So, my wife got me hooked on this show (she calls it the missing link of her life), and I have to say I'm really enjoying it.

It was a soap opera, originally broadcast in the US from 1966 to 1971. The show took off in popularity when the character of Barnabas the vampire was introduced, helping to save the show in much the same way that Spider-Man did for Marvel (not much was expected of either character initially, remember).

A trip to Wikipedia will tell you all the different storylines, involving plots that borrow from Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Turn of the Screw, and Wuthering Heights. So far I've seen a vampire, several ghosts, a scattering of seances, time travel, a witch, a kidnapping, a man turn into a cat, a belligerent drunk chick, and even a biker-hippie who's a dead ringer for George Michael circa Faith!

It has unintentional camp, resulting from everything being shot in one take (not quite broadcast live, but pretty much), actors only having one night to learn their lines, some plain old hammy actors (my dad considers Grayson Hall as Dr. Julia Hoffman to be the female Vincent Price), some laughable (by today's standards, anyway) special effects, etc. To be fair, some special effects are good by today's standards, too!

For all the 'funny' elements, though, there are some genuinely creepy moments as well. I've seen a tomb bleed, a ghost scene that reminded me of a scene from Silent Hill 4, and a dazzling dream sequence wherein a little girl calmly tells the dreamer about how pretty the flowers were, and how sad everyone was, when she died.

Anyway, I think Netflix in the US has all the episodes available, but do some research first and just jump to the ones with Barnabas in them (the first dvd set actually starts around the 200th-something episode, while the pre-Barnabas episodes were later released as "Dark Shadows - The Beginning").

I get a vaguely similar vibe from it as I do from reading "I, Zombie", what with all the monster-mashing going on. Also, production on a film (involving Johnny Depp and Tim Burton) is set to go into production in April this year...so now's the time to get in on the ground floor!

For such a monster nerd, I'll confess I've never watched any of 'em. It's probably the episodic nature of it that's daunting to me. When it comes to tv shows, I'm tentative about taking a chance on 'em. WIth a movie, you can usually gauge if you're going to enjoy it or not after a bit into the flick.

Something I'll have to rectify... I shouldn't be such a wuss about spending my time on bad acting (this coming from the guy who downloaded "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers" just because. And boy, was it awful!).

This show is tons of fun! I first learned about it with the re-make in '91. I went back and got the DVDs from the library here last year and my fiancée' and I watched then throughout October as part of our month-long "Monster-Movie-Marathon"...

It's a fantastically moody, melodrama with all of the atmosphere of the great classic Universal horror flicks. I too recommend bypassing "The Beginning" and getting right to the Barnabas episodes -- the DVDs include a nice little extra that will catch you up to speed on the back-story just fine.

Watch and enjoy, just make sure you turn out all the lights!

My Dark Shadows fan art!

Compared to the people on here who actually know what they're doing with pencil, pen and ink, my attempts at drawing make me feel like I'm learning how to ride a bike for the first time, only through a weird field full of some alien materials I can't identify.

I still had fun, though, so someone got something out of it

LOL!

It's very nice!

So, my wife made a fan video - John Waters regulars cast as Dark Shadows characters Too cute not to share.

EDIT - that's two of my posts now that I started with "So, my wife..." Weird!

I'm certain this won't date me.

Most of my friends and I ran - literally, ran - home from school each day so that we wouldn't miss a second of this show. It was incredibly popular at the time and Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas Collins, was as much of a sex symbol then as all these teenage vampires are now.

Plus, he had a cool cane.

ran home to watch it? why didn't you guys just tivo it? geez

-josh

I grew up with a father who did nothing but rave about the series. I saw the classic episodes and the revival. I'm ashamed of Tim Burton's upcoming remake. Damn him!