Ah, Barnabas Collins. The 175-year-old vampire who was inadvertently set free in 1967 and spent 4 years of the gothic daytime series Dark Shadows, in search of love and acceptance, and finding murder and mayhem. He was an evil blood-sucker, a member of the undead, but yet you could feel empathy for him.
Dark Shadows began in 1962, and when the ratings began to fall and the writers knew that the show was going to be canceled, they decided to do something drastic. They added new characters and a new story-line. Why not have a little fun, ‘eh?
Jonathan Frid, a Canadian actor, portrayed the tortured and lovelorn vampire Barnabas Collins from 1967 to the time the show ended in 1971. Amid all the expectations of a daytime drama (love, sex, murder, theft, kidnapping, etc.) were the strange and macabre stories of ghosts, vampires, werewolves and witches, and even a Frankenstein-like creation! It was quite entertaining, although corny as hell by today’s standards!
I used to race home after school just so I could watch Dark Shadows! My mom started watching before the addition of the undead and scary characters and I was right there with her with about as much understanding as a 5 – 8-year-old could have possibly had! I loved the spookiness and the anticipation of Dark Shadows. I knew that vampires were make-believe and I wasn’t afraid when I watched as many kids might have been. Dark Shadows was one of my favorite shows right alongside The Monkees, Gilligan’s Island, The Munsters, Lost In Space, and The Partridge Family, like most kids my age.
I was absolutely devastated when my mother started coming ‘undone’ and decided that I couldn’t watch Dark Shadows anymore. She said I was having nightmares. I never had nightmares. The only time I ever had a nightmare in my life was when I was sick with a very high fever (around age 8) and dreamt there was an evil fat penguin under the sheets by my feet. I remembered that, wouldn’t I also remember if I was having nightmares about witches and vampires, etc.? My heart was just broken.
I have just recently begun to watch Dark Shadows again, starting with episode 210, when Barnabas first appears. So corny, so funny… That was back when television was entertainment and not a cesspool of reality shows, Trump tv, and other mindless crap. Don’t get me wrong. I still watch tv. I have some favorite shows, but choosing something to watch these days with over 200 channels is getting more and more cumbersome.
Ah, the good ol’ days!
Being Aunt Debbie 
I loved Barnabas! I watched it religiously, too! I have the entire DVD collection plus some of the movies they made as well with the regulars from the series. Hubby watched it with me up to a certain episode and then we put it aside. Haven’t gone back to it. I was just thinking the other day of picking it up again. The show’s set may have been put together with spit and glue, but I loved it anyway. 🙂
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Me, too! ❤ I love vampires to this day and I think that's probably where it all started! Lol.
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Oh gawd, I remember Dark Shadows, ahem through late night reruns of course, lol. I loved how everyone was a reincarnation of their former relatives, that always baffled me. I thought the movie remake with Johnny Depp would be blasphemous because I loved the show so much. But I actually loved it, AND the actors from the original series made a cameo in the film. I too loved vampires until I saw Underworld and fell in love with Michael Sheen as a lycan, ggrrrr 😍. And that werewolves are the only ones that can kill a vampire.
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OMG! I loved Sheen as a lycan! Holy Crayoli! They sure made me feel bad for the lycans in that movie! I wasn’t too fond of Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows and I’m a JD fan from way back. I just hate when they mess with the originals.
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I know, but I did like the film. There are just some films/series that should be left alone. Like I heard they want to remake Christine, oh gad the filmanity! And I also heard they want to remake Sixteen Candles and the Breakfast Club, ugh kill me now….
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See, I wish the hell they would leave classics alone! It’s almost like they’re too lazy to find new stories to make movies about.
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Right? What, they can’t come up with new story lines to make new films? Why ruin those that did so well as originals? Look what happened when they turned the Dukes of Hazzard and CHIPS into films, they sucked monkey balls, MONKEYBALLS!!
I draw the line at Christine, Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club, nope, no way!
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Deb,
My mother loved Dark Shadows and I remember watching this soap with her a few times when I was little. I don’t remember much about it now, though. I do remember taking her to see the movie with Johnny Depp for Mother’s Day! Still, not the same. Anyway, thanks for the blast from the past! Mona
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Thanks for reading! So many people still watch this show and go to conventions, too. It’s nuts!
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Oh my gosh, we were just talking about Dark Shadows! I remember watching it and the Munsters. You are right, it really is corny by today’s standards but it was great back then!
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