Sat 25 Aug 2012
Archived TV Mini-Series Review: DARK SHADOWS (1991).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Science Fiction & Fantasy[11] Comments
DARK SHADOWS. NBC; January 13-14 1991. Premiere of TV series: 4-hour mini-series. Ben Cross, Joanna Going, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jim Fyfe, Barbara Steele, Ron Thinnes, Barbara Blackburn, Jean Simmons. Director: Dan Curtis.
Part Two of the continuing saga of Barnabas Collins, the 200-year-old vampire whose release from a coffin chains means dire things for the village of Collinsport, Maine. I only occasionally watched the previous TV serial, not making much heads or tails of it when it was on originally. Picking the story up in the middle tends to do that to you.
Coincidentally, if you remember reading my review of Barbara Hambly’s SF-Fantasy novel, Those Who Hunt the Night, which was posted here on this blog a short while ago, you will recall that the basic premise is the same: that vampirism is a blood disorder that might be curable. Ben Cross plays Barnabas to the hilt, agonized and tortured (and possibly sensuous, but I have seen anything romantic about vampires), while former Italian horror movie starlet Barbara Steele is Dr. Julia Hoffman, the physician who thinks she can cure him. (It looks as though she speaks through clenched teeth.)
The other major plot thread (there are a few other minor ones, mostly of sexual affairs and liaisons yet to come) is the budding romance between Barnabas and the new governess to the mansion, Victoria Winters, played by Joanna Going, who is beautiful, innocent and charming.
There is a lot of blood — “Where did it all go? If she lost all that blood, where did it go?” — there is at least one stake to the heart, lots of moody atmosphere — caused by lots of fog — and spooky music. Or in other words, the works.
If released as a theatrical movie, this new series would probably be given a PG rating, but it’s not impossible it would be given a PG-13. This may be why, when the series itself started [the following week], it was switched at the last moment to ten o’clock instead of nine. Which is why I missed it, and so (missing an episode) why I probably won’t be watching it on a continuing basis.
(Network shows are losing viewers left and right, and it’s really no wonder, when you consider that with all the stunting around, no one knows when anything is on for sure.)
A brief word on the behalf of Jim Fyfe, who plays the semi-demented handyman Willie Loomis. You have never seen a more perfect example of small-town inbreeding, straight from an H. P. Lovecraft novel, perhaps.
By the way, in case you’re interested, the mini-series is not complete in itself. If the people in charge have their way, the series may never end. I enjoyed it for the two nights it was on, and I may sample the series now and then, but for now, it simply left me — shall I say it? — hanging.
February 1991 (slightly revised).
[UPDATE] 08-25-12. I have been trying to match up the comments I wrote at the time with the episode list found on IMDB. I think what NBC did was to show the two-hour pilot on January 13th, then combined episodes #2 and 3 and aired them on January 14th.
The series itself began on January 18th. Interest in the series seems to have faded quickly. There were only 12 episodes in all, including the three that were shown as part of this introductory mini-series. The final one was shown on March 22, 1991.
August 25th, 2012 at 11:47 pm
I remember one summer vacation when all the neighborhood kids (over a dozen of us) spent part of our day watching the daytime soap opera DARK SHADOWS. Then school resumed and ended our habit.
I have never been a big horror fan, but I still fondly remember Dan Curtis’ DARK SHADOWS and his TV Movie pilot THE NORLISS TAPES. Cheesy but fun.
August 26th, 2012 at 10:51 am
It is still a mystery to me how I missed this revamped version of DARK SHADOWS. I was 30 years old living in Chicago and doing a lot of theater – which meant I was hardly ever home nights. This is the only explanation I can think of. Had I known about it I would have been taping every episode while I was away from my TV. I’ll have to check out the DVDs of this.
August 26th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Don’t get me started on this! I was a big Dark Shadows fan when it first aired. In fact, I saw the very first appearance of Barnabas Collins when Willie Loomis cracked open the coffin and raised the lid. I thought to myself that if this were the right kind of show a hand would reach out and grab him by the throat. And it did! I followed it over the next 5 years whenever I had time off from work. Unlike most of the fans I was an adult when it aired. The entire series (over 1,200 episodes) is available on DVD and I am slowly working my way through the series via Netflix. It takes awhile sometimes to get the next disc because there are so many other fans.
August 26th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
I should add a footnote. I saw most of the prime time version when it aired in 1991 and taped it. I found that my tapes lacked the last episode and have a dim memory that for some reason that episode was not aired in Minnesota. I think it was pre-empted at the time, but trying to determine what was actually aired of any show as opposed to what was listed as being broadcast is nearly impossible. I bought the DVD set of the 1991 series and found it not as appealing as the daytime serial, but I did finally get to see the final episode. The plot line of the 1991 series is the same as the 1795 sequence of the daytime serial and the theatrical film HOUSE OF DARK SHADOWS.
August 26th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Early 1991 was the end of the Gulf War, and the various networks pre-empted a lot of their regular schedules while they were covering it. But the war and the war coverage should have been over by March 22nd, when the last episode was on, so that’s probably not the reason you missed it.
But note my complaint about missing the first episode after this first introductory mini-series. If I’m reading my own review correctly, they showed it an hour later than it was scheduled, and I had my VCR set for the earlier time. Maybe they jumped the time slot for that last episode, too. In any case, back then, if you missed a show, you might as well assume it was gone forever.
So thank goodness for DVDs. I am tempted, but only a little, to obtain the full run of the original series. Every time I get ready to click the Buy It Now button, I ask myself what as I doing, and I don’t. I guess I should sign up for Netflix or look for online downloads, but for me, it’s the time factor involved. I guess I’d rather be doing exactly what I’m doing right now.
As you say, the entire 1991 run is on DVD, so JF, if you’re reading this, it won’t be hard to obtain. There have been complaints that they monkeyed around with the size of the the picture, though, and this fellow on Amazon says:
“ANOTHER failing of this set: several “night-time” scenes were actually shot ‘day for night’ (i.e. shot during the day, then adjusted in post production to look like night time). While presented correctly on the broadcasts and the MPI VHS tapes, these DVDs have been INCORRECTLY re-graded and show those scenes as daylight. The reason this is a big problem is that this way, the story depicts the vampire walking around in broad daylight!”
For what it’s worth!
August 26th, 2012 at 8:20 pm
I never noticed that glitch about the vampire in broad daylight when I watched the DVDs. I’ll have to take another look sometime.
DARK SHADOWS the daytime serial was one of the reasons I subscribed to Netflix. I was buying them a collection at a time (the series is divided up in “collections” with 40 episodes in each) and had already invested a chunk of change in reviving my old passion. I looked ahead and saw how many of them I would have yet to buy. I mentioned this to my brother who wisely said “Maybe you wouldn’t watch them more than once.” So I asked a friend who subscribed to Netflix (mostly to watch the 1930s Universal Horror films and 1940s Sherlock Holmes) to see if they had DARK SHADOWS. He checked and said, yes, and that it seemed to be a series. (He doesn’t own a TV and maybe never did so he had never encountered DS before. Recently he asked where one should start if one wanted to sample it.) So there you have it.
I attended a DARK SHADOWS panel at the Popular Culture Association in Boston in April and one person in the audience had never seen an episode at all! He was there to supply technical assistance when the video clips wouldn’t play properly.
August 27th, 2012 at 11:37 am
For anyone unwilling to spend the big bucks to get the complete DARK SHADOWS daytime serial there are a number of collections of selected episodes (fan favorites) and compilations of story arcs … all sold by MPI who are probably reaping a fortune from the members of the Dark Shadows Fan Club. The DVDs began life as a set of VHS cassettes that probably filled several rooms in the fabled West Wing of Collinwood, the mansion that was the setting for the majority of the TV series.
August 27th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
I remember reviewing this prime-time version for Daily Variety in LA when it first premiered on NBC. It is amazing to me how this show just won’t die. Even a few years after this version died John Welles (ER, West Wing) was talking to Dan Curtis’s people about reviving it.
I don’t know about everyone else, but I though the Tim Burton film was a complete mess.
I’m wondering if certain shows are just so evocative of the time in which they were originally made that once they are dead and buried we should just let them be.
August 28th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
While the Tim Burton film tried to include too much from various story arcs I found it to be better than I had expected, but I am waiting for the official consensus of the Fan Club in the next issue of Shadowgrams. Both the film and the passing of Jonathan Frid coincided. He and three other regular cast members had very brief cameo roles in the film. Blink and you would have missed them. The actor who played Roger Collins will be playing Sherlock Holmes this fall in the new series “Elementary.”
November 25th, 2012 at 12:44 am
The 1991 remake of “Dark Shadows” was excellent and I wish I could’ve thanked Mr. Curtis, but I just learned about it a couple of weeks ago. I watched all 12 episodes and each one was gripping. It was a terrible shame that this show did not go on. The cast was perfectly cast. I used to watch the original series when I was a child after school. I cannot watch it now, it is too dry, but this remake was just wonderful! Too bad it took 21 years for me to even know about the remake.
April 7th, 2021 at 8:50 am
I Loved it! The cast was sterling!The late Ben Cross aristocratically handsome was perfect as Barnabas, as well as Joanna Goings as Josette, but I was really impressed with Angelique, Lyn Anthony’s sexy French accent rose above anything Laura Parker ever did I liked the whole series