..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

March 28, 2006

ShadowGram Online Dark Shadows News Updates List
Marcy Robin's Cyberspace "Dark Shadows" News Update List
An Internet Publication of SHADOWGRAM
< ShadowGram@aol.com >

Number 148. March 27, 2006.
*********************************************
Hello, Dark Shadows Fan,

ShadowGram (SG), The Official Newsletter & News Source for Dark Shadows (DS), announces the following breaking news.

**** DAN CURTIS - IN MEMORIAM

I regret to inform all DS fans of the death of DAN CURTIS, the creator / director / producer of "Dark Shadows" and many acclaimed movies, TV miniseries, TV series, and TV films. Dan succumbed to brain cancer; he was diagnosed a little over 4 months ago. He died at 6:15 am (Pacific Standard Time) this morning, Monday, March 27.

Following is the official obituary released today to the media.

DAN CURTIS - Producer-Director of Television Mini-Series & Dark Shadows Creator
Veteran television and film producer-director Dan Curtis, 78, passed away at 6:15 a.m. (P.S.T.) on March 27, 2006 at his home in Brentwood, California, following a four-month battle with cancer.

Best-known for spearheading the landmark mini-series The Winds Of War and War And Remembrance, as well as creating the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, Curtis' diverse career in entertainment spanned five decades.

Born Daniel Mayer Cherkoss in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on August 12, 1927, Curtis graduated with a liberal arts degree in sociology from Syracuse University in 1950. He entered television as a program salesman with NBC-TV and, later, MCA, selling syndicated fare such as Union Pacific and Princess Grace In Monaco. After creating Challenge Golf featuring Gary Player and Arnold Palmer for ABC-TV in 1962, Curtis, a lifelong golfing enthusiast, formed his own company and in 1963 launched The CBS Match Play Golf Classic, which ran for a decade and won an Emmy for Achievement in Sports for the 1965-66 season.

In 1965, Curtis approached programming executive Leonard Goldberg at ABC-TV with an idea for a Jane Eyre-flavored drama series and on June 27, 1966 Dark Shadows premiered as a daytime soap opera. Though the supernatural serial initially met with low ratings, Curtis salvaged the show in April of 1967 with the introduction of a sympathetic vampire named Barnabas Collins, played by Jonathan Frid. The series quickly became a pop-culture phenomenon, giving the network a strong presence in daytime by attracting a devoted youth audience along with infatuated housewives. Ceasing production in 1971 after 1,225 episodes, Dark Shadows remains a cult favorite, spawning two M-G-M feature films (House of Dark Shadows, 1970, and Night of Dark Shadows, 1971) directed by Curtis and a 1991 NBC-TV nighttime remake starring Ben Cross.

Curtis' primetime producing debut came in 1968 with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, starring Jack Palance, for ABC. Produced in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Curtis' version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic earned multiple Emmy nominations, including Best Dramatic Program, and is considered by many critics to be the definitive interpretation.

Moving from New York to Hollywood in the early 1970s, Curtis established himself as one the industry's leading independent producers during the heydey of television movies. Many of Curtis' projects during this period were rooted in the mystery and horror genres and were written by frequent collaborator Richard Matheson, beginning with The Night Stalker in 1972. Starring Darren McGavin as hard-nosed reporter Carl Kolchak, the program achieved the highest ratings ever for a television film when it originally aired. A 1973 sequel, The Night Strangler, was followed by The Norliss Tapes, Scream Of The Wolf, The Turn Of The Screw and Dracula. The latter, starring Jack Palance, ranks as the first faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel. One of Curtis' most indelible offerings remains the 1975 telefilm Trilogy of Terror in which Karen Black, starring in multiple roles, is attacked by a ferocious Zuni warrior fetish doll.

Curtis returned to the big screen in 1976 with Burnt Offerings for United Artists. A haunted house thriller based on Robert Marasco's novel, the film starred Black, Oliver Reed and Bette Davis.

Also known as a nostalgic storyteller, Curtis mounted a pair of semi-autobiographical telefilms based on his childhood days in Bridgeport: When Every Day Was The Fourth Of July (1978) and The Long Days Of Summer (1980), both starring Dean Jones. Curtis' passion for period pieces was also on display in a trio of tongue-in-check action projects; the 1930s gangster capers Melvin Purvis, G-Man (1974) and The Kansas City Massacre (1975), followed in 1979 by his sole western, The Last Ride Of The Dalton Gang.

It was in the 1980s, however, that Curtis reached his career pinnacle when he was chosen by Paramount television head Barry Diller to produce, direct and co-write the screenplay for the largest mini-series made for television at that time, Herman Wouk's The Winds of War. Airing on ABC in February, 1983, the 16-hour production, starring Robert Mitchum, Ali MacGraw, Jan-Michael Vincent, Polly Bergen, John Houseman and Victoria Tennant, was seen by over 140 million viewers in the U.S. alone and remains the third-highest rated mini-series in small screen history. The World War II epic was followed in 1988-89 by the 29 hour sequel, War and Remembrance, which would become the most ambitious dramatic program ever made for television. Filmed at a cost of approximately $140 million over two years in nine countries, War and Remembrance reteamed much of The Winds of War cast, with Jane Seymour, John Gielgud and Hart Bochner taking over the roles originally created by MacGraw, Houseman and Vincent. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a dazzling achievement in historical storytelling" and "the best serialized drama in the history of American television," War and Remembrance was the first film to be shot on location at the Auschwitz death camp in Poland. Curtis' momumental accomplishment was cited with an Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries, the Directors Guild Award, the Golden Globe for Best Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television, the People's Choice Award for Favorite Miniseries and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Distinguished Service Award.

In the 1990s, Curtis returned to his affinity for stories of suspense and the supernatural with the aforrementioned Dark Shadows revival followed by the 1992 CBS miniseries Intruders, a UFO thriller starring Richard Crenna and Mare Winningham. Trilogy of Terror II for USA Network aired in 1996. Curtis' subsequently focused on his romantic leanings, transforming one of his favorite stories, Jack Finney's The Love Letter, into a Hallmark Hall of Fame production with Jennifer Jason-Leigh in 1998.

Curtis' final pair of projects, both airing in 2005, were emotionally charged true-life dramas. Madeleine Stowe headlined Saving Milly, based on the best-selling book by political journalist Mort Kondracke. The CBS-TV movie recounts Kondracke's love story with his activist wife, Milly, and her battle with Parkinson's disease. Our Fathers, a Showtime feature adapted from Newsweek writer David France's book of the same name, examined the Roman Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal and cover-up. Christopher Plummer starred as Cardinal Bernard Law.

Curtis was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Norma Mae Klein, on March 7, 2006, and daughter Linda Curtis in 1975. He is survived by daughters Cathy and Tracy.

Donations in his memory may be made to Dr. Jeffrey Cummings' Alzheimer's Research c/o UCLA Alzheimer's Disease Center, 710 Westwood Plaza, Suite 20238, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

Services will held this Thursday, March 30, at Eden Memorial Park, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, CA. (818) 361-7161

For those who wish to do so, sympathy cards to Dan's family may be sent to The Curtis Family, c/o ShadowGram / Marcy Robin, P.O. Box 1766, Temple City, CA 91780-7766.

**** The upcoming SG #107 print issue will pay tribute to Dan with exclusive photos (seen for the first time), plus other information and all the latest DS news and announcements. Over the years, we have lost many of the people who helped create and shape DS. But it was Dan's original "dream in the night" that started it all. His wife Norma encouraged him to take his dream and turn it into a proposed daytime series - which has brought us all together as fans of DS and in many other ways.

May each of our thoughts of sympathy, condolences, good wishes, prayers, and comfort help remember him and all those who are gone.

Please share with ShadowGram any media articles, obituaries, and tributes you locate from on-the-air, in print, and online news sources. They may be sent at any time to SG's e-mail and postal-mail addresses below.

All the latest confirmed DS developments also will be fully detailed in that SG #107. Subscription information follows for these full-size postal-mail newsletters

Thank you.
Marcy Robin
ShadowGram Editor / Publisher

Marcy Robin, P.O. Box 1766, Temple City, CA 91780-7766
E-mail: ShadowGram@aol.com

*****************************************************************

SHADOWGRAM (SG) is the * Official * "Dark Shadows" Newsletter. Much of its news is provided by the show's personnel and those involved in the 1966-71 TV series, 1991 TV series, and 2004 WB pilot. Established in 1979, SG works directly with individuals, companies, and others involved in DS' creation, distribution, promotion, merchandise, etc.

Regular SG print issues are published throughout the year, with free bonus complimentary breaking-news published updates as needed.

Brief Update bulletins are posted on this ShadowGram Online "Dark Shadows" News Updates List / Marcy Robin's ShadowGram "Dark Shadows" Cyberspace News Updates List. These posts are sent via e-mail between regularly-published issues to quickly notify fans of time-sensitive developments. Each e-mail Update is expanded and detailed in the subscription postal-mail print issues. You also can receive this identical SG Online Update by joining the ShadowGram Group at yahoogroups

SG postal-mail print issues are immediately available:
--- US & Canadian First Class subscriptions: $12.00 for 4 issues, $24.00 for 8 issues.
---Overseas Air Mail subscriptions: US $20.00 for 4 issues, US $40.00 for 8 issues.

Please send print issue subscription payment to:

Marcy Robin, P.O. Box 1766, Temple City, CA 91780-7766.

Online subscription payment via Paypal to: ShadowGram@aol.com

For more information on the newsletter, please write with a SASE (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope) to the above postal-address or e-mail ShadowGram@aol.com

Whenever your e-mail address changes, please notify me immediately. Please include your old and your new e-mail addresses. If you do not wish to receive this online "ShadowGram / Marcy Robin's Cyberspace Dark Shadows News Update List," please notify me via return e-mail. Thank you.