Contemporary television is often lauded for complicated storylines and numerous characters. We call good television with several chapters, which make up various arcs “dramas” but in many ways, popular television from Downton Abbey, to Mad Men, to Battlestar Galactica, to Fringe, to The Wire, to Doctor Who all have more in common with soap operas than many would care to admit.
The connotations of “soap opera” are almost always negative, which isn’t really fair, because in some ways, soap operas represent a naked honesty in TV storytelling; i.e. it’s just trying to get you to watch the next episode. The original Dark Shadows was a soap opera, and it was great at being a soap opera. But the show also subverted the notion of soaps, television, and vampires forever. It is also the first soap opera to feature straight-up time travel and a parallel universe!
Dark Shadows aired weekdays on ABC from 1966-1971. By weekdays, that means, Monday thru Friday; 5 episodes a week. So, like other soap operas there are A LOT of episodes of Dark Shadows, in fact, the number of episodes totals 1,225, which is more than Doctor Who, and the entirety of televised Star Trek. Who might hold the record for longest-running science fiction/fantasy TV series since it’s been around since 1963, but Dark Shadows has more stories.
Does that mean the quality of the stories is all that good? Well, by and large, it’s a crapshoot. If you were to pick an episode at random on Netflix of Dark Shadows, and you knew nothing about it, you might be disappointed. Prior to the introduction of Jonathan Frid’s Barnabas Collins, it might hard for a contemporary TV watcher to understand exactly what the hell is going on. Why do all these people live in this gothic house? Why are they bickering all the time? Just what is this all about?
Primarily, Dark Shadows concerns the machinations of the Collins family, of which Barnabas Collins, a vampire, is a distant ancestor. They all live at a gothic estate called Collinswood, which is located in the town of Collinsport, a fishing village located in Maine. (Collinsport is not a real place, though it may have been inspired by another town in Maine called Bucksport, which had a rumored history of witchcraft and other things that go bump in the night.) The first episode sees New York City gal Victoria Winters heading by train on a dark and stormy night to Collinsport, for a governess job at Collinwood. Right away, spooky things are going on, an entire wing of the estate is closed, and people are arguing constantly. BUT, no ghosts, ghouls or vampires for a while.
Pinpointing the actual, original intent of creator Dan Curtis seems, well, shadowy. The show’s initial story bible made no mention of supernatural elements, despite the fact the show become known almost exclusively for Frid’s vampire Barnabas. Initially not meant to be a reoccurring character, Barnabas Collins was introduced in episode 211. That’s right, 211 episodes into the show, the person we consider to be the main character finally arrived. The previous episode, 210, foreshadows what is about to happen by having Willie Loomis very interested in the portrait of the long-dead Barnabas, hanging up in Collinwood. Willie is a con artist hanging around Collinsport initially to attempt to blackmail Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matriarch of the family. Willie eventually digs up the coffin containing Barnabas at the end of episode 210, and starting with episode 211, the show would never be the same. (Incidentally, James Hall played Willie through episode 205, but then by John Karlen from episode 206 all the way through episode 1106. Weird, when one considers how pivotal the character was!)
After Barnabas Collins, a good deal of the storylines deal with him and his friendship with Victoria Winters, who in some ways is the other main character of Dark Shadows. When the show began being filmed in color, instead of black and white, a totally awesome plotline was introduced which depicted Victoria traveling back in time to 1795 as the result of séance. After this occurs, much of the continuity of Collins family history appears to be contradicted, though some fans speculate this is actually an alternate timeline. The paradox: why didn’t Barnabas recognize Victoria when he first showed up in episode 211? Maybe it’s an alternate universe, or maybe it’s just television. Either way, Victoria was eventually jailed for witchcraft despite 1795 Barnabas attempting to cover for her! There’s a lot of back and forth in these stories, though poor Victoria eventually is forced to jump to her death off the cliffs of Widow’s Hill while living in the past. By this time though, Victoria Winters had been played by three actresses: Alexandra Moltke, Besty Durkin, and Carolyn Groves.
There are various other time-travel stories, including one in which Barnabas Collins travels back in time to the period in which he is chained in his coffin. During the 19th century, in his original timeline, Banabus was locked up and buried in the ground. When he first emerges, he tells the Collins family he is a long-lost relative of the dead Barnabas Collins, making the secret of his vampirism a long-running plot point throughout the series. Though Dark Shadows was canceled before it could conclude all of it’s storylines, one of the writers, Sam Hall, revealed in a TV Guide interview that the finale would have included a storyline in which Barnabas permanently ceases to be a vampire.
The aesthetic of the original show is slow, bumpy, creaky, and over-the-top. Personally, and though this sounds like blasphemy, I find the color episodes much more entertaining than their black and white predecessors. The time-travel episodes involving Vicki and Barnabas are without a doubt the best, and though all the actors who play Vicki are fine, Alexandra Moltke is my favorite. But the other reason to watch the original Dark Shadows is Jonathan Frid.
He is charismatic, exciting, dangerous, dashing, and most importantly: weird. I find shades of Barnabas in characters like Buffy’s Angel, or Doctor Who/Torchwood’s Captain Jack, but both of those guys are way “hunkier” than Barnabas. Hell, even the Highlander mythos borrows from some of the panache of Barnabas. I watched this show as kid in reruns with my mom, and have very spotty memories of those viewings. At that time, I had no idea what was going on. When you re-watch the episodes now, you still probably won’t have a clear idea as to what is happening. But, the atmosphere and in-your-face cheese of the show is what makes it so classic. And again, the coolness of Frid.
There were two Dark Shadows movies prior to the new remake; House of Dark Shadows (1971), and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). Neither film is set directly in the continuity of the TV show, and only the former features Frid as Barnabas. Twenty years later, in 1991, a new version of Dark Shadows aired on primtime TV, but was canceled after only 12 episodes.
The new Tim Burton film includes several of the classic characters. Eva Green is playing Angelique Bouchard, who was a love interest/enemy of Barnabas in the classic series. Michelle Pfeiffer is playing Elizabeth Collins Stoddard; the head of the house and Bella Heathcote is playing Victoria Winters. Heathcote is also listed as playing “Josette” which makes sense, because in the old show Josette was used as Victoria’s medium in the séances, which resulted in those time travel shenanigans.
It remains to be seen which plot lines the film will use from the old TV show, but based on the previews, my guess is it will be a version of the plotline involving Angelique the Witch attempting to generally screw with Barnabas.
Though he recently passed way, Jonathan Frid is set to have a brief cameo in the film. I can’t wait. In the meantime, if you have 612 hours to kill, Dark Shadows is the most melodramatic fun you can possibly have. Though in all reality, you can probably just start with episode 210, meaning you’ve only got 507 hours to get though before the new film comes out this Friday.
Ryan Britt is the staff writer of Tor.com. After rewatching a bunch of Dark Shadows, he’s not sure if maybe he doesn’t actually reside in 1795 and his life here in Collinsport, Maine New York City is all a dream.
And don’t forget the brilliant (and ongoing) Dark Shadows dramas and audiobooks from Big Finish (http://bigfinish.com/hubs/v/dark-shadows) which featured Frid’s last performance as Barnabus (http://bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-night-whispers-147)
The Biblical name is “Barnabas”, not your faux-Latin “Barnabus”. Wikipedia says that the original series spelled it correctly.
I’ve always found it interesting that “Soap Opera” has such negative connotations. I’ve always seen TV shows as falling on a continuium with “Sitcom” at one end (where all of your problems will be resolved in 30 minutes, minus time for commercials) and “Soap Opera” at the other (where nothing is ever really resolved). Obviously, both ends have their issues, but of the two, I’ve always prefered those that lean towards the Soap end: large complicated storylines that go on for multiple seasons. I think I would have enjoyed the original Dark Shadows had I been alive to watch it.
In Spanish speaking cultures we call these long,but limited run, multi-character, multi-storied arc programs telenovelas. They’ve been doing them for decades.
One of my favorites, El Rey del Ganado (The Cattle King), is, of course, from Brasil, queen of the telenovela. Brasil’s productions, dubbed or not, are imported throughout the Spanish speaking globe.
I was introduced to them first on Cuban television, particularly El Rey del Ganado. Every evening at 7 PM all of the country went quiet and gathered around the television sets to watch. As well as being a terrific story with wonderful, wild characters and great locations, this was a demonstration in political management, how a regime can still employ even very limited television resources to keep a people’s sense of national shared experience alive.
Love, C.
If we watched Dark Shadows, I don’t remember them at all, so your review was good info. to know before seeing the movie. Once again your article is smooth and witty. Just like me. Good job!
@2 Good call Dave! Fixed.
David Selby was also good as Barnabas’ cousin Quentin Collins, the Werewolf.
I really enjoyed your article, Ryan! Not really wanting to admit my age, but I used to watch Dark Shadows from 1969 – 1971 and loved it!!! My girlfriend and I would rush to my home after school (she wasn’t allowed to watch it at her house!) to get the old b&w TV fired up & get our Barnabas thrills! Oh yes…and Quentin Collins, the werewolf, as SkylarkThibedeau (msg.#7) mentioned, too. How cool!
That was the most unique and progressive soap opera, not to mention TV show, on the tube! In retrospect, I’m surprised it was allowed during the late 60’s – early 70’s & during the day & that it lasted so many episodes. Bet the advertisers were chomping at the bit to get spots on that soap!
Thanks for the cool article, Ryan, and I look forward to seeing Burton’s version (and Depp as Barnabas!) Ought to be fun from clips I’ve seen.
I remember watching it every weekday afternoon as a child, and it was fabulous! Hey! It was the 60’s! What did a kid know from cheese? To me it was good spooky fun! :)
Zorra makes an interesting and largely unknown point – Dark Shadows WAS dubbed into Spanish and was at least as popular there as it was here, if not more so. The gothic drama was perfectly matched with the type of television dramas Spanish TV was already doing. Also the language, Jonathan Frid told me some years ago, gave it much more character. “Barnabas” in English is one thing, but “Barr-Na-BAS” in Spanish sounds so much richer. He did some promotional tours in South America and was feted like a rock star!
I remember watching some of these episodes- it must have been reruns, but maybe not- but had no idea what was going on. But the movie looks entertaining.
I enjoyed watching novelas with my Mexican-American ex, but not for the reasons she did (she dismissed Sofia Vergara as “monkey faced”). She was only willin gto provide me with the gist of what was going on because she would give the TV her complete attention. I later got the DVD release of one just to see how 40 weeks were compressed into 3.
The soap opera Dark Shadows appeals more to me than the movie. But it can’t be denied that Johnny Depp did a good job of embracing his character as Barnabas. :)
What about Laura Collins. People are so fixated on Barnabas Collins that they forget without the success of Laura the Phoenix storyline that Dan Curtis probably would not have considered adding any more supernatural characters or plots. Only because of the considerable boost in ratings due to Laura Collins threatening Collinwood with her ghostly, destructive, supernatural powers did Dan Curtis dare venture into the vampire plot.
The original series was terrific to watch. It was over the top and fun and let’s not forget, there were several other great actors on the show. Nancy Barrett, Lara Parker (who I had a crush on), David Selby, and Thayer David (very underrated character actor) were terrific. The storylines were fun and the show ended a little too soon for my liking. The ratings were still good and many people protested when ABC cancelled it.
Alexandra Moltke was a HORRIBLE actor–easily the worst actor on the show. Wooden, unable to emote, capable of only one facial expression, and constantly shaking her head as though that somehow constitutes acting. She was horrid, and I was so glad when she finally left the show.
I just ran across this series on Amazon prime and I am binge watching the h-e-hockey sticks out of it. I’m not sure my kids necessarily appreciate my starting our conversations with “My name is Victoria Winters. The wind blows cold through the house as this small child makes his needs known, but little does he know there is already food in the kitchen.”
Campy, but fun to watch. It’s slow and over the top, but well worth the binge watching. A show that requires your undivided attention.
When I was in grade school many of the 28 kids in my class that didn’t ride the bus would run home to watch Dark Shadows. I could get home in time to catch 15 minutes or so before doing my homework. Growing up in 60’s was awesome.
Great article. However As far as I recall, Vicky never jumped to her death. That was Josette.
Like Steve above from April, I too raced home to watch this Amazing soap! I recently found all 1,225 eps on Amazonn Prime and watch it. Looking at it now and how “cheesy” the whole thing is, for me, it was the best for me as a child back then. We need to remember how simple and get excited about it then. If we reminisce, it’s not “cheesy” at all…
Saying DARK SHADOWS has more stories than DOCTOR WHO is absolutely ridiculous. WHO has far, far more stories, by a factor of a hundred. What a truly bizarre claim.
L Cable: I don’t know much of anything about Dr. Who, but a quick Google search puts the total number of episodes of Dr. Who at 143 vs.1225 for Dark Shadows. 143 vs. 1225. Maybe you got the numbers reversed?