If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember running home from school to get in front of the TV to have the daylights frightened out of you by … a soap opera! Yep, Dark Shadows was indeed a soap opera, gothic in tone, but a good old-fashioned soap, at least for its first year on the air. As ratings continued to fade, ABC and Dan Curtis came up with a novel idea — add a new character to the show. Nothing out of the ordinary there. That the character just happened to be a 300-year-old vampire was pretty revolutionary for a daytime soap that usually traded in domestic drama, rebellious teens, and conversations over a hot cup of coffee. But Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) arrived in the fictional town of Collinsport on episode 210 and a television phenomenon was born.
The show ran for five years, spawned two theatrical spin-offs, has been resurrected in repeats and on home video over the years, was rebooted by NBC as an excellent but overlooked (due to premiering the night after the Operation Desert Storm started, and being pre-empted or interrupted on an almost weekly basis) mid-season series, was nearly rebooted by The CW in 2004, and is now the basis for the upcoming theatrical film starring Johnny Depp, directed by Tim Burton. People seeing the show for the first time in the present watch more for a laugh than for the drama, watching the “live” (or shot in a single take) scenes for any hint of a blooper … and there are many. True fans of the show appreciate the cast and the storytelling, and what storytelling there was. No other show at the time had the audacity to send characters back in time to different centuries with the actors playing their own descendants or sometimes completely different characters (at one point, Barnabas and Dr. Julia Hoffman even traveled to the future year of 1995 to find Collinwood in ruins and the Collins family members dead, missing or insane). Besides time travel, there was also a parallel timeline/alternate universe story, and another storyline that involved a race of ancients known as the Leviathans (one episode of this story is included, and keep your eyes open for a young Marsha Mason). If you’re a fan of shows such as Lost, Fringe or Supernatural, you might begin to wonder if the people involved with those shows were influenced by Dark Shadows.
Over the years, MPI Home Video has been the keeper of the Dark Shadows video legacy, releasing several volumes of DVDs that encompassed the entire series, as well as special editions with favorite episodes and even an entire bloopers DVD. With the release of the movie on the horizon, MPI has gone to the vaults once again to produce another batch of DVDs to help the uninitiated prepare for the movie. As a long-time fan of the show it was nice to see the episodes again, and instead of focusing on the bargain basement production value, actually paying attention to the acting. Not all of it was great, some of it was pretty hammy, but seeing Jonathan Frid’s performance through older eyes is a revelation. He is really that good in all of his subtleties, really making Barnabas a very sympathetic creature who has had this curse thrust upon him. I also adore Grayson Hall‘s Dr. Julia Hoffman, especially when she’s being hysterical over some situation (and being the only person to know of Barnabas’ condition, she’s often more hysterical than not). She is completely over-the-top. Add to that the show’s real casting coup, celebrated movie star Joan Bennett. You never saw a star of her stature “slumming” on TV at that time, especially on a soap!
Arriving on DVD April 10th are two new volumes of Dark Shadows DVDs: “The Best of Barnabas” and “Fan Favorites.” Looking at the DVDs, it’s obvious that MPI has not done much to remaster the original video image or the audio, which can vary wildly from episode to episode, but somehow the two black and white episodes included on the disks seem to look much better than the early color episodes which sometimes suffer from video “noise” (if you’ve ever popped an old VHS tape into a deck, you’ll recognize the issues immediately). But it never takes away from the actual show, and manages to transport you back to the time of the original broadcast. I found the episodes included on the new DVDs to be quite gripping, even when viewed completely out of context of the entire series.
Dark Shadows: Fan Favorites includes episodes 212, 365, 370, 699, 725, 1024, 1065, 1102 and 1115 and you can watch each episode by itself, or with a video introduction by Kathryn Leigh Scott, who played Maggie Evans (and she looks amazing, by the way). There is also a Play All feature and some promos. The promo spots are not for the show itself (no TV commercials, for instance), but rather promos by Ms. Scott and Lara Parker (Angelique) for their respective Dark Shadows-related books.
Dark Shadows: The Best of Barnabas includes episodes 221, 349, 418, 535, 703, 718, 915, 982, and 1133 with the optional episode introductions by Lara Parker. The disk also features the Play All function and the same promos.
These DVDs are a terrific introduction to the series and a good primer for the movie for the uninitiated, but hardcore fans may want to save their pennies (or tax returns) for the complete series box set that will be available in July. A limited edition box set is also released on April 10th, but those sets featuring an autographed card from Jonathan Frid, sold out almost immediately. The unlimited edition, containing 131 disks in a coffin-shaped package, will be identical to the limited edition minus the autograph. Now’s your chance to get caught up with the Collins family and the residents of Collinsport before the new movie hits the big screen!
This review was based on retail copies of the DVD collections provided to CliqueClack by MPI Home Video.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Apr 09, 2012 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
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