Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows was a TV soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. It added a gothic vampire story to the standard "soap" plots and stories, and it won a cult following that mirrored that of another long-running science fiction TV series, Doctor Who.

Supernatural storylines (spoiler warning)

When the unscrupulous Jason McGuire (Dennis Patrick) returns to blackmail Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, his friend Willie Loomis (John Karlen) unwittingly releases the vampire Barnabas Collins from his chained coffin. Barnabas, upon awakening (and at first not realizing he was in the 1960s), is obsessed with finding the reincarnated Josette, his brother's wife whom he loved and lost in the past. The original timeline indicated this occurred around 1830. During one scene in the early Barnabas sequence, Victoria Winters places flowers on Josette's grave, which reckons the year of her death as 1822. However, the 1795 Flashback (which began on November 20, 1967) transported Victoria Winters to witness the events leading to Barnabas Collins' corruption.

Related Topics:
Dennis Patrick - John Karlen - 1960s - 1830 - 1822 - 1795 - November 20 - 1967

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Barnabas was supposed to marry Josette du Pres (Kathryn Leigh Scott), but instead he succumbed to the wiles of Josette's maid, Angelique, with whom he shared a dalliance in Martinique. Using her witchcraft, Angelique made Josette fall in love with and wed Barnabas' brother Jeremiah (whom Barnabas subsequently killed in a duel), and tricked Barnabas into marrying her; but soon Barnabas learned that Angelique was in fact a witch, and killed her. In revenge, Angelique sent a vampire bat to attack Barnabas, who then died and became a vampire; his father eventually chained him inside a coffin in the Collins family mausoleum. Meanwhile, Victoria Winters had been falsely accused of being the witch that caused all of these unfortunate events; she was tried and convicted of witchcraft, and hanged — however, instead of causing her death, the hanging catapulted her (and the show's setting) back into the present time in the episode that was carried on April 1, 1968. Events then followed one another in rapid succession: Barnabas would overcome his curse of undeath on April 8 with the help of two doctors — Eric Lang (Addison Powell) and Julia Hoffman (Grayson Hall, whose husband Sam Hall was later hired to write scripts). Angelique returns on April 17 as Roger Collins' new wife (Roger had mysteriously disappeared in the present during the time the 1795 Flashback was airing) under the alias "Cassandra Blair;" it soon becomes clear that her true intent in reappearing is to return Barnabas to the ranks of the undead. She settles on a "dream curse" as the means to accomplish this. Perhaps the most elaborate sequence of the entire series, the dream curse dominated the story line starting on April 23, until July 12, when it appears to succeed; however on July 17 Barnabas is revived, and is found not to be a vampire again after all.

Related Topics:
Josette du Pres - Kathryn Leigh Scott - Martinique - Duel - Mausoleum - April 1 - 1968 - April 8 - Addison Powell - Grayson Hall - Sam Hall - April 17 - April 23 - July 12 - July 17

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The series peaked with the ghostly return of Quentin Collins, whose own troubled past as a werewolf would be explored in the 1897 Flashback, which began airing on March 3, 1969 and continued until January 6, 1970. David Selby became a star overnight in this role, with the other principal actors taking different parts in what now amounted to a supernatural costume drama. In this sense, the show parallels the BBC series Doctor Who, although the latter show gradually abandoned historical shows in favor of science fiction and fantasy (Dark Shadows had switched from black and white to colour in 1967, and much of its gloomy, evocative atmosphere was lost in that transition).

Related Topics:
March 3 - 1969 - January 6 - 1970 - David Selby - BBC - Doctor Who - 1967

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On March 12, 1970, the concept of "parallel time" was introduced; the period setting did not change, but all of the characters acquired different names, different identities, and different relationships to one another. This sequence ended (on July 17) with a fire that destroyed the Great House at Collinwood (built in 1795 to replace the "Old House," which was abandoned during the pivotal events of that year after the Collins family came to believe the latter to be the source of all of their misfortune), which Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman escaped by moving forward in time, to 1995 (parallel time was used again during the 1840-41 Flashback, which began on September 25, 1970 and lasted until the show's final episode).

Related Topics:
March 12 - 1970 - July 17 - 1995 - September 25

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During the latter half of its run, Dark Shadows used, and sometimes abused, classic stories with wild abandon. Revisiting such literary masterpieces as Dracula, Frankenstein (and also The Bride of Frankenstein), The Wolf Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (applied to both Angelique and Quentin) and The Turn of the Screw, the series expanded and contracted these stories into an unusual and sometimes fascinating venue (for example, the creation of the Frankenstein-like character enabled Barnabas to escape vampirism on a permanent basis and was the reason the dream curse failed). No author of the macabre was exempt from inclusion in the masterful melding of subplots. Poe, Jackson, Wilde, Stoker, Shelley, Hawthorne, James, Lovecraft, and others were all explored, exploited and exposed in a history of the Collins family that would put any genealogist to shame. Small wonder then, that renowned horror writers Anne Rice and Stephen King have admitted to being Dark Shadows fans during their formative years.

Related Topics:
Dracula - Frankenstein - The Bride of Frankenstein - The Wolf Man - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - The Picture of Dorian Gray - The Turn of the Screw - Poe - Jackson - Wilde - Stoker - Shelley - Hawthorne - James - Lovecraft - Anne Rice - Stephen King

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