Bloopers
are bloopers -- if you've seen one, you've seen them
all. Be they line flubs, accidents, misadventure or the result
of downright ineptitude, to watch a blooper compilation of
any sort usually amounts to an invitation to extreme repetition.
Two
important factors distance Dark
Shadows Bloopers from these pitfalls: the fact that with
no facility for retakes, the show had to plough ahead regardless;
and the way in which they succeed in offering a rounded overview
of the production atmosphere on a unique footnote in broadcast
history.
The
sight of armies of running stagehands, misplaced booms and
wayward camera lenses manage to give a lucid insight into
the working environment of the Dark
Shadows studio, which
transcends any number of interviews or printed matter. Bloopers,
by nature, are a trivial commodity, but by employing them
in a way that illustrates the background of the show so well,
they gain a value and quality far more satisfying than the
sight of a stumbling actor or error in syntax.
Complimented with
a selection of unbroadcast outtakes, complete with sarcastic
stage-hands and Grayson Hall's raucous cackling, for the
briefest moment, one finds oneself transported to ABC Studio
16, a cramped rabbit warren buzzing with activity. For that
reason alone, Dark Shadows
Bloopers is a tape
I rarely tire of revisiting.
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