Dark Shadows (TV series)



"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..."

- The opening narration of the very first episode.

Dark Shadows was a Soap Opera which ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971. While the show did have Gothic themes, it was not until six months into the first season when it gained notoriety by introducing overtly supernatural elements.

Though many soaps have since flirted with plots involving ghosts and psychic energy, Dark Shadows used almost every classic horror element (vampires, werewolves, zombies, magic users) as well as sci-fi tropes like Time Travel and alternate dimensions.

The show was also notable for having storylines taking place in different time periods and parallel worlds, allowing the same actors to play identical relatives or lookalikes.

Dark Shadows has been an inspiration for numerous other supernatural series, including Kolchak the Night Stalker, Twin Peaks, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. One plotline even involved a vampire who gives an extended interview about the supernatural to a hack writer.

The show's musical score was considered notable, receiving a Grammy nomination and spawning a top 20 Billboard hit.

Dark Shadows is one of the only soaps of the era to boast a nearly complete archive. All but one episode survives intact, most as the original color videotapes, with a handful as black-and-white kinescopes. (An audio track exists for the "missing" episode, which was mated with publicity stills for later commercial release and syndication.)

There was a short-lived television remake in The Nineties, as well as a Big Finish radio series. A Tim Burton movie version came out in 2012, with Johnny Depp portraying Barnabas Collins.

Dark Shadows provides examples of:
"Vicki: My name is Victoria Winters... Audience: WE KNOW!!!!"
 * Aborted Arc: Victoria's parentage, once the Driving Question, was left unresolved once Alexandra Moltke left the show. Word of God says:
 * Anachronism Stew: Oddly enough for a show not only set, but created, in The Sixties, the series, with few exceptions, seems to be almost completely oblivious to technological and social changes, particularly after the first season or two. The aversion of this trope by The Movie makes this glaringly obvious.
 * Ape Shall Never Kill Ape
 * Artifact of Doom: the hand of Count Petofi (also Attack of the Monster Appendage and Evil Hand)
 * Artistic License Biology: After Barnabas feeds on Willie for the first time, a doctor examines Willie and declares his arm to have been "completely drained of blood."
 * Back From the Dead: It's a soap, so pretty much everyone. Angelique deserves special mention, though, due to sheer persistence.
 * Betty and Veronica: Barnabas Collins is torn between the memory of his fiancee, Josette du Pres, a Betty type, and the Veronica type (to the max) Angelique, the witch who gave him the vampire curse. At the end he gets over his torch for Josette, and avows to Angelique that he loves her. She is then killed, and Barnabas ends up with neither.
 * Sam Hall in one of the articles of the TV Guide claimed that, had the show continue, Barnabas
 * Big Bad: Throughout different Story Arcs, Barnabas, Angelique, Quentin, Count Petofi, the Leviathans, Jeremiah Collins, leading up to...
 * Bigger Bad:
 * Breakout Character: Barnabas.
 * Bright Slap: Peter gives one of these to Vicki.
 * Buried Alive: Barnabas (as usual) and Reverend Trask as well as Elizabeth and some others.
 * Burn the Witch: Averted. Those sentenced to death for witchcraft are either hanged or beheaded. Laura tries to burn Angelique, but Angelique gets better.
 * Creepy Basement: Collinwood, The Old House and the House By The Sea.
 * Creepy Cemetery: Eagle Hill
 * Creepy Child:
 * David mostly.
 * Jeb when he first showed up.
 * Sarah doesn't do too badly at this either.
 * Creepy Housekeeper: Mrs. Johnson but also Hoffman in Parallel Time.
 * Crusty Caretaker: at Eagle Hill.
 * Darker and Edgier / Bloodier and Gorier: House of Dark Shadows.
 * Did Not Get the Girl: Barnabas. Also, Quentin.
 * Disposable Sex Worker: The main portion of Barnabas's diet for a good while.
 * Embarrassing Middle Name: William Hollingshead Loomis.
 * Evil Hand: that of Count Petofi
 * Evil Is Stylish: About 95% of the villains on the show fit this trope.
 * Facial Horror: the aforementioned Hand of Count Petofi did this to Quentin and to his friend Evan.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Immortal vampire Barnabas is trapped in his coffin.
 * Fauxlosophic Narration: At the beginning of every episode in order to attempt to set a gothic mood. Originally done by Victoria, but others started joining in especially after she left the show.

"Vicki: Barnabas likes this house more than you do. Burke: Yeah, all the darkness and the shadows..."
 * Femme Fatale: both Angelique and Laura.
 * Foreshadowing: Vicki's book in 1795. Also,
 * Frankenstein's Monster: Even named 'Adam', like the original.
 * Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Barnabas, after significant character development. In one of the better done sequences, we see Barnabas Collins the man regain the upper hand over Barnabas the Monster, when he refuses to be party to murdering a man to gain freedom from his curse.
 * Ghost Story: Barnabas telling Vicky and Carolyn how Josette died. That he did it during a thunderstorm with the power out was a nice touch.
 * Good Looking Privates: Lieutenant Nathan Forbes in the 1795 plot is pretty much always in his naval uniform...and he wears it well.
 * The Gwen Stacy: Josette DuPres.
 * Gypsy Curse: Quentin was the victim of same (note: Never marry and abandon a gypsy. Just. Don't.)
 * Haunted House: Collinwood and the Old House.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: Reverend Trask, who's eventually talked into a Heel Face Turn as a ghost.
 * Headless Horseman
 * Heel Face Door Slam:.
 * Hold Me: Done wordlessly by Daphne and the possessed David and Hallie, when Gerard, kills them.
 * Identical Grandson: Unsurprising, since actors often played different characters within the same time period.
 * Idiot Ball: Occasionally. Willie was handed it quite a few times in earlier seasons, and once it resulted in him getting shot.
 * Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Vicki in the 1991 Revival.
 * It Got Worse: The 1795 storyline starts out with Barnabas awaiting his fiance's arrival, ends with.
 * Jekyll and Hyde: Literally, in one of the Mad Scientist plotlines... mild-mannered lab rat Cyrus Longworth took a potion that turned him into aggressive psycho Sam Yager.
 * Kill'Em All: The 1795 storyline comes damn close, given that the writers were essentially just playing around with a whole new cast of characters they wouldn't have to worry about after the storyline ended. Pretty much the only thing stopping them from truly killing everyone was that someone needed to live to provide future generations of the Collins family.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Unintentional. Louis Edmonds once flubbed a line, referring to his character's ancestors as "incestors." See My Own Grampa below.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia
 * Leitmotif:
 * "London Bridge" for Sarah.
 * Both music box tunes for Josette.
 * "Ode to Angelique" in both the 1970 parallel time plot and the film Night of Dark Shadows.
 * The theme referred to as "Joanna" on most soundtracks was also (over) used in Night of Dark Shadows in scenes featuring Kate Jackson's character Tracy.
 * Quentin's gramophone song. Not only is it a plot point at times, but in the Big Finish drama The House of Despair he and Angelique discuss why it fits him.
 * Local Hangout: The Blue Whale.
 * Lovecraft Country: Collinsport, with its seemingly endless fog and storms and hauntings.
 * Love Makes You Crazy: Angelique
 * Mad Scientist: Dr. Lang and Dr. Julia Hoffman
 * Madwoman in the Attic: poor Jenny Collins
 * Missing Episode: It has one, being just about the earliest soap opera to be recorded for posterity. Also, the aired film versions of several early episodes are lost and they survive only on Kinescope, with noticably lower picture and audio quality.
 * The Movie: House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows, neither of which took place in the main continuity. House was a more grisly retelling of the introduction of Barnabas, whereas Night was barely connected at all, essentially retconning all characters and lore for a new story.
 * Murder the Hypotenuse: Josette's death is the end result of Angelique's schemes.
 * My Own Grampa: Almost. Laura, a phoenix who was reincarnated every few decades, ended up married to her own biological grandson. Never mentioned in the show, either due to censorship or the writers not having the best grasp on the continuity.
 * Never My Fault: Matthew Morgan claims that he doesn't want to kill Vicki, but she forced him into it. Naturally, she calls him on this.
 * Never Sleep Again: Inverted in an arc where a character turns into a werewolf and kills people in his sleep. He is able to trap his curse in a portrait, but needs to stay awake until it is finished.
 * Nostalgic Music Box: Belonged to Josette.
 * Not Using the Z Word: The word "vampire" is used pretty rarely, not showing up at all until the 1795 storyline when Angelique explains her curse to Ben. This makes the scene where Barnabas reveals himself to his father by shouting "I am a vampire!" quite shocking and moving.
 * Official Couple: According to Word of God after the series ended.
 * Ominous Music Box Tune: Josette's music box, used to brainwash Maggie.
 * Panty Shot:
 * In one scene an unconscious Maggie is carried by another character. Her skirt is so short that we catch a glimpse of her underwear.
 * When Carolyn was knocked out by the Leviathans and spent the rest of the episode on a bed with her legs spread towards the camera.
 * The Pete Best: James Hall as Willie Loomis. John Karlen took over the role after a few weeks and played the character for rest of the series.
 * Pinocchio Syndrome: Barnabas.
 * Resist the Beast: Barnabas and Quentin both.
 * Revival: The 1990s version. There was also an unfinished pilot for the WB.
 * Running Gag: Reverend Trask and his grandson, Gregory, both get bricked.
 * Sealed Evil in a Can: Barnabas again.
 * Silver Bullet: effective against both vampires and werewolves.
 * Spooky Painting: Angelique has one. So does Barnabas. And Quentin. Josette, as well.
 * Stalker with a Crush: Angelique - and how!
 * Start of Darkness: The entire 1795 storyline, for Barnabas.
 * The Show Must Go On: Examples are too numerous to list. Barnabas' heart-wrenching dramatic pauses were reportedly just Jonathan Frid forgetting his lines.
 * Perhaps the most amusing moment was the time Frid accidentally walked in on the end credits while carrying everyone's coats...
 * No, the funniest moment was when the camera caught Frid quite visibly picking his nose when he thought the camera was pointed on Robert Rodan and Betsy Durkin.
 * Given that the show was "live" because at the time editing costs were off the chart there are really too many to list from bugs flying around actor's heads to people tripping. In a rare instance the actor who played Barnabas managed to get them to edit an particularly bad gaff on his part by agreeing to waive a bonus was to be paid for working extra late on an episode.
 * Plus, the very first thing the show ever aired: the ABC announcer saying in an irritated tone, "Okay, I'm here. What do you want me to do?" (pause) "I can't see the slate!" He then proceeds to read the episode number as usual.
 * In one of the better-done dramatic moments of the series, when the witch Angelique is face-to-face with the newly risen vampire Barnabas, alone and cornered by the monster she has created, simultaneously grief-stricken, terrified, and even remoreseful, as Barnabas realizes the true horror of his new status, we see a stage hand realize that he is in the camera view-zone...
 * Supernatural Soap Opera: Ur Example.
 * Time Travel: To 1795, 1897, 1840 and once to the (then) future of 1995.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball: To save the present family from the ghost of Quentin Collins, Barnabas travels back to 1897 to save the living Quentin. Once he returns, the family, especially Amy and David, still has memories of Quentin's ghost, despite the fact that, with history changed, Quentin is now still alive and has lived away from Collinsport for decades.
 * Title Drop: Near the beginning of Collection 3.


 * Together in Death: Tad/David and Carrie/Hallie in 1970, before Barnabas and Julia change history.
 * Undead Child: Sarah
 * Unlucky Childhood Friend: Tim and Rachel, for each other. Very unlucky indeed.
 * Visions of Another Self: for nearly a whole season.
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: at one point in the 1795 flashback, Jeramiah Collins buries Angelique alive because her hypnotizing him into marrying Josette led to his death. So where the hell was he when Angelique cursed his cousin with vampirism, which in turn led to practically his whole family being wiped out?
 * What Year Is This?
 * Whole-Plot Reference: Several Story Arcs were taken whole hog from classic horror fiction; The Turn of the Screw, The Lottery, H.P. Lovecraft, etc.
 * Woman Scorned: It's heavily implied that Barnabas and Angelique had sex. It's not clear whether this was before or after he became engaged to Josette, but Angelique got the short end of the stick either way. These events were the catalyst for Angelique's hatred for the Collins family.
 * Yandere: Angelique
 * You Look Familiar: Some have appropriately described the cast as a theater troupe. If someone's character died, there was a good chance that the same actor would be back in a few weeks playing a different character.
 * Your Cheating Heart: See "Woman Scorned" above.