When I was barely old enough to comprehend television shows, I watched the exploits of Barnabas Collins on the Gothic soap Dark Shadows ( more here). I guess that's evidence my grandmother didn't watch me closely enough.I don't remember being really terrified as much as intrigued by the tales of ghosts and vampires.
Christine and I were happily able to watch much of the series in the early '90s on The Sci Fi Channel, and I was also fortunate enough to interview many of the cast members of the brief '90s revival of the series.
The soap was not a perfect show. It's had the usual limitations of video. But there are still some particularly good horror tales within the the thousand or so episodes.
Phoenix rising
Early on they were in black and white and really chilling. Just before Barnabas arrives in the series, the Collins family and their foundling employee Victoria Winters face down a modern day and potentially fiery phoenix.
Later, after one of the series most popular though convoluted time travel arcs, a Lovecraft-inspired tale began. I enjoyed that one quite a bit although ratings in the '60s dropped and it was wrapped up quickly.
New shadows gather
I was rather excited to discover while poking around the Big Finnish Audio site that a new series of Dark Shadows audios is coming soon.
Installments, sold on CD, will feature many original cast members including David Selby who played Quentin Collins, the show's second major heart throb after Barnabas. Laura Parker, John Karlen and Maggie Evans aka Kathryn Leigh Scott will be featured also.
Pay a visit to the site for wallpapers of the cast memembers, audio clips and of course, ordering information.
If you've never experienced Big Finish or Dark Shadows, set some money aside. I suspect these are going to be good.
Tags:Dark Shadows, horror, OTR
2 comments:
I'll be looking forward to this. Although I was not allowed to watch Dark Shadows as a kid, I saw most of the episodes later and much enjoyed them. I liked the 90s remake and was following it until they gave it short shrift and cancelled it. Maybe SciFi channel will do another remake. They remade the Kolchack the Night Stalker series, although it came and went before I even had a chance to see an episode.
The Big Finish audios are usually excellent; when they're not it's because they are over-indulgent and hard to follow. So when great, great; when bad, awful. The majority of their Who, Tomorrow People and Sapphire & Steel ranges are very good and I do recommend people check them out. x
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