My Dark Shadows
My DARK SHADOWS
by Bill Knell
As an 11 year old boy I would rush home from school to watch a Soap Opera, oops, Daytime Drama. Dark Shadows (1966-1971) was a neighborhood favorite among the girls I knew. When they first told me about it, I was sure they were putting me on or setting me up for a sarcastic joke as many New Yorkers do. They weren't. It was the real thing!
I was hooked by the first episode I saw. By then the show had been on for a while. Barnabas Collins, the Gothic Vampire, had already become the center figure around which the show was based. Barnabas was played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid (1924-2012). He was one scary guy to watch. I was sure the neighborhood girls watched to see who Barnabas would enjoy scaring, belittling or biting next. My reasons for watching were slightly different.
“There's something very satisfying about playing a character as mysterious and complex as Barnabas Collins.”
I loved the character of Barnabas Collins because, even in all the weird and convoluted plot twists, he provided the show with stability and introduced me to a more modern version of a vampire. Before that all I knew about vamps was what I learned from the original Dracula film and the B-movies that followed. At that time I hadn't read the original book by Bram Stoker.
I also liked some other things about the character; like when Barnabus verbally abused Willie Loomis. Barnabas would say things like, “Even an idiot can buy a can of white paint." Willie was wonderfully played by John Karlen (1933-2020). His character was an immoral young man with limited intelligence who worked for Roger Collins (played by Louis Edmonds, 1923-2001) as a handyman at the Collinwood estate in Collinsport, Maine.
I also liked watching the chess move-like behavior between Barnabas and Doctor Julia Hoffman (played by Grayson Hall, 1922-1985). She was all about herself pretending to try and help Barnabas become human again. All she really wanted was to use him for his unique vampire physiology.
The episodes were all video taped live with no retakes or editing. This was typical of daytime dramas which were budget restricted. I guess the soap companies wanted to play it cheap when it came to plugging their products. Anyway, I enjoyed watching the mistakes; especially the ones made by Frid and Hall. They regularly stumbled through their lines.
I'm sure that drove Joan Bennett crazy (1910-1990, who played Elizabeth Collins). She had to have been the most experienced thespian among the cast.
Everyone hated him, but I loved the ridiculous tirades delivered in an always accusatory manner by the Reverend Trask. Among my favorites was, "You have used your trickery to sow the seeds of deception and hatred among the members of the Collins family — a God-fearing people who would never willingly do the Devil's bidding!"
Trask hated witches and supernatural beings. He always claimed to be fighting against them when, in reality, he was a hypocrite whose end came when Judith Collins bricked him up behind a wall.
He was played to perfection by Jerry Lacy, an excellent character actor who appeared in TV shows and movies. The neighborhood girls sometimes came over to watch Dark Shadows at my house because their moms were watching something else. Everytime Trask appeared they would boo and hiss at the TV. In truth he scared the daylights out of them, even more than Barnabas.
Dan Curtis (1927-2006) created, produced and often directed the show, but he was just getting started. Curtis produced two spin-off motion pictures with the original TV show cast. House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). Then came a TV movie he directed which turned out to be such a ratings hit that he later said it should have been a theatrical release.
The Night Stalker (1972) scared everyone who watched, Including me.
The TV movie inspired "Kolchak: The Night Stalker", a popular TV series.
Then came Curtis’ production of the acclaimed mini-series The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988-1989) for which he won an emmy. He also directed Trilogy of Terror (1975) and Burnt Offerings (1976).
I have an excellent memory and thinking of Dark Shadows makes me wish it would be brought back. They tried in 1991, but the cast just couldn't bring it and choosing Ben Cross as Barnabas was as big a casting blunder as it gets. Tim Burton's 2012 film had Johnny Depp as Barnabas.
He did a great job, but the script was weak and too far removed from the original TV show plot. It did feature Jonathan Frid in a cameo. He died the same year as the film was released. By the way, I met my first real girlfriend, who was one of my neighbors, watching Dark Shadows.
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