Dark Shadows Novels of the 1970s

Dark Shadows wasn't broadcast in my TV market, not until 6 months before the show ended. I discovered the spooky soap in 1968 while twisting the dial on summer vacation in Wilmington, NC where Dark Shadows aired weekday afternoons. I was mesmerized by Barnabas, Julia Hoffman and that creepy kid David Collins who had some kind of demonic possession going on.

Returning home with the knowledge that this cool show existed, I was able to barely tune Dark Shadows in the next Monday at 3:30 from a station 2 hours away. Somehow, through the black-and-white snow and sound distortions, I was able to keep up with the Collins family until next summer's vacation would allow for a decent viewing of the coffin.

That's how I ended up one of the millions of kids frantically racing home from the school bus attempting to catch the last ten minutes or so of the show on the one portable TV set in our home that was able to receive that faraway channel.

There was another source of Dark Shadows entertainment that I latched onto around the same time, the novels by romance writer Marilyn Ross (actually a pen name for Dan Ross). They began publication in December of 1966 as typical gothic romance stories, more or less along the lines of the soap. In the books and the TV series (pre-Barnabas) governess Victoria Winters travels to a mysterious Maine mansion by the cliffs where secrets, betrayal, insanity and intrigue are offered in lieu of a decent paycheck.

In November of 1968 Barnabas Collins finally got his own euphoniously titled novel. Six more followed the next year with the vampire now at the center of the plots. The Secret of Barnabas Collins, The Demon of Barnabas Collins, The Foe of Barnabas Collins all featured storylines that would feel familiar to viewers with the witch Angelique, Josette Collins, Chris Jennings and other familiar characters playing key roles.

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The Animated Star Trek

Unable to get a network series off the ground after Star Trek was cancelled in 1969, Gene Roddenberry was coming off a losing losing streak when, in the summer of 1973, he got a strong pilot commitment from CBS for Genesis II and a pick-up on NBC, an animated version of Star Trek for Saturday mornings.

The Saturday morning version of Star Trek was, in many ways, more enjoyable than the first Trek series, aliens were more believable when everyone was a cartoon and scripts could be written without regard to budget (at least in some respects).

Almost the entire original cast returned for this new production. The series was headed by D.C. Fontana, Star Trek's story editor and script supervisor, and many of the original script writers returned.

The first episode was written by Samuel A. Peeples, who wrote the second pilot for the original live-action series. Several plotlines were continued over from the original series, including the return of Harry Mudd and those troublesome Tribbles in an episode by the original script-writer David Gerrold.

'The Slaver Weapon' was written by Larry Niven, an adaptation of his short story 'The Soft Weapon'. Science fiction on TV written by top sci-fi writers? That's one reason the animated Star Trek was such a blast. This enjoyable episode utilized Spock, Uhura and Sulu.



Neither Nichelle Nichols nor George Takei were slated to participate at first but when Leonard Nimoy heard their characters were being used (with voices by Majel Barrett and James Doohan) he threatened to quit unless the supporting players were also hired.

Ensign Chekov was cut for budget reasons but Walter Koenig was given the opportunity to write one of the episodes, 'The Infinite Vulcan'.

The rendering was crude and movement was limited, but leaps ahead of what Filmation was churning out with their highly popular Archies and DC Comics series. So what if there were endless stretches of ships floating in space, this was the closest thing to intelligent fantasy we had in the early seventies.

The animated Star Trek cost quite a bit more than other Saturday morning shows, so NBC ordered only sixteen episodes for the first season which won the Emmy in 1974 as "Outstanding Children’s Series." That year there was a flood of prime-time shows converted to cartoon format starring the original cast members on Saturday mornings, a trend that would continue for years.

Star Trek was renewed for a second season but only six new episodes were ordered.

Watch D. C, Fontana interviewed about the Animated Star Trek:

The Summer of Sonny & Cher

There have been very few summer sensations on television, after all it's an ebb period of viewing with people otherwise busy having fun elsewhere. One series that ignited with the public during the hot months of 1971 was The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour.

All you need to know about why the show was a hit is in the opening 10 minutes of the first episode (a bad copy here from You Tube but it has never been released on DVD).



With a sassy routine they developed in nightclubs, suddenly two forgotten 1960s pop stars were the biggest thing on television. When the variety hour returned in 1972 ratings rose higher, remaining in the top ten until Sonny & Cher divorced in 1974.



I've never seen outtakes from the Sonny & Cher shows so this is a rarity, often times mistakes would be kept in the final tape to give the feeling of spontaneity. Like this example that starts after the song at 2:10 - producers ended up using this seemingly unusable flub on the show.



During the run of the two Sonny & Cher TV series Sonny Bono was popping pills that tended to make him giddy and confused, it was part of his charm for me. Notice how Cher covered her mouth when she laughed - she was a very self-concious about her crooked teeth, she had them fixed before going into the movies. Cher was really a good sport while Sonny dissembles here, after all she was married to another man (Greg Allman) by that point.

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Biggest Queen Ever!

Some of the comic actors I love best are ones that chew the scenery and the guy who gets my vote for the biggest, gayest performances is England's Kenneth Williams who co-starred in dozens of the Carry On movies. From 1958–1978 sexual innuendo and juvenile humor were gleefully embraced by this gayer-than-gay performer.



This cheapo motion picture series was immensely popular with 2 or 3 being released a year, all starring the same core cast in a new setting - some of the best in the series include Carry On Camping (the gang goes camping), Carry On Nurse (the gang in a hospital setting), and Carry On Teacher (you get the idea). The entire esemble was wonderous, each in their own way, but Kenneth Williams takes the cake with his flamboyant, obliviously closeted homosexual roles.



From a chat show, here's how witty the comic was without a script:



Kenneth Williams passed away in 1988. Here's more on the tragic funnyman from a documentary about the Carry On series.