Bite Me! Johnny Depp Is Doing ‘Dark Shadows’
Barnabas Shall Live Again!
If you’ve never had the excellent fortune to see the original Gothic daytime soap opera Dark Shadows that aired weekday afternoons on ABC from 1966 to 1971—not the NBC primetime adaptation that only lasted twelve episodes in 1991, mind you—then do yourself a huge favor and try to get hip to the program with some (admittedly very expensive) DVDs. Although the series began before I was born, I know it well because of my mother and grandmother, who both watched it regularly. In fact, I can attribute my current love of all things spooky in part to Dark Shadows.
Apparently, I’m not the only one either, since actor Johnny Depp has long professed his admiration of the series and one of its central characters, vampire Barnabas Collins (also a favorite of mine), originally played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid. In the wake of creator Dan Curtis‘ 2006 death and a rights deal just closed with his estate, Depp is now poised to develop and star in a feature film based on the series.
A Depp-ishly good-looking Barnabas? Well, I won’t complain as long as the future film does the former soap justice. Now I’m off to buy those DVDs at Amazon so I can relive the magic.
The original run of Dark Shadows featured assorted actors who each played several distinct and major roles. Located in the fictional town of Collinsport, Maine, the classically eerie Collinwood mansion was the setting for 1225 half-hour episodes revolving around the centuries-old Collins family saga. Innocent Victoria Winters (Swedish actress Alexandra Isles) heads to the mansion when she is hired as the governess for young David Collins (David Henesy).
Nearly a year in real time after her arrival, a cousin named Barnabas Collins visits from England. Unbeknownst to Victoria, however, Barnabas is an almost two-hundred-year-old vampire bent on getting his way at any cost. Other familiar monsters and creatures followed in his wake, including the always indispensable ghosts, witches, and werewolves, making for a truly unique and addictive series. If you search hard enough, you can even find every last single episode on VHS and, soon, DVD. Happy hunting to the interested.
Johnny Depp photo courtesy of WireImage.com
Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins photo courtesy of ABC
