Well, given that we're going to be spending a lot of time at home, I've convinced my wife to start watching "Dark Shadows" (the whole original series is available on Amazon Prime for free). 1200+ episodes should outlast this outbreak, hopefully

We've already watched the first 7 episodes, and are hooked (she more than me). I love seeing a snapshot of life in 1966.

Has anyone else watched these?

Up to episode 13 - the storylines involved so far (from ):

Victoria Winters' Parentage (episode 1 to 92) - Victoria Winters and her role as governess is inspired by title character in Charlotte Brontë's gothic novel Jane Eyre.

I like Alexandra Moltke, the actress who plays Victoria Winters - cool character, nice protagonist.

Burke Devlin's Revenge For His Manslaughter Conviction (episode 1 to 201) - Burke Devlin and his motivation for returning is reminiscent of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

So far, I'm finding the pacing a little slow - events being stretched over successive 20+ min episodes, but my wife remains hooked. One of our daughters watched an episode with us, last night, and asked what "accent" people were speaking in (the 1960s inflections went right over our heads, but are really noticeable to a teenager).

Dark Shadows was a popular daytime series when we started playing Blackmoor. Duane Jenkins was particularly fond of the series.

How long is each episode? I am guessing a half hour, as it was daily, so maybe 25 minutes without commercials?

A "half hour" show on American television is 22 minutes long to allow 8 minutes of commercial time.

There's a decent possibility that Castle Blackmoor is actually named after Blackmoor Prison from "Dark Shadows".

https://darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/860

I'm not sure Blackmoor Prison is ever *shown* in the series, though.