The genre of supernatural TV has grown and expanded to new heights over the past 20 years. Buffy The Vampire Slayer has become a cult icon as has Angel and Supernatural and other shows such as Blade The Series, Witchblade & Lost Girl were not exactly as well received but they have been entertaining to watch. With all these shows about Vampires, Werewolves and even Succubus' it's important to remember the show that jump-started the genre; Dark Shadows.When viewing this show it is important to remember the times of TV back then. Things usually were so cheap that an actor back then couldn't redo his or her line unless the biggest stuff up imaginable happened. Lets say if they were delivering a monologue when walking down a set of stairs. The ONLY situation where the director would ask for a "take two" is if the actor tumbled down the stairs and broke their neck. Its because of this that you might hear "Its an old music boc-box". Also, even though the sets may look cheap by today's standards it was heavily expensive for a daytime soap of that time and you might see microphones in the corner of the frame or a shadow of one. The whole concept of this was not unheard of for TV back then, when Alfred Hitchcock entered TV with "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" Hollywood pretty much put him on the Oscar Blacklist - he would never win an Oscar because he made one little TV show. However it was because of this show - and a few others made around the time; best example I can think of is Star Trek - that TV is now on the same technical level as a normal movie.The above paragraph may seem pointless to some but I'm only 16 years old and consider the above paragraph "selling it to my peers" because with all those technical problems aside, this is a great show.The acting is as good as it can be. Surprisingly there are a few good performances from Jonathan Frid (how could any fan NOT say he was great?), Joan Bennett, Nancy Barrett, John Karlen (at times) and Alexandra Moltke. They are all good but the ones above have little to no stuff ups and the others I've seen either overact or fumble their lines more than the others.You'll see a couple of famous faces such as David Selby, Joan Bennett, Mitch Ryan and Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregard from Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory).The main part of the show to get you interested is the deep and complex character of Barnabus Collins. That character is the only reason that this show is even famous because he was a villain yet somehow relatable. If you watch the series of episodes where he tries to turn Maggie Evans into Josette Collins you'll want Maggie to escape Barnabus yes but you will also be worried that they'll discover his little secret of being a vampire and if you are properly engaged in the show you wont want that.Overall this show is at times corny. I admit that this show will make you laugh unintentionally at times but it will also be engaging enough to watch and if you like you can throw it on the back-burner because technical faults gone wrong aside, this is a great show.

Imagine a TV show so popular, so powerful, that it just wouldn't die. A somber, captivating epic of a series about a rich, family, living in Maine, by the sea, in a gigantic, old House. Originally, Dark Shadows revolved around Victoria Winters, who landed a job with the tormented Collins family as a governess. Victoria is taken in and treated like she was one of their own. Perhaps she was. We'll never know the answer to that question. Get used to it, because the more you watch this show, the more unanswered questions there are. Sometimes intentional, but often not. Yet, inept qualities such as that just add to the mystery. And did I mention how funny it is when someone screws up their lines?. this once black and white soap was once more of a Gothic-romantic thriller than anything. Soon, ratings would prove that poor Vickie and her problems just wasn't cutting it. Things needed to be spiced up a bit. Maybe a little Horror wouldn't hurt. The most successful storyline to date, concerned Laura Collins: Immortal phoenix. Dark Shadows was finally headed in the right direction. But now that Laura is dead, now what? Enter Barnabas Collins. Vampire with a conscience: Nobody at Collinwood really cares for Willie Loomis, but Willie is about to do that family a bigger service than they will ever know. It just doesn't start out that way. For nearly 200 years, a vampire lay, chained in his coffin, in the family mausoleum, because his father couldn't bare to stake him. Driven by greed and ignorance, Willie accidentally releases this long-dead family secret. Barnabas quickly makes Willie his slave, and heads to Collinwood to introduce himself as "a cousin from England". Chaos ensues, to say the least. We are eventually treated to a 1795 flashback of Barnaba's origin, proving he wasn't always vicious. Introducing Angelique, the witch with a broken heart that would nearly destroy the Collins' family. Barnabas' wife did this to him.Adam & Evil: Everyone knows that if you lend out your life-force in order to bring a corpse (Adam) to life, you'll die. But if you're a vampire, the curse is drained from you. The Frankenstein ripoff, Adam, who is nothing more than an over-grown infant, only knows one thing. He hates Barnabas. But that's another story. Angelique is back, and has put a new curse into motion in order to re-vamp Barnabas. Ultimately backfiring on her in the worst way. Her boss, Warlock, Nicholas Blair has other plans, involving Adam... and world-domination. Werewolf + Quentin's Ghost = 1897: Since Barnabas killed Angelique, things have been rather calm. Other than that werewolf that's been mauling people, Quentin Collins ghost has been wreaking havoc. Being the nice guy he is, Barnabas goes to 1897 to find out what all the fuss is about, and discover the origin of the werewolf/Quentin. Of course, Barnabas is made a vampire again. We got gypsy curses, Dorian Gray-ripoff solutions, the return of Laura Collins. And Angelique is back!The Other Side: Barnabas stumbles upon a parallel universe. He decides to pay an extended visit to the other side, mainly to make sure he's no longer a threat to those he cares about. I guess he doesn't care about the Parllel Collins'. And why should he? Who the hell are they, anyway? After being flung from parallel time, into future real time, Barnabas discovers Collinwood demolished. A new ghost now haunts these grounds. The ghost of Gerard Stiles.The Head: In what is known as the real finale of the show, 1840 is when Gerard Stiles lived. A friend of the original Quentin Collins. A decent guy who would become possessed by Judah Zachary. The man who will seek vengeance on the Collins family from beyond the grave. And ironically, the man who made Angelique a witch. So, Barnabas travels to 1840, with a mission; save Collinwood from destruction, without getting staked by current family. As long as Angelique doesn't complicate things, things should go smoothly. Not the longest. Truly the most epic of all the story lines, Culminating in a bittersweet reconciliation.Parallel Lottery Ripoff: It was actually pretty good, but it never should have ended here. No Barnabas, no Angelique, no Quentin. Almost like a spin off. All is at peace with the real Collinwood. Just one loose end. It may not have gone the way I wanted it to, or ended the way I wanted, but Dark Shadows went out gracefully. All is at peace at Collinwood... For now.And there you have it. The greatest story ever told. I love everything about this show, but my favorite character has always been Angelique. Played by the most beautiful woman in the world, Angelique was the driving force behind the show's popularity. A hopeless romantic driven to the point of unholy evil, with the occasional glimpse of compassion. Angelique's ability to make Barnabas, the villain, into a swell guy, would catapult this show into territory where no Soap Opera was ever meant to go. Anglique is the absolute worst case scenario of a woman scorned. tormenting her one true love with the vampire curse, for centuries at a time. Not letting him die (or live) because she knows deep in her soul that living without him would be worse than the flames of Hell. The Barnabas-Angelique love-hate relationship would just be one of many reasons this show flourished in the way that it did. Since the show ended in 1971, there has been 2 movies starring the original cast, a revival mini-series from the 90's, and next year, we finally get that big remake, starting it all over again. And recently, it has been brought to my attention that the original DS lives again on CD. You heard me. New episodes! The future looks bright (or dark) for a show that will clearly live forever. Only because we the fans will keep it alive. 10/10

Like many others here, I was originally introduced to Dark Shadows during its airing in the late '60's thru very early '70's. Unlike many D.S. fans, I was so much of an outdoor person that Dark Shadows mania never fully overtook me at that time. Given a choice, I came home from school and went fossil hunting, swimming, golfing, etc., rather than stay indoors and watch TV.That aside, I grew up loving horror classics at the movies, so Dark Shadows interested me considerably during the cold Midwestern months when I wasn't sledding or playing ice hockey.Fast forward to 2008.My wife and I got to discussing Dark Shadows, and that led to us ordering the series thru Netflix, starting with the first episode.Simply put, I am "A Serious Dark Shadows Fan via the Backdoor" in that my passion for the show has come from watching it over the past year. That I am a fan of the show is no surprise. Dark Shadows was that rare occurrence where acting, cast, direction, camera work, plots, lighting, etc., were far ahead of their time. And it scratched my horror itch.Horror is but one of many human emotions, however, and Dark Shadows tapped into all of the ones that appeal so well.I grew up in a photographic studio family, and want to mention one item seldom mentioned about the show that played heavily upon the subconscious of viewers favorably: lighting. The lighting on Dark Shadows sets were magnificent for the time period in which they were made. They are still outstanding even today. Hats off to the people who made that happen! In studio photography, we struggle to capture that one moment, using lighting to best advantage. But in film-making where angles and whatnot change constantly, lighting becomes far more difficult.Dan Curtis and his crew flat-out knew their stuff. I am awed by the lighting (almost) as much as all the great performances and plots.

"DARK SHADOWS"-Produced by Dan Curtis Productions for ABC Television. The series ran for five seasons on ABC-TV from its premiere episode on June 27,1966 and ended its sensational run on April 2, 1971. A record of 1,225 episodes were produced. Season one episodes of the series were shown and telecast in black and white from June 27,1966 through March 31,1967. Seasons Two through Five were telecast in color and ran from April 2,1967 until April 2,1971. Executive Producer: Dan Curtis.**Even viewers who claim to despise soap operas will find a soft spot in their hearts for "Dark Shadows",which was television's first,unequaled great "gothic" soap opera and one of the most unusual shows ever to grace daytime television. In part,this soap had the others beat because if a character did die,there was no need to concoct a lengthy explanation to justify his or her return-he or she came back as a ghoul,zombie,vampire,or whatever creature the writers wanted. The series took full advantage of its supernatural milieu during its five year run,having werewolves,a monstrous couple,supernatural that came outta nowhere,and characters traveling back in time or "parallel time" at various periods. Along the way,it spawned a hit song(the 1968 light notable instrumental recording of "Quentin's Theme" by the Charles Randolph Greane Sound was a top ten hit cracking the Billboard's Top 20 singles chart,the first for a song ever from a soap opera),a successful line of books and comic books,two theatrical features based on the show("House Of Dark Shadows" in 1970,and "Night Of Dark Shadows", in 1971 by released theatricallly through Dan Curtis' production company and MGM),and a huge cult following which was still holding conventions with original members of the cast some 40 years after the show began. And during its successful five-year run on ABC,the show was a huge hit on television with the college circuit and older teenagers(which tuned in every weekday afternoon to watch). How many soap operas that are on daytime television can claim such distinctions? Only Dark Shadows. And it pulled it off brilliantly. Also noted,the show also became the first daytime serial to be revived for prime-time(nighttime)when NBC tried a belated recreation with the same title from January 13 through March 22,1991.Despite later claims to the contrary,ABC and Dan Curtis knew upfront that the show was going to be about ghost and goblins and other things that dealt with the supernatural from the start,and promoted it that way among the trade press. The eerie mood certainly was set in the premiere episode. The series itself gave viewers one of the fascinating and monstrous characters ever to grace daytime TV....Barnabas Collins-Vampire!-played to the hilt by Jonathan Frid. During some of the episodes as in some sequences,the actors on "Dark Shadows" usually played the ancestors of there characters,their ghosts,or whatever the plot required of them with terrifying results. However Dark Shadows was videotaped while many others were live and this was in part due to an array of special effects added in with some of the scenes to give it that eerie and spooky look for the show. Other actors that starred in the series were just starting out and went on to bigger and better things because of this show....actors like Dana Elcar,Louis Edmonds(later on for All My Children),John Karlen,and not to mention Kate Jackson(who also starred in one of the theatrical sequels to Dark Shadows and also went on elsewhere as one of the actresses of the Aaron Spelling variety of shows that emerge in the 1970's with shows like "The Rookies",and "Charlie's Angels" and etc.)The mystique of Dark Shadows that attracted so many dedicated viewers remained powerful right up to the end,even though the show's younger viewers were showing a preference for repeated episodes of "Gomer Pyle","Family Affair",or "The Beverly Hillbillies" on CBS or whatever was basically on NBC,which led to the soap's replacement by a revival of the game show "Password" not to mention repeated episodes of "Bewitched" during the 1971-1972 season for ABC Daytime which killed it. After its cancellation in 1971,repeated episodes aired of Dark Shadows aired sporadically in syndicated reruns during the 1970's and 1980's,the first network soap opera to air in that format. On September 25,1992 cable's the Sci-Fi Channel purchased the series and also begin airing episodes and to this day,repeated episodes of Dark Shadows are still running on the network.