Dark Shadows

As a kid, I waited every day for 4pm for DARK SHADOWS to appear on TV. I watched in fascination all the going ons with Barnabas the vampire, time travel (I wanted that staircase that took you to the 19th century!) corpses rising from their graves. When the show came to an end in 1970, it was a sad day.

The show resurfaced in the early 1980's. As an adult, I could see all the flaws, all the signals that told us, this was live television, done on a very low budget. I appreciated Director/Creator Dan Curtis and company going against all odds.

As with all soap operas, the actors in DARK SHADOW had to stretch the material (Remember they had a collective 2 hours plus every week to cover.) Many actors would repeat what the other actor just said (Example BARNABAS: "This room was once filled the scent of lilacs." GIRL (in awe...) "....the scent of lilacs!" Flaws normally covered by alternate takes came up (much of this was live TV) We saw boom mikes, camera catching the edge of set, and the most celebrated goof- a pesty fly that won't leave vampire Barnabas Collins' (Jonathan Frid) nose, while Barnabas delivers a menacing monologue. But, all in all, it was fun. A thrill. It's always great to see this old soap opera once and a while.

1795- "I set a curse on you Barnabas Collins-" 1967- Dark Shadows, after being on for less than one year was on the verge of being thrown into oblivion, forgotten and lost forever, along with a 172 year old family secret. Then quite by accident, a vampire was released from his coffin and Television history was made!

This show, campy, and low budget(who could afford anything else 40 years ago?) became a household word along with its star attraction, Vampire Barnabas Collins. Now that it is finally on DVD, (THANK YOU, MPI VIDEO!!!!) Those who remember can return to their childhood days and relive it all again, and those who were not there, can see for themselves what made this a soap opera hit! Nowadays, most soaps focus on "who slept with who," or "who is going to overthrow a corporate bigwig" Not this show! Vampires, witches, werewolves, warlocks and ghosts rule here!

No other soap has been remembered this long and no other soap has ever made it to yearly conventions or VHS and DVD. This show is immortal as the vampire themselves. No matter how hard anti fans try to kill it, this show will always be resurrected! Dark shadows rules!

Warning: Soap operas are habit-forming, and this is about the most addictive one ever filmed. Dark Shadows, the daytime serial which ran in the 1960s broke new ground to say the least. A vampire (Barnabas Collins) is released after a 170 year imprisonment to wreak havoc on his old stomping grounds. There's witchcraft, ghosts, romance, unrequited love, bodies buried in the cellar, duels to the death, werewolves....Any one of these elements is enough to build a story on. Put them all together and you've started a new religion. No wonder DS had such a dedicated cult following. Now it's back, released on DVD and unless I'm badly mistaken a whole new generation is out there getting hooked on this crazy show. The old B&W episodes are fun to watch and the restored color programs look better than ever.

This show is well worth restoring. One reason; never before or since have so many gorgeous actresses been gathered together in one place. For us guys that alone makes it worth a look. Lara Parker is stunningly beautiful as Angelique. Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie Evans) came to the series from Hugh Hefner's Playboy Club. Need I say more? Nancy Barrett (Carolyn) is a blonde bombshell in her own right. And we certainly can't leave out Alexandra Moltke (Victoria Winters) who on a good day tops them all. No wonder the plain-looking Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) couldn't score with Barnabas. She had no chance against competition like that. And like any soap there are plenty of handsome hunks for the ladies to admire. David Selby, Roger Davis, Joel Crothers, and of course Jonathan Frid (Barnabas) to name a few.

Dark Shadows is remembered as being campy with lots of bloopers. You see overhead microphones, malfunctioning props, actors flubbing their lines. But this just adds to the fun. It was more like a stage play than a TV series. As a daily show with so many special effects they were in uncharted waters. They did well considering the technology available at the time. On a limited budget they even had to borrow equipment from other sets on occasion. As the star, Jonathan Frid was carrying a tremendous workload. He rarely got enough sleep so he was bound to flub now and then. Some days even without makeup he probably looked like one of the undead.

For those of us over 40 seeing these shows again is like going to a reunion. The DVD set includes interviews with the surviving and now much older actors, a sad reminder of how much time has passed. But life goes on and vampire tales are hot stuff right now. Youngsters who are seeing all this for the first time will laugh at the bloopers. But they'll keep coming back for more. Some of the bloopers are not really bloopers at all. They're just life the way it really happens. We all flub our lines and drop things in our daily lives. And when Quentin yanks that sword off the wall, unintentionally sending a few other items crashing to the floor, well that could just as easily have been part of the script. Indeed, it might have made the scene more intense. Dark Shadows is the most far-fetched soap opera ever made. But at the same time it's the most believable because the characters stammer, stumble, and bang their heads on low hanging objects just like we do. That's why we love them. And that's why we'll always love this show.

Like many people I used to rush home from grammar school to see this Gothic soap opera. I distinctly remember being petrified of the werewolf and running out of the room when Barnabas bit somebody.

Seeing it now it's still sort of creepy. It moves very slow (of course) and the black & white seasons are extremely dull with really pathetic special effects and threadbare settings. But when the series switched to color and started to really be popular (in 1967) it really got going. The special effects improved, the settings and costumes got more elaborate and the plot lines went barreling out of control. Also they had a good cast who played all their roles seriously. That's good, because if they had camped it up or winked at the audience it would have fallen apart.

A good, fun horror soap. It's a good thing it's available on video and DVD now.

The series has so many memorable plot lines and had a superb cast that did a tremendous job on such a low budget. Re-takes were virtually non-existent so most of the bloopers were broadcast adding to the entertainment value of the series. The interplay between the actors was probably the best that I have ever seen in any television series. This series spawned two theatrical movies, a Broadway play and a revival series in 1991. Additionally, almost 29 years later conventions draw more fans than any other series ever made (except Star Trek) and having seen just about every episode I can understand why.