Dark Shadows

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verdantheart

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The 11/11/03 Dispatch from Matt Roush on TV Guide Online:

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Oh, the memories that were triggered by this week's item in Variety teasing us with the news that WB is developing, with über-producer John Wells, a new version of Dark Shadows, possibly for next season. Memories of a late-'60s childhood spent glued to the tube each weekday afternoon for the latest supernatural adventures of Barnabas and Quentin Collins, Victoria Winters and Angelique and all the rest. Memories of collecting all the Dark Shadows memorabilia: paperback books — my mother recently unearthed a Barnabas Collins joke book (well tattered from overuse) and sent it to me — board games, fake fangs, a Viewmaster set, an official Barnabas ring (ordered from, no doubt, a Dark Shadows comic book).

More than a decade ago, I got my hopes up when NBC resurrected the franchise in a lavish prime-time series. (My enthusiasm wasn't dimmed when a young new hire in the office wondered aloud, "Barnabas who?") I went on set, interviewing British actor Ben Cross, who was trying Jonathan Frid's cape on for size as the new Barnabas, just as tormented a vampiric soul as the first. I was thrilled to observe a scene being filmed at the Hollywood mansion passing as the new Collinwood, in which a vampire bat flew in to menace a sleeping ingenue. A boyhood dream come true.

But then, the show aired and quickly disappeared, a victim of bad timing (it premiered shortly before the Gulf War began in 1991 and was repeatedly pre-empted for breaking news) and an unfortunate Friday-night time period (this was a few years before The X-Files proved it was OK to stay home on Fridays to be scared). Am I crazy to hope that things will turn out better this time around? Wells is a producer with a mighty track record, and you have to think WB is desperate for a spooky new franchise with built-in pop-culture appeal. (Shades of Buffy and Angel.) If Dark Shadows were to become a hit again, nothing could please the eternal kid TV fan within me more.
~~~
:lol:

Now, this is waaaaayyy before the time of most posters, but you might have seen reruns of this now-campy series on the SciFi channel.
;)
 
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