The Entrance of an Icon

On April 18, 1967 a page in television history was written, well, maybe just a footnote, but it was major. For that was the day that a tall, thin gentleman wearing a caped coat, an onyx ring and caring a cane with silver handle in the shape of a wolf’s head arrived at the door of Collinwood and was granted entrance by the housekeeper, Mrs. Johnson.

Introducing himself as a “cousin from England” he ingratiated himself with Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, the matron of the family, and with the lovely, though rather slow, governess, Victoria Winters. Kissing hands and speaking in a very measured and proper diction he fascinated the two women and made an extremely favorable first impression.

"Cousin Barnabas"

After bidding the ladies a pleasant evening the newcomer went back out into the night heading for the “Old House”…the original Collins’ mansion. There he encounters young David Collins who happily informs him that the spirit of a woman named Josette who watches over the family and protects them haunts the house. After a brief conversation the little boy leaves the stranger in the house, where he turns to the portrait of the aforementioned lady and gives one of the most moving speeches ever uttered in the history of Dark Shadows: the “I was a Collins” speech, which not only makes us aware that this gentleman was “made into something even his own father loathed” but gives us a clue to the truly tortured soul of this newest resident of Collinwood: Barnabas Collins…Vampire!        

More to come…

A Dream Within a Dream

According to TV legend, the show Dark Shadows was the result of a dream (or maybe a nightmare) had by its creator, Dan Curtis. He supposedly dreamt of creating a different kind of daytime drama to compete with the numerous soap operas that filled the airwaves during the afternoons in the mid ‘60s. All of them were pretty much the same: so and so was having an affair with you know who, and his wife, what’s her name, had just found out and on and on ad nauseam.

But Curtis had an idea for something really different. A  soap set in a gothic mansion, with somewhat creepy characters wandering the halls along with ghosts, goblins, long leggedy beasties and things that went  bump in the night. Into this haunted manse he would drop an innocent: Victoria Winters, the new governess for the mansion’s resident child, David. Along with this troubled urchin the place was home to a reclusive aunt, her wild and crazy daughter, the master of the house, David’s father…cold, uncaring type and, of course, a Mrs. Danvers-type housekeeper.

If all this sounds familiar, it should. You probably read Jane Eyre when you were in high school, and this was a semi-carbon copy of that basic plot except for Jane, in this case Victoria, falling in love with the mysterious Mr. Rochester, in this case Roger. He just wasn’t likable enough.  

In the summer of 1966 Curtis’ dream came true. Dark Shadows premiered on June 27^th to fairly high interest. But the interest began to wane and by the spring of 1967 the show was in serious danger of cancellation. Curtis knew he had to inject some new blood into the series soon or it would be dead in the water…and how better to inject new blood than with a vampire? So, on April 14^th, 1967 a new character was introduced who would not only save the show from an untimely demise but would keep it going for another four years: Barnabas Collins, your friendly, misunderstood, neighborhood vampire.

More to come…