I was thrilled in early 2012 when
I heard Hollywood was making a movie out of the classic television series Dark
Shadows. I was less than thrilled when I heard it was more of a spoof. Did they
not understand what that show was?
First
hitting the airways in 1966, it became an after school obsession of my
neighborhood buddies a few years later. I’d come home from school, hurry
through homework and snacks and race down the street. We'd gather in the
Florida room at Randy’s house (up north, it would be called a “den”). Lounging
on pillows on the floor in front of the black and white television with curtains drawn to make the room as dark as possible, we’d sit riveted to the
television as the show was broadcast. It was color by the time we were
watching, but it aired in black and white until August of 1967.
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| Jonathan Frid, the original Barnabas Collins (Photobucket) |
Dark
Shadows was a half hour series situated in a fictional northeast town. It had
vampires, witches, you name it. If the
character or situation was anything approaching paranormal, eventually it showed
up in the story line. The show was eerie and odd, with shadows (natch) and
dramatic music. The characters were always creeping about threatening one
another. Barnabas Collins was the big cheese. A two hundred year old vampire, he escaped a chained coffin to return home pretending to be a long-lost cousin. He came onto the scene about six
months after the show started airing
The plot was as
tangled as a European death knot, but once upon a time, I could actually explain events. The
writers grabbed literally anything and threw it in the mix. The resulting
stew bubbled in our imaginations causing us all to go to bed at night wide-eyed
in the dark.
I
couldn’t tell you why we gathered at Randy’s house to watch it, but I know we
never met anywhere else. Every day when
the show ended, Randy's mom would push us outside into the bright Florida sun, where we'd blink like we were denizens of the night ourselves. It's surprising we didn't screech when the light hit our skin. After debating that day's plot
corkscrews, we slowly settled into kickball or tag, as if we were normal
children, not the Dark Shadows addicts we were.
 |
| Wikipedia |
The
show ran until 1971. Shot live, mike booms occasionally appeared at the top of
the screen and lines were often flubbed. We absolutely did not care. (I didn’t
get this attached to another show until college when my sorority sisters and I
would almost come to blows as we argued over General Hospital versus One Life
to Live. We scheduled classes around that hour. The wedding of Luke and Laura
meant a full house in the tv room that afternoon, but I digress...)
If
you have never seen the original Dark Shadows, I can promise you that it’ll
appear hokey if you pick up the DVD collection to watch now. Special effects have moved so far beyond what they
were in the sixties that what once appeared terrifying appears laughable. As for the
movie, I suppose I'll have to see it eventually.
But for now, let
me wallow in the remembered terror of the original creepy series watched in a
dark room in the middle of the sunny Florida afternoons of my childhood.
Nothing will ever feel quite the same.
Perhaps it would make good watching this
Halloween season if for nothing else but old time’s sake. Wonder if I can round
up my old North Palm Beach gang for a Dark Shadows reunion.
Randy? Is your
Florida room still available?
Copyright (c) 2012 Ruth Hartman Berge
Photo at the beginning of this article from ctucenter.
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