Obit: Dan Curtis, @ 78; Creator of Epic TV Miniseries 'Winds of War,' & gothic soap, 'Dark Shadows'

[ThatManDan]

Obit: Dan Curtis, @ 78; Creator of Epic TV Miniseries 'Winds of War,' & gothic soap, 'Dark Shadows'

(From the "L.A. Times")
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Dan Curtis, whose battle to make two Emmy-winning World War II miniseries,
"The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance," lasted years longer than the war the epics were based on, has died. He was 78.

Curtis, who also created the daytime soap opera "Dark Shadows" in the 1960s that became a pop culture touchstone, died Monday of brain cancer at his Brentwood home, said his daughter, Cathy.
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Read more at the following link:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-curtis28mar28,1,878643.story?coll=la-news-obituaries

(Free registration may be required to read the above article.)
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ThatManDan on 03/28/06 10:15 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Re: Obit: Dan Curtis, @ 78; Creator of Epic TV Miniseries 'Winds of War,' & gothic soap, 'Dark Shadows'

I once heard an "urban legend" that the Barnabus Collins character on "Dark Shadows" (played by Jonathan Frid) was added about thirteen weeks into the show's run (this I believe would be sometime in the Fall of 1966), after initial ratings were very disappointing.

In any event, by the end of 1967, "Dark Shadows" had become television's most popular daytime show.

In his memoir, didn't former ABC chairman Leonard Goldenson note that at the end of a late-afternoon meeting of department heads, he would tell the programming executive who gave that show the green light something like "You're not allowed to be out at night, because Barnabus Colins could get you"??