Strange Paradise

This aired when I attended grade school during the late 60's and 70's. It aired at noon hour n Newfoundland, and I would rush home on my lunch break to watch it with my Grandmother and Uncle. For me, it ranked right up there with the great American TV series of the day. Those were the days my friends.

This tripe caused me to have nightmares as a young child . It aired in the middle of the day back during it's original run and I watched unsupervised. The show is full of skulls, snakes , evil rabbits, death, fire etc. I've recently seen some of the episodes on Drive -In and have noticed it's poorly written, poorly acted, poorly filmed...everything you'd expect from Canadian television. I guess I've tuned in as a kind of therapy for what terror it caused me as a young child. This show is so bad , however it's really hard to sit through and I wouldn't recommend anyone else to watch it. I mean , not even it an I want to see a train wreck' or an Ed Wood movie sort of way.

There was a THIRD storyline that aired under a different show title that ran in 1971 in U.S. syndication---for the life of me I can't remember the title, but I watched it until it ended the same year. Could this be the discrepancy of the total number of episodes? It added a few assorted Dark Shadows writers and actors, probably Robert Costello's attempt to save the show. I remember it had a pretty high body count towards the end of the storyline! Hope someone else had seen this and could provide more details...

Thanks,

LarryM

A hidden gem for fans of Dark Shadows or any other horror series, Strange Paradise is currently airing on the Drive-In Channel in Canada. Few reviews so it's hard to validate some facts incl. some missing episodes and 195 total episodes vs. 130 (?) and whether or not there was a one-hour pilot !!?? First storyline runs until episode 65 during which the wealthy Jean-Paul Desmond and his sister-in-law Dr. Alison Carr perform cyrogenic experiments in an effort to bring Jean Paul's dead wife, Erica, back to life. It's not explained how she died. However, Jean Paul made a pact with the Devil and this causes him eternal torment and anguish and results in tragedy for everyone.

We're currently working our way through the second storyline where the set is now moved from Maljardin to Desmondton. The family mansion is called Desmond Hall and the members are either reported missing, as in the case of Phillip Desmond, or some have an agenda or something hide as in the case of Jean Paul's second cousin Cort & his overpowering stepfather, Laslo Thaxton. Jean Paul is still cursed; this time he transforms into a murderer shortly after seeing a red star and the Devil's mark appears on his left hand.

Great cast consisting of Colin Fox as Jean Paul Desmond, Jack Creley as Laslo Thaxton, as well as Bruce Gray from the first storyline. These actors still pop up on other Canadian TV series in present day programs. A real treat to see some of these actors "now and then" but even more entertaining is watching this Gothic soap for the first time. Hope to see all the episodes air including the reported "missing" ones. And if there really is a one-hour pilot, someone tell us how to get a copy.

Okay, so its production values aren't the highest. Still, STRANGE PARADISE is an entertaining ride, worthy of far more attention than it has garnered in the past 40 years. The series was produced as a daily serial (i.e. a soap opera), and was inspired by the phenomenal success of Dan Curtis' DARK SHADOWS. So, no, it is not slick or glossy. It was shot on a break-neck schedule in an effort to get the episodes done quickly for daily broadcasts. But if you're willing to watch a few episodes and give the story time to develop, it's really quite fascinating. And the scripts are better written than generally credited, particularly the early weeks penned by Ian Martin. STRANGE PARADISE is fairly obscure, but if you like horror stories in the vein of DARK SHADOWS and you have the chance to give it a look, it's well worth your time.