Dark Shadows - Outtakes

[@66collinwood]

These clips are just priceless!

[@jondeare]

I want The Dark Shadows clipboard.

[@chapter7thomas]

Wow...I've never seen this before. They had such fun. I wish I was there.

[@franklinbolander1916]

WOW!...YES ME TOO!

[@marciamornay1089]

Love Jonathan's expression after his blurb for ABC...and Grayson' giggling in the background.

[@ajaugenti1976]

Yep, and at the end of it, he was like, really? :/ Awesome expression on his face!

[@11redlions]

I think he said; it's a 'take'?

[@ajaugenti1976]

Ok, well thank you for the info.

[@musicalshadows1715]

The best part.

[@kp22kc]

I love Grayson Hall's "Why?" Such a great voice!

[@marilynwillett804]

except when she screamed, it was horrendous.

[@KittyBeans369]

ADORE Grayson but her scream was more of a screech (at least to me).

[@musicalshadows1715]

Brilliant outtakes! Love them!

[@lynnebraun4845]

What a fun workday they had!!!!

[@FilPol-yu1es]

I'm glad there's Not many of these. When it comes to Dark Shadows....I Don't want the 4th Wall broken.

[@delavalmilker]

David Henesy is so cute at 1:17!

[@larryaldrich4351]

I had a buddy who watched some Dark Shadows with me and he kept referring to Barnabas as Carlos. I later found out he thought the vampire actor was Karloff by mistake. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer.

[@alpyki2588]

He must've had a shock when Karloff died in '69 and the show continued on.

[@catherineerwin8269]

So it wasn’t live! But, still a lot of bloopers that made it on the air. Looks like there was some fun times too..

[@Historian212]

Technically, it was live on tape. They shot it straight through, leaving room for commercials, etc., and couldn't stop for corrections, according to what they've said. See some answers below for more detailed explanations of the process.

[@catherineerwin8269]

@@Historian212 Live on tape, like fresh frozen?

[@Marcel_Audubon]

Live to tape, very seldom was the action cut

[@Barnabas45]

Wish my job was that fun!

[@bobbyfrancis8957]

When that chalkboard said it was in Feb. 1967, I wasn't 12 years old yet. Then later it said Oct. 1967 - now I'm 12, and I was already at my full height.

[@Historian212]

That's DOCTOR Hoffman, to you, LOL.

[@silglaba]

Thanks for the video!!! Great!!!

[@eduardo_corrochio]

Wow, they actually left some mistakes *out* of this show 😮 .... fascinating. It was notorious for shooting very quickly and not doing retakes; something about tape being more difficult to cut and edit than film.

[@blobydude420productions4]

Soap operas usually had to produce 5 episodes per week meaning during that time they had little to no time to make perfections should the episode taping go awry.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@@blobydude420productions4 DS was a special case, I've been told. Theirs was a very rushed schedule, and directors rarely stopped tape to do something over like most shows did. On other daytime soaps of the era (1960's & 1970's) you seldom saw the amount of verbal flubs, prop mishaps, and crew appearing on screen as you did on this show. Clearly the cast was under pressure, and because of that their work suffered. It's a shame because we can just imagine how good it could have been if they had been given more time and a bit more money.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@Tom Lowery Maybe, but I doubt Peyton Place or As the World Turns would have as many mishaps as Dark Shadows had.

[@eduardo_corrochio]

@Tom Lowery What a condescending person. Very sad to see behavior like that. I hope Santa brings you some kindness to balance that rude ugliness you exude.

[@delavalmilker]

This show was live recorded on videotape, in the days before electronic editing was developed. So if there was a mistake or flub, the only way to edit was to physically cut and splice the videotape. A VERY difficult and error-prone process. So it was simply easier to just--especially on a high-volume daytime soap like DS---to just keep recording through the flubs.

[@MAZE4]

It's comedy gold

[@fucheduck]

Dark Shadows IS an outtake! in fact on broadcast cam you will see tech's elbows and black teeshirt arms shjowing off as Barabas and Petofi duel it out in a dark seriouis scene! ;/

[@SpenceCurry]

Used to think those actirs stayed in character offf camera

[@cambonious23]

Sara’s was pretty cool. She read that so fast. Then got mad at herself.

[@rayarena879]

I don't understand why if the episodes didn't air at the same time that they were being filmed, the producers couldn't edit out the many blurbs that the series had, i.e. the hanging mics that would show, the stage hands we could occasionally see, the flies that would land on Jonathan Frid's nose, etc...

[@CWFRage]

One of the interviews in the Dark Shadows collection explains it. Back then the episodes were shot on a tight schedule and in those days to remove scenes from a roll of film you had to literally cut out frames on the film strip and take the pieces back together. The only time it would be easy to cut would be an opening scene because that footage could simply not be used or cut out without the need to tape ends back together as it is at the beginning of the film strip

[@greghowell2766]

The shows were not filmed like video taped shows today. The cameras sent the signal to another studio with tape machines via cable, and they only had 40 minutes each day available to tape and send the feed, including stripping for commercials. By the time the Dark Shadows team received the physical master tape episode, there was not enough time to fully edit by the air date, usually only a week away. Of course, they would had to create the viewing copies from the master taps as well. With all of that going on, they only had time to chop off end segments to fit into the 30 minute time constraints. There was not a separate post production crew to analyze and edit. It was truly "live to tape" except for some special effects and major disasters. Must have been so much fun and energy on that set!!!

[@Marcel_Audubon]

Lots of reasons. Among them was the editing tools were still primative in the mid 60s

[@jfq7223]

Dunno, but 1 week between taping and airing seems pretty tight to me. They still had to lay the music on too.

[@gaylelewis9114]

Awesome!

[@ericFJ]

two days before cielo drive...

[@hollyb6885]

Why did they stop the scene with Grayson and Jerry?

[@zombie_queen9336]

I think the tape messed up or the sound system went weird or something like that. LOL

[@rareform6747]

Outtakes for live soap opera . Very interesting , I see nothing because live professionalism !

[@Renshen1957]

Out takes, I thought the left in all the out takes.

[@effdonahue6595]

They left out all the in takes too 🤓 👻

[@billlamont817]

What Does VTR Mean?

[@grysnhoffman]

Video tape recorder

[@billlamont817]

​@@grysnhoffmanThank You !

[@savio807]

3:22 So they never did retakes?

[@jfq7223]

Probably not because that would require editing. I'm sure 'from the top' of a scene was their motto.

[@albertdemarco4655]

DarkShadowswasthebestlearntoolinmylife. Intheearly1970'sIwenttovisitNYCDanCurtisABCStudioandAptofLaraParker. She was the pro life person. Thanks!!!!! Correction: She was a nice person.