Dark Shadows

in 6th grade we got to watch it the last hour of class in 1969! I bet your analysis is correct OP. I liked your decription as "atmospheric" !

It still never fails to disappoint me. I love every second of it.

Serious replies R1.

I used to rush home to watch it as a kid. I saw it again when I was in my 20s and I was embarrassed. The production values, the scripts, the acting were terrible. I have not watched the movie again. I wonder if it holds up better. (I mean the original movie from 1970.)

I watched it from first episode to last back in the day (yes, I'm old). The whole series was available on Amazon Prime for awhile recently, and I started rewatching it from the first episode. I still enjoyed it a lot. The introduction of Barnabas Collins in the second year took the focus off sincere, earnest young governess Victoria Winters, who was searching for her roots from Episode 1, and put it on an unrepentant, cruel vampire played by an actor who looked 15 years older than he was IRL and who regularly blew his lines. I really liked Vicky, and hated Barnabas, but I kept watching until Amazon pulled the series, after I had gotten to the post-Vicky era of the show, and the introduction of Quentin Collins.

Anyway the show is campy in a way, but that over-the-topness is really what makes the show so much fun to watch. There is some really entertaining acting (prissy Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins is priceless, and Joan Bennett as his dignified sister Elizabeth Stoddard is very appealing in her role, plus there are various attractive male actors and some pretty good kid actors). Grayson Hall as Dr. Julia Hoffman chews the scenery with a relish that needs to be seen to be believed. My favorite character will always be Alexandra Moltke's Vicky, though. To me the weak spot was always Jonathan Frid's Barnabas.

Anyway, if Amazon ever restores DS to the lineup, I'll go back to watching it again.

It's also fun to see the '60's fashions and hair.

OP It seemed campy then. It was a gothic soap.

Like R4, I too rushed home from elementary school to watch it, but soon realized that the only part worth catching was opening title and end credits. I loved the theme music, but the content of the episodes bored me right out of the room.

R5, if you're still around, the Roku has a free channel called Tubi that has the entire series, and it's free to watch. It does have commercials but not a lot of them and they don't cut into scenes. The show also is much less confusingly organized than it is on Amazon Prime.

The entire set of shows can be found on the internet, if you know where to look. I saw the shows when they were first on tv, at least after the vampire showed up, and I think it's mighty interesting to this day. I think lots of the best bits are on youtube. Look up the shows with Reverend Trask, e.g. It was a soap opera and so there were long stretches of the day-to-day run where nothing much happened, and even as kids we could tell they were just dragging things out...Here's a nice clip where the busybody housekeeper, Cousin Abigail, in a sequence set back in the 19th Century, catches Barnabas emerging from his coffin at sundown. He has to kill her, of course, but the great touch is that she actually dies of fright while he has his hand around her throat instead of him strangling her or draining her blood. I think that's brilliant.

I am watching it now on Prime.

It's my evening pandemic watching. I watch two episodes per night. It holds up well, if you enjoy camp, actors taking it seriously, early special effects, and watching the performers desperately trying to remember their lines or find the teleprompter. Kate Jackson and some others had their start there. The first 250 episodes go extremely slowly, so you are advised to start when Barnabas arrives and the show transforms from a gothic soap into a monster mash.

I may try that, R11. I struggled and lost interest during season 1.

Irresistible. Dr. Julia Hoffman, one of the great woman scientists of all time. "Let Me In!!, Let Me In!, Let me OUT!!"

^ Grayson Hall is truly a wonder.

I know we know why Grayson died from lung cancer.

If you watch, you might want to follow along with Danny Horn's episode-by-episode analysis. He's hilarious. He started in some years ago and he's still going strong. Google Dark Shadows Every Day. I've had a lot of laughs reading his entries.

It's my comfort viewing. Reminds me of riding my bike as fast as I could home from school to make the 4 o'clock broadcast. I had a crush on the kid who played David. Frid scared me but Quentin made me feel tingles. Of course I was only 10 yo. Watching it now I realize Grayson Hall was the whole fucking show. She chewed everything but the fiberglass tombstones. Hard to believe she had a Oscar nom.

I was one of those kids who rushed home from elementary school to watch Dark Shadows in its original run. This past summer I watch the first 400 episodes over again on Amazon Prime. I loved the early episodes, when the show was struggling to find a voice and tone. Things started to come together with the arrival of Laura Collins.

God, Joel Crothers was hot!

This one, Don Briscoe. He had some kind of "nervous breakdown" while appearing on the show, in various roles. He retired, and moved back to Mississippi and never acted again; died at just 62. A mystery. Pretty sure he was gay, don't know what caused his burnout, really. Ignore the sappy Cat Stevens track on the clip:

I always heard he was gay-bashed, and was never the same again, R19.

R17, Grayson was wonderful, but I think Lara Parker was equally a draw for me. She stood out from all the other women in the cast. Those eyes!

I had a huge crush on Joel Crothers

It was always campy - it is a daytime soap about vampires and witches....but god love em for takning chances. I remember seeing the re-runs on scifi - where Barnabus just walks through a mirror and everyone is completely different - same actors playing different roles.

I tried to watch the episodes a few years ago, but found it agonizing how slow the story lines moved along. I could miss a week of episodes and still be caught up.

I watched this show on MeTV. At first I liked the old fashioned sets and hair, etc. But the story never progresses. Each episode was always Barnabas plotting a power grab, but neither side winning or searching for some answer that never materialized. The characters purposely lead themselves into trouble and then whine about it. Like one whole episode of a character sitting in a chair whimpering about how Barnabas would do this or that. Very tedious. I think it could have been much better. It had atmosphere. It’s ok to have on in the background if you’re doing something else.

I watched a few episodes when the revival came out in the early 90's - i was interested in the source material. it was slow, but i was much younger back then with a completely different personality. it wasn't my thing. however, i'd be willing to re-watch now that i'm "older."

Fun fact - i'm named after one of the characters since my mother was apparently very into the series around the time of my birth.

The show was at it's peak when it went back into the past the first two times . Victoria Winters going back to see how Barnabas became a vampire was my all-time favorite storyline, but the Quentin-becomes-a-werewolf s/l was great too. The Adam and Eve plot was fun, but then they started running out of ideas. The Leviathan storyline saw the first ratings decline, but it was the parallel world plot that really killed it,

I liked all of Dark Shadows, but I do think the 1897 storyline went on a skosh too long. But I get it, I think the show saw it's highest ratings during that story. I liked the Leviathan story, when it featured super queeny Chris Bernau, poor thing just couldn't hide the gay.

Remember the Dream Curse. I would laugh every time one of the characters would say how terrifying that dream was.

The Dream Curse was like going to an elementary school haunted house that got one extra feature each new time.

I loved it.

That god damn nut Alan Sarapa recommends it so i avoid it. I do the exact opposite of what that asshole recomnends.

I watched the reruns when I was a kid, can't quite remember; but when I first started streaming I found it and thought I'd watch an episode for shits and giggles and assumed it wouldn't stand the test of time. Well, I was wrong. After a few minutes I was hooked again. So much so I even bought the DVDs in a coffin box set . Back then, they weren't streaming the whole series yet and I think it worked out to $1.50 a DVD, so that was a real bargain IMO.

Also, I don't know if I imagined it or what, but I thought one of the color episodes started with a closeup of Dr. Hoffman's gloved hand using a pencil to dial a telephone. And let's not forget that the actress who played Victoria Winters was also Claus von Bulow's mistress and testified at his trial.

^There are a lot of filmed interviews with the actors from DS on youtube, and most of them are really interesting. The ones with A. Moltke (V. Winters) stand out, along with one with Joan Bennett, and ones with Lara Parker. I think most of them were done for the Museum of Television.

I love this show. People often complain about it being "too slow" and I've never understood that. It seemed like there was always something going on to me. I was just annoyed by the inconsistencies in the plot and how they'd "retcon" things like crazy. But I suppose they must've figured no one would ever see the episodes again anyway so it didn't matter. How wrong they were.

I love this live stream cast reunion that took place over Zoom on Halloween 2020. David Henesy makes his first ever Dark Shadows related appearance and they all share some interesting stories. I don't think I care much for Roger Davis, though. He seems kind of full himself and acts bored out of his mind when anyone else is speaking. It seemed to me like he wanted to take it over and make it all about himself.

[quote]Anyway, if Amazon ever restores DS to the lineup, I'll go back to watching it again.'

I found it on YouTube as "Dark Shadows: Original Series from 1966 to 1971"

If you find it too slow, I can prescribe you a sedative.

^Just smoke a pack of Marlboros.

The series is still on Amazon Prime.

If this hasn't already been stated there is a Dark Shadows channel (DS 24/7) on Pluto TV.

I started watching it again several months ago. It was a favorite as a youth. Couldn't wait to get home from school to watch it every day. I remembered all the mistakes the actors made as well as prop failures from back when I was a kid. I watched about 6 or 7 episodes and became bored with it.

R38 Yes, and my understanding is that if you want to watch the early episodes before Barnabas came along, you have to specifically type in "Dark Shadows: The Beginning." Otherwise it will start at episode 210 (Barnabas's first appearance). Since the DVDs were released that way with Barnabas's first episode being called Collection 1 and the early episodes being released much later, they put them up the same way online. So if you want to watch from the beginning you have to type in "the beginning."

It's on Prime with commercials. I never really got into it in elementary school, which was where I was when it came out. But may give it a look.

Julia Hoffman had a smelly snatch!

R42 = Magda Rakosi

I also love the late 60s/early 70s clothes the women wore, especially when they went to color. I remember bright lime green was a popular color. And, gawd, some of the dresses the younger women in the show wore were quite short -- had they bent over, it would have been a wardrobe malfunction for sure.

Back in the 90's I went with pal to a Dark Shadows convention. Like all fan events it was culty and as I was not in the cult quite hilarious. An ancient looking Louis Edmonds got up to answer questions he was obviously flaming . He was very frail and not wearing any pants just pink boxers and dress shoes. I asked my pal if he had a medical condition or was senile and had just forgotten his pants or pissed them. No one seemed to mind. A lesbian lady dresses as Quentin ( complete with glued on astro turff sideburns) Scolded my ignorance by telling me Louis had once been called back for some pick up dialog dressed only from the waist up. Apparently the show was shot live on tape. Another mystery of Collinwood solved.

My name is Victoria Winters. My journey is beginning. A journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me and link my past with my future. A journey that will bring me to a strange and dark place, to the edge of the sea, high atop Widows' Hill. A house called Collinwood, a world I've never known, with people I've never met. People who tonight are still only shadows in my mind, but who will soon fill the days and nights of my tomorrows.

I have the DVDs of the 30th and 35th reunions, where fans got to ask questions of the cast. I was amazed at how good Kathryn Leigh Scott (Maggie/Josette) and Lara Parker (Angelique/Casandra) looked. It's like they found the fountain of youth. Time was not so kind to some of the others. Everybody was laughing about how often Jonathan Frid would forget his lines.

It's funny how Louis Edmonds was so flaming in real life, but always played the most straight-laced conservative characters. Apparently, everybody hated Roger Davis.

I'm doing a tour of classic soaps on Youtube (everything from Santa Barbara to Guiding Light to Knots Landing to The Colbys) but haven't got around to watching Dark Shadows yet. I am, however, watching a Canadian show called Strange Paradise that aired around the same time. Campy, with supernatural elements.

In retrospect it seems the theme of Dark Shadows was not the struggles of a tortured Barnabas to escape his vampire curse but rather the futile quest of a stunning blond named Angelique to get laid by any of the( obvious to everyone but her )gay men of the Collins family.

I really wish they wouldn't have dropped Victoria's story, because it was somewhat compelling. Just who in the hell was she. Later incarnations of the show fixed it by just making Victoria the reincarnation of Josette, but I would like to see where the original show was planning to go with that story.

R50, I agree. I thought Victoria was a more interesting character than Barnabas and I liked her relationship with Elizabeth.

I don’t think Jonathan Frid managed to get through a single episode without flubbing a line. I thought Barnabas was a creepy old man when I was young and I still do.

Victoria was nice but she was what my mother would describe as "book smart but not street smart." She was always getting herself into bad situations because she was always making dumb decisions.

I've been watching this, for the first time, over the summer. Having started with 'The Beginning' on Tubi, I've worked my way from Victoria's arrival to just a few episodes before Barnabas.

Willie Loomis makes my skin crawl. Dwight Frye vibes on that one.

I'm glad that I watched the first 200 or so episodes, it was worth it for the atmosphere and actually getting to know the characters some. I'll miss the black-and-white when it switches to color later in 1967.

Lara Parker's DS-themed books are also fun.

I first heard of Dark Shadows on DL. I watched the movie for the first time a couple of years ago and enjoyed it. Loved seeing a very young Kate Jackson.

I always had a crush on Jonathan Frid. I had a crush on Donna Wandrey, who played Roxanne. She said in an interview that when she showed up to audition for a role on DS all the other girls who showed up to audition had long hair. She didn't. When asked during the audition why she thought she'd be right for the part of Roxanne she said "because I have short hair." She got the part.

In the first year of the pandemic, I watched the whole series straight through. It was a hoot. The wild plots, Grayson Hall, the very many gay actors, the flubs, the microphones hanging over their heads ("Mike Shadows"). Along the way, I followed a great website called Dark Shadows Every Day by a creative genius named Danny Horn. I recommend it strongly to anyone who finds Dark Shadows fun.

Some of these happen so quickly it's hard to notice.

Love the DS bloopers. They remind me of my high school theater days when sets would collapse, muslin walls would wiggle, and doors refused to open!

I'm a Canadian and I faithfully watched and loved Dark Shadows from beginning to end when it was originally broadcast. The 'Crown' Jewels' of the show is when Victoria Winters is whisked back to the year 1795 by way of a seance and we find out how Barnabas Collins became a vampire. Really good stuff! Still watch and enjoy the reruns and and the series still holds up quite well.

Circa 1991, I was visiting a friend in Manhattan and he asked if I'd like to have dinner and watch a small independent film he'd been in over at one of the other actor's apartments. I agreed and we biked over to the Village. Went upstairs and was greeted at the door by an extremely tall man who introduced himself as John. Went into the small living room and sat down on the couch and started talking to the other people who'd gathered to watch the film with us.

At one point, my friend mentioned seeing our hosts photograph on a display at Blockbuster, at which point I inquired for what. "Dark Shadows" came the reply. Looking around the room didn't notice anything to give a clue as to who our host was until I got to the wall the couch was up against. There in a lucite case was a cane and ring. Next to them was the portrait of Barnabas Collins. I mmediately told my friend that my brother was a huge DS fan and would plotz at where we were, As well as the fact that he dressed up as the character for several Halloweens. Something my friend made a point of telling Jonathan and embarassing me slightly when Frid came back into the room,.

I don't remember much about the film or the light meal he'd prepared , but I do remember the thirty minute or so conversation about everything but DS, with him asking if I could see about getting his one man show into the town I lived as I knew someone who worked at the Performing Arts Center. It never occured to me to ask for an autograph for my brother.

When we returned to the street where our bikes had been chained to a lamppost, my friends had been stolen, while mine was still there. Karma for embarassing me I suppose.

I absolutely love it…….got the entire series on dvd…..about $500 on eBay or Amazon ……love it love it love it……..

Grid has a masters in directing from an Ivy League university

^^^Frid

A reunion of the remaining cast, now cryptkeepers, from Halloween last year.

That dumbass Vee from SON is a Dark Shadows expert, or so the annoying prick thinks. Vee is in the biz, you know.

Jonathan Frid was a compelling vampire, but David Selby was sex on a stick.

David Selby was the best actor.

Is Willie Loomis supposed to be young? He looks 40.

Queen David just mentioned Barnabas and gave Loomis the idea to break into the crypt.

R69 John Karlen who played Willie Loomis was in his mid 30's when he started on the show.

Like R5, I was watching (and enjoying) the series on Prime. I'm not paying for it now it's been pulled, though. I pay enough for streaming as it is!

Thanks, R70.

R71, I'm still able to watch it through Tubi for free. Are you at a later point in the series?

R71, when I watched it straight through in 2020, they made you pay for a few episodes -- I didn't. I think there were maybe five at the time that you had to pay for. It seemed random to me. Skip over the one you're up to, and see if the next one is free.

Thanks, R72 and R73. I'd only just met Barnabas when it was pulled. Even the entire first series now needs to be paid for. I'm in the U.K., though, so it might be different here.

Sorry to hear that, R74. The fun begins when Barnabas arrives. I slogged through the pre-Barnabas episodes and, had there not been a pandemic, I don't think I every would have gotten through them. They had a certain appealing style, but the plot moved so slowly. My first introduction to Dark Shadows was when I was 10 years old and a friend told me about a TV series with a ghost, Josette, who saves our heroine Victoria Winters and leaves a smell of jasmine. We watched for Josette sightings. Our dreams were fulfilled when Victoria Winters travelled back to 1795 and we learned the full story of Josette and her tragic love for Barnabas.

It’s 1225 hour long episodes. Isn’t life too short to watch that much Dark Shadows.

Actually, the episodes are 22.5 minutes each, not an hour. And it all moves much faster once you have Julia Hoffman and Angelique in the story.

Oh, the malevolence at my house in early July, when Dallas episodes briefly went back to costing money on IMDB TV. I tried to bring up some episode that involved a still photo of Ray Krebbs and it wanted $1.99, prompting me to snap that I wouldn't give a quarter for that old cowboy Ray Krebbs. They've fixed it.

[quote] I really wish they wouldn't have dropped Victoria's story, because it was somewhat compelling. Just who in the hell was she. Later incarnations of the show fixed it by just making Victoria the reincarnation of Josette, but I would like to see where the original show was planning to go with that story.

I had assumed she was the illegitimate daughter of Elizabeth Stoddard (I think that was the ultimate plan, and they certainly dropped more than enough hints along the way). Not sure who the dad was supposed to be however. I agree that her mystery was compelling as was the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Paul Stoddard (it was obvious Elizabeth killed him, but not why). I did enjoy its Gothic vibe that as like Wuthering Heights meets Turning of the Screw meets Bleak House. It sure was different for its time.

[quote] John Karlen who played Willie Loomis was in his mid 30's when he started on the show.

Karlen was cute back then, but I thought the first Willie (although slimier) was sex on a stick.

Not the best pic, but you get the idea. It's really hard to find pics of actor James Hall from that era, but he didn't age bad either.

Hall was originally from Mississippi so Loomis spoke with a gentle Southern accent. When Karlen took over, he did his best to keep the accent but was from NYC (Brooklyn?) and sounded awful. Eventually Willie's southern voice disappeared.

Never watched it as a kid but when SciFi cable channel first started up Dark Shadows was one of the shows they started with. All the way from the black and white beginning, with an episode a day. Watched the whole thing. What impressed me was how sexless it was compared to modern soaps.

The black and white episodes were especially like watching badly rehearsed theater. No matter how you blow your lines you just keep going! At the end they used to just point the camera at an empty set and run the credits. I swear I once saw partially dressed Thayer David walk across the set as the credits were running, then hustle away as he realized the camera was on.

I was mesmerized by Carolyn Stoddard's perfect blonde shoulder length hair with the 60's flip. That hair was her whole character. And that cheap, fake wig they put on the housekeeper character. It was so fake I couldn't stop staring at it. Also got a kick out of spotting the modern zippers on the backs of women's dresses when they'd switch to the 1700-1800s stories.

I always felt the guy who played Willie Loomis (John Karlen) was the best actor in the whole bunch.

[quote] Grid has a masters in directing from an Ivy League university

Frid's degree was from Yale.

He had just returned from a vacation, Florida I think, to his apartment in NYC and as he was about to leave, his phone rang and it was his agent, offering him the Dark Shadows role, so he decided to delay his plan to take a job teaching on the West Coast, and save up some money working on a soap for a few weeks, which turned into years.

He said he did regret being type-cast... oh and he did tour with Marion Lorne in Tea and Sympathy (and he directed a play that I can't remember now....) And then he settled in his home country, in Hamilton, Ontario, and did his one-man show and other engagements, doing readings mostly, and he did some of the fan events, and he hired local guys to help him run a website into his 80s I believe. I enjoyed reading his comments there for a few years before he died.

Who's sexier in the short trunks at the beach - Jonathan or Louis?

Louis had a place on Long Island where they had some wild parties back in the day... way back.

I just remember the actress being bricked behind a wall. It seemed like one brick per episode. Does anybody remember 'Quentin's Theme' was a 45 single? I bought it.

R83 - Neither one appeals to me, but I suppose I would have sooner done Louis than Jonathan.

I thought Reverend Trask was the one bricked behind a wall - he was sexy! He played Humphrey Bogart in one of the Woody Allen films I think - Jerry Lacey. His and wife Julia Duffy's son Danny killed himself at age 29 in 2019.

But back to DS - I loved Barnabas but never liked Quentin. Not sure why - just something about David Selby turned me off (I think that's his name)

Cast interviews and more.

I loved it as a kid, bought the set of DVDs as an adult, and now I can’t find in it whatever it was that I must’ve been supplying all those years ago. It seemed so great then and apparently that’s going to have to be enough.

Quentin was very hot; thing is that he was only a werewolf briefly.

What's missing, R88, is the sense of cliffhanger tension; tradeoff is that watching it now the camp shows through!

Watch it to see if you can tell when Joan Bennett is reading her lines in the tea cup.

I can't say what it is, but there's something about Joan Bennett that is just so incredibly endearing and magnetic at the same time. Yes, she flubs her lines and sometimes is unsure which camera is on her, but she is so, so, SO watchable. I haven't watched her old movies, but she must have been an It Girl back then.

R91, Bennett was in some terrific noirs, including The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and the underrated Hollow Triumph.

Don't forget -- the "Willie Loomis" actor, John Karlen, played Mary Beth Lacey's husband in "Cagney and Lacey."

R93 - when I first saw him on Cagney & Lacey I blurted out "Oh my God, it's Willie Loomis!"

R91, I feel the same way about Elizabeth.

For a show with so much amateurism, it did have star quality! Joan Bennett (movie star) , Grayson Hall (Oscar nominee) , Kate Jackson (Charli's smart Angel), David Selby (Falcon Crest star/Streisand co-star), Donna McKechnie (Tony winner), Alexandra Moltke (Von Bulow scandal figure).

I started watching DS when they already went into the past the first time, so I never saw the Laura the Phoenix storyline. How was that?

And speaking of the stars on DS, Laura the Phoenix was played by a "known" B-actress named Diana Millay.

R96, if you're a fan of Louis Edmonds (Roger on DS, Langley on All My Children), you'd like the Phoenix story - she was his ex-wife and son David's mother. The kid gets to shine in the story as well.

I just watched the Laura story a few months ago and was surprised how scary she was for a svelte blond lady.

Maybe she reminded me of my ma.

Louis Edmunds was a bottom.

You type that like it's a bad thing!

Don't forget Denise Nickerson, the child actress who was later immortalized as the gum chewing Violet Beauregarde In "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

[quote] so I never saw the Laura the Phoenix storyline. How was that?

One of my favorites to date. Diana Millay had such a unique way of speaking (not sure if it was an affectation for the character or just her) that I found her mesmerizing. Also, she was beautiful -- Hitchcock would have loved her!

I think the Laura the Phoenix storyline, which was pre-Barnabas, was more interesting than any of the vampire crap.

Laura the Phoenix's near romance with the original Burke Devlin had the potential of great heat (excuse the pun). Diana Millay was compelling to watch. Too bad they didn't write her out for the duration of her pregnancy and then bring her back. She would have been a good opponent for Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman in the 20th century (we had to wait for the 19th century for that, which is an interesting sentence to write).

One of the writers said that the Phoenix storyline (which I never saw), had to be cut short because it depended so much on the character of David and they found he was not a strong enough actor for it. So it was tied up more quickly than planned because they realized he could not handle the necessary scenes of the original conception.

R105 - I always had the feeling that Laura was replaced by Angelique as the evil queen of Collinsport. Well, aside from Barnabas of course.

I'm watching the entire series for the first time, and I'm up to Tom Jennings' vampiric turn (God he was hot). I do know that later on Laura returns to do battle with Angelique, which should be interesting.

Funny how gay old Roger just could not hold onto a woman. First a phoenix, and then a witch -- and both had eyes for someone else.

R106 That I cannot believe. David was a great actor. Even better than many of the adults on the show. Everything I've seen said they had to cut the storyline short because Diana Millay was pregnant.

R108 is correct and they could no longer hide it within her costumes.

When reference was made to Dr. Fell recently (on Jeopardy?), I flashed back to Dark Shadows!

Astredo may be a straight actor, but he did the part with extra ping!

Astredo was straight?!!! Good Lord.

I agree that David Hennessy was a good actor. Denise Nicholson was good too. It’s funny how you notice things when you watch a series as an adult that you didn’t notice as a child. Jonathan Frid flubbed more lines than everyone else in the cast put together.

I had a dream not long ago that a very elderly woman was giving a paper at a conference on time travel. Because of the pandemic, she had to give her paper virtually. Nevertheless, she was perfectly lit for the camera. She was Dr. Julia Hoffman. She spoke of time travel as theoretically possible, never intimating that she herself had experience with the phenomenon. During the question-and-answer after her paper, someone directly asked if she had ever travelled back in time herself. "No," she said, "never." The lie came easily to her tongue. At the end, as people were one-by-one leaving the virtual room, just as she hit "Leave Room," she heard someone say "Julia! It's me! Vicky!" and the iPad when black. "Oh, no!" Julia cried, her hand to her mouth. "How will I ever find her?"

R112, they both were good, but the girl that played Barnabas' little sister Sarah was the worst child actress I've ever seen. It's amazing how many times Frid flubbed his lines, yet when he had limited dialogue and just had to be menacing, he was very effective. I thought Lara Parker had the greatest presence on the show...when she was onscreen , your eyes always just stayed on her, even if she wasn't the focus of the scene. The biggest hams on the show (in a good way) were Jerry Lacy as Reverend Trask and (of course) Grayson Hall (in any of her roles). Nancy Barrett never seemed to flub her lines. I really enjoyed her as Millicent, who went crazy because of evil Nathan Forbes.

R114 She was taken in by a scoundrel - but Barnabas got him in the end.

I had only just got to Barnabus's debut when bastard Amazon U.K. pulled the show from Prime and made it a cost-option. I pay enough for streaming, so I'll have to go without until/if it comes back. :(

Sorry to hear that as it's then that the series gets campier, with a bit of a true 60s vibe.

R116 - If it's available in the UK, check out TubiTV.com. Another option is to invest in a VPN that allows you to change nationality and access sites from other countries as they appear to their locals. Lastly, you can "liberate" an Amazon stick to access just about everything everywhere for free but video quality and buffering will vary.

Thanks, I'll check out those options!

I thought it was genius to name the vampire Barnabas. Such a great name. I'd never heard it before Dark Shadows was on.

We know Louis Edmonds was gay but was Jonathan Frid?

R121 - You can tell from outer space. Dark Shadows was doing vampire as code for homosexual long before Anne Rice ever dreamt that up.

R84 I bought it too! The flip side was "At The Blue Whale" (the waterfront bar in Collinsport) What a little Queen I was.