday 11th June. This would also allow the production
team time to get used to the heavy schedule, whilst allowing
time during the first week for re-shoots, if necessary. Full
rehearsals began at 10.00am on the previous morning for cast
needed for the Saturday inserts and those appearing in Monday's
recording. Since the studio had no rehearsal rooms, this four-hour
session was held in the Terrace Room of the Empire Hotel on
63rd & Broadway, which would become the regular venue
for Dark Shadows rehearsals. By this time, the production
team had begun to simplify and hone the script. One of the
earliest changes was to cut back on the acting extras required.
The Blue Whale, initially scripted as having a staff of two
(a bartender and a waiter), became a victim of corporate downsizing,
the bartender taking on the functions of both. This was just
as likely a cost-related decision as an artistic one. Similarly,
a customer at the coffee shop, to be seen "finishing
a solitary dinner" in the first scene on that set, had
obviously consumed his meal before the cameras arrived. Another
early idea that was ultimately deemed inappropriate was for
the actors to deliver their dialogue with authentic New England
accents.
Art
Wallace's script is very close to what appeared eventually
on the screen. As the first entry in a new series, though,
it is filled with fascinating descriptive material to explain
as much as possible to those to be working on the show. Collins
House was revealed to be rather run down, noting that "a
good portion of it is closed off, weeds have overgrown the
formal gardens, and the few people who live in it - the sole
remaining members of the Collins family - walk like ghosts
through its dark corridors". The script also mentions
that it is "about eight-thirty on a windy October night
when we first meet Elizabeth and Roger. Interestingly, the
script also reveals that the Blue Whale is the town's "jukejoint"
and that it attracts the hard-bitten fishermen as well as
the groovy set of youngsters". There are also some wonderful
pointers to the initial thinking behind the characters. Burke
is described as being in the mould of a Twentieth Century
Count of Monte Cristo, while Roger is a "36 year old
man, fair-haired, handsome, with just a touch of weakness
around the mouth... A man of charm tinged with bitterness,
a man with the faint air of condescension once worn so brilliantly
by the characters George Sanders used to play in motion pictures".
In a similar fashion, Wallace mentions that if Eve Arden (a
contemporary of Joan Bennett) were thirty years younger, she
would be very like Maggie Evans. Although Maggie's character
would later mellow considerably, initially she is painted
as a cynic, "looking at the world through a wry screen
of disbelief, protecting herself against hurt [with] a rich
fund of humour". She also pokes her nose into other people's
affairs without invitation - in a line excised from the final
version, the Hotel Clerk (Conrad Bain) tells her: "learn
to leave people alone, Maggie. You'll be better off that way".
During
the rehearsal period, several alterations were made to the
script. Most of these were of a minor nature, such as lines
being dropped, or dialogue altered to suit an actor's delivery.
For example, Victoria Winters' introductory monologue, which
was recorded on Saturday June 11th, was subtly changed prior
to recording. It was also at this point that "Collins
House" was finally dropped in favour of "Collinwood".
A more major alteration concerned the opening titles. It was
originally intended that for each Dark Shadows episode,
this sequence would feature a voice-over spoken by the out-of-vision
announcer, beckoning us into "a Gothic world swirling
with love, fear, hate, revenge, and the relentless mystery
of the unknown... The world of Dark Shadows".
This introduction was dispensed with and never recorded. Production
documents also suggest that an art card was originally intended
to represent Collinwood in the opening titles, though in the
event, the image was achieved using a montage of location
footage.
In
the Studio
Between
8.00am and 1.00pm on Saturday June 11th 1966 in Studio 2,
the first sequences of Dark Shadows were sent electronically
along telephone cables to the ABC recording centre a few streets
away, where they were committed to tape. The first scene before
the camera featured Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters,
seen in a flashback with Mrs. Hopewell (Elizabeth Wilson),
Director of the foundling home. Several other sequences were
taped during this session for 'rolling' into the first episode,
including all the scenes to be shot on the train interior
and railway platform sets. For the train interior, stagehands
rocked part of the set, to simulate the movement of the carriage.
These sequences were to form, along with film footage transferred
to videotape and the scene in the foundling home, a six-minute
pre-recorded section that would be played in - split by a
commercial break - on tape day. The scene set in Victoria's
bedroom at the foundling home from later in the episode featuring
Katherine Bruce as Vicki's friend, Sandy, was also pre-recorded.
The set for this scene was that used earlier as Mrs. Hopewell's
office, redressed to double as the bedroom. All other scenes
were to be recorded 'as live' on the following Monday. After
recording the inserts that were to be included in the later
first week episodes, the recording session drew to a close.
Monday's
cast reconvened at 10.00am on the following Sunday morning
in the Terrace Room of the Empire Hotel for a further rehearsal
session scheduled to last until 11.30am. At midday, after
a short break, the first dress rehearsal and technical run
through took place at ABC Studio 2. Towards the close of the
four hours in the studio, a full run through was performed,
with the pre-recorded inserts rolled into the action. With
more time to plan the camerawork, Swift was able to use unusually
low camera angles, which worked to add space to Tomashoff's
sets and contribute to the heavy Gothic mood. Actors and crew
on Dark Shadows would not again be granted the luxury
of such extensive sessions prior to the recording of an episode.
Although the practice of recording inserts would continue,
the three day rehearsal period would instantly be cut back
to one day. It is perhaps for this reason that the finished
result looks to be a very polished affair.
Commercials
were an important consideration for those producing the series,
not least because the expense of programme was effectively
paid for by the advertisers. However, in what seems a bizarre
procedure by today's techniques, back in the 1960s, adverts
were played in on to the tape as the programme was recorded.
On the Sunday preceding tape day, the production team received
written notification of the commercials to be incorporated
into the week's recordings from unit manager Michael Brockman.
From this documentation, the director would know where to
insert particular commercials, their durations and which videotapes
they were recorded on. Episodes would be designed to have
four breaks for advertisements, with a fifth, immediately
preceding the end credits, used for trailing forthcoming ABC
programmes. The ABC comedy series F-Troop was the series
to be promoted during the first episode of Dark Shadows.
The
cast were blessed with a late start on the morning of Monday
June 13th 1966 - effectively the calm before the storm that
would be the next five years - arriving for 10.00am at ABC
Studio 2 to record the episode. Crew members would have arrived
earlier for the engineering set up process. With some performers'
work on this episode being restricted to the Saturday inserts,
the cast for this first full taping session numbered seven,
comprising Joan Bennett, Louis Edmonds, Alexandra Moltke,
Mitchell Ryan, Conrad Bain, Joseph Julian and Kathryn Leigh
Scott. During this final session, a full run through was staged
following a dress rehearsal, before recording commenced. By
this point, actors were expected to be essentially word-perfect,
but the 'safety net' of the Teleprompter - a device on which
a large paper roll containing a full, large-print dialogue
transcript could be rolled - was on hand near the cameras
to save the day if an actor 'dried' or some other manner of
disaster occurred to break the concentration.
Due
to the Saturday inserts being slated as Take 1, the first
full taping on the Monday, unusually, started with Take 2.
This take was quite satisfactory, but with sufficient studio
time available, another recording was performed in the hope
that this further performance would result in an even better
result. This was indeed the case and it was this third take
that would form the transmitted version. The episode's 'tag'
scene was amended slightly from the original scripted ending
of Victoria watching the Collinwood front door being "pulled
open by unseen hands". In the version recorded, Elizabeth
opens the door to Vicki, inviting her inside, the scene drawing
to a close with the young girl standing in the entrance hall,
unsure of what this gloomy old house holds in store for her.
The
recording went extremely well, a potentially difficult production
being carried off with style. Unlike the occasional debacles
that would follow, actors were practically word-perfect, all
aspects of the production having been planned out and executed
to a very high standard. The Dark Shadows team had
created a memorable piece of television history but ironically
found themselves with precious little time for celebration
- just thirty minutes after the 1.00pm finish at the studio,
they were back again to the Empire Hotel, to start rehearsals
for the following day's episode. It was the type of hectic
schedule that the people entrusted with bringing Dark Shadows
to the small screen would just have to get used to...
Broadcast
At 4.00pm Eastern/Pacific Time (3.00pm Central) on Monday
27th June 1966 and sandwiched between the soap opera Nurses
and the teen music show Where The Action Is, Dark
Shadows premiered on ABC. It would have been seen by approximately
17% of the viewers watching television in the US that afternoon.
Over the course of its stay on American television, the show
would go on to break many preconceptions about what made for
popular afternoon fare.
Following
its transmission, the episode was retained on its original
two-inch black-and-white videotape, and in September 1992,
was repeated for the first time, by the Sci-Fi Channel USA.
Two years later, MPI Home Video announced plans to release
the earliest Dark Shadows episodes for the first time
and brought this episode to home video on Dark
Shadows: Collector's Series, Volume 1 (MP5201), where
it was presented with its original commercials and production
slate. In its 22 minutes, the first episode communicates effectively
the potential that the Dark Shadows format had, even
before the introduction of Barnabas Collins, and stands as
a recorded monument to all who toiled so hard to make it work.
Dark
Shadows - Episode 1: ABC1-DRK66
Recording Dates: June 11, June 13, 1966 - Airdate: June
27, 1966 - Duration: 22'30"
Starring:
Joan Bennett (Elizabeth Collins Stoddard), Louis
Edmonds (Roger Collins), Mitchell Ryan (Burke Devlin),
Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans), Jane Rose
(Mrs. Mitchell), Conrad Bain (Hotel Clerk), Joseph
Julian (Wilbur Strake), Al Hinkley (Train Conductor),
Elizabeth Wilson (Mrs. Hopewell), Katherine Bruce
(Sandy) and Alexandra Moltke (Victoria Winters).
Story
Creator/Writer: Art Wallace, Producer: Robert Costello,
Director: Lela Swift, Music: Robert Cobert,
Music Supervisor: Art DeCenzo, Scenic Design: Sy
Tomashoff, Costume Design: Ramse Mostoller, Fashions
by Ohrbach's, Hair Stylist: IRENE HAMALAIN, Make-up:
Vincent Loscalzo, Audio: Frank Bailey, Tom
McCue, Sound Effects: Ed Blainey, Video: Ed
Pontorno, Technical Director: J. J. Lupatkin, Associate
Director: John Sedwick, Lighting Director: Mel Handelsman
, Unit Manager: Michael Brockman, Production Assistant:
Harriet Rohr, Assistant to the Producer: Gloria
Banta, Series Created by Dan Curtis Executive Producer
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