Dark Shadows
1 9 6 6 - 1 9 7 1 (USA)
1225 x 30 minute episodes
1 9 9 1 (USA)
Dark Shadows premiered on 27 June 1966 on the ABC
network, airing an impressive total of 1225 episodes until its
final broadcast on 2 April 1971. The original script told the
story of a secretive, reclusive woman whose husband had been
missing for many years.
The recluse was the rich, matriarchal Elizabeth Collins
Stoddard and her luxurious home was the haunted, cursed manor
house called Collinwood.
Initially, the series was envisioned as a straight gothic
romance in the style of Daphne Du Murier's classic novel Rebecca ,
and for its opening months the series centred around orphan
Victoria Winters arrival at the small fishing port of Collinstown
(situated somewhere on the coast of Maine) to take up the post of
governess to Elizabeth's young nephew David).
Early reaction to the new show was lukewarm. The introduction
into the storyline in quick succession of first one ghost, then
another, followed almost immediately by a mythical Phoenix
creature, proved to be the unique angle which set the series apart
from anything else being produced in the unimaginative field of
daytime drama.
Realising that tapping into the previously unexplored area of
the supernatural was the road for the series to take, a character
was introduced who arguably embodied the most potent appeal of the
horror genre, a vampire.
With the arrival of the tortured, romantic antihero character
of vampire Barnabas Collins the series became a sensation and
swiftly gained a loyal, hardcore audience.
There were all sorts of sexy, cleavage-heaving women fainting
in tight-bodiced dresses and lots of carnal love-bites to the
neck, flashing capes, people getting bricked up into walls, evil
laughter . . . and always a cliff hanger on Fridays.
In keeping with the traditional daytime soaps of the time, Dark
Shadows was videotaped live on small sets in ABC's New York
studios, and over the course of its run, the series would embrace
storylines which involved all manner of supernatural events and
creatures as well as time travel, alternate worlds and the
reworking of the basic plots borrowed liberally from the great
classics of horror literature.
The show quickly developed an in-house repertory company of
seasoned actors who, despite the occasional fluffed line caused by
the pressure of too little rehearsal time, rose to the challenge
of playing multiple roles with a conviction and professionalism
that enhanced even the most unlikely of scenarios.
Such was the popularity of the show that in 1970 the first
motion picture spin-off, House of Dark Shadows, was
released, followed in 1971 by the inferior sequel, Night of
Dark Shadows. The series also spawned a vast array of
merchandise, which continues to this day, including novels, comic
books, video compilations and model kits.
The series was resurrected in 1975 and aired in syndication on
various local TV stations and PBS across the USA until 1990 when
the Sci-Fi Channel purchased exclusive rights to broadcast the
show, which afforded UK viewers their first exposure to what had
until then been an often mentioned, but unseen series.
1991 saw the show revived briefly for the NBC network (running
from 13 January to 22 March 1991) in an expensive, but ill fated
remake featuring an all new cast.
Imaginative, unique and ground-breaking in its daring and
successful use of horror motifs, Dark Shadows even to this
day commands an affection and respect from its fans which is
perhaps second only in terms of popularity to Star Trek.
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