Dark Shadows

8. Fans and Fandom

Chapter 8 Fans and Fandom 105 Since at least the 1970s, media scholars have used ethnographic research to study the ways that actual audience members make sense of televisual texts, especially soap operas . Following on the ideas and formulations of early cultural studies researchers such as Stuart Hall, David Morley, and Dorothy Hobson (see Culture Media Language), Ien Ang studied the reception of Dallas (CBS, 1978–91) among women in the Netherlands (Watching “Dallas”). Ellen Seiter, H. Borchers , G. Kreutzner, and E. Warth (Remote Control); Mary Ellen Brown (Women’s Culture; Women’s Talk); and Christine Geraghty (Women and Soap) have all explored the complex and often contradictory roles that various soap operas play in women’s lives. In more recent years, Robert Allen and many others have increasingly explored the ways that soap operas “make sense” within national, international, and diasporic contexts (Allen, To Be Continued; Gillespie, Television; Katz and Liebes, “Mutual Aid”; Miller, “Young and the Restless”). Still other scholars have used ethnographic tools to investigate science fiction and fantasy fandoms (Jenkins, Textual Poachers; Tulloch and Jenkins, Science Fiction), arguing that their special generic positioning situates them especially well for the creation of multiple and 106 Chapter 8 diverse fandoms. In some cases, tertiary fan productions reread and rewrite the primary text in surprising ways, a fact that has led some cultural critics to champion fan cultures’ potential for subverting the ideological status quo. As this chapter explores, such instances of subversion can be found within Dark Shadows fan culture, even as other fans continue to enjoy the show and (re)write it more in accordance with dominant ideologies. In other words, the primary text’s dual appeal—straightforward gothic horror and the campy reappropriation thereof—also structures much of Dark Shadows’ fandom. Currently, Dark Shadows exists as an ever-increasing multitude of texts produced both “legitimately” by certain sectors of the media industry as well as by the fans themselves. Like their science fiction brethren, Dark Shadows fans attend conventions, lobby television producers, write and publish fanzines (now mostly replaced by websites), and/or produce other artifacts based on the show such as amateur theatricals and video tapes. YouTube is awash in homemade Dark Shadows videos, including music videos that reedit episodes to the beat of suggestive songs, clips that reenact favorite scenes with action figure dolls, serious tributes to favorite actors/characters, and actual footage of Dark Shadows stars speaking at various public appearances. Most of these fan productions are grounded in a love for and devotion to the show; they are not officially sanctioned by the show’s producers nor created for anyone’s profit. Some even come with disclaimers to that effect: “The authors know they do not own these wonderful men and women. . . . There is no $$$$ exchanged here, just a common love for the people who populate the Dark Shadows universe” (www.squidge.org). That said, such disclaimers do not always stop corporate lawyers —often from the music industry—from disabling websites because of copyright infringement. Like the varied artifacts they produce, Dark Shadows fans come in all shapes and sizes, ages, races, ethnicities, classes, genders, abilities, and sexualities. Critical essays about Dark 107 Fans and Fandom Shadows’ fan cultures began appearing in the 1990s and were based on open-ended surveys, fan interviews (both formal and informal), fan correspondence, and participation and observation at several national Dark Shadows conventions (Benshoff, “Resurrection”; “Secrets”). Those essays also assessed fanzines, video tapes, and other material artifacts from the first twenty years or so of Dark Shadows fan production. Returning to this research in the twenty-first century, one can see how drastically all media fan cultures have been reshaped due to the rise of the Internet and its ever-easier modes of web-based publishing and communication. Dark Shadows fans’ productions may have begun with mimeographed fanzines and crude pencil drawings, but they have evolved into extensive web-based forums, complete with specialized chat rooms, listservs, and even an online encyclopedia, the CollinWiki, “A collaborative project designed to document everything related to the various incarnations of the Dark Shadows franchise.” As of May 2009, the CollinWiki contained over 1,400 articles, a number its founders suggest is just “the tip of the iceberg” since “the site is still in its infancy” (http://darkshadows.wikia.com/wiki/Dark_Shadows). Other recent developments include online role-playing games and the creation of machinima shorts, as fans...