In 1966, television audiences were treated to a new kind of vampire, a more dark and dramatic breed whose sinister past eventually turns him into the characteristic reluctant vampire. That bloodsucker is Barnabas Collins, and he was the star of the gothic television soap opera Dark Shadows. Now, it's no mystery that soap operas have unbelievably huge followings, with fans hinging on every actor's word, action, interview, and convention appearance. Dark Shadows almost missed that fanfare, when after six months it was faced with cancellation. It was at that point that the supernatural element was introduced, with Barnabas's arrival in Collinwood. Running every weekday afternoon on ABC from June of 1966 through April of 1971, Dark Shadows became a cult classic that to this day retains its immortality through major Internet fan sites, fan clubs, societies, conventions, CD audio dramas, DVDs, reruns, and a pair of feature-length films: House of Dark Shadows in 1970 and Night of Dark Shadows in 1971. The series also spawned a short-lived television remake in 1991, comic books, and a slew of serialized novels.

What's unique about Dark Shadows, among many aspects, is its tele-novela-style and live-to-tape format with complex overlapping character arcs, time travel, séances, a parallel universe, ghosts, witches, werewolves, and dream and fantasy sequences that took the story from present-day Collinsport, Maine, to its late 1700s colonial roots and beyond. Throughout all of the plotlines spread amongst over 1,200 episodes, the repertoire of actors involved played multiple roles — typically their own ancestors — squeezing every ounce of melodrama they could muster. So groundbreaking was the series, that even Robert Cobert's eerie soundtrack ranked on Billboard's Top 20 charts in 1969, with one of the tracks earning Cobert a Grammy nomination.

The Collinwood Phenomena

The series begins when governess Victoria Winters arrives at the Collin-wood estate to care for a young boy named David Collins. Surrounded by a rather eccentric and secretive family, strange occurrences begin almost immediately, setting the stage for all the dark drama to follow. After six months and sagging ratings, Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis took the bold step of introducing a 200-year-old vampire into the mix, which though radical at the time, turned the entire series rightside up. Actor Jonathan Frid — who has built an entire career off his fiend — made his first appearance in episode 211 as Barnabas Collins, a vampire released from his slumber who arises to wreak havoc upon a new generation. A tortured soul, Barnabas reintegrates himself into the wealthy Collins family by claiming to be a long lost relative, and from there his story takes more twists and turns than a Swiss mountain road.

Cursed by the evil witch Angelique in the late 1700s, Barnabas bears many of the traditional trappings of the drawing room bloodsucker, namely sleeping in a coffin, casting no reflection in mirrors, and the ability to transform into a bat. Naturally, the public became enamored with Barnabas and all the melodramatic characters and situations one would expect of a daytime soap. What may seem campy now was actually for its time a clever use of sets, costuming, makeup, and special effects that for a tape-and-go serial drama made up for the occasional appearance of a cameraman or microphone interrupting a scene.

Dark Shadows Redux

Dark Shadows was cancelled in 1971, but its cult following relentlessly clamored for more. The show was partially syndicated in 1975 and aired in syndication through 1990. For the next three years, all of the episodes were released to and aired by the Sci Fi Channel. In 1991, twenty years after its cancellation, NBC ran a short-lived remake of the series in prime time. Again directed by Dan Curtis, and starring Ben Cross as Barnabas, Jean Simmons, Lysette Anthony, and 1960s scream queen Barbara Steele (see Chapter 15), the revival was a weekly series with a big budget. Timing in this case proved its undoing, as Gulf War coverage caused the show's pre-empting and odd scheduling contributing to its inevitable demise after only a dozen episodes. The fact that the series ended with a whopper of a cliffhanger, of course, resulted in viewer outrage. With any luck, their incantations will be answered by actor Johnny Depp, who so loved Dark Shadows that as a child he claimed he wanted to be Barnabas Collins. Depp's wish may come to fruition, as he recently announced he would play Jonathan Frid's legendary role in a Dark Shadows feature-length film that Depp's production company purchased the rights to in July of 2008.