document_title: Dark Shadows

question_text: when did dark shadows start airing in color

question_tokens: when did dark shadows start airing in color

text: Dark Shadows

text: History[edit]

text: Creator Dan Curtis claimed he had a dream in 1965 of a mysterious young woman on a train. The following day Curtis told his wife of the dream and pitched the idea as a TV series to ABC. Network officials greenlit production and Curtis began hiring crew members.[4]

text: Art Wallace was hired to create a story from Curtis's dream sequence. Wallace wrote the story bible Shadows on the Wall, the proposed title for the show, later changed to Dark Shadows. Robert Costello was added as a line producer, and Curtis took on the creator and executive producer roles. Lela Swift, John Sedwick, and Henry Kaplan all agreed to be directors for the new series. Robert Cobert created the musical score and Sy Thomashoff designed the set.

text: Curtis then set out to find the actress to play the girl on the train. Alexandra Isles (aka Alexandra Moltke), a young actress with little experience, was discovered and cast in the role of Victoria Winters, an orphan who ends up in the mysterious, fictional town of Collinsport, Maine, to unravel the mysteries of her past.

text: Veteran film star Joan Bennett was soon cast as Victoria's employer Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, a woman who had not left her home in over eighteen years. Stage actor Louis Edmonds was cast as Elizabeth's brother, a widower, Roger Collins. Another stage actress, Nancy Barrett, was then cast as Elizabeth's headstrong daughter Carolyn Stoddard, and child actor David Henesy was cast as Roger's troubled son David Collins.

text: Dark Shadows had a rocky beginning. Critics were quick to deem the series rather boring for its heavy use of unknown actress Moltke and the slow progression of the show's legacy. The earliest episodes consisted of introducing the troubled characters and did not show any of the supernatural elements that later made the show a hit.[citation needed]

text: As production on the series continued, the introduction of many new and mysterious characters and various unknown actors and actresses was prevalent on the set. Most actors also ended up playing multiple characters, and those same characters would often return through flashbacks or the unprecedented use of parallel time lines.

text: Broadcast history[edit]

text: Perhaps one of ABC's first truly popular daytime series, along with the game show Let's Make a Deal, Dark Shadows found its demographic niche in teenagers coming home from school in time to watch the show at 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central, where it aired for almost all of its network run, the exception being a 15-month stretch between April 1967 and July 1968, when it aired a half-hour earlier. Originally, it was aired in black-and-white, but the show went into color starting with the August 11, 1967 installment transmission. It became one of ABC's first daytime shows to actually win its timeslot, leading to the demise of NBC's original Match Game and Art Linkletter's long-running House Party on CBS, both in 1969.

text: Dark Shadows began with a 4.1 rating in the 1965-66 TV season, tying for thirteenth place out of eighteen daytime dramas. The audience figures only improved slightly, to 4.3, in 1966-67. 1966 was a volatile year for soaps, and many ended their runs between the premiere date of Dark Shadows in June and the month of December. By that time, six months had passed, and for Dark Shadows, the news was not good; the soap had failed to gain major traction. In June, it ranked #13 out of 18 soaps, and by December, the lower-rated offerings were gone and the show officially ranked #13 out of 13 soaps. “The show was limping along, really limping”, head writer Sam Hall remembered, “and ABC said, ‘We're canceling it. Unless you pick up in 26 weeks, you're finished.’ [Series creator Dan Curtis] had always wanted to do a vampire picture, so he decided to bring a vampire — Barnabas Collins — on the series.”[5]

text: Barnabas was introduced in April 1967 and the fan response was swift and immediate. Coupled with a time slot change to 3:30 Eastern / 2:30 Central, the fortunes of Dark Shadows rebounded, as many more teenagers found the program after tuning out the other offerings that may have been too "boring" to them. By May 1968, the series was still in last place (out of 12 offerings), but rose to a 7.3 rating, the rough equivalent (at that time) of gaining the viewership of three million households in the span of one year. Dark Shadows would return to its 4 p.m. Eastern / 3 p.m. Central time slot in July 1968, without losing much of its audience at all. One Life to Live, which was launched by ABC in July 1968 in the 3:30 slot, also sought to reach the newfound young demographic.

text: The series reached its peak in popularity during a storyline set in the year 1897, broadcast from March 1969. By the end of May, Dark Shadows was ABC's most popular soap opera, and by late 1969 it was reaching between 7 and 9 million viewers on any given day, and ranking 11th out of a total 15 daytime dramas in that time period.[6][7]

text: In November 1969, after nine months of some of Dark Shadows' most intricate, intelligent storylines, an end came to the adventures in 1897. Now the writers were faced with a dilemma: with ratings at an all-time high, what could they do next to hold the audience?[8]

text: Their decision, a storyline known as "The Leviathans", proved to be a thematic misstep for the show and one from which it never recovered. Fans tended to dislike the portrayal of Barnabas as the pawn of some greater power. They were more interested in the archetypes of classic horror, the vampire, the witch, the werewolf than in off-camera suggestion.[9] The launch of Somerset in March 1970, a much-ballyhooed spin-off of NBC's Another World, also hurt the series considerably.

text: The release of the film House of Dark Shadows in September of that year is also thought to have caused TV ratings to fall, perhaps because of parents who attended the film with their children and, seeing the amount of blood spilled across the screen, discouraged their children's choice of television viewing material.[10] Beginning in the fall of 1970, several ABC stations across the country dropped the show due to falling viewership. Within six months, ratings dropped from 7.3 to 5.3. Ironically, Nielsen ratings for March 1971, the last full month that Dark Shadows was on the air, revealed that viewership had risen in its final weeks.[11]

text: By early 1971, though, ABC was trying to cut costs in the face of harsh new economic realities including a national economic recession, a sharp dip in advertising revenue following the discontinuance of cigarette commercials, and a record-high number of competing soap operas—which were more expensive to produce than game or talk shows—on the networks' daytime schedules. Thus, the network began weeding out supposedly unproductive programming.

text: Despite its relatively high station clearances for its timeslot and low production costs, Dark Shadows fell victim to the purge mainly because of its young audience, who usually did not make decisions about the purchasing of household goods and food products for the family, which were the two chief industries that bought airtime on daytime television in that era. Practically no other daytime show skewed so much under the 18–35 demographic threshold as Dark Shadows did. Furthermore, prime-time shows and movies with horror or science fiction themes (e.g., Star Trek, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) had been on the decline for some time, and, of course, the serial appealed heavily to fanciers of those genres, people who usually didn't express much interest in the often sentimental domestic or romantic themes on which traditional soaps had relied since their inception on radio in the 1930s. In addition and probably more decisively, the program experienced a precipitous drop in its ratings during its last two years on the air, falling from a peak of 8.4 in the 1968–69 television season to a 5.3 in 1970–71.[12] Reflecting on the series' cancellation, in an interview included in a 2005 DVD release, series creator Curtis welcomed the show's cancellation, feeling it had run out of fresh ideas: "I was just hoping it was going to end. I couldn't squeeze my brain any harder to come up with just one more story. I just wanted to move on and out."[13]

text: Despite many letters of protest from outraged fans, ABC canceled the five-year-old show on April 2, 1971, and replaced it with a new version of the hit 1960s game show Password. The rather abrupt ending of the series left some plotlines (such as Victoria Winters' parentage, and the story of the Jennings family) unfinished, although most of the plot threads came to a happy conclusion, via a voice-over explaining future events in the final minute of the last episode.[citation needed]

text: The original cast reunited in 2003 for a special reunion play recorded for MPI, and in 2006 resumed production of Dark Shadows audio dramas for Big Finish (see below). These dramas have been ongoing for 10 seasons.[citation needed]

text: Preservation[edit]

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text: Dark Shadows has the distinction of being one of the few classic television soap operas to have all of its episodes survive intact except one, although a handful of early episodes are available only in 16 mm kinescope format.

text: For the one lost episode (#1219), only a home audio recording exists. The home video version and cable reruns of this episode were reconstructed from a combination of this soundtrack, video still frames sourced from other episodes, and the closing and opening scenes from episodes #1218 and #1220 respectively.[citation needed] The search for the preserved episodes of this series also uncovered several hundred episodes thought lost of another series, The Hollywood Squares.[citation needed]

text: Syndication and cable repeats[edit]

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text: Dark Shadows was to be syndicated by ABC's distribution arm, ABC Films, as the series was ending in late 1970 and early 1971. However, delays kept the show from entering syndication, mainly because the FCC imposed Financial Interest and Syndication Rules, forcing the networks to sell off their syndication companies. Finally, in 1975, Worldvision Enterprises (spun off from ABC Films) released 130 episodes to syndication.

text: Over the years, more episodes were released in varying quantities until the show finished its syndicated run in 1990. However, the first 209 shows and roughly the last year's worth of shows were never seen in syndication. Dark Shadows was lucky to be in reruns at all; most daytime programs at the time were being destroyed in an effort to recycle the videotape, and those programs that survived were usually locked away without being seen again. The series is now distributed by CBS Television Distribution.

text: For many years the show was rerun on Sci-Fi Channel, now known as Syfy. Unlike previous networks, Syfy had the entire run of 1,225 episodes to show. The network stopped airing Dark Shadows in December 2003, only two weeks short of completing the series. All 1,225 episodes in the series were shown at various times between 1992 and 2003.

text: Episode numbering[edit]

text: A total of 1,225 episodes were produced but, during the course of its run, the show was preempted 20 times. ABC would compensate by occasionally skipping, double-numbering and, in one case, triple-numbering episodes in order to keep a show ending in a 5 or 0 airing on Fridays. This is why the last episode produced has #1245 when, in actuality, it was only the 1,225th episode produced.

text: Storylines[edit]

text: Victoria Winters' Parentage, episode 1 to 92.

text: Victoria Winters and her role as governess is inspired by title character in Charlotte Brontë's gothic novel Jane Eyre.[14]

text: Burke Devlin's Revenge For His Manslaughter Conviction, episode 1 to 201.

text: Burke Devlin and his motivation for returning is reminiscent of Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo.[15]

text: Roger Collins' Mysterious Car Crash, episode 13 to 32.

text: The Murder of Bill Malloy, episode 46 to 126.

text: Laura Collins the Phoenix, episode 123 to 192.

text: Jason McGuire Blackmails Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, episode 193 to 275.

text: The Return of the Vampire Barnabas Collins, episode 202 to 220.

text: The Kidnapping of Maggie Evans, episode 221 to 261.

text: Julia Hoffman's Attempt to Cure Barnabas, episode 265 to 351.

text: Barnabas Terrorizing Julia Hoffman, episode 352 to 365.

text: Angelique Bouchard's Vampire Curse on Barnabas, episode 366 to 426.

text: Victoria Winters's Witchcraft Trial, episode 400 to 461.

text: The witchcraft trial involving Victoria Winters is inspired by Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Reverend Trask's fate is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado."[14]

text: Nathan Forbes' Manipulation of Millicent Collins, episode 419 to 460.

text: Nathan's manipulation of Millicent is inspired by the 1938 play and the 1944 film Gaslight.[citation needed]

text: The Mystery of Jeff Clark, episode 461 to 665.

text: The Creation of Adam, episode 466 to 636.

text: The character of Adam is inspired by Mary Shelley's horror novel Frankenstein.[14]

text: The Dream Curse, episode 477 to 548.

text: Elizabeth's Fear of Being Buried Alive, episode 513 to 672.

text: This storyline is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Premature Burial."[14]

text: Nicholas Blair's Scheme to Create A Master Race, episode 549 to 633/634.

text: Chris Jennings' Werewolf Curse, episode 627 to 700.

text: The Ghosts of Quentin Collins and Beth Chavez Haunt Collinwood, episode 639 to 700.

text: The character of Quentin Collins and his role is inspired by Peter Quint in Henry James's gothic novel The Turn of the Screw.[14]

text: Barnabas’ Mission to Save David Collins, episode 700 to 839.

text: The heartbeat that tortures Quentin is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart."[14]

text: Jenny Collins, the Mad Woman in the Attic, episode 707 to 748.

text: Jenny Collins is inspired by the character of Bertha from Charlotte Brontë's gothic novel Jane Eyre.[14]

text: Laura Collins the Phoenix, episode 728 to 761.

text: Worthington Hall and Gregory Trask's running of it is inspired by Charles Dickens's novel Nicholas Nickleby.[14]

text: Magda Rakosi's Werewolf Curse on Quentin, episode 749 to 834.

text: The portrait of Quentin Collins is inspired by Oscar Wilde's gothic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.[14]

text: Gregory Trask's Manipulation of Judith Collins, episode 762 to 884.

text: Gregory Trask's fate is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado".[14]

text: The Hand of Count Petofi, episode 778 to 814.

text: The hand of Count Petofi is inspired by William Fryer Harvey's short story "The Beast with Five Fingers". Quentin's torture is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s short story "The Pit and the Pendulum."[14]

text: The Creation of Amanda Harris, episode 812 to 850.

text: The theme of an artist's falling in love with his own creation who is brought to life by supernatural forces is reminiscent of the classic Greek myth of Pygmalion.

text: Barnabas's Infatuation with Kitty Soames, episode 844 to 885.

text: Count Petofi Body Swaps with Quentin, episode 849 to 883.

text: The character of Count Petofi is based on the real-world Count of St. Germain, a Georgian-era courtier and man of science who claimed to be, and possibly was, the son of Francis II Rákóczi. In the 19th Century, Theosophist legends claimed that he attained the secret of immortality.[14][16]

text: Barnabas Falls Under the Control of the Leviathans, episode 886 to 950.

text: This storyline is inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s shared universe known as "The Cthulhu Mythos," and particularly by the short story "The Dunwich Horror.[14]

text: The Mystery of Grant Douglas and Olivia Corey, episode 888 to 934.

text: This storyline is inspired by the Greek mythological tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.[14]

text: Chris Jennings's Werewolf Curse, episode 889 to 978.

text: The Leviathan Child, episode 891 to 929.

text: Jeb Hawkes the Leviathan Leader, episode 935 to 980.

text: 1970 Parallel Time[edit]

text: The Death of Angelique Collins, episode 969 to 1060.

text: This storyline is inspired by Daphne du Maurier's gothic novel Rebecca.[14]

text: Cyrus Longworth's Experiment, episode 978 to 1035.

text: This storyline is inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson's "chilling shocker" short novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.[14]

text: The Destruction of Collinwood, episode 1061 to 1070.

text: The Ghosts of Gerard Stiles and Daphne Harridge Haunt Collinwood, episode 1071 to 1109.

text: This storyline is inspired by Henry James's gothic novel The Turn of the Screw.[14]

text: Barnabas's Infatuation with Roxanne Drew, episode 1081 to 1150.

text: The Head of Judah Zachery, episode 1117 to 1138.

text: Judah Zachery's Possession of Gerard Stiles, episode 1139 to 1197.

text: Quentin Collins's Witchcraft Trial, episode 1162 to 1197.

text: 1841 Parallel Time[edit]

text: Bramwell Collins's and Catherine Harridge's Love Affair, episode 1186 to 1245.

text: This storyline is inspired by Emily Brontë's gothic novel Wuthering Heights.[14]

text: The Cursed Room Lottery, episode 1194 to 1245.

text: This storyline is inspired by Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery."[14]

text: Cast[edit]

text: Character names noted with * indicates appearance of a counterpart in an alternate reality known as Parallel Time during episodes 969 to 1060 or 1186 to 1245.

text:
Actor
Character(s)
Episodes
Years

1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971

Joan Bennett
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard*
Naomi Collins
Judith Collins
Flora Collins*
391
1 to 1245

Mitchell Ryan
Burke Devlin #1
107
1 to 248

Louis Edmonds
Roger Collins*
Joshua Collins*
Edward Collins
Daniel Collins
Amadeus Collins
Brutus Collins
323
1 to 1245

Kathryn Leigh Scott
Maggie Evans*
Josette DuPres Collins*¹
Rachel Drummond
Kitty Soames
310
1 to 1108

Alexandra Isles
Victoria Winters #1²
335
1 to 627

Nancy Barrett
Carolyn Stoddard*³
Millicent Collins
Charity Trask
Pansy Faye
Leticia Faye
Melanie Collins
Amanda Collins
408
2 to 1245

Joel Crothers
Joe Haskell
Nathan Forbes
166
2 to 666

Frank Schofield
Bill Malloy
15
3 to 126

David Henesy
David Collins*
Daniel Collins
Jamison Collins
Tad Collins
277
4 to 1165

David Ford
Sam Evans #2⁴
Andre DuPres
108
35 to 530

Thayer David
Matthew Morgan #2⁵
Ben Stokes*
Timothy Eliot Stokes*
Sandor Rakosi
Andreas Petofi
Mordecai Grimes
225
38 to 1245

Dana Elcar
George Patterson #1⁶
35
54 to 329

Clarice Blackburn
Sarah Johnson
Abigail Collins
Minerva Trask
79
67 to 1104

Conard Fowkes
Frank Garner
19
92 to 180

Diana Millay
Laura Collins
61
123 to 191

730 to 760

Vince O'Brien
Lt. Dan Riley
Sheriff George Patterson #2
11

148 to 174, 328, 503 to 533 & 658 to 675

John Lasell
Peter Guthrie
25

160 to 186

John Harkins
Lieutenant Costa
Garth Blackwood
Mr. Strack
Horace Gladstone
16

174

878 to 1010

Dennis Patrick
Jason McGuire
Paul Stoddard
66

193 to 276

888 to 953

James Hall
Willie Loomis #1
5

199 to 205

John Karlen
Willie Loomis #2*⁷
Carl Collins
Desmond Collins
Kendrick Young
180

206 to 1245

Jonathan Frid
Barnabas Collins
Bramwell Collins
593

211 to 1245

Robert Gerringer
Dr. Dave Woodard⁸
29

231 to 334

Sharon Smyth
Sarah Collins
37

255 to 415

Anthony George
Burke Devlin #2
Jeremiah Collins
48

262 to 384

Grayson Hall
Julia Hoffman*
Natalie DuPres
Magda Rakosi
Julia Collins
Constance Collins
474

265 to 1245

Jerry Lacy
Tony Peterson
Reverend Trask
Gregory Trask
Mr. Trask
Lamar Trask
109

357 to 1198

Lara Parker
Angelique Bouchard Collins*
Alexis Stokes
Catherine Harridge
Cassandra Collins
269

368 to 1245

Addison Powell
Judge Matigan
Eric Lang
Judge Wiley
39

404 to 543

1162

Roger Davis
Peter Bradford
Ned Stuart
Dirk Wilkins
Charles Delaware Tate
Harrison Monroe
128

404 to 968

Craig Slocum
Noah Gifford
Harry Johnson #1⁹
17

439 to 659

Robert Rodan
Adam
78

485 to 636

Humbert Allen Astredo
Nicholas Blair
Evan Hanley
Charles Dawson
100

521 to 1196

Don Briscoe
Tom Jennings
Chris Jennings*
Tim Shaw
96

554 to 1001

Marie Wallace
Eve
Jenny Collins
Megan Todd
64

596 to 971

Denise Nickerson
Amy Jennings*
Nora Collins
71

632 to 1049

David Selby
Quentin Collins #2*
Quentin Collins #I*
311

646 to 1230

Terry Crawford
Beth Chavez
Edith Collins
63

646 to 1186

Lisa Richards
Sabrina Stuart*
28

692 to 1033

Michael Stroka
Aristede
Bruno Hess*
Laszlo Ferrari
64

791 to 1158

Donna McKechnie
Amanda Harris
Olivia Corey
24

812 to 934

Christopher Bernau
Philip Todd
23

888 to 968

Geoffrey Scott
Sky Rumson
13

923 to 980

Christopher Pennock
Jeb Hawkes
Cyrus Longworth
Sebastian Shaw
Gabriel Collins*
126

935 to 1237

Elizabeth Eis
Nelle Gunston
Buffie Harrington
Mildred Ward
15

951 to 1161

Donna Wandrey
Roxanne Drew*
34

1039 to 1177

Jim Storm
Gerard Stiles*
81

1063 to 1209

Kathy Cody
Carrie Stokes*
Hallie Stokes
49

1066 to 1237

Kate Jackson
Daphne Harridge*
70

1067 to 1238

Virginia Vestoff
Samantha Drew Collins*
29

1110 to 1193

Lee Beery
Joanna Mills
11

1181 to 1193

Keith Prentice
Morgan Collins
James Forsythe
40

1186 to 1245

text:
¹ Parallel counterpart played by Mary Cooper during episodes 1206 to 1238.
² Played by Betsy Durkin during episodes 630 to 650; and Carolyn Groves during episodes 662 to 665.
³ Played by Diana Walker during episode 578.
⁴ Played by Mark Allen during episodes 5 to 22.
⁵ Played by George Mitchell during episodes 6 to 16.
⁶ Played by Vince O'Brien during episodes 148 to 174, 328 and 503 to 675; Angus Cairns during episodes 341 and 342; and Alfred Sandor during episode 615.
⁷ Played by James Hall during episodes 199 to 205.
⁸ Played by Richard Woods during episodes 219 and 229; and Peter Turgeon during episodes 335 to 362.
⁹ Played by Edward Marshall during episode 669.

text: Production[edit]

text: Locations[edit]

text: Both theatrical films, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971), were shot primarily on location at the Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown, New York. For the TV series, Essex, Connecticut was the locale used for the town of Collinsport. Among the locations sited there are the Collinsport Wharf, Main Street, and the Evans Cottage. The Griswold Inn in Essex was used for the Collinsport Inn, and the town post office was used for the Collinsport Police Station. The Collinwood stand-in mansion used for the TV series is the Carey Mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, until August 2009 used by Salve Regina University. The exteriors for the "Old House" (original Collinwood mansion) were filmed at Spratt Mansion, which was also located on the Lyndhurst estate; this mansion was destroyed by fire in 1969. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion in South Norwalk, Connecticut, was also used for some scenes in House of Dark Shadows. Some outdoors shots for the series were filmed in the famous Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, not far from the Lyndhurst Mansion.[17]

text: All of the interiors of the TV series were shot on sound stages at various ABC-owned studios in Manhattan, New York City. The early episodes were shot at ABC Studio Two at 24 West 67th Street, and the rest of the episodes were shot at the smaller ABC Studio 16 located on West 53rd Street.

text: Special effects[edit]

text: Working within the constraints of the live-to-tape format—with almost every scene done in one take—Dark Shadows displayed an unusually inventive use of costume, make-up and, in particular, special effects. Both time travel and ghosts allowed characters killed in earlier sequences to return, often in period clothing. Séances held in the old mansion were often visited by ghostly apparitions of quivering ectoplasm. Dream sequences included colorful psychedelic spectacles superimposed over ethereal, fog-filled fantasies. Individuals of normal appearance were transformed into hideous creatures of the netherworld.[citation needed]

text: Errors[edit]

text: The difficulty of keeping up with the demanding schedule of a daily half-hour show manifested itself on screen. In addition to sets and props wobbling unintentionally (in one episode of the 1795 storyline, actor Thayer David bumped into a large "oak tree" and it almost fell over), heavily used actors—especially Frid and Bennett—often struggled with their lines, and occasionally, a stagehand could be spotted wandering onto the back of the set. At other times, the microphone boom appeared in the frame (giving the show the derisive nickname "Mic Shadows"[18]), a television camera would appear on screen, a fly hovered around the head of an actor, or window curtains fell down. These "bloopers" are treasured by Dark Shadows fans and have been collected by MPI Home Video on both VHS and DVD.[19]

text: Music[edit]

text: Of particular note is Robert Cobert's music score, which broke new ground for a television program. The original soundtrack cracked the top 20 of the U.S. Billboard national albums chart in 1969 and still ranks as one of the top-selling TV soundtracks ever.[citation needed] The instrumental track "Quentin's Theme", for which Cobert earned a Grammy nomination, was recorded by the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde. The single peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (and number 3 on its Easy Listening chart) in summer 1969, when Dark Shadows was perhaps at the peak of its popularity.[citation needed]

text: Ratings[edit]

text: 1965–1966 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (13.9)
13. Dark Shadows (4.1)
16. Never Too Young (3.9)

text: 1966–1967 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (12.7)
12. Dark Shadows (4.3)
13. A Flame in the Wind (4.0)

text: 1967–1968 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (13.6)
12. Dark Shadows (7.3)
13. One Life to Live (4.3)

text: 1968–1969 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (13.8)
11. Dark Shadows (8.4)
14. Hidden Faces (3.3)

text: 1969–1970 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (13.6)
12. Dark Shadows (7.3)
19. The Best of Everything (1.8)

text: 1970–1971 season[edit]

text:
1. As the World Turns (12.4)
16. Dark Shadows (5.3)
18. A World Apart (3.4)

text: Media[edit]

text: Home video[edit]

text: MPI Home Video currently holds the home video rights to the series. All episodes were issued on VHS from 1989 through 1995. Episodes 210–1245 (Barnabas' arrival through to the end of the series) have been released on DVD in 26 Collections from 2002 through 2006. Episodes 1–209 were released in 2007 under the title of Dark Shadows: The Beginning. On April 3, 2012, MPI re-released the 32 Collections. The first (and sometimes, the second) collection (from Barnabas's introduction) has been released internationally, but due to generally low sales, this has been the extent of the international release of the series.

text: On April 10, 2012, MPI released a "Limited Edition Complete Series" box set in the shape of a coffin. The 131 DVDs are housed in 22 individual plastic cases, with the spines looking upward to show the entire body of Barnabas lying asleep in his coffin. Only 2,500 numbered copies of these were made, with each set including a limited edition card signed by original series star Jonathan Frid. A similar but unlimited "Deluxe Edition" set was subsequently released on July 10, 2012, without the limited edition card signed by Jonathan Frid and without the serial limitation number plate on the bottom of the box.[20][21]

text: Films[edit]

text: MGM released a feature film titled House of Dark Shadows in 1970. Dan Curtis directed it, and Sam Hall and Gordon Russell wrote the screenplay. Many cast members from the soap opera, including Jonathan Frid, Grayson Hall, Roger Davis, and Kathryn Leigh Scott, reprised their roles. 1971 saw the release of Night of Dark Shadows, also directed by Dan Curtis and written by Curtis and Sam Hall. Actors included David Selby, Grayson Hall, Kate Jackson, and Lara Parker, among others.

text: During the filming of House of Dark Shadows in 1970, several actors were written out of the TV series so that they would be available to shoot the movie. Kathryn Leigh Scott was absent from 30 episodes (986 to 1015); Jonathan Frid was absent from 28 episodes (983 to 1010); Grayson Hall was absent from 21 episodes (986 to 1006); John Karlen was absent from 21 episodes (990 to 1010); Nancy Barrett was absent from 20 episodes (991 to 1010): Louis Edmonds was absent from 17 episodes (991 to 1008); Don Briscoe was absent from 15 episodes (986 to 1000); Joan Bennett was absent from 15 episodes (991 to 1006); and David Henesy was absent from 9 episodes (993 to 1001).

text: Novels[edit]

text: There have been two series of Dark Shadows novels. The first, released during the show's original run, were all penned by romance writer Marilyn Ross, a pseudonym for author Dan Ross, and were published by Paperback Library. Ross also wrote a novelization of the theatrical film House of Dark Shadows.

text:
#
Title
Release Date
Notes

1
Dark Shadows
December 1966
A partial re-telling of Victoria Winters arrival in Collinsport. Originally printed with an illustrated cover, subsequent editions featured a photographic cover featuring Alexandra Moltke with Jonathan Frid, although the character of Barnabas Collins does not appear. This is also the case with books 2 to 4. Collinwood is referred to here as Collins House.

2
Victoria Winters
March 1967

3
Strangers at Collins House
September 1967
Partially takes place in 1916.

4
The Mystery of Collinwood
January 1968

5
The Curse of Collinwood
May 1968
The only book in series not to be printed with a photographic cover.

6
Barnabas Collins
November 1968
First book to feature Barnabas Collins. In the television series Barnabas was chained to his coffin in 1796 and not released until 1967, here Ross offers an alternate timeline in which the vampire was never held captive at all. Takes place in the early 1900s.

7
The Secret of Barnabas Collins
January 1969
Takes place in 1870.

8
The Demon of Barnabas Collins
April 1969
The first book to present Barnabas in a heroic vein rather than as the villain, following the trend set by the television series.

9
The Foe of Barnabas Collins
July 1969
Features the character of Chris Jennings, although presented here as a villain rather than the sympathetic victim depicted in the television series. It also features a rare appearance by Angelique. Takes place in 1910.

10
The Phantom and Barnabas Collins
September 1969
Takes place in 1880.

11
Barnabas Collins vs. the Warlock
October 1969
A homage to Henry James' 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw, a text also used in the television series for inspiration.

12
The Peril of Barnabas Collins
November 1969

Barnabas Collins in a Funny Vein
December 1969
Non-fiction joke book not written by Marilyn Ross.

13
Barnabas Collins and the Mysterious Ghost
January 1970

14
Barnabas Collins and Quentin's Demon
February 1970
Introduces the character of Quentin Collins to the range. Takes place in 1895.

15
Barnabas Collins and the Gypsy Witch
March 1970
Takes place in the 1890s.

16
Barnabas, Quentin and the Mummy's Curse
April 1970

17
Barnabas, Quentin and the Avenging Ghost
May 1970

18
Barnabas, Quentin and the Nightmare Assassin
June 1970
Takes place in 1870.

19
Barnabas, Quentin and the Crystal Coffin
July 1970
A homage to Edgar Allan Poe's 1844 short story "The Premature Burial", a text also used in the television series for inspiration.

20
Barnabas, Quentin and the Witch's Curse
August 1970
Takes place in 1900.

The Dark Shadows Book of Vampires and Werewolves
August 1970
Collection of short fiction. None of the stories are set in the Dark Shadows universe. None of the stories are written by Marilyn Ross.

21
Barnabas, Quentin and the Haunted Cave
September 1970
Takes place in 1690.

22
Barnabas, Quentin and the Frightened Bride
October 1970
Takes place in 1920.

House of Dark Shadows
October 1970
Novelization. Several scenes cut from the film version were included. It also featured 16 pages of color photos from the film's production.

23
Barnabas, Quentin and the Scorpio Curse
November 1970

24
Barnabas, Quentin and the Serpent
December 1970
Takes place in 1870.

Barnabas Collins A Personal Picture Album
December 1970
Non-fiction book not written by Marilyn Ross.

25
Barnabas, Quentin and the Magic Potion
January 1971
This story marks a sudden shift in the characterization of Quentin Collins, whom up to this point in the range had been portrayed as an enemy of Barnabas.

26
Barnabas, Quentin and the Body Snatchers
February 1971
This is the only book in the series told in the omniscient point of view. It also features a rare appearance by Julia Hoffman. As suggested by its title, a homage to Jack Finney's 1955 science fiction novel The Body Snatchers.

27
Barnabas, Quentin and Dr. Jekyll's Son
April 1971
As suggested by its title, a homage to Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a text also used in the television series for inspiration. Takes place in 1908.

28
Barnabas, Quentin and the Grave Robbers
June 1971
Takes place in 1930.

29
Barnabas, Quentin and the Sea Ghost
August 1971
It features a rare appearance by Julia Hoffman and Professor Stokes.

30
Barnabas, Quentin and the Mad Magician
October 1971

31
Barnabas, Quentin and the Hidden Tomb
December 1971
Takes place in 1866.

32
Barnabas, Quentin and the Vampire Beauty
March 1972

text: The second series of books consists of three novels by Lara Parker, Angelique's Descent, The Salem Branch, and Wolf Moon Rising as well as Dreams of the Dark by horror authors Elizabeth Massie and Stephen Mark Rainey.

text: There also have been several books about Dark Shadows, including The Dark Shadows Almanac and The Dark Shadows Companion.

text: Magazines[edit]

text: During its original run, Dark Shadows was featured in many magazines, including Afternoon TV, Castle of Frankenstein, Daytime TV, and Famous Monsters of Filmland. Even after the show ended it received coverage in genre magazines of the 1970s, like Monsters of the Movies.

text: In 2003, a two-part article titled "Collecting Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood", written by Rod Labbe, appeared in Autograph Collector magazine; it was the first major article to chronicle the show in years. In 2005, Scary Monsters magazine #55 devoted an entire issue to Dark Shadows. Included were full-length interviews with cast members Marie Wallace, David Selby, and Kathryn Leigh-Scott, as well as "Don't Open That Coffin! A Baby Boomer's Adventures in the Land of Dark Shadows!" Both the Autograph Collector and Scary Monsters articles were penned by freelance writer Rod Labbe, who once ran a fan club for Dennis Patrick (Jason McGuire, Paul Stoddard) in 1969–70.[citation needed]

text: Labbe also contributes to Fangoria magazine and is currently doing a series of full-length interviews with surviving original cast members, leading up to the release of Burton's film. Labbe's interview with Jerry Lacy, who played the nefarious Reverend Trask, appeared in issue #296. His second, with Kathryn Leigh-Scott, was in issue #304. The latest, a Chris Pennock (Jebez Hawkes, aka "The Leviathan") profile, is scheduled to run in issue #310. He's already interviewed Marie (Eve and Crazy Jenny Collins) Wallace for a future issue, with more to come. A lengthier version of Kathryn's interview can be found on her website.[citation needed]

text: Comics[edit]

text: From March 14, 1971, to March 11, 1972, the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicated a Dark Shadows comic strip by illustrator Kenneth Bruce Bald (credited as "K. Bruce" because of contractual obligations) to dozens of newspapers across the United States.[22] In 1996, Pomegranate Press, Ltd. published Dark Shadows: The Comic Strip Book (ISBN 0-938817-39-6), which collected the entire 52-week run of the daily and Sunday strip.

text: Gold Key Comics released 35 issues of a regular Dark Shadows comic book, mostly written by John Warner, which ran for years after the cancellation of the series on ABC (1969–1976); and in 1991, Innovation Publishing released a short-lived comic book series based on the NBC-TV revival show. Hermes Press has released a five volume archive reprint series of the Gold Key series in 2010–2011. Additionally, Dynamite Entertainment launched a new monthly series of Dark Shadows comic books in October 2011.[23]

text: Other media[edit]

text: There have also been two board games, a few coloring books, two jigsaw puzzles, and a View-Master reel.[24]

text: In June 2012, some Dark Shadows episodes were made available for streaming online video on Hulu and Hulu Plus. Episodes 211–250 were made available, covering the introduction of Barnabas Collins.[25]

text: Audio drama[edit]

text: Based on a 2003 stage play performed at a Dark Shadows convention, Return to Collinwood is an audio drama written by Jamison Selby and Jim Pierson, and starring David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, John Karlen, Nancy Barrett, Lara Parker, Roger Davis, Marie Wallace, Christopher Pennock, Donna Wandrey, James Storm, and Terry Crawford. The show is available on CD.

text: Big Finish Productions[edit]

text: In 2006, Big Finish Productions continued the Dark Shadows saga with an original series of audio dramas, starring the original cast. The first season featured David Selby (Quentin Collins), Lara Parker (Angelique), Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans), and John Karlen (Willie Loomis). Robert Rodan, who played Adam in the original series, also appears in the fourth story, playing a new character. Barnabas Collins is played by Andrew Collins. A second series was released in 2010. In addition to the cast's returning from Series One, Kingdom of the Dead also featured Lysette Anthony, Alec Newman, Lizzie Hopley, Jerry Lacy, and David Warner.[26][27][28] Big Finish has also produced a series of dramatic story readings based on the series, with arguably the most notable being the 2010 release The Night Whispers, in which Jonathan Frid reprised the role of Barnabas.[29]

text: In January 2015, Big Finish began releasing full cast Dark Shadows serial Bloodlust in twice-weekly installments, as to emulate the initial soap opera format of the show.[30]

text: Revivals[edit]

text: 1991 (NBC)[edit]

text: In 1991, MGM Television produced a short-lived primetime remake that aired on NBC from January 13 to March 22. The revival was a lavish, big-budget, weekly serial combining Gothic romance and stylistic horror. Although it was a huge hit at introduction (watched by almost 1 in 4 households, according to official ratings during that time period), the onset of the Gulf War caused NBC to continually preempt or reschedule the episodes, resulting in declining ratings.[citation needed] It was canceled after the first season. The final episode ended with a cliffhanger: Victoria Winters (Joanna Going)'s learning that Barnabas Collins (Ben Cross) was a 200-year-old vampire.

text: It also starred veterans Jean Simmons (as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard) and Roy Thinnes (as Roger Collins), British character actress Lysette Anthony (as Angelique Collins), Barbara Steele (as Julia Hoffman), and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (as David Collins).

text: 2004 (The WB)[edit]

text: Plans for another revival series (or film) have been discussed off and on since the 1991 series' demise, including a TV miniseries to wrap up the plotlines of the canceled NBC series and a feature film, co-written by Dan Curtis and Barbara Steele, utilizing the 1991 cast. In 2004, a pilot for a new WB network Dark Shadows series, starring Marley Shelton as Victoria Winters and Alec Newman as Barnabas Collins, was written and shot, but never picked up. The pilot has been screened at the Dark Shadows Festival conventions with Dan Curtis Productions' blessing, but has yet to surface elsewhere. This pilot was produced by Warner Bros. Television.[31]

text: 2012 (Film)[edit]

text: In 2012, Warner Bros. produced a film adaptation of the soap opera. Tim Burton directed the film, and Johnny Depp, finally realizing one of his childhood fantasies, starred as Barnabas Collins. However, the film treated the stories comedically, and was not the hoped-for major success.


document_title: Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film)

question_text: who played hercules in jason and the argonauts

root

text: Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Pelias (Douglas Wilmer), misinterpreting the prophecy given to him by the god Zeus (Niall MacGinnis), usurps the throne of Thessaly, killing King Aristo and most of his family. The god Hermes (Michael Gwynn), disguised as Pelias' soothsayer, holds back his army long enough for the infant Jason to be spirited away by one of Aristo's soldiers. Pelias slays one of the king's daughters, Briseis (Davina Taylor), as she seeks sanctuary in the temple of the goddess Hera (Honor Blackman). Because the murder has profaned her temple, the angry Hera becomes Jason's protector. She warns Pelias to beware "of a man wearing one sandal".

tag: p

text: Twenty years later, Jason (Todd Armstrong) saves Pelias from drowning (orchestrated by Hera), but loses his sandal in the river; Pelias recognizes him from the prophecy. Learning that Jason intends to find the legendary Golden Fleece, he encourages him, hoping Jason will be killed in the attempt.

text: Jason is brought to Mount Olympus to speak with Zeus and Hera. Hera tells him Zeus has decreed he can only call upon her for aid five times. She directs him to search for the Fleece in the land of Colchis. Zeus offers his direct aid, but Jason declares he can organize the voyage, build a ship, and collect a crew of the bravest men in all Greece.

text: Men from all over Greece compete for the honor. Because their ship is named the Argo after her builder, Argus (Laurence Naismith), the crew are dubbed the Argonauts. Among them are Hercules (Nigel Green), Hylas (John Cairney), and Acastus (Gary Raymond), the son of Pelias, sent by his father to sabotage the voyage.

text: Hera guides Jason to the Isle of Bronze, but warns him to take nothing but provisions. However, Hercules steals a brooch pin the size of a javelin from a treasure building, surmounted by a giant statue of Talos, which comes to life and attacks the Argonauts. Jason again turns to Hera, who tells him to open a large plug on Talos' heel, to release the giant's ichor. Talos falls to the ground, crushing Hylas, hiding his body. Hercules refuses to leave until he ascertains the fate of his friend. The other Argonauts refuse to abandon Hercules, so Jason calls upon Hera again. She informs them that Hylas is dead and that Hercules will not continue on with them.

text: The Argonauts next reach the realm of King Phineus (Patrick Troughton), who has been blinded and is tormented by harpies for his transgressions against the gods. In return for his advice on how to reach Colchis, the Argonauts render the harpies harmless by caging them, whereupon Phineus tells them to sail between the Clashing Rocks, which destroy any ship in the narrow channel, and gives Jason an amulet. Arriving at the Clashing Rocks, the Argonauts witness another ship suffering that fate. When the Argo tries to row through, the ship appears doomed. Jason throws Phineus' amulet into the water, and the sea god Triton rises up and holds the rocks apart so the Argo can pass them. The Argonauts rescue a survivor from the other ship, Medea (Nancy Kovack), high priestess of Colchis.

text: Challenging Jason's authority, Acastus engages him in a duel. Disarmed, Acastus jumps into the sea and disappears. Jason and his men land in Colchis and accept an invitation from King Aeëtes (Jack Gwillim) to a feast. Unknown to them, Acastus has survived and warned Aeëtes of Jason's quest for their prized Golden Fleece. Aeëtes has the unwary Argonauts imprisoned, but Medea, having fallen in love with Jason,[4] helps him and his men escape.

text: Meanwhile, Acastus tries to steal the Fleece, but is killed by its guardian, the Hydra. Following right behind Acastus, Jason is able to kill the beast and retrieve the gift of the gods. Aeëtes, in pursuit, sows the Hydra's teeth while praying to the goddess Hecate, producing a band of skeletal warriors. Jason, together with Phalerus and Castor, hold off the skeletons while Medea and Argus escape back to the Argo with the Fleece. After a prolonged battle in which his companions are killed, Jason escapes by jumping into the sea,[5] and he, Medea, and the surviving Argonauts begin their voyage home to Thessaly. In Olympus, Zeus tells Hera that in due time he will call upon Jason again.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Todd Armstrong as Jason (dubbed by Tim Turner, uncredited)
Nancy Kovack as Medea (dubbed by Eva Haddon, uncredited)
Gary Raymond as Acastus
Laurence Naismith as Argus
Niall MacGinnis as Zeus
Michael Gwynn as Hermes/priest
Douglas Wilmer as Pelias
Jack Gwillim as King Aeëtes
Honor Blackman as Hera
John Cairney as Hylas
Patrick Troughton as Phineus
Andrew Faulds as Phalerus
Nigel Green as Hercules
Ennio Antonelli as Dmitrius (uncredited)
John Crawford as Polydeuces (uncredited)
Aldo Cristiani as Lynceus (uncredited)
Ferdinando Poggi as Castor (uncredited)
Davina Taylor as Briseis (uncredited)
William Gudgeon as Triton (uncredited)
Doug Robinson as Euphaemus (uncredited)

tag: ul

text: Film score[edit]

text: The film is one of the mythically-themed fantasy ones scored by Bernard Herrmann. Apart from being the composer's fourth collaboration with Ray Harryhausen (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Three Worlds of Gulliver, and Mysterious Island, made in 1958, 1960, and 1961 respectively), Herrmann also scored the science fiction films The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959).

text: Contrasting with Herrmann's all-string score for Psycho, the film's soundtrack was made without a string section. This leaves the brass and percussion to perform the heroic fanfares, and the woodwinds along with additional instruments (such as the harp) to dominate in the more subtle and romantic parts.

text: In 1995, Intrada released a re-recording of the original score. The new version was conducted by American composer/conductor Bruce Broughton, and performed by the Sinfonia of London.

text: Differences from classical mythology[edit]

text: The film differs from the traditional telling in Greek mythology in several ways.

text:
In mythology, the Argonauts encountered Talos on their return journey after they had obtained the Golden Fleece. He was defeated not by Jason, but by Medea casting a spell on Talos, causing him to remove the bronze nail from his ankle which kept the ichor inside. The mythological Talos guarded Crete, not the "Isle of Bronze", and was protecting not a treasure, but Queen Europa.
In the film, Hylas was killed when the crumbling remains of Talos crushed him. However, in mythology, Hylas was actually kidnapped by a naiad who fell in love with him as he took a drink from a spring. When Hercules could not find him, he believed him to still be alive, and stayed behind on the island to look for him (as in the film).
The harpies were not caught in a net or caged, but were chased away by the Boreads: Calaïs and Zetes (also Zethes)[6]
In the film, the god Triton saved the Argo from destruction passing through the Clashing Rocks: however; according to Apollonius of Rhodes, Phineus instructed Jason to release a dove and if the bird makes it through, row with all their might and the goddess Athena provided the extra push to the ship needed to clear them; "the Argo darted from the rocks like a flying arrow". Another source is Homer's Odyssey, where Circe tells Odysseus, "One ship alone, one deep-sea craft sailed clear, the Argo, sung by the world, when heading home from Aeëtes shores. And she would have crashed against those giant rocks and sunk at once if Hera, for her love of Jason, had not sped her through."[7]
Jason was not betrayed by Acastus in the classical tale. Jason openly told King Aeëtes that he had come for the Fleece. The king promised Jason could have it if he performed three tasks, knowing full well they were impossible. However, Jason was able to complete the tasks with the help of Medea. It was not the Hydra that protected the Fleece but rather a dragon. Jason did not slay it, but instead Medea cast a spell on it, causing it to fall asleep. Jason sowed the dragon's teeth into the ground, not Aeëtes. Jason defeated the "dragon's offspring" (the spartoi) by making them fight amongst themselves and destroy each other, rather battling them with his colleagues.
One of the two Argonauts killed by the skeletons is Castor, who in Greek mythology would perish much later as the result of a feud with Idas and Lynceus. The other is Phalerus, who in mythology would also survive the adventures of the Argonauts.
The film ultimately omits the story of Medea killing and dismembering her own brother, Absyrtus, to help Jason and the Argonauts escape.[8] as are the episodes with Cyzicus, the Gegeines and the Argonauts' stay on the isle of Lemnos.

text: Production[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2017)

tag: table

text: The film was shot in Eastman Color.

text: Reception[edit]

text: The film received critical acclaim and is now considered a cult film classic. It currently holds a 93% "fresh" rating at the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 41 reviews, with the consensus: "Don Chaffey's Jason and the Argonauts is an outlandish, transportive piece of nostalgia whose real star is the masterful stop-motion animation work of Ray Harryhausen."[9] In April 2004, Empire magazine ranked Talos as the second-best film monster of all time, after King Kong.[10]

text: Ray Harryhausen regarded the film as his best.[11][12] Previous Harryhausen films had been generally shown as part of double features in "B" theatres. Columbia was able to book it as a single feature in many "A" theatres in the United States. The skeletons' shields are adorned with designs of other Harryhausen creatures, including an octopus and the head of the Ymir from 20 Million Miles to Earth.

text: At the 1992 Academy Awards, in honoring Ray Harryhausen with a lifetime-achievement award, actor Tom Hanks remarked "Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane. I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made".

text: In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated the film for its Top 10 Fantasy Films list.[13]

text: Legacy[edit]

text: The four-issue comic book mini-series Back to Mysterious Island (2008), released by TidalWave Productions as part of their Ray Harryhausen Signature Series, continued the story.[14]

text: Release[edit]

text: Columbia released the film on Blu-ray (for regions A, B, and C) on 6 July 2010. The disc's special features include two new audio commentaries, one by Peter Jackson and Randall William Cook, and the other by Harryhausen in conversation with his biographer Tony Dalton.[15]

text: Comic book adaption[edit]

text: Dell Movie Classic: Jason and the Argonauts (August-October 1963)[16]


document_title: Recording Industry Association of America certification

question_text: how much do you have to sell to go diamond

text: Description and qualifications[edit]

text: A Gold record is a single or album that has sold 500,000 units (records, tapes or compact discs). The award was launched in 1958;[3] originally, the requirement for a Gold single was one million units sold and a Gold album represented $1 million in sales (at wholesale value, around a third of the list price).[4] In 1975, the additional requirement of 500,000 units sold was added for Gold albums.[4] Reflecting growth in record sales, the Platinum award was added in 1976 for albums selling one million units, and singles selling two million units.[4][5] The Multi-Platinum award was introduced in 1984, signifying multiple Platinum levels of albums and singles.[6] In 1989, the sales thresholds for singles were reduced to 500,000 for Gold and 1,000,000 for Platinum, reflecting a decrease in sales of singles.[7] In 1992, RIAA began counting each disc in a multi-disc set as one unit toward certification.  Reflecting additional growth in music sales, the Diamond award was instituted in 1999 for albums or singles selling ten million units.[3]  Because of these changes in criteria, the sales level associated with a particular award depends on when the award was made.

text: Nielsen SoundScan figures are not used in RIAA certification; the RIAA system predates Nielsen SoundScan and includes sales outlets Nielsen misses.[citation needed] Prior to Nielsen SoundScan, RIAA certification was the only audited and verifiable system for tracking music sales in the U.S.; it is still the only system capable of tracking 100% of sales (albeit as shipments less returns, not actual sales like Nielsen SoundScan).[citation needed] This system has allowed, at times, for record labels to promote an album as Gold or Platinum simply based on large shipments.  For instance, in 1978 the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack shipped Platinum but was a sales bust, with two million returns.[8] Similarly, all four solo albums by the members of Kiss simultaneously shipped Platinum that same year but did not reach the top 20 of the Billboard 200 album chart.[9] The following year, the RIAA began requiring 120 days from the release date before recordings were eligible for certification, although that requirement has been reduced over the years and currently stands at 30 days. Sony was widely criticized in 1995 for hyping Michael Jackson's double album HIStory as five times Platinum, based on shipments of 2.5 million and using the RIAA's recently adopted practice of counting each disc toward certification, while SoundScan was reporting only 1.3 million copies sold.[10] A similar discrepancy between shipments and sales was reported with The Lion King soundtrack.[11]

text: List of certifications[edit]

text: Records[edit]

text:
500,000 units: Gold album
1,000,000 units: Platinum album
2,000,000 to 9,999,999 units: Multi-Platinum album
10,000,000 units: Diamond album

text: For further information, see Music recording sales certification.

text: Multi-disc[edit]

text: Multi-disc albums are counted once for each disc within the album if it is over 100 minutes in length or is from the vinyl era. For example, each copy of The Smashing Pumpkins's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (running time of 121:39), and OutKast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (running time of 134:56), both double albums, were counted twice, meaning each album was certified diamond after 5 million copies were shipped. Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Beatles' White Album, both vinyl-era, are also counted double even though their running times are under the minimum requirement.

text: Spanish[edit]

text: Since 2000, the RIAA also awards Los Premios de Oro y De Platino (Gold and Platinum Awards in Spanish)  to Latin albums which are defined by the RIAA as a type of product that features at least 51% of content in Spanish.[12]

text: As of December 20, 2013, the award levels for Latin certifications are:[13]

text:
30,000 units: Disco de Oro
60,000 units: Disco de Platino
120,000 units: Disco de Multi-Platino
600,000 units: Disco de Diamante

text: For certifications made before December 20, 2013, the award levels are:[14]

text:
50,000 units: Disco de Oro
100,000 units: Disco de Platino
200,000 units: Disco de Multi-Platino
1,000,000 units: Disco de Diamante

text: Note: The number of sales required to qualify for Oro and Platino awards was higher prior to January 1, 2008.[14] The thresholds were 100,000 units (Oro) and 200,000 units (Platino). All Spanish-language albums certified prior to 2008 were updated to match the current certification at the time.[14][15] "La Bomba" by Bolivian group Azul Azul is the only single to receive a Latin certification based on shipments before the creation of the Latin digital singles awards in 2013.[16] The Disco de Diamante award was introduced after the RIAA updated the thresholds for Latin certifications in December 20, 2013. The Disco de Diamante is awarded to Latin albums that have been certified 10× Platinum.[17][18]

text: Singles[edit]

text: Standard singles are certified:

text:
Gold when it ships 500,000 copies
Platinum when it ships 1,000,000 copies
Multi-Platinum when it ships at least 2,000,000 copies

text: Note: The number of sales required to qualify for Gold and Platinum discs was higher prior to January 1, 1989. The thresholds were previously 1,000,000 units (Gold) and 2,000,000 units (Platinum).[19]

text: Digital singles are certified:

text:
Gold means 500,000 certification units
Platinum means 1,000,000 certification units
Multi-Platinum means 2,000,000+ certification units

text: From 2004 through July 2006, the certification level was 100,000 downloads for Gold and 200,000 for Platinum. When the RIAA changed the certification standards to match retail distribution in August 2006, all Platinum and Multi-Platinum awards for a digital release were withdrawn. Gold certifications, however, were not, meaning a song that was downloaded over 100,000 times and certified so by the RIAA during that time frame retains its Gold status.[20]

text: Starting May 9, 2013, RIAA certifications for singles in the "digital" category include on-demand audio and/or video song streams in addition to downloads at a rate of 100 streams=1 certification "unit".[21][22] On January 2, 2016, this rate was updated to 150 streams = 1 certification unit.[23]

text: Latin digital singles are certified:

text:
Disco de Oro (Gold) means 30,000 certification units
Disco de Platino (Platinum) means 60,000 certification units
Disco de Multi-Platino (Multi-Platinum) means 120,000+ certification units

text: The Latin Digital Single Awards began on December 20, 2013. As with the digital sales, 100 streams count as one download sale.[13]

text: Video Longform[edit]

text: Along with albums, digital albums, and singles there is another classification of music release called "Video Longform." This release format includes DVD and VHS releases, and certain live albums and compilation albums. The certification criteria are slightly different from other styles.[24]

text:
Gold: 50,000 copies
Platinum: 100,000 copies
Multi-Platinum: 200,000 copies

text: Records[edit]

text: Lists from RIAA site showing current status holders of RIAA Certifications:

text:
List of highest-certified music artists in the United States
List of best-selling albums in the United States
List of best-selling singles in the United States
List of best-selling Latin albums in the United States

text: Artists with the most album certifications[edit]

text: Albums that have been certified Gold might receive additional certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum levels.

text:
Artist

# Gold

# Platinum

# Multi-Platinum

# Diamond

Total

Source

AC/DC
22
20
12
1
55
[25]

Aerosmith
25
18
12
1
56
[25]

Alabama
22
20
10
0
52
[25]

The Beach Boys
20
9
6
0
35
[25]

The Beatles
48
42
26
6
122
[25]

Bee Gees
15
9
2
1
27
[25]

Garth Brooks
21
21
15
7
64
[25]

Jimmy Buffett
17
9
3
0
29
[25]

Mariah Carey
15
13
9
2
39
[25]

Britney Spears
9
8
4
2
23
[25]

Johnny Cash
19
10
5
0
34
[25]

Kenny Chesney
16
11
5
0
32
[25]

Chicago
23
18
8
0
49
[25]

Eric Clapton
23
11
7
1
42
[25]

John Denver
21
13
7
1
41
[25]

Neil Diamond
40
21
11
0
72
[25]

Celine Dion
13
11
8
2
34
[25]

The Doors
20
14
5
1
40
[25]

Bob Dylan
33
15
5
0
53
[25]

Eminem
9
8
8
2
27
[25]

Grateful Dead
20
6
4
0
30
[25]

Jimi Hendrix
16
10
6
0
32
[25]

Isley Brothers
15
10
3
0
28
[25]

Alan Jackson
18
15
8
0
41
[25]

Michael Jackson
15
13
9
2
38
[25]

Jefferson Airplane/Starship
20
5
1
0
26
[25]

Jethro Tull
15
3
1
0
19
[25]

Billy Joel
18
17
12
2
49
[25]

Elton John
37
27
12
1
77
[25]

Toby Keith
18
12
5
0
35
[25]

Kenny G
15
11
8
1
35
[25]

Kiss
26
10
3
0
39
[25]

Led Zeppelin
19
18
14
5
56
[25]

Lynyrd Skynyrd
20
13
7
0
40
[25]

Madonna
20
17
12
2
51
[25]

Barry Manilow
24
13
6
0
43
[25]

Mannheim Steamroller
18
8
4
0
30
[25]

Dean Martin
17
2
0
0
19
[25]

Johnny Mathis
15
6
2
0
23
[25]

Dave Matthews Band
17
14
7
0
38
[25]

Paul McCartney
16
7
4
0
27
[25]

Reba McEntire
27
19
9
0
55
[25]

John Mellencamp
15
12
5
0
32
[25]

Anne Murray
15
6
2
0
23
[25]

Willie Nelson
18
14
6
0
38
[25]

Tom Petty
15
8
5
1
29
[25]

Pink Floyd
19
15
12
2
48
[25]

Elvis Presley
90
52
25
1
168
[25]

Prince
18
11
4
1
33
[25]

Queen
19
12
7
0
38
[25]

Kenny Rogers
28
17
7
1
53
[25]

The Rolling Stones
43
28
11
1
83
[25]

Linda Ronstadt
17
13
7
0
37
[25]

Rush
24
14
3
0
41
[25]

Santana
21
10
7
1
39
[25]

Frank Sinatra
34
10
4
0
48
[25]

Bruce Springsteen
22
17
10
2
51
[25]

Rod Stewart
27
19
10
0
56
[25]

George Strait
39
33
13
0
85
[25]

Barbra Streisand
51
30
12
0
93
[25]

James Taylor
20
14
5
1
40
[25]

The Temptations
17
6
1
0
24
[25]

U2
16
16
11
1
44
[25]

Luther Vandross
19
15
7
0
41
[25]

The Who
18
12
5
0
35
[25]

Andy Williams
18
3
0
0
21
[25]

Hank Williams, Jr.
23
8
1
0
32
[25]

Neil Young
18
7
3
0
28
[25]

text: Note: The RIAA provides the Detailed List of Artists with Most Album Certified Units

text: Artists with the most single certifications[edit]

text: Singles that have been certified Gold might receive additional certifications for achieving Platinum and Multi-Platinum levels.  For example, Eminem has had 13 singles certified Gold, 8 of which went on to achieve Platinum certification as well.

text: This list includes the RIAA formats 'Single','12 inch single' and 'Video Single'.  This list includes singles of the RIAA types 'standard' and 'digital'.

text:
Very few artists ever received a Gold 12-inch single (Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand for "Enough Is Enough", and Madonna for "Angel"/"Into The Groove")
12 inch singles were given a Gold certification after sales of 500,000 or more copies sold. This took place back when more 12-inch singles were manufactured and sold.

text: This table tracks artists with some number of singles that have received at least twenty total certifications.

text:
Artist

# Gold

# Platinum

# Multi-Platinum

Total

source

Eminem
13
8
6
27
[26]

Adele
12
9
5
26
[27]

Elvis Presley
54
27
8
89
[28]

Rihanna
43
36
30
109
[29]

Katy Perry
17
17
13
47
[30]

Lil Wayne
25
21
10
56
[31]

Mariah Carey
25
12
2
39
[32]

Taylor Swift
52
35
20
107
[33]

Madonna
27+Gold 12 inch
6
2
47
[34]

Beyoncé
25
13
5
43
[35][36]

The Beatles
28
9
4
41
[37]

Michael Jackson
23
10
1
34
[38]

Whitney Houston
19
7
1
27
[39]

Janet Jackson
20
4
-
24
[40]

Elton John
18
8
1
27
[41]

Lady Gaga
15
13
12
40
[42]

Bruno Mars
18
16
13
47
[43]

Kanye West
31
24
13
68
[44]

R. Kelly
14
7
-
21
[45]

Usher
14
9
1
24
[46]

Chris Brown
38
28
10
76
[47]

T.I.
16
11
4
31
[48]

Jay-Z
22
15
7
44
[49]

Linkin Park
11
7
2
20
[50]

Black Eyed Peas
12
9
8
29
[51]

Ariana Grande
14
11
7
32
[52]

Justin Timberlake
12
9
4
25
[53]

Ludacris
10
7
3
20
[54]

Kenny Chesney
24
8
-
36
[55]

Flo Rida
13
11
10
34
[56]

Brad Paisley
17
8
4
29
[57]

Tim McGraw
24
12
3
39
[58]

Jason Aldean
21
15
5
41
[59]

Nicki Minaj
14
10
5
29
[60]

Ne-Yo
10
8
5
23
[61]

Drake
22
16
11
49
[62]

Demi Lovato
10
9
4
23
[63]

Rascal Flatts
13
8
-
21
[64]

Fall Out Boy
13
10
5
28
[65]

text: Note: The RIAA provides the Detailed List of Artists with Most Singles Certified Units

text: RIAA Diamond certifications[edit]

text: Diamond (10+ million) certified albums and singles[66]

text:
Year of Release

Artist(s)

Title

Label(s)

Certification

Year of Certification

Release Type

1982

Michael Jackson

Thriller

Epic

33× Platinum

2017

Album

1976

Eagles

Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)

Rhino

29× Platinum

2006

Album (Greatest Hits)

1985

Billy Joel

Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II

Columbia

23× Platinum

2011

Album (Greatest Hits)

1971

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin IV

Atlantic

23× Platinum

2006

Album

1979

Pink Floyd

The Wall

Columbia

23× Platinum

1999

Album

1980

AC/DC

Back in Black

Epic

22× Platinum

2007

Album

1998

Garth Brooks

Double Live

Capitol Nashville

21× Platinum

2006

Album (Live Album)

1994

Hootie & the Blowfish

Cracked Rear View

Rhino

21× Platinum

2018

Album

1977

Fleetwood Mac

Rumours

Warner Bros.

20× Platinum

2014

Album

1997

Shania Twain

Come On Over

Mercury Nashville

20× Platinum

2004

Album

1968

The Beatles

The Beatles

Apple

19× Platinum

2001

Album

1987

Guns N' Roses

Appetite for Destruction

Geffen

18× Platinum

2008

Album

1992

Whitney Houston

The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album

RCA

18× Platinum

2017

Album (Soundtrack)

1976

Boston

Boston

Epic

17× Platinum

2003

Album

1974

Elton John

Greatest Hits

Island

17× Platinum

2016

Album (Greatest Hits)

1990

Garth Brooks

No Fences

Capitol

17× Platinum

2006

Album

1973

The Beatles

1967-1970

EMI

17× Platinum

2010

Album (Greatest Hits)

1995

Alanis Morissette

Jagged Little Pill

Maverick

16× Platinum

1998

Album

1977

Bee Gees

Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track

Capitol

16× Platinum

2017

Album (Soundtrack)

1976

Eagles

Hotel California

Rhino

16× Platinum

2001

Album

1975

Led Zeppelin

Physical Graffiti

Swan Song

16× Platinum

2006

Album

1991

Metallica

Metallica

Atlantic/Elektra

16× Platinum

2012

Album

1984

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Legend

Island

15× Platinum

2014

Album (Compilation)

1984

Bruce Springsteen

Born in the U.S.A.

Columbia

15× Platinum

1995

Album

1988

Journey

Greatest Hits

Columbia

15× Platinum

2011

Album (Greatest Hits)

1973

Pink Floyd

The Dark Side of the Moon

Harvest

15× Platinum

1998

Album

1999

Santana

Supernatural

Arista

15× Platinum

2003

Album

1973

The Beatles

1962-1966

Apple

15× Platinum

2001

Album (Greatest Hits)

2011

Adele

21

Columbia

14× Platinum

2016

Album

1997

Backstreet Boys

Backstreet Boys

Jive

14× Platinum

2001

Album

1999

Britney Spears

...Baby One More Time

Jive

14× Platinum

2004

Album

1991

Garth Brooks

Ropin' the Wind

Capitol

14× Platinum

1998

Album

1977

Meat Loaf

Bat Out of Hell

Epic

14× Platinum

2001

Album

1972

Simon & Garfunkel

Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits

Columbia

14× Platinum

2003

Album (Greatest Hits)

1978

Steve Miller Band

Greatest Hits 1974-78

Capitol

14× Platinum

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

1999

Backstreet Boys

Millennium

Jive

13× Platinum

2001

Album

1986

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

Live/1975–85

Columbia

13× Platinum

1999

Album (Live Album)

1991

Pearl Jam

Ten

Epic

13× Platinum

2009

Album

1984

Prince and The Revolution

Purple Rain

Warner Bros.

13× Platinum

1996

Album

1985

Whitney Houston

Whitney Houston

Arista

13× Platinum

1999

Album

1986

Bon Jovi

Slippery When Wet

Mercury

12× Platinum

1995

Album

1994

Boyz II Men

II

Motown

12× Platinum

1996

Album

1987

Def Leppard

Hysteria

Mercury

12× Platinum

1998

Album

1998

Dixie Chicks

Wide Open Spaces

Monument

12× Platinum

2003

Album

2011

Eminem

"Love the Way You Lie" (Featuring Rihanna)

Shady/Aftermath/Interscope

12× Platinum

2018

Single

1995

Jewel

Pieces of You

Atlantic

12× Platinum

2006

Album

2010

Justin Bieber

"Baby" (Featuring Ludacris)

Island/Def Jam

12× Platinum

2013

Single

1992

Kenny G

Breathless

Arista

12× Platinum

1998

Album

1980

Kenny Rogers

Greatest Hits

Liberty

12× Platinum

1997

Album (Greatest Hits)

1969

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin II

Atlantic

12× Platinum

1999

Album

1996

Matchbox Twenty

Yourself or Someone Like You

Atlantic

12× Platinum

2001

Album

1985

Phil Collins

No Jacket Required

Atlantic

12× Platinum

2001

Album

1995

Shania Twain

The Woman in Me

Mercury Nashville

12× Platinum

2000

Album

1994

Soundtrack

Forrest Gump

Epic

12× Platinum

2000

Album (Soundtrack)

1969

The Beatles

Abbey Road

Apple

12× Platinum

2001

Album

1971

The Rolling Stones

Hot Rocks 1964-1971

London

12× Platinum

2002

Album (Greatest Hits)

1993

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Greatest Hits

Interscope

12× Platinum

2015

Album (Greatest Hits)

2000

*NSYNC

No Strings Attached

Jive

11× Platinum

2001

Album

2015

Adele

25

Columbia/XL

11× Platinum

2017

Album

1980

Aerosmith

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

Columbia

11× Platinum

2007

Album (Greatest Hits)

1996

Celine Dion

Falling Into You

550 Music

11× Platinum

2001

Album

1999

Creed

Human Clay

Wind-up

11× Platinum

2004

Album

1982

Eagles

Eagles Greatest Hits, Volume 2

Asylum

11× Platinum

2002

Album (Greatest Hits)

1997

Elton John

"Candle in the Wind 1997"/"Something About the Way You Look Tonight"

Rocket

11× Platinum

1997

Single (Double A-side)

1976

James Taylor

Greatest Hits

Warner Bros.

11× Platinum

1996

Album (Greatest Hits)

2010

Katy Perry

"Firework"

Capitol

11× Platinum

2018

Single

1998

Kid Rock

Devil Without a Cause

Lava

11× Platinum

2003

Album

2009

Lady Gaga

"Bad Romance"

Streamline/Interscope

11× Platinum

2015

Single

1973

Led Zeppelin

Houses of the Holy

Atlantic

11× Platinum

1999

Album

2000

Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory

Warner Bros.

11× Platinum

2017

Album

2014

Mark Ronson

"UpTown Funk!" (Featuring Bruno Mars)

RCA

11× Platinum

2016

Single

1997

Notorious B.I.G.

Life After Death

Bad Boy/Rhino

11× Platinum

2018

Album

2003

Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

So So Def

11× Platinum

2006

Album

2002

Shania Twain

Up!

Mercury Nashville

11× Platinum

2004

Album

1987

Soundtrack

Dirty Dancing

RCA

11× Platinum

1994

Album (Soundtrack)

1997

Soundtrack

Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture

Sony Classical

11× Platinum

2000

Album (Soundtrack)

1967

The Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Capitol

11× Platinum

1997

Album

2000

The Beatles

1

Capitol

11× Platinum

2010

Album (Greatest Hits)

1994

TLC

CrazySexyCool

LaFace

11× Platinum

1999

Album

1998

*NSYNC

*NSYNC

RCA

10× Platinum

2000

Album

1998

2Pac

Greatest Hits

Interscope

10× Platinum

2011

Album (Greatest Hits)

1996

2Pac

All Eyez On Me

Death Row/Interscope

10× Platinum

2014

Album

1986

Beastie Boys

Licensed To Ill

Def Jam

10× Platinum

2015

Album

1977

Billy Joel

The Stranger

Columbia

10× Platinum

2003

Album

1994

Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band

Greatest Hits

Capitol

10× Platinum

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

2000

Britney Spears

Oops!... I Did It Again

Jive

10× Platinum

2005

Album

2012

Carly Rae Jepsen

"Call Me Maybe"

Schoolboy/Interscope

10× Platinum

2016

Single

1971

Carole King

Tapestry

Ode

10× Platinum

1995

Album

1997

Celine Dion

Let's Talk About Love

550 Music/Epic

10× Platinum

1999

Album

1985

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits

Fantasy

10× Platinum

2016

Album (Greatest Hits)

1983

Def Leppard

Pyromania

Mercury

10× Platinum

2004

Album

1999

Dixie Chicks

Fly

Monument

10× Platinum

2002

Album

1976

Doobie Brothers

Best of The Doobies

Warner Bros.

10× Platinum

1996

Album (Greatest Hits)

2014

Ed Sheeran

"Thinking Out Loud"

Atlantic

10× Platinum

2017

Single

1970

Elvis Presley

Elvis' Christmas Album

RCA Camden/Pickwick

10× Platinum

2011

Album

2000

Eminem

The Marshall Mathers LP

Aftermath/Interscope

10× Platinum

2011

Album

2002

Eminem

The Eminem Show

Aftermath/Interscope

10× Platinum

2011

Album

2010

Eminem

"Not Afraid"

Shady/Aftermath/Interscope

10× Platinum

2014

Single

2002

Eminem

"Lose Yourself"

Shady/Aftermath/Interscope

10× Platinum

2018

Single

1992

Eric Clapton

Unplugged

Reprise

10× Platinum

1996

Album (Live Album)

2012

Florida Georgia Line

"Cruise"

BMX

10× Platinum

2016

Single

2007

Garth Brooks

The Ultimate Hits

Pearl

10× Platinum

2016

Album (Greatest Hits)

1997

Garth Brooks

Sevens

Capitol Nashville

10× Platinum

2006

Album

1989

Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks

Capitol

10× Platinum

2006

Album

1994

Garth Brooks

The Hits

Liberty

10× Platinum

1998

Album (Greatest Hits)

1987

George Michael

Faith

Columbia

10× Platinum

1996

Album

1994

Green Day

Dookie

Reprise

10× Platinum

1999

Album

1990

MC Hammer

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em

Capitol

10× Platinum

1991

Album

2012

Imagine Dragons

"Radioactive"

KIDinaKORNER/Interscope

10× Platinum

2015

Single

2013

Katy Perry

"Roar"

Capitol

10× Platinum

2017

Single

2013

Katy Perry

"Dark Horse"

Capitol

10× Platinum

2015

Single

2008

Lady Gaga

"Poker Face"

Streamline/Interscope

10× Platinum

2015

Single

1990

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin

Atlantic

10× Platinum

2006

Album (Boxed Set)

1983

Lionel Richie

Can't Slow Down

Motown

10× Platinum

1985

Album

2011

LMFAO

"Party Rock Anthem"

Interscope/Geffen/A&M

10× Platinum

2018

Single

2013

Lorde

"Royals"

Republic

10× Platinum

2017

Single

2017

Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee

"Despacito"

Universal Music Latino/Republic

10× Platinum

2018

Single

2012

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

"Thrift Shop" (Featuring Wanz)

Macklemore, LLC

10× Platinum

2015

Single

1984

Madonna

Like a Virgin

Sire

10× Platinum

1998

Album

1990

Madonna

The Immaculate Collection

Sire

10× Platinum

2001

Album (Greatest Hits)

1995

Mariah Carey

Daydream

Columbia

10× Platinum

1998

Album

1993

Mariah Carey

Music Box

Columbia

10× Platinum

1997

Album

2014

Meghan Trainor

"All About That Bass"

Epic

10× Platinum

2018

Single

1987

Michael Jackson

Bad

Epic/Legacy

10× Platinum

2017

Album

2000

Nelly

Country Grammar

Republic

10× Platinum

2016

Album

2005

Nickelback

All the Right Reasons

Roadrunner

10× Platinum

2017

Album

1991

Nirvana

Nevermind

DGC

10× Platinum

1999

Album

1995

No Doubt

Tragic Kingdom

Trauma/Interscope

10× Platinum

1999

Album

2002

Norah Jones

Come Away With Me

Blue Note

10× Platinum

2005

Album

1967

Patsy Cline

Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits

MCA

10× Platinum

2005

Album (Greatest Hits)

1980

R.E.O. Speedwagon

Hi Infidelity

Epic/Legacy

10× Platinum

2017

Album

2013

Robin Thicke

"Blurred Lines"

Star Trak/Interscope

10× Platinum

2018

Single

1995

Smashing Pumpkins

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Virgin

10× Platinum

2012

Album

1994

Soundtrack

The Lion King: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Disneyland

10× Platinum

1995

Album (Soundtrack)

1976

Stevie Wonder

Songs in the Key of Life

Motown

10× Platinum

2005

Album

2008

Taylor Swift

Fearless

Big Machine

10× Platinum

2017

Album

2009

The Black Eyed Peas

"I Gotta Feeling"

Interscope/Geffen/A&M

10× Platinum

2018

Single

1985

The Doors

The Best of The Doors

Elektra

10× Platinum

2007

Album (Greatest Hits)

1987

U2

The Joshua Tree

Island

10× Platinum

1995

Album

2004

Usher

Confessions

So So Def

10× Platinum

2008

Album

1978

Van Halen

Van Halen

Warner Bros.

10× Platinum

1996

Album

1984

Van Halen

1984 (MCMLXXXIV)

Warner Bros.

10× Platinum

1999

Album

1983

ZZ Top

Eliminator

Warner Bros.

10× Platinum

1996

Album

text: RIAA Diamante certifications[edit]

text: Diamante certified Latin albums and singles (1+ million for Latin albums certified before December 2013 and 600,000+ for Latin albums and singles certified after December 2013)[17]

text:
Year of Release

Artist(s)

Title

Label(s)

Certification

Year of Certification

Release Type

1995

Selena

Dreaming of You

Universal Music Latino

59× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album

2017

Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee

"Despacito"

Universal Music Latino

55× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

1994

Selena

Amor Prohibido

Universal Music Latino

36× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album

2005

Shakira

"La Tortura"

Epic

32× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2017

Maluma

"Felices los 4"

Sony Music Latin

29× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2015

Nicky Jam

"El Perdón"

Sony Music Latin

27× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2016

Nicky Jam

"Hasta el Amanecer"

Sony Music Latin

22× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2017

Becky G

"Mayores" (Featuring Bad Bunny)

Sony Music Latin

21× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2017

Christian Nodal

"Adiós Amor"

Fonovisa

21× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2013

Romeo Santos

"Propuesta Indecente"

Sony Music Latin

20× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2011

Romeo Santos

"Promise" (Featuring Usher)

Sony Music Latin

19× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2002

Selena

Ones

Universal Music Latino

18× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

2016

Carlos Vives & Shakira

"La Bicicleta"

Sony Music Latin

17× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2018

Farruko

"Krippy Kush"

Sony Music Latin

16× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

1993

Gloria Estefan

Mi Tierra

Epic

16× Platinum (Latin)

2000

Album

2013

Marc Anthony

"Vivir Mi Vida"

Sony Music Latin

16× Platinum (Latin)

2015

Single

2016

Shakira

"Chantaje" (Featuring Maluma)

Sony Music Latin

16× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2017

Natti Natasha & Ozuna

"Criminal"

Pina

15× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

1990

Ottmar Liebert

Nouveau Flamenco

Higher Octave

14× Platinum (Latin)

2002

Album

2017

Nicky Jam

"El Amante"

Sony Music Latin

13× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2014

Romeo Santos

"Odio" (Featuring Drake)

Sony Music Latin

13× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2016

Enrique Iglesias

"Duele el Corazón"

Sony Music Latin

12× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2015

Gente de Zona

"La Gozadera"

Sony Music Latin

12× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

1992

Maná

¿Dónde Jugarán los Niños?

WEA Latina

12× Platinum (Latin)

2000

Album

2017

Maluma

"Corazón"

Sony Music Latin

11× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2017

Nicky Jam

Fénix

Sony Music Latin

11× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Album

2014

Romeo Santos

"Eres Mía"

Sony Music Latin

11× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Single

2014

Romeo Santos

Formula, Vol. 2

Sony Music Latin

11× Platinum (Latin)

2016

Album

2005

Shakira

Fijación Oral, Vol. 1

Epic

11× Platinum (Latin)

2009

Album

1996

Charlie Zaa

Sentimientos

Sonolux

10× Platinum (Latin)

2012

Album

2015

J Balvin

"Ginza"

Capitol Latin

10× Platinum (Latin)

2016

Single

2014

J Balvin

"Ay Vamos"

Capitol Latin

10× Platinum (Latin)

2015

Single

2013

J Balvin

"6 AM" (Featuring Farruko)

Capitol Latin

10× Platinum (Latin)

2015

Single

2017

Karol G

"Ahora Me Llama"

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

1997

Maná

Sueños Líquidos

WEA Latina

10× Platinum (Latin)

2000

Album

2017

Nacho

"Báilame"

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

2016

Nio Garcia, Casper Magico, Bad Bunny, Ozuna, Darell & Nicky Jam

"Te Boté Remix"

Flow La Movie, Inc.

10× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single

1998

Selena

Anthology

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

1999

Selena

All My Hits: Todos Mis Exitos

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

1992

Selena

Entre a Mi Mundo

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album

1993

Selena

Mis Mejores Canciones: 17 Super Exitos

Universal Music Latino

10× Platinum (Latin)

2017

Album (Greatest Hits)

2010

Shakira

Sale El Sol

Sony Music Latin

10× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Album

2015

Yandel

"Encantadora"

Sony Music Latin

10× Platinum (Latin)

2018

Single


document_title: The Jeffersons

question_text: who sings the theme song to the jeffersons

text: The Jeffersons

text: Show[edit]

text: The show focuses on George and Louise Jefferson, a prosperous African-American couple who have been able to move from Queens to Manhattan owing to the success of George's dry-cleaner chain. The show was launched as the second spin-off of All in the Family, on which the Jeffersons had been the neighbors of Archie and Edith Bunker.[5][6] The show was the creation of Norman Lear.[5][7] The Jeffersons eventually evolved into more of a traditional sitcom but did reference such issues as alcoholism, racism, suicide, gun control, being transgender, and adult illiteracy. The epithets "nigger" and "honky" were used occasionally, especially during the earlier seasons.[2][4]

text: The Jeffersons had one spin-off, titled Checking In. The series was centered on the Jeffersons' housekeeper, Florence.[8] Checking In only lasted four episodes, after which Florence returned to The Jeffersons.[9] The Jeffersons also shared continuity with the show E/R, which featured Lynne Moody, who made a guest appearance in one episode of The Jeffersons.[10] Sherman Hemsley guest-starred as George in two episodes of the series, which lasted for one season.[11]

text: The Jeffersons ended in controversy after CBS abruptly canceled the series without allowing for a proper series finale. The cast was not informed until after the July 2, 1985, episode "Red Robins", and actor Sherman Hemsley said he found out that the show was canceled by reading it in the newspaper.[12] Sanford, who heard about the cancellation through her cousin who read about it in the tabloids, has publicly stated that she found the cancellation with no proper finale to be disrespectful on the network's part.[13]

text: The cast reunited in a stage play based on the sitcom.[14] In the 1996 series finale of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, the Jeffersons made a guest appearance and bought the house from the Banks family.[1] In an episode of Tyler Perry's House of Payne in 2011, Sherman Hemsley and Marla Gibbs reprised their roles of George Jefferson and Florence Johnston.[15]

text: In 1985, Hemsley and Sanford made a special joint guest appearance in the Canale 5 comedy show Grand Hotel, starring Italian actors Paolo Villaggio, Franco & Ciccio comic duo and Carmen Russo. They were guests in the fictional hotel, and appeared just twice during the show, for a total of five minutes. Their voices were dubbed by Italian actors Enzo Garinei (George) and Isa di Marzio (Louise), who also dubbed their characters for the full series.[citation needed]

text: Series development[edit]

text: Louise Jefferson, played by Isabel Sanford, first appeared in the All in the Family episode "Lionel Moves Into the Neighborhood", which was broadcast on March 2, 1971. The episode, the eighth of the series, centers on Louise, her son Lionel, and her husband George's moving next door to Archie and Edith Bunker in the working-class section of Queens.[2] Lionel, played by Mike Evans, first appeared in "Meet the Bunkers", the premiere episode of All in the Family.[2]

text: Norman Lear created the character of George Jefferson specifically for Hemsley. Lear originally intended for George to appear in the first season of the series; however, Hemsley was starring in the Broadway musical Purlie at the time, and Lear decided to postpone introduction of the character until Hemsley was available. Lear created the character of Henry Jefferson, George's younger brother, and replaced George with Henry in the series's scripts until Purlie finished its run. Mel Stewart was cast as Henry.[2][3] George was introduced in the episode "Henry's Farewell", and Hemsley and Stewart share their only scene together in its final minutes. The episode marked the final appearance of Henry.

text: George, Louise, and Lionel continued to appear on All in the Family until 1975, when the spin-off The Jeffersons, also created by Lear, premiered.[8] The characters of Lionel's biracial fiancée, Jenny, and her family, all of whom first appeared in the 1974 All in the Family episode "Lionel's Engagement", were also written into the new series.[16] However, the roles were all recast, with Berlinda Tolbert taking over the role of Jenny, veteran actor Franklin Cover playing her father, Tom Willis, whose first name was changed from Louis, as it was in their first AITF appearance, and Roxie Roker as her mother, Helen.

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: During the January 11, 1975 episode of All in the Family, titled "The Jeffersons Move Up", Edith Bunker gave a tearful good-bye to her neighbor Louise Jefferson, as her husband George, their son Lionel, and she moved from a working-class section of Queens, New York into a luxury apartment in Manhattan.[17] The Jeffersons premiered the following week, on January 18, 1975.[8]

text: George's career as a dry-cleaner began in the first season of All in the Family, in the third episode, "Oh, My Aching Back" (though the character himself did not appear on-camera). After his car was rear-ended by a bus, he filed a civil action and won $3200, enough to open his first store in Queens.[3] At the beginning of The Jeffersons, he was operating five stores throughout New York City, with another two opening during the following seasons.

text: Louise made friends with Tom and Helen Willis, an interracial couple with two adult children of their own[8] (whom George insultingly called "zebras"):[1][18] son Allan (played by Andrew Rubin in the first-season finale, and by Jay Hammer throughout season 5), a white-passing college drop-out; and daughter Jenny, an aspiring fashion designer. Jenny and Lionel became a couple, were married on December 24, 1976, and later became the parents of a daughter, Jessica (played in later seasons by Ebonie Smith).[8][19] Lionel and Jenny experienced marital issues, and filed for divorce in 1985.[8]

text: Marla Gibbs portrayed the role of Florence Johnston, the Jeffersons' back-talking, wisecracking, and devoutly religious housekeeper. Florence often teased George, mostly about his short stature and receding hairline.[20] Paul Benedict arrived as Harry Bentley, a loyal, kind, friendly yet somewhat dimwitted British next-door neighbor,[8] who worked as an interpreter at the United Nations.[21]

text: A common sight-gag of the show was George slamming the door in Bentley's face mid-conversation.[21] Bentley also had a bad back, and frequently needed George to walk on his back.[22][23] He also became known for addressing the Jeffersons as "Mr. J" and "Mrs. J".[23] Zara Cully played George's mother, Olivia "Mother" Jefferson, who constantly disparaged her daughter-in-law.[6][18][19] Cully, who had first appeared in the 1974 All in the Family episode, "Lionel's Engagement", reprised her role.[24] She appeared regularly in the first two seasons, but made sporadic appearances over the next two years and was written out in the fifth season (Cully died in 1978, from lung cancer; no episode was centered on Mother Jefferson's death, but it was mentioned that she had died in season 5). Ned Wertimer played the doorman, Ralph Hart, throughout the series,[25] along with Danny Wells who played Charlie the bartender.[26]

text: Cast changes[edit]

text: Mike Evans ("Lionel") left the show after the first season; his replacement was Damon Evans (no relation),[6] who took over the role until halfway through the fourth season.[8] Damon Evans's last episode was "Lionel Gets the Business".

text: Mike Evans and Tolbert returned in the 1979–1980 season, with Tolbert's character, Jenny, pregnant with a daughter named Jessica. However, Mike Evans appeared for only one more season, along with Tolbert.[8] The Jeffersons' sixth season peaked at #8 in the summer of 1980. The characters of Lionel and Jenny were written out by stating that they had marital problems, the result of which became a two-part episode storyline as the series' eighth-season premiere. The series' eighth season was the first African-American sitcom in years (since Sanford and Son) to peak in the top 5 (the series' eighth season debuted at #3).

text: Evans and Tolbert appeared in the two-part episode together; Evans also appeared in one episode during the series' ninth season in 1982, and made his final appearance in two episodes during the series' eleventh and final season. Tolbert became a regular guest star throughout the rest of the series. In the spring of 1981, Paul Benedict left the show for a season and a half, returning in the final two seasons of the series.[8] However, the ratings sank below the top 30, and The Jeffersons aired its last episode, "Red Robins", on July 2, 1985.[27]

text: Main cast[edit]

text:
Actor/Actress
Character
Seasons

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Isabel Sanford
Louise Jefferson
Main

Sherman Hemsley
George Jefferson
Main

Mike Evans
Lionel Jefferson
Main

Main
Recurring

Guest

Damon Evans

Main

Roxie Roker
Helen Willis
Main

Franklin Cover
Thomas "Tom" Willis
Main

Zara Cully
Olivia "Mother" Jefferson
Main

Berlinda Tolbert
Jenny Willis Jefferson
Main
Recurring

Paul Benedict
Harry Bentley
Main

Main

Marla Gibbs
Florence Johnston
Recurring
Main

Jay Hammer
Allan Willis

Main

Ned Wertimer
Ralph Hart
Recurring

Danny Wells
Charlie the bartender
Recurring

Ebonie Smith
Jessica Jefferson

Recurring

text: Notable guest appearances[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text:
Frances Bay
Johnny Brown
Barbara Cason
Charo
Gary Coleman[1]
Andrae Crouch
Sammy Davis, Jr.[9]
Frank De Vol
Phyllis Diller (as herself)
David Dukes
Famous Amos
Bernard Fox
Joe Frazier
Susie Garrett
Louis Gossett, Jr.
Rosie Grier
Robert Guillaume[9]
Moses Gunn
Kene Holliday
Reggie Jackson
Victor Kilian
Lincoln Kilpatrick
Mabel King
Gladys Knight
Peter Lawford (voice)
Larry Linville
Carl Lumbly
Helen Martin
Edie McClurg
Garrett Morris
Greg Morris[9]
Josephine Premice[28]
Sheryl Lee Ralph
Thalmus Rasulala
Susan Ruttan
Sister Sledge[29]
Michael Spinks
Amzie Strickland
Ernest Lee Thomas
Liz Torres
Donald Trump
Vernee Watson
Jaleel White
Billy Dee Williams[9]
Hal Williams

text: Episodes[edit]

text: The Jeffersons had many two-part episodes, either over two consecutive weeks, or aired as an hour-long episode.

text: Theme song[edit]

text: Ja'net Dubois (from Good Times) and Jeff Barry co-wrote The Jeffersons theme song, "Movin' on Up", which was sung by Dubois with a gospel choir.[31] The song was covered by Sammy Davis, Jr., in 1978.[32]

text: Broadcast history and Nielsen ratings[edit]

text: The Jeffersons changed time slots at least 15 different times during its 11-year run, unusual for a popular long running series.[33] The most common time slot was on Sunday night.[7]

text: In its first season (1974–75), the show ranked at number four, surpassed by its parent series All in the Family (which landed at number one for the fifth year in a row).[34] The show's ratings for the following two seasons placed it in the Top 30, but during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons (the show's fourth and fifth seasons), it fell out of the top 30.[19]

text: It returned to the Top 10 in 1979–80, and at the end of the 1981–82 season, The Jeffersons finished third overall, only surpassed by fellow CBS series Dallas and 60 Minutes. As a result, the series remained among the Top 20 for the next two seasons.[19]

text:
Season
Time slot (ET)
Rank
Rating

1974–1975
Saturday at 8:30 pm
4
27.6

1975–1976
Saturday at 8:00 pm
21
21.5

1976–1977
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–6)
Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 7–14)
Monday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 15–24)
24
24.2

1977–1978
Saturday at 9:00 pm (Episodes 1, 3–22, 25–26)
Saturday at 9:30 pm (Episode 2)
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episode 23)
Saturday at 8:30 pm (Episode 24)
Not in the Top 30

1978–1979
Wednesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 1–6, 8–24)
Saturday at 8:00 pm (Episode 7)

1979–1980
Sunday at 9:30 pm
8
24.3

1980–1981
Sunday at 9:30 pm (Episodes 1–2, 5–18, 20)
Sunday at 10:00 pm (Episode 3)
Sunday at 10:30 pm (Episode 4)
Sunday at 9:00 pm (Episode 19)
6
23.5

1981–1982
Sunday at 9:30 pm
3
23.4

1982–1983
Sunday at 9:00 pm
12
20.0 (Tied with Knots Landing)

1983–1984
Sunday at 9:00 pm (Episodes 1, 3–22)
Sunday at 9:30 pm (Episode 2)
19
18.6

1984–1985
Sunday at 9:00 pm (1984)
Tuesday at 8:00 pm (Episodes 9–17, 23–24)
Tuesday at 8:30 pm (Episodes 18–22)
Not in the Top 30

text: Awards and nominations[edit]

text: The Jeffersons received 14 Emmy Award nominations during its time on the air.[35] Marla Gibbs was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series each year from 1981-85. Sherman Hemsley was nominated for Best Actor in 1984. Larry M. Harris won the Emmy for Outstanding Video Tape Editing for a Series in 1983.[35]

text: Isabel Sanford was nominated for seven consecutive Best Actress Emmys, from 1979 until 1985.[35] Her victory in 1981 made her the first African-American actress to win an Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series,[1][19][36] and the second to win any Emmy Award; Gail Fisher, who played Peggy on the TV show Mannix, preceded her in 1970. Sanford was also the recipient of five of the eight Golden Globe Awards nominations the program received.[37]

text: DVD and Internet releases[edit]

text: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first six seasons of The Jeffersons on DVD in Region 1 between 2002 and 2007.[38] These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print.

text: On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including The Jeffersons.[39] They subsequently re-released the first two seasons on DVD on May 20, 2014.[40]

text: On August 8, 2014, it was announced that Shout! Factory had acquired the rights to the series; they subsequently released the complete series on DVD in a 33-disc collection on December 9, 2014.[41][42]

text: On April 28, 2015, Shout! released season 7 on DVD in Region 1.[43] Season 8 was released on August 11, 2015.[44]

text: As of 2016, all eleven seasons of The Jeffersons are available for online streaming on the STARZ network.[45][46]

text:
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date

The Complete First Season
13
August 6, 2002
May 20, 2014 (re-release)

The Complete Second Season
24
May 13, 2003
May 20, 2014 (re-release)

The Complete Third Season
24
April 12, 2005

The Complete Fourth Season
26
October 11, 2005

The Complete Fifth Season
24
August 15, 2006

The Complete Sixth Season
24
March 27, 2007

The Complete Seventh Season
20
April 28, 2015

The Complete Eighth Season
25
August 11, 2015

The Complete Series
253
December 9, 2014