Dark Shadows

Yes I am old and so is the show. Most of its original cast members are dead. However for me, there will never be another series such as Dark Shadows!

Dark Shadows is best remembered as a supernatural thriller, filled with vampires, zombies, werewolves, and mad scientists. But in the beginning, the scariest thing on the screen was the bad blonde wig Kathryn Leigh Scott was forced to don for her first few outings as waitress Maggie Evans. As Victoria poked around Collinwood's dusty deserted west wing, trying to figure out if she was a long-lost Collins, there were occasional supernatural undertones. Young David Collins claimed to see ghosts all over the place, and in the 70th episode, which aired September 30, 1966, viewers saw a specter emerge from the portrait of Josette Collins, then dance around the grounds of the great estate. Dark Shadows was finally heading where no soap opera had strayed before. The ratings, though still anemic, were goosed a bit by the unusual story.

http://www.collinwood.net/

OH! I can still see the main character. My mom used to watch this and it scare the bejebbies out of me.

Barnabus Collins...
I never missed a show! I used to have nightmares that he was waiting for me at the end of a dark hallway...
BTW the background music you hear on this site, is the theme from Dark Shadows!

Yes! Barnabus Collins. Wow he was scary.

Barnabas lived in the late 18th century (his back story takes place in 1795), when as a mortal he was to marry Josette du Pres (Kathryn Leigh Scott), despite having a brief affair with Josette's maidservant Angelique (Lara Parker). Angelique was a witch, and via the conjuration of dark magic, made Josette fall in love with Barnabas' uncle, Jeremiah Collins (Anthony George), when she was jilted by Barnabas in favor of Josette. After learning that Jeremiah and Josette have suddenly married, Barnabas challenged Jeremiah to a duel. Jeremiah lost the duel, dying shortly after being shot. Upon Barnabas' discovery that Angelique was the witch responsible for tormenting Collinwood, he shot her. With what she believed to be her dying words, she took revenge on Barnabas by summoning a vampire bat to bite him. Barnabas fell extremely ill, and Angelique, who survived her gunshot wound, regretted her decision and tried in vain to keep Barnabas alive. Nevertheless, Barnabas died shortly after his attack, and soon rose as a vampire. At the very end of the 1795 storyline, as per his request, Barnabas’ father, Joshua Collins, was to slay his son. However, he was unable to murder his son, and so ordered Barnabas’ devoted servant, Ben Stokes (Thayer David), to perform the task. Ben was also unable to kill the vampire and instead chained him in a coffin in the secret room of the family mausoleum.

In the "present" of 1967, Willie Loomis (John Karlen) who was foraging for the Collins Family's "lost jewels", found the coffin in which Barnabas was chained, and released him. Barnabas attacked Willie and turned him into his unwilling servant. Barnabas introduced himself to the modern Collins family as a cousin from England - a hard working businessman never seen during the day. Barnabas was originally intended to be on for the length of an average soap-opera storyline, roughly 13 weeks. However, Frid's portrayal of the self-loathing vampire commanded so much popularity that producer Dan Curtis kept him on. However, his feeding frenzy did not go unnoticed. He had captured Maggie Evans, who resembled his love Josette, and was trying to hypnotize her into becoming his dead lover. However, Maggie managed to escape by the help of Barnabas' ghost sister, Sarah Collins. Maggie had regressed into the mentality of a child. She was sent to Windcliff Sanitarium, where Dr. Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall) was trying to get her to relive her memories and identify her kidnapper. Dr. Hoffman soon found out what she needed to and went to Collinwood, looking for the kidnapper. She found out what Barnabas was and what he had done, but her love for him led her to try to help the vampire. She became one of Barnabas' confidants and helped him many times, even risking time travel to aid her afflicted friend.

The final story-arc of the series concentrated on 1840 Parallel Time, where Jonathan Frid played Bramwell Collins, Barnabas Collins' son in that time stream.
Personality
Barnabas often blamed his moments of cruelty on his transformation into one of the Undead or "nosferatu", but throughout the series,other characters revealed that Barnabas was not as reluctant a victim as he saw himself. While in a drunken stupor Ben Stokes admitted that Barnabas ,prior to his change "...weren't no good then, neither!" When the vampire tried to kill his own father to silence his cries for help, an astonished Joshua Collins proclaimed Barnabas must have hated him all along, "No curse could have made you change so quickly!" In later interviews, Jonathan Frid admitted this was part of the character's success, "...the lies he told himself". Barnabas saw himself as a romantic, but he was always dangerous. If anything, Barnabas Collins followed the tradition of "dark heroes" that have always been a part of gothic fiction. Characters such as Dracula, "Wuthering Heights'" Heathcliff in addition to Stanley Kowalski and even J.R. Ewing, seem to blend menace equally with "sex appeal".

Thanks for the storyline. I was fairly young when my mom would watch the show, so, my memory of it is sketchy. My memory of what Barnabas looked like is not.

Well no worried that guy is very old and very fat now....
http://www.jonathanfrid.com/

He was kinda of a hottie when he was young.

well, at least Barnabus made him sexy. Because Barnabus was such a romantic Vampire lol. Plus Johnathan Frid is very english and that accent alone drove me nuts :)

My mom used to watch this one too. They showed reruns of it for a while on the sci fi channel- and I think there was a werewolf in it too! LOL

yup there sure was, Peter Bradford became a werewolf...
Why is it everyone says there MOM watched this show? I feel old....

Did I say mom? I meant...........my aunt who isn't that much older than me..........yeah............that's it............that's the ticket.

Im just old, face it lol

Nah, not buying it.

I have heard from a DS fan, that Johnny Depp (yeah him) bought the rights to DS after Dan Curtis died. I hear there will be a remake whoo hooo

I loved Dark Shadows. Barnabus rocked. This does show my age though. Sheesh, now embarrassing.

Umm.....yeah.....my mom watched it too. :blush

My memories of the show is Barnabus, vampires, ghosts, cyrpts, mist, and being scared. And ofcourse the music. Immediatly when I heard the music here I knew what it was.

I'd love to see this show again. I wish SciFi would air it daily. Were'nt they only half hour eps? SciFi should air this two eps a day. Casper....could you get on that please? 'Kay thanx!

yeah ill just call Johnny Depp up and wait he is calling me now... can you belive it. He heard we wanted it aired and so shall it be (poof) yeah ok and Taylor Hicks is in love with me..
Shoot now im awake. Well it was a good dream anyway lol

LOL! Wait a minute....Taylor Hicks is in love with me too! What a playa!!

There is probally no DS forum somewhere that one could go to and watch the eps in order and follow the show huh?

No, but if you go to the movie section here. I did find the house of ds :) There is twelve of them all in a row. I just got done watching the whole movie :) better get it while ya can!

Cool!!