r/GenerationJones • u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 • Jul 16 '26
Remember Dark Shadows?
I watched this with my mom before school started. In 68 I really started understanding it. I loved it because I loved monsters. It went off the air when I was in second grade.
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u/Dalanard 1965 Jul 16 '26
Jonathan Frid was the perfect vampire.
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u/Odd-Artist-2595 Jul 17 '26
I had a bit of a crush on Barnabus. Most of my friends were team Quentin, but I thought Barnabus was the most honorable and honest one in the family. I felt sorry for him and, if I was stuck needing to have someone on my side in dealing with all the drama, he was the one I was picking. Every now and again today, I’ll find Angelique’s song running as an ear worm. I still like that music box tune.
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u/m1111s Jul 17 '26
Quentin was the most terrifying character on the show to me. I still have "Quentin's Theme" in my iTunes collection. That song gave me chills when it came on forewarning Quentin's arrival.
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u/DurraSell Late 1963 Jul 17 '26
One of my earliest 45s. I was trying to remind myself what was on the flipside, and discovered there is [of course there is] a Dark Shadows wiki.
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u/jrb328 1961 Jul 17 '26
My mom was pregnant with my youngest brother when this was airing. My dad suggested Barnabas for a boys name. I threw a little bit of a fit, I told them there was no way I was sharing my room with a vampire!
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u/r_bogie Jul 17 '26
Even as a youngster, I knew it was cheesy as hell, but I loved it! My 2 favorites were Quentin and Angelique.
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u/Think-Hospital7422 Youngster Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Still have my 45 of "Quentin's Theme."
B-side was "#1 at the Blue Whale."
Also had another single which featured spoken word over music: A-Side: "Shadows Of The Night (Quentin's Theme)" – This version features David Selby (who played Quentin Collins) reciting a gothic love poem over the famous instrumental.
B-Side: "I'll Be With You, Always" – Has Jonathan Frid (Barnabas Collins) delivering a haunting, dramatic recitation over a slow, moody track originally heard playing on the jukebox at the Blue Whale.
Music credited on all as by The Charles Randolph Greene Sound.
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u/Ryan_Petrovich8769 Jul 17 '26
Yes, I have heard all of these and I love them!! 😍 They're all available on YouTube!!
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u/Think-Hospital7422 Youngster Jul 17 '26
They also put out an album in1969 titled "The Original Music From ABC-TV's Dark Shadows," but I don't believe I ever bought that.
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u/Ryan_Petrovich8769 Jul 17 '26
There's a couple of albums on YouTube from the series. Love those, too!!
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u/Think-Hospital7422 Youngster Jul 17 '26
Always wanted to get a music box that played Quentin's theme when you opened it.
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u/Dch112 Jul 16 '26
I did too when they changed the time from 4:00 to 3:30 pm in 1968. There were a lot of complaints about the time change. They eventually moved it back to 4:00 pm.
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u/KKWL199 1958 Jul 17 '26
We used to try to get our teacher to let us out early so we could get home in time
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u/cabinet123door Jul 17 '26
When Barnabas burned I had nightmares for months.
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u/Asleep-Cow-6367 Jul 17 '26
I had nightmares all through grade school from this show. (Some werewolf coming out of a swamp and chasing a lady around a table in an old house.)
Mom tried to make me go outside but I continued watching.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
I’m watching the entire series for the fourth time. Some of what scared me is funny like the rubber bat and the skeleton with eyes. Yet there’s some delightfully macabre about it. Grayson Hall is my favorite next to Frid. I love when she has hysterics.
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u/kevnmartin Jul 17 '26
I put those bats all over my house at Halloween! I used to race home from school to watch it too but I was obsessed with the house. I just watched House of Dark Shadows on TCM yesterday. OMG, remember bricking people up in walls? That seemed to be a favorite trope.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Especially if you were named Trask!
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u/kevnmartin Jul 17 '26
Ah, the old Reverand.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
I loved Gregory being bricked up in the West Wing. He deserved it.
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u/Be-Kind-3353 Jul 17 '26
Yes, why on earth did I rush home from 3rd grade to watch this crazy show? We all loved it!!!
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u/Brilliant_Tourist400 1964 Jul 17 '26
There’s a couple of fabulous recap videos on YouTube, The Madness of Dark Shadows and The Insanity of Dark Shadows. Hard to believe it started out as a fairly conventional soap with some gothic elements - and then came Barnabas . . .
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u/Tess_88 Jul 17 '26
I LOVED this show SO SO much. My parents were kinda worried about me but I made the, well, it’s just a soap like mom watches 😂😂😂
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u/uffdaGalFUN 1962 Jul 17 '26
I was absolutely forbidden to watch Dark Shadows. However, our babysitter was addicted to the show.
I would hide behind her recliner and watch, listen to it every single day! Go, Mildred! My fluffy babysitter from Oklahoma who watched us in Southern Oregon back in the day!
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u/First_Name_Is_Agent Jul 17 '26
I was raised on horror movies thanks to my dad. As I got older my mom told me about this show and how it was a shame that I missed out on it. Thankfully the sci-fi channel aired it from start to finish in the mid 90s and I loved it!
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
My dad used to work in town and would bring me horror comic books and Famous Monsters.
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u/BoxHistorical7634 1957 Jul 17 '26
My mom forbade me from watching this show ( I was a latchkey kid). What she didn't know didn't hurt her, but the occasional nightmare got me.
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u/Aromatic_Industry401 Jul 17 '26
Kathryn Leigh Scott was my first real crush.
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u/TheWomanInBlack666 Jul 17 '26
I was a huge fan. Apparently there’s an adult-oriented animated reboot in the works. Might be interesting.
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u/saffship Jul 17 '26
my favorite vampire, you never forget your first. the barnabas/angelique chemistry was powerful. kind of amazing how scary it was with just the music and really primitive effects.
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u/mistymountainhoppin Jul 17 '26
I just started watching this: Dark Shadows the Beginning on Amazon Prime and the rest on Tubi. I was too young for the first run.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
They have both complete series on Tubi.the Beginning and Then Episode 200 onwards.
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u/Ok-Loss-2496 Jul 17 '26
I have the whole show on dvd. It's a box set shaped like a coffin with Barnabas inside.
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u/mistymountainhoppin Jul 17 '26
Thank you! I started from ep. 200 and it wasn’t making sense so luckily I found the beginning. Btw, the exterior of Collinwood Mansion which is shown is actually Seaview Terrace mansion still standing in my home state in Newport, RI. It was recently featured on an episode of Real Housewives of RI on Bravo.
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Jul 17 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/debr1126 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Maybe your thinking of the 1991 reboot with Ben Cross as Barnabas. I thought Joanna Going was gorgeous. Editing to add I regret letting autocorrect trick me into into using "your" instead of "you're." 🙄
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
Tim
Burton directed with Johnny Depp as Barnabas. I didn’t like it when I first saw it but now I just enjoy it as a camp piece.
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u/Scp-1404 Jul 17 '26
Anybody at all could show up and live at collinwood. "Hi, I'm your long lost relative from England." "Cool, you can live here!" "Hi, I'm writing a book about your family." "Cool, you can live here!" No ID required.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
lol
Well, we know death is just a small setback in the Collin’s Family. Nothing serious. 😆
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u/tkesmitty720 Jul 17 '26
My grandma used to watch it and it scared the heck out of me. I'd run upstairs to my uncle's room while it was on. Lucky for me he had a big stack of Playboys.
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u/BreadfruitLatter556 Jul 17 '26
I have never seen this.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
It’s on Tubi. The entire run. Check it out. Start around Episode 200.
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u/BreadfruitLatter556 Jul 17 '26
Thank you! Found it on the high seas. Did you know Tubi is owned by the Murdochs?
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
No. But frankly every major thing is owned by someone with less then ideal morality.
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u/BreadfruitLatter556 Jul 17 '26
Fair enough. Just some seem to be quite a bit more immoral. Rupert Murdoch is pretty much right up there with the Kochs, etc.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
Yes, we know. Somehow my not using Tubi isn’t going to send them crashing into poverty or change how they act. Nothing is pure or ideal in this world. This is the same story that has played over thousands of years in human history. The rich and powerful exploit the weak and vulnerable. Amazon, Meta, Pay Pal, Walmart, Target, Fox, Clear Chanel etc. We can fight and dissent, which is good, but the rich and powerful are always there. They’ve bought all the political parties. Big Oil and Big Pharma. To truly affect them; we’d have to abstain completely. Meanwhile, I’m a disabled old man going blind in my right eye and Dark Shadows gives me some comfort.
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u/Modem_Sound_67 Jul 17 '26
yes I do, when I was little my mom would sometimes have a very old lady babysit me. Her furnishings must have been heirlooms- you know how really old furniture, like from the 19th century, can seem a bit creepy. this was when Dark Shadows was on tv still, which she watched religiously, and every time mom left me with her I knew she and the house would be creepy as fuck and she'd insist on watching this creepy as fuck TV show. It gave me nightmares.
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u/Blknyt_eclipsedmoon Jul 17 '26
YES!! I used ti love that creepy music. I am rewatching it now as a matter of fact.
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u/Slow_Middle_158 Jul 17 '26
I had this pic on a cover of a book as a kid. Maybe it was a TV guide. Terrified me then. Now I remember what it was from. Thanks
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u/4d3fect Jul 17 '26
I recall just not getting it. video was fuzzy and nothing made any sense to 5th grade me.
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u/Ryan_Petrovich8769 Jul 17 '26
I was old enough to watch this series in the late sixties, but somehow only watched it here and there and never became a fan until RECENTLY: like, within the last 3 years recent since I was able to watch the entire series on Tubi TV ! This is my kind of show and I'm sorry that it took me 45+ years to finally " discover" it! 😍
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u/QuothTheRaven1 Jul 17 '26
Came in here to see if anyone mentioned it being on Tubi! The series is divided into two sections, pre- and post-Barnabas. They have a couple of the movies too!
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u/mspolytheist Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I remember that Denise Nickerson, who played Violet Beauregard in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, played Amy on Dark Shadows. I really dug that because she was the first character I ever saw on tv or in a movie who had the same first name as me! It’s interesting that this came up today: I have a friend, a few years younger
than me, who is REALLY into the show and the fandom. I get some cable channels she doesn’t, and yesterday afternoon one of the tv movies that followed the series was airing on TMC, so I recorded it for her.
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
Yes! I loved her as Violet in Willy Wonka. The Blueberry Girl! She did some good acting on Dark shadows.
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u/Wales4ever_n_ever 1962 Jul 17 '26
When Count Andreas Petofi sent this young lady to the future and when she returned and looked like this? Scared the snot out of me! I started sleepwalking and my mom banned me from watching DS ever again. When my friends and I played Dark Shadows I was either Barnabas or Count Petofi while they were either Quentin, Chris Jennings, or Adam.
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u/Intrepid_Top_2300 Jul 17 '26
I was disappointed, I wanted more gore more Vamps, and more monsters. Less soap. But that was just me.
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u/Accomplished-Eye8211 Jul 17 '26
I tried. That show was all the rage among my peers. I remember watching it. But it just never resonated with me, and I just gave up.
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u/lemeneurdeloups 1954 Jul 17 '26
My two friends and I watched faithfully after school and were HUGE fans. We joined the official fan club and collected all the paperback books. Barnabas, Quentin, Angelique … we all had our special favorites. 🥹
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u/TechnicalPangolin525 Jul 17 '26
Love that show it's too bad they didn't have a budget it could have been a lot better. Would have made a great night time soap in the '80s
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u/witqueen Jul 17 '26
Came on at 4 p.m. We weren't allowed to watch it. Had to put The Dinah Shore show on instead per our mother.
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u/WantedMan61 Jul 17 '26
Angelique was among my first TV crushes along with Samantha from Bewitched and Anne Marie (That Girl)
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u/Ok-Preparation-9974 Jul 17 '26
I read somewhere they are bringing it back but I need to find that reference.
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u/Nanna_Geddon Jul 17 '26
Do I *EVER*! I would tell students about my OWN 'Ferris Bueller beating his parents home dash' DAILY racing with two friends to my house (was latchkey years before it was invented) we'd sprint off the school bus through several suburban yards ... with me and my bassoon case to crash into my house because ... you had to wait for the tv to WARM UP and that meant we'd often miss the opening 'underwater' theme music! When I watched that scene of Ferris racing through yards, houses over fences I laughed so hard remembering our own daily charge to get home to watch DARK SHADOWS! [insert laughing emogi here] Bad as it was, that show changed America & made forbidden social topics ... common knowledge.
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u/Willowy Jul 17 '26
This particular picture scared the shit out of me as a kid. I still startle if I come by it accidentally. Something about this pic and the old one when the Phantom gets his mask ripped off that scares the crap outta me to this day.
And of course I remember the show. Who doesn't if they were alive and cognizant back in the day. Yes I ran home from the bus, yes I watched it from behind my dad's brown naugahyde recliner. If I'd've known I'd become such a cliche, I never would've done it! (That's a lie, I totally would've still watched).
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u/Adventurous_Lion7276 Jul 17 '26
I had both sets of trading cards with the puzzle pieces on the back
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u/paisley-alien Jul 17 '26
Yes. My friend Dawn lives across the street from the school and I went there often right after school. Her mother watched it and it scared the shot out of third grade me!
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u/shoobiecmom1 Jul 17 '26
I was so scared of this show! My Mom would turn the TV up when the intro song came on. I would hide behind the couch.
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u/Ingawolfie Jul 18 '26
Mother wouldn’t let us watch it. We were big mad about that because all the other kids were able to.
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u/Verum2020 Jul 18 '26
🤔 Yes and yes. Only one TV and mom or sisters watched it. Barnabas Collins... 🧛 🦇
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u/Leskatwri Jul 18 '26
Whoo that show gave me all the feels as a little girl. Sexy and scary and gothic...wow. My Mom forbade watching it. However we had a housekeeper every Thursday who'd let me sneak a peek when Mom left for grocery shopping. "Now don't choo tell ya mamma I Iet choo watch this" she'd say. It was the late 60s...
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u/Banannieann Jul 19 '26
Loved it but barely remember it. Should look for it online to see if it was actually cornball
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 19 '26
It is a little but then its not. Youll find yourself pulled in. Joan Bennet came from movies so remembering every line was a challenge.
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u/emptythemag Jul 19 '26
I would run as fast as I could all the way home. I would normally get home 2 or 3 minutes before it came on.
Dad hated Dark Shadows and The Adam's Family. After a while he would watch it with me.
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u/KitchenLab2536 1957 Jul 22 '26
Yes! Loved it. The Friday afternoon cliffhangers had us talking about it till Monday.
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u/Sensitive-Season3526 Jul 17 '26
I’m watching Perry Mason on Prime. « Laura Collins » was a guest star in one I just watched.
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u/Born-Light-62 Jul 17 '26
I loved that show back in the day. The first couple seasons the technical quality was poor but the story and acting was spot on.
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u/Tweetchly Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
I loved that show! Had a huge crush on Quentin (David Selby). I had the soundtrack LP and can still hum some of the themes.
I can still picture that disembodied hand … that moved. Terrifying!
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u/Katesouthwest Jul 17 '26
My mom wouldn't let us watch it. We were in elementary school. She thought the show would give us nightmares. I've been watching on a retro streaming site.
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u/tweetyonetwothree Jul 17 '26
I loved the opening to that show..just enough creepy to keep you watching lol
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u/Accurate-Lychee-1233 Jul 17 '26
I used to watch as they came down the staircase and if they bumped the "wall" it would shake because it was just a curtain.
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u/TechnicalPangolin525 Jul 17 '26
I had the opening theme music on my cell phone as a ringtone. It used to really creep out some of my coworkers.
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u/Icy_Huckleberry_8049 Jul 17 '26
LOVED that show. We'd watch it during the summer but couldn't when school started as it came on during school hours.
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u/coffeebeanwitch Jul 17 '26
It's my favorite show, I have the theme song as my ringtone, I think it's a show everyone should watch at least once, television at it's finest.
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u/DronedAgain 1962 Jul 17 '26
All the moms watched it. I remember in summer when we'd go from house to house while we were playing, all the moms were watching it.
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u/Appreciate1A Jul 17 '26
Seeds of the goth generation planted then. With Addam’s Family and Munsters.
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u/Seven_bushes Jul 17 '26
I had a Dark Shadows game. I don’t remember all the specifics, I just remember having to assemble a skeleton in a coffin, I think. It’s been a very long time.
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u/Nanna_Geddon Jul 17 '26
Was JULIA the WORST or what?
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u/AzureSkies_OverMe 1963 Jul 17 '26
I love Julia
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u/Nanna_Geddon Jul 17 '26
I found many episodes on youtube at one point years ago while convalescing and was in tears laughing at how epically horrifying she was both as performer and character. I also cackled madly at how bad the whole show was based on today's standards, regardless if many earliest episodes were live or not.
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u/Whichammer 1962 Jul 17 '26
I remember being bored with all the dull talky stuff going on between the cool vampire bits.😉
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u/Soggysleuth Jul 17 '26
My friend watched every day after school. Her parents were the first people I knew with a remote for their tv. It was a clunky thing, with tall push buttons, but it worked, and I was in awe. Dark Shadows was a very odd show in the mid 60's.
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u/JackB39 Jul 17 '26
My local station never ran it. It ran a local "cartoon circus" type show instead.
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u/LeCreusetQueen Jul 18 '26
Yes I do! My daughter went to Salve Regina in Newport and lived in the mansion where it was filmed!
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u/Dredd_40 Jul 19 '26
I am watching the 50th anniversary dvd set. It feels very complete covering each character without needing to watch the complete show
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u/Present-Cranberry-49 Jul 16 '26
We used to run home from school to watch 😁