Speaking of Dark Shadows….

[theFrey]

Did you know …..

Dark Shadows was the first daytime drama to attract a substantial following of young viewers, a trend that continued with other soap operas such as The Young and the Restless, All My Children and General Hospital.

Dark Shadows is one of only a few television series to spawn two theatrical motion pictures (House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows), and the only daytime drama to do so.

Several of the male stars from Dark Shadows, particularly David Selby and Jonathan Frid, became major teen idols of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Along with David Henesy, Don Briscoe, Michael Stroka, Chris Pennock and Roger Davis, they were heavily featured in publications such as Sixteen and Tiger Beat as well as numerous soap opera and TV/movie magazines. 😳

Dark Shadows was the only new network soap opera to debut in 1966. It replaced the canceled teen serial, Never Too Young. It was also ABC-TV’s first color soap opera.

Joan Bennett, a top motion picture actress from the 1930s-1950s, was one of the first major film performers from Hollywood’s Golden Era to join daytime television.

Dark Shadows’ storylines covered several centuries. In addition to the 1966-1971 present-day time periods, sequences set in the years 1795/1796, 1897, 1840, 1949 and 1692 were featured. Portions of the series were also devoted to the science fiction concept of parallel time, set in the years 1970, 1841 and 1680.

Several well-known actors appeared in limited roles or as extras on Dark Shadows. Among them were Abe Vigoda (Barney Miller, Fish), Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl), Harvey Keitel (Pulp Fiction), Conrad Bain (Diff’rent Strokes), Barnard Hughes (Blossom) and Susan Sullivan (Falcon Crest).

Dark Shadows was the first daily network soap opera to be offered in domestic syndication.

Anne Rice’s famous novel and its resulting film, Interview With the Vampire, were preceded by several years by a strikingly similar subplot on Dark Shadows. During the 1970 Parallel Time story, writer William H. Loomis entraps vampire Barnabas Collins so that Loomis may interview Barnabas for a book he’s writing entitled The Life and Death of Barnabas Collins.

[Author]

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