The Television Horrors of Dan Curtis: Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and Other Productions, 1966-2006

Curtis became acclaimed for horror and it led him to create a movie "Burnt Offerings" (1976), which he produced and directed. This would be one of the final films that starred the legendary Bette Davis. My friend Ed Begley, Jr. guest starred in "Dead of Night" in 1977. But television fans also remember his second television cult classic "Night Stalker" (1972). Curtis perhaps built his name with this series, because being a nighttime series the audience was much larger.

This book chronicles in excellent detail the career of the legendary director from 1966 through 2006. The author Jeff Thompson seems not only impressed by the distinguished career of Mr. Curtis but he also seems to grasp the fascinating imagination and mindset of a great director who created a whole new genre in television. During the 1960s Westerns were a dying genre for TV, but Curtis reinvented and reinvigorated fans and critics with his groundbreaking storytelling that not only left chills down the spine, but made us wonder if there was something out there that we weren't aware of. He made people think. Perhaps he brought that type of attitude to what is now considered a television staple. Every show today makes people wonder and think; however, in the past, people saw television as simply entertainment.

The book is filled with little known facts that fans of Dan Curtis would find fascinating, enlightening and educational. This book however reads very easily and the photographs are incredible. The author Jeff Thompson is a professor of English at Tennessee State University in Nashville. He is also involved in literary work that includes film and popular culture. The Foreword is by Jim Pierson.

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