Saturday, November 3, 2007

Dark Shadows

     Dark Shadows was probably one of the greatest T.V. shows of all time. Definitely worth a mention here on Cultarama because it totally captures the cult fiend's eye, due to it being horror-themed yet completely full of unintentional humor. 

      Dark Shadows was actually a daytime soap opera that began in 1966 with the premise of a gothic romance but the ratings were terrible and it was facing cancellation after only 6 months. Assuming that cancellation was inevitable its creators decided to give the last few episodes some extra flair by adding a vampire to the mix. A bold move that happened simply because they had nothing to lose, and ended up saving the show, which continued on for another six years!  Barnabus the vampire was now on the scene and the show became a massive hit and now has more dedicated fans than ever before. 

      Like most soap operas, the plot twists and turns in every direction possible until nobody really knows what's going on. As is still usually the case with soap operas because nobody has time to watch every single episode, every single day, for years at a time. Therefore a brief synopsis was included at the beginning of an episode and every episode had its own fun little adventure, and as long as you knew basically who the characters were you could still enjoy the show.  Also, Dark Shadows didn't just take place in modern times but had multiple timelines.  Past, present, future, and even including different dimensions. 

      The story mostly centers around the Collins family, a wealthy bunch of eccentrics that pretty much owns the entire seaside town of Collinsport. Of particular interest is the main character Barnabus Collins, who creates suspicion due to his recent and curious appearance in town and his uncanny resemblance to his ancestors' picture that is hanging in the foyer of the family's sprawling mansion Collinwood. We learn slowly that he is a vampire and that the painting in the mansion's foyer is actually a painting of him.  Barnabus is also obsessed with the past, and in a strange way tries to recreate it with people from the present, who are mostly either descendants from his past or reincarnations of them.  

     After about a year of Barnabus trying to cope with his personally regrettable situation of being a bloodthirsty vampire, a role he thoroughly hates but deals with, the story jumps back to the year 1795 and all the modern character actors change names and relationships to become "new" characters in the past in order to explain what was being experienced in the present, their future. Many of the ghosts haunting the mansion finally get to be live characters for a change and have their story told as to why they became ghosts in the first place. 

      In addition to vampires and ghosts, the Collins family is also riddled with witches, warlocks, werewolves, and whatever else they could think of that had a ring of supernatural to it. There are literally dozens of complicated storylines to keep track of, yet the show didn't really add that many new actors.  They just came back and were reintroduced, as ghosts, reincarnations, or identical siblings, therefore if your favorite actor got killed off, you can relax in knowing that they'll be back in a few episodes, just as a completely different character.  The show tended to take inspiration from classic horror tales, such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and many many others.

   It's truly campy though. The show was filmed live so there were lots and lots of bloopers. Props fall, flies land on the actors' faces, cameras and mics come into view, the wrong music gets played, they endlessly forget their lines and often address another character by the wrong name (there were just so many to keep track of!), and sometimes they even use the actors' real names out of desperation.  Being filmed live gave no room for retakes so when mistakes happened they were all just left in and made for some really entertaining situations. One of my favorite mishaps is that when the show began in black and white, certain things had to be changed like using blue candles instead of white ones because the white candles caused a glare when filmed, so when the show gained more popularity and (and had more money) and began being produced in color, they forgot to ditch the blue candles. So for most of the show, there would be nothing but dark and heavy mysterious scenery anywhere you looked... except for the neon blue candles that were literally everywhere. Personally, I thought it added to the campy feel of the show and it was the 1960s so who knows, maybe bright and colorful candles would have been the appropriate choice for gothic decor.

      Unlike almost any other soap opera that's ever existed, all six years' worth of episodes were kept, while other soap operas just recorded over the old episodes to save money on film, rendering earlier episodes completely unavailable.  With 1,225 episodes total, it's a large collection to rewatch. They've been released on VHS and DVD for a while, mostly in large separate disc bundles, but now there's a HUGE coffin-shaped box set, complete with every single episode, including a few "favorite moments", and Blooper collections. In fact, all of the DVD cases lined up together look like Barbnabus lying in the coffin!  Now Dark Shadows can live on for its old fans from the past as well as creating a whole new fanbase for all those cult lovers out there.  It took me more than a year to finally watch all the episodes, but I absolutely loved every moment of it!  As Classic as Cult can get!

2 comments:

Daveland said...

I remember rushing home from school as a little kid to watch this show. I must have worn out my 3D Viewmaster Reel set from the show, too. This probably contributed towards my twisted sense of humor.

Cultfiend said...

A twisted sense of humor is a terrible thing to waste!! Guard it with your life, Dave!! I also grew up watching and loving Dark Shadows, ironically from my Mother. When I was young and she was a stay at home Mom. We used to watch it together and make fun when they messed up their lines. She loved Quentin and I adored Angelique, marvelous times they were. I think growing up with Dark Shadows gives a person a sense of awe and wonderment mixed with unintentional humor at an early age. So, to all you parents out there, it's never too late to start installing the software early!