Dark Shadows
Ranked #6,291 in Entertainment, #70,147 overall
Dark Shadows, the Beginning
Dark Shadows began with the arrival of Victoria Winters to Collinwood via train. Created by Dan Curtis, the inspiration for the show was thought to have been a dream that Curtis had about a girl on a train arriving at a big mansion. Thus began Dark Shadows. This lens is about the show, the characters, the stars and the movies based on the show.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A Little About the Show
Dark Shadows was a Gothic soap opera which aired from June 1966 to April 1971, on ABC television. Dark Shadows was created by Dan Curtis, and was based on a dream he had about a girl taking a long train ride, on her way to a mansion. This girl, when the show was created was Victoria Winters.Victoria Winters arrived at Collinwood to become the governess of the motherless David Collins. Upon her arrival, Victoria is subject to a difficult David, a housebound Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, a party girl, Carolyn Stoddard (Elizabeth's daughter) and Roger Collins, a man with a grave secret ( Elizabeth's brother).
Photo of ghost:
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A very young Joan Bennett- Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
American actress, Joan Bennett received much acclaim for her role as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard on Dark Shadows, a role for which she received an Emmy nomination. Bennett had a long and diversified Hollywood career and starred in over 70 movies and silent films.
Joan Bennett
A young Joan Bennett as a blonde during her early movie career when she often played ingenue roles.
A Few of the Players
Victoria Winters was played by Alexandra Moltke, a role she played from 1966-1968. She left her role when she gave birth to her son in 1969. In the 1980's Moltke was called to testify against a former lover in the murder trial of his wife. In 1985 she began work at the National Museum of Television and Radio where she is a curator for childrens programming.Carolyn Stoddard was played by Nancy Barrett. While on Dark Shadows, Nancy appeared in 405 episodes. She also appeared in the two Dark Shadows movies, House of Dark Shadows, Night of Dark Shadows and in several soap operas including: the Doctors, One Life to Live, Somerset and Ryan's Hope.
Nancy has also done work in caberet and ballet
Mitchell Ryan originated the role of Burke Devlin and played this role for the 1st year before being fired due to a drinking problem and being replaced by Anthony George. Ryan later had a major role in the sitcom Dharma and Greg,playing Greg's father.
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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
A Little Trailer
Roger Collins
Roger Collins was played by actor Louis Edmonds. While Louis played Roger for 5 years on Dark Shadows, he received 3 Emmy nominations for his role as Langley Wallingford on All My Children, a role he played from 1979-1995.
More History
Not long after Victoria's arrival, Bill Malloy is found murdered at the bottom of the cliff near Collinwood. Bill knew of a secret linking Roger, Burke Devlin and Sam Evans. This storyline was the basis for the early part of the show. However, soon ghosts started to appear, and eventually about 1 year into the show, so did the character of Barnabas Collins, the vampire.Over time, Dark Shadows lost its mysterious beginning storyline and focused more on vampires, ghosts, werewolves and witches. Dark Shadows even attempted a parallel time storyline with the actors playing multiple roles.Dark Shadows was a unique show with a large dose of Gothic romance, and intrigue.
Some Original Cast Members and their corresponding roles :
Joan Bennett as Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Louis Edmonds as Roger Collins
Nancy Barrett as Carolyn Collins
Alexandra Moltke as Victoria Winters
David Henesy as David Collins
Mitchell Ryan as Burke Devlin
Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
Joel Crothers as Joe Haskell
Mark Allen as Sam Evans
The next year, with the arrival of vampire Barnabas Collins, the following major roles were cast:
Johnathan Frid as Barnabas Collins
John Karlen as Willie Loomis
Grayson Hall as Dr. Julia Hoffman
Lara Parker as Angelique Bouchard
Kathryn Leigh Scott- Maggie Evans, Josette Dupres
Kathryn worked briefly as a playboy bunny before being offered the role of Maggie Evans on Dark Shadows in 1966. In addition to her role as Maggie Evans, this versatile actress played Josette DuPres and a few other roles while on the show.
Scott also starred in House of Dark Shadows, and television shows including: Quincy, Police Squad, Magnum PI, and Cagney and Lacey, which starred her former Dark Shadows co-star John Karlen.
Peter Bradford/Jeff Clark
American actor, Roger Davis is best known for his roles on Dark Shadows and Alias Smith and Jones. On Dark Shadows, the versatile actor played many roles, his most prominent being Peter Bradford and Jeff Clark. On Alias Smith and Jones, he played Hannibal Heyes the role created by Peter Duell, who committed suicide during the 1971 season.
Retired form acting, Davis develops land and builds condo's in Southern California.
Barnabas Collins
Barnabas Collins was played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid. While at Yale, Frid starred in the production of A True and Special Friend, a William Snyder play. Frid preferred the theatre and acted in this venue for 30 years.
However, it may be his role as the popular vampire Barnabas Collins ( a role which was suppose to last 13 weeks) for which he is most remembered.
Photo: Vampire portrayal from Shadow of Count Orlock
Lyndhurst Library where House of Dark Shadows was filmed
Lyndhurst, where the Dark Shadows movies were filmed is also known as the Jay Gould Estate. It is a Gothic Revival country house located in Tarrytown New York. The House was made a National Historic Landmark in 1966.
Sleepy Hollow Cemetary
Several scenes from the movie House of Dark Shadows were filmed at Sleepy Hollow Cemetary in Sleepy Hollow New York. Rich in history, this cemetary is home to Washington Irving's grave ( Legend of Sleepy Hollow).
Lyndhurst Dining Room where House of Dark Shadows was filmed
Another room used in the movies of Dark Shadows.
1795 Trailer
Spotlight on Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows DVD Collection 2
Amazon Price: $16.99 (as of 02/15/2012)
A Little Bit About How the Show Was Made
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Starting with episode #295 Dark Shadows was in color.However, I found the show was spookier in black and white. Dark Shadows was originally recorded on video tape.
In the mid-1960's video tape was still a very new and expensive technology. Some ABC affiliate stations did not have the capability to play video tape. Instead the studios made black and white kinescope copies of Dark Shadows episodes. This way they could be aired in the event that an affiliate could not directly air the original. Once the colored shows started though, sometimes black and white shows were still broadcast. This is because the original video tape master copies are missing and kinescope copies are all that are available
Kinescope is the process of basically pointing a motion picture camera at a TV screen and filming it. People don't realize that in the very early days of TV there were video cameras but no video tape. Most early TV broadcasts don't exist today because they were done live and never recorded. People can usually tell the difference between video tape and Kinescope which produces a picture of noticeably poorer quality.
Dark Shadows
- Eva Green Goes Blonde And Stares Down Johnny Depp In New Dark Shadows Image
- Green has long rocked the great combination of dark hair and dark eyes, and that look has propelled her career to the point where she's considered one of the finest young actresses working in films today. That changes in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.
- DARK SHADOWS Image
- by Matt Goldberg Posted:February 13th, 2012 at 7:30 am A new image has surfaced from Tim Burton's Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp and Eva Green. The film is based off the 1960s-70s cult TV series, and centers on vampire Barnabas Collins' (Depp) ...
Wille Loomis
Spotlight on Dark Shadows
Dark Shadows DVD Collection 1
Amazon Price: $16.99 (as of 02/15/2012)
Quentin Collins
The role of Quentin Collins was played by David Selby. There were a couple of Quentin Collins roles, but the most popular one by far was the werewolf form. The versatile actor played two roles in different time periods and was married to both Angelique and Maggie while going back and forth into present and parallel time.
Photo: David Selby- far left on my Dark Shadows book
Barnabas and Burke Devlin
Did You Know??
That all 1,225 episodes of Dark Shadows were shown on the Sci-Fi Channel between 1992-2003?
Johnny Depp
The Johnny Depp movie version of Dark Shadows is due out in 2012. Filming for the long awaited movie has begun.
Your Favorite Character
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Be My Guest
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YellowHammer
Feb 13, 2012 @ 4:18 pm | delete
- I can remember watching this show quite often when I was young. My video store actually has the series on DVD for rent. I've been thinking about revisiting the series.
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nyclittleitaly
Feb 1, 2012 @ 12:11 am | delete
- I agree. I have always watched Dark Shadows and would love to see it back on tv.BTW, your lens is great!
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Cherokee
Aug 13, 2011 @ 11:35 am | delete
- I watch Dark Shadows all the by computer it is my favorite show . Wish it would come back on TV
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linhah
Jun 25, 2011 @ 3:07 pm | delete
- Love this show to this day!
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grannysage
Dec 18, 2010 @ 9:35 am | delete
- What teenage girl didn't love Barnabas Collins? I used to run home from school every day to watch it. I see Johnny Depp is working on a movie version (from one of your Google links above) That would be awesome. I really should watch the series again.
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