'Reveal Yourself, Tiny Songstress!'

There were no remotes - or they weren't common back in the day. She was probably just too lazy to drag her teenaged butt off the couch to change the channel manually. Also back then I think there were only like three channels to choose from and that might have been the least objectionable program on tv at the moment.

Why was Carolyn watching a Carpenter's performance on television???

Maybe the Carpenters were appearing on one of those rock and roll shows from the early 1970s, like "The Midnight Special," and Carolyn was just waiting for either Iggy Pop or The Ramones to show-up on the program? (And what would Barnabas have made of either Iggy Pop or the late, lamented Joey Ramone, Howard Stern's alleged older brother?)

Annother great bit during that sequence, was when we got to see Barnabas (wearing his protective sunglasses) with Vicky, and they're both sitting in the sunlight on the rocks by the ocean, and reading together, Erich Segal's extremely schmaltzy novel, "Love Story." Ugh!

Perhaps Barnabas would have enjoyed reading either Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" and/or Peter Benchley's "Jaws" as well?

amberavantegarde,

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed this thread. The female caretaker in "Dark Shadows" was the "beloved" Mrs. Sarah Johnson, who was portrayed by the wonderful stage and television actress, Clarice Blackburn, in the original "Dark Shadows" series. Ms. Blackburn always managed to offer some subtle, yet extremely sarcastic remarks on the original show.

For instance, when Collinsport Sheriff George Patterson was having difficulty in trying to detemine if her late (and beloved) boss, Bil Malloy, had died in an accidental fall from Widow's Hill or if he had been pushed deliberately off of the cliff to his death, she remarked that the somewhat portly sheriff would have absolutely no difficulty whatsoever in immediately responding to the horn or whistle, signifying it was lunch time for all of the workers at the local Collins Cannery Company to break for the midday meal.

In the film version of "Dark Shadows," that actress had absolutely no lines at all. I think that was a mistake by Tim Burton. Of course, many of the "Dark Shadows" purists were annoyed that Mr. Burton employed so much humor in the film, but, as a lifelong fan of "Dark Shadows," I thought it was terrific!

Starwolf,

Yes, I remember that "Don Kirshner's Rock and Roll Show" usually had only one musical guest (or group) on the show. Incidentally, Mr. Kirshner cut "quite" a figure on that show as host, what with that oh-so-seventies razor cut, hair cut, those oh-so-seventies leisure suits he used to wear on the show, and that oh-so-Brooklyn accent of his. In fact, legendary and longtime New York City musical radio host William B. Williams (whom the late Frank Sinatra tabbed as "Willie B") used to refer to Mr. Kirshner as "Mr. Electricity," in "tribute" to Mr. Kirshner's almost deadpan, monotone tone/delivery on that show.

Yep, terrible film, but some priceless moments with Depp as Barnabus.

I'm a civilian, I'm not a trout

The "humor" was simply too juvenile and wacky, and for many fans of the original like myself, felt that it really off-putting and deviated from the spirit of the original. Some of the "humor" would have been better served in a cartoon than in a horror movie. The fight scene was pure loony tunes, as was the sex-on-the-ceiling yuk-yuk. If Burton wanted to make a movie about an out of time vampire then he should have made that as its own movie and not try to slip that in as a cheap gimmick in this movie. If the director had stayed with the same theme as he had in the first fifteen minutes of the movie and kept out the woka-woka "I'm a vampire" crap this would have been a great movie.

Presumably Richard Carpenter had to give permission for use of the song--although songs have been used without permission in films, as was "Honey Don't" in Prince of Tides--but I wonder what Richard Carpenter thought of this.