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Thursday, April 16, 2020

Here's What Really Happened to Barnabas and Company

From a 1971 article in TV Guide by Sam Hall.




Sounds plausible.

Let's illustrate it!

Here's What Really Happened to Barnabas and Co.

by Sam Hall 



When Dark Shadows recently went off the air, the audience was left with all of the troubled characters - and many questions as to their fate. We had certain long-range plans for most of them - but what the characters would do with the rest of their lives can only be fantasy. However, after three years of living with them, I feel I know moments of their future.
 
 
Elizabeth Collins Stoddard remained the matriarch of Collinwood. After the sudden death of her brother Roger, she was determined to hold the Collins' family empire together until Roger's son David was old enough to take over and she did with the help of an elegant, very bright man from Boston to help her and with him she finally found some personal happiness.


Roger Collins, just before this death, discovered the secret that his cousin Barnabas was a vampire, but he told no one, and vowed to end Barnabas's unhappy existence. Armed with a stake and a hammer, he discovered Barnabas's coffin during the daytime...


...but Angelique appeared and killed Roger. 


 She forced Willie Loomis to carry Roger's body to the woods, where it was found. Death was attributed to a heart attack.

Shortly after the funeral, Mrs. Johnson was cleaning out Roger's room. She swore later that a cold hand had touched her. 


At first everyone felt she was simply hysterical. But one night, Carolyn saw Roger's ghost standing in the great hall. The ghost pointed a spectral finger at the portrait of Barnabas Collins. 

 
When Carolyn implored the spirit to speak, it disappeared.
 

Carolyn, with the aid of T. Eliot Stokes and Julia Hoffman, attempted a seance to find out why Roger's spirit could not rest. But the seance was unsuccessful. 


It is known that on certain stormy nights Roger's ghost can be seen coming down the stairs, staring at the portrait of the man who caused his death.

Carolyn Stoddard found herself more and more interested in the world of the occult. She knew that with the death of her husband Jeb Hawkes one part of her life was finished and she was determined to understand the unknown forces which had taken him from her. 



She began studying with T. Eliot Stokes and then went to a large university which had a department of psychic research. 
  

While there she discovered that she herself was the reincarnation of Leticia Faye, a woman who had lived at Collinwood during the 19th century.


Working with various mediums she became a psychic-research investigator. She published many books on the supernatural and established a foundation to examine the existing evidence of the world beyond. 


She continued to regard Collinwood as her home and established a mother-daughter relationship with Amy Jennings which contributed greatly to the stability of that confused and very scared young child.


Years later Carolyn remet Adam who had loved her so deeply. He had become a successful and sophisticated man, and he wanted to marry her. But she knew she could not go back in time. They parted warm friends.
 

As time went on Quentin Collins found living at Collinwood more and more difficult. He was unable to forget his love for Daphne, though both she and Gerard were finally at peace. 


And he was afraid to love again - afraid that his own secret would be discovered. For, as long as Charles Delaware Tate's portrait existed, Quentin would not age. And he well knew that if he destroyed the picture, he would suffer the awful curse of the werewolf.


Finally, he left the town of Collinsport to roam the world - Athens, Alexandria, India... always hunting some solution for his existence. And with each country, he became more and more withdrawn. He became more aware that he could never become close to another human being.

Often he was tempted to return to Collinwood, destroy the portrait and kill himself before the full moon could cause him to change into the wolf man. But some slight hope stopped him from doing that. For, at the beginning of his travels, he had heard rumors that there existed a man - a man with a wooden hand and miraculous powers. A man who had transcended time - a Count Petofi. 


And so Quentin kept on, looking for the Count, knowing that if he could find him again perhaps the Count could take pity on him and help him find peace at last.
 

Maggie Evans, who left Collinwood with Phillip returned a year later a divorced woman. 


She moved into her father's cottage and began working at Wyndcliff, the private sanitarium. There she remet her former fiancee, Joe Haskell. 


With her help, Joe managed to regain his sanity. He left the sanitarium with no memory of Angelique and the circumstances which had caused him to lose his mind. 




 Joe and Maggie married. He returned to the Collins' fishing fleet. They lived happily in Collinsport.



But Chris Jennings and Sabrina Stuart did not have Maggie and Joe's luck.



 For they found they could not run from the curse that afflicted him. Though they had a few days of happiness when they left Collinsport they were both aware that time was their enemy. For soon the moon would be full and Chris would become the werewolf again.


 They constructed a cell to lock him in. But when he became the wolf man, he broke out of it and killed Sabrina. Her brother found her body that same night. The following morning, Chris returned to their home. When he discovered what he had done, he committed suicide.



Barnabas was deeply affected by Chris's death. He and Julia Hoffman had tried desperately to help Chris. Barnabas identified with him very much.


He began to feel that it was only a matter of time until he too would become a victim of his curse. When he learned from Angelique that Roger had discovered his secret, his depression deepened.


Again, Barnabas felt that he had brought new tragedy to those he loved at Collinwood. He knew that his vampirism would be discovered.


Julia and Willie Loomis decided they must get Barnabas to leave Collinsport. They were both willing to sacrifice their lives and travel with him.

 
He finally agreed to go, but just before they were to start, Barnabas became very ill. Julia was astonished. She knew that Barnabas could not, because of his vampirism, have human ailments. Yet the mysterious fever so ravaged him that Julia feared for his very existence.

She suddenly realized that there could be only one explanation for Barnabas's illness.


Adam. She remembered the mysterious link which began to exist when Barnabas helped bring Adam to life. At the time Adam disappeared from Collinwood, they knew that if he died, Barnabas would, too. Julia knew she must find Adam, wherever he was. Adam must have the same fever. He had to be cured if Barnabas were to be saved.

Enlisting the aid of T. Eliot Stokes, she did find Adam - in the Far East. She managed to cure him, but in the course of the treatment, she contracted the illness herself. She was near death when Barnabas - well now - came to her.


He realized how he loved her, and promised her that if she lived, they would marry.

They were married in Singapore. Barnabas felt they must never return to Collinsport. Angelique must not find them - for she would never allow Julia to live.



So they stayed on. Julia began working with an Asian doctor and experimented with a new treatment which she was positive would take away the curse of Barnabas's vampirism. They began the treatments.

 
They were successful. Barnabas Collins at last could walk in the light of day - walk with the woman he loved, but walk with an ever present fear ...
 

...a fear that Angelique would find them, and destroy the only happiness he had had in his life.



No audience will see these stories playing out. But for those for whom the characters were real, these are merely signposts pointing the direction the characters might have gone.

Dark Shadows Comic Strip Season 7: A Lurking Spirit!


Wednesday, April 15, 2020

MPI Video Volumes

As you'll recall, MPI started releasing Dark Shadows on video back in 1989 with The Resurrection of Barnabas Collins, and released volumes thereafter every month until the entire series was available, some 200 plus volumes.  I got rid of my video tapes, but I kept the sleeves -- they were rad, man.

I'll be sharing a few over the next coupla weeks as I find 'em.  Enjoy.


And ... my favorite ... episode and tape cover.

















Dark Shadows Comic Strip Season 7: Laura Collins Is Coming ...


Monday, April 13, 2020

Dark Shadows Is No Longer Included with Prime ...

... but it is for free on Tubi.  So that's where I'm picking up with the Leviathans:  Julia versus the Chromakey Kid, aka Peter Bradford in silhouette, wearing what appears to be a sombrero.

Here's a picture of Barnabas to ... um ... celebrate.


Dark Shadows Comic Strip Season 7: Quentin and the Pain!


Sunday, April 12, 2020

Entertainment Weekly's Review of Dark Shadows: the Revival


Things look grim in the bowling alley beneath the abandoned 55-room Doheny mansion in Beverly Hills. The tomb-like room is painted black, hung with cobwebs, lit with flickering tapers, and filled with smoke. A woman with bloody hands is standing between an open coffin and a man sprawled face down with a knife in his back when in toddles a fellow carrying a lollipop. The woman snatches the knife from its inert sheath and stalks toward the baffled intruder, demonically muttering in French, ”Imbécile! Crétin!”
”Cut!” barks director Dan Curtis. ”Give me more smoke.”
Dark Shadows, the supernatural soap of the ’60s that brought vampires into the light of day, is back. Beginning with the four-hour, two-part miniseries that aired earlier this month, the gothic goings-on of the folks from Collinsport, Maine, have been resurrected from TV’s programming great beyond to become a new weekly series. And NBC, which has bet an estimated $20 million that the program can thrive on Friday nights, is banking on the remarkably enduring appeal of a show that once had up to 20 million viewers every weekday afternoon, many of them teenagers. Although Dark Shadows has been off the air for 20 years (”We just ran out of stuff to do,” says Curtis, who created and produced the original and is also executive producer of the new series), its devotees still circulate a newsletter and hold annual festivals. The show’s 25th anniversary will be observed at a three-day gala this June in Los Angeles, with most of the original cast members — including Jonathan Frid, the cult favorites who played Barnabas Collins — in attendance. More significantly, vintage Dark Shadows videos sell — and rent — well. For people who prefer the printed version, Pomegranate Press recently published The Dark Shadows Companion, which includes plot summaries of all 1,225 episodes.
One notable absence from the new Dark Shadows is Frid. Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire) has taken his place as the central vampire. Also in the cast: Joanna Going (Another World) as governess Victoria Winters; horror-movie queen Barbara Steele (The Pit and the Pendulum) as Dr. Julia Hoffman, who is trying to cure Barnabas of vampirism; Jean Simmons (The Thorn Birds) as Barnabas’ cousin Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, and Roy Thinnes (The Invaders) as Elizabeth’s brother, Roger Collins. ”People like my wife, who was totally addicted to the old show, can’t wait to see the updated version,” says Perry Simon, NBC’s executive vice president of prime-time programming. ”And the spooky genre will appeal to teens.”
Vampires have drawn big audiences (as well as blood) ever since Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel, Dracula; the count from Transylvania seems to have outlasted even such horror stalwarts as Frankenstein’s monster. Films like Nosferatu, Love at First Bite, The Lost Boys, Dracula, Vampire’s Kiss, and The Hunger have all come up with new ways of portraying stories of romantic bloodlust. And Hollywood’s fascination with fangs shows no signs of fading: Sequels to First Bite and The Lost Boys are being planned; Paramount is reportedly developing a modern vampire movie called Nightland; Warner Bros. is considering one called Red Sleep, set in Las Vegas; and the Fox network is working on its own vampire series, called Blood Ties.
The book world is hardly immune to the vampire’s bite, either. Anne Rice’s novels — Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and The Queen of the Damned — are about misunderstood misfits whose powers are as threatening to themselves as to others. The books have sold millions of copies since 1976, and Geffen Films is working on a movie version of Interview. NBC executives sound confident that the updated Dark Shadows will capitalize on this continuing appeal.
Fans of the original should have no trouble following the cryptic plot twists of the new show; many stories are drawn from earlier episodes. ”The basic story parameters are the same,” Curtis says. ”But a lot of the incidents are new. So much of the stuff we did on the old show is laughable now.” Cameos by scuttling prop men, shadows from sound equipment, swaying scenery, and flubbed lines, for example. ”It’s apples and oranges,” he says. ”You’re talking about a show that cost a buck and a half to make on a dinky soundstage back in the ’60s versus a great, lavish production.”
On a recent afternoon, Ben Cross’ Barnabas, shivering in knickers and an open shirt, was being soaked by rainmakers and crying to unseen children, ”Sara! David! Don’t run from me!” amid eucalyptus trees on a slope behind the Doheny mansion. ”They’ve just seen me fanging our aunt,” Cross explains matter-of-factly, a cigarette dangling from his blood-stained mouth. His Barnabas is a reluctant vampire cursed into his condition by a vengeful witch named Angelique. ”Let’s just say Barnabas had an affair with the wrong person in 1790,” says Cross, 43, who also wore fangs in 1989’s made-for-cable comedy movie Nightlife. The English actor, who lives in Vienna most of the year, wanted ”to get back on the American map” and saw Barnabas as just the vehicle to get him there. ”I wanted to do American episodic TV, and I didn’t want to play a cop or a lawyer or a gangster,” he says.
Cross’ pointy-banged predecessor, Jonathan Frid, was the Ringo Starr of vampiredom: He was considerably less dashing than his counterparts, but his homeliness curiously enhanced his appeal. Cross, by contrast, is a strapping hunk of hemo-goblin and not nearly as repressed as Frid was. ”I’m playing this for as much eroticism and sensuality as I possibly can,” he says.
In a cast of eerie eccentrics, the show’s oddest character may be newcomer Jim Fyfe’s Willie, the caretaker of the Collinwood estate. A simpleton with greasy hair and mottled brown teeth, Willie is ”like Larry, Darryl, and Darryl gone very, very wrong,” Fyfe says. So far, Willie is not a biter, but his night might yet come. ”It would be good if being a vampire could help Willie get some babes,” Fyfe says.
Despite the camp factor inherent in the series, the Dark Shadows cast is playing it straight. ”It’s got a gothic romance to it,” Cross says. ”I’m making a supernatural drama, not a soap. Dan says, ‘Fine, fine, carry on with your Hamlet.”’ But even with Cross’ Shakespearean style, there seems little danger that Shadows will go pretentious. ”I don’t know what the hell you’d call it,” Curtis says. ”Once you enter the Dark Shadows door, you’re in a whole new universe. It takes itself seriously, but you can laugh at the darkest moments.”
And the cast members do. ”Mind you,” says the veteran Jean Simmons, ”we do get the giggles.” That seems easy for her to say: She’s not wearing fangs — yet.



Dark Shadows Comic Strip Season 7: Quentin, Where Are You?

Previously on Dark Shadows:  The Comic Strip:

Barnabas has incurred the wrath of the Phoenix of the Ages, and she has used her powers, augmented by those of her wicked partner, Count Petofi, to banish Barnabas to the year 1840.  Dr. Julia Hoffman used the I Ching to join him there, and together they are facing the danger of Gerard Stiles ... and the newly returned Nicholas Blair.  Meanwhile, in 1897, Angelique and Quentin prepare to levy their forces against Laura Collins ...

(You'll find the Sunday strips more enjoyable if you make them larger for maximum readability.)