History Series / DarkShadows

There was [[Series/DarkShadows1991 a short-lived television remake]] in TheNineties, as well as a Creator/TimBurton [[Film/DarkShadows movie version]] in 2012, with Creator/JohnnyDepp portraying Barnabas Collins. Since 2004 Creator/BigFinish has had the license to produce audios based on the series, having both new characters and many returning actors from the original series. The audios also exist in a SharedUniverse that includes Big Finish's ''Sherlock Holmes'' audio series and ''AudioPlays/TheConfessionsOfDorianGray''.

There was [[Series/DarkShadows1991 a short-lived television remake]] in TheNineties, as well as a still ongoing Creator/BigFinish AudioPlay series. A Creator/TimBurton [[Film/DarkShadows movie version]] came out in 2012, with Creator/JohnnyDepp portraying Barnabas Collins.

''Dark Shadows'' was an American SoapOpera created by Dan Curtis, which ran on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1966 to 1971. While the series had {{Gothic|Horror}} themes from the very beginning, it was not until six months into the first season when it gained notoriety by [[FollowTheLeader introducing]] overtly [[SupernaturalSoapOpera supernatural elements]].

The show's music score, composed by Robert Cobert, was also notable, receiving a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward nomination and spawning a top 20 ''Billboard'' hit in addition to several soundtrack albums.

** Angelique is a seductive woman, who is actually a witch who uses magic and murder to get what she wants.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: After Barnabas feeds on Willie for the first time, a doctor examines Willie and declares his arm to have been "completely drained of blood."

* PutOnABus: Both Joe Haskell in 1969, and Maggie Evans in 1970, were sent to Windcliff Sanitarium. Joe was sent there when, after being repeatedly [[MindRape Mind Raped]] by Angelique and discovering that his cousin Tom had become a vampire and his cousin Chris was a werewolf, he went insane and tried to abduct young Amy. Maggie was sent there to protect her from the vampire Roxanne Drew. Neither they nor their respective actors appeared on the show again.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Tom Jenning's was presented as always having been close to Maggie and Joe, despite no mention for hundreds of episodes.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** At one point in the 1795 flashback, Jeremiah Collins buries Angelique alive because her hypnotizing him into marrying Josette led to his death. So where the hell was he when Angelique cursed his cousin with vampirism, which in turn led to practically his whole family being wiped out?
** He's returned to the grave by Angelique in the very next episode, so absent from subsequent events.

AndTheAdventureContinues: Subverted, in one of the show's few moments of self-aware humor. In the final scene of the series Melanie is found with a wound on her neck that Ben Stokes declares looks like a vampire bite...only for the closing narration to inform us that, no, for the first time ever it was just a random animal attack, Melanie recovered, and everyone lived happily ever after.

* HistoryMarchesOn: A minor example, but when listing possible candidates for an "evil woman" to give Eve her life force, Nicholas Blair lists both Lucretia Borgia and Elizabeth Bathory. Viewers today are likely at least somewhat more aware of how questionable some of the accusations against the two really are, Lucretia especially.

* TheGwenStacy:
** Josette [=DuPres=], whose suicide resulted from Angelique's machinations. One of Barnabas' primary motivations through much of the series is to prevent her death or to bring her back to life. An unusual example, as Josette's death serves as the motivation for Barnabas' more selfish actions, including kidnappping and attempting to brainwash Maggie, and, even after his HeelFaceTurn, attempting to brainwash other women into becoming Josette.
** A better example is Roxanne from Parallel Time, with whom Barnabas falls in love, finally able to get over Josette. Unfortunately, as Barnabas, Julia, and Roxanne are escaping into the main universe, the room that serves as the gateway between universes changes, with only Barnabas and Julia inside and Roxanne trapped in a burning Collinwood. Barnabas subsequently finds that Roxanne has a counterpart in the main universe. Too bad she's a vampire, and not the friendly neighborhood variety either. In 1840, Barnabas' attempts to prevent Roxanne from becoming a vampire fail, and she is ultimately killed via exposure to sunlight.

* WholePlotReference: Several [[StoryArc Story Arcs]] were taken whole hog from classic horror fiction; ''Literature/TheTurnOfTheScrew'', ''Literature/TheLottery'', Creator/HPLovecraft, etc. The first Parallel Time story arc, with PT Angelique as PT Quentin's recently deceased wife casting a shadow on his marriage to PT Maggie, and PT Julia as the housekeeper devoted to the late wife's memory, is clearly based on ''Literature/{{Rebecca}}''.

* WholePlotReference: Several {{StoryArc}}s were taken whole hog from classic horror fiction; ''Literature/TheTurnOfTheScrew'', ''Literature/TheLottery'', Creator/HPLovecraft, etc. The first Parallel Time story arc, with PT Angelique as PT Quentin's recently deceased wife casting a shadow on his marriage to PT Maggie, and PT Julia as the housekeeper devoted to the late wife's memory, is clearly based on ''Literature/{{Rebecca}}''.

* MyOwnGrampa: Almost. Laura Collins, a phoenix who was reincarnated every few decades, ended up married to her own biological grandson Roger, whose father was her son Jamison. Never pointed out in the show, either due to censorship or the writers not having the best grasp on the continuity (thanks to Barnabas's time travel adventures, her appearance in the past as the wife of Edward Collins and mother of Nora and Jamison was part of a later arc than her appearance in the present as the wife of Roger Collins and mother of David, so by then the writers could have forgotten that Jamison was meant to be Roger and Elizabeth's father).

* MyOwnGrampa: Almost. Laura, a phoenix who was reincarnated every few decades, ended up married to her own biological grandson. Never mentioned in the show, either due to censorship or the writers not having the best grasp on the continuity.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Reverend Trask is some mixture of this and a WildCard. He's obsessed with rooting out evil, but tends to become focused on a singular target regardless of guilt. Of his three major targets, one was totally innocent [[spoiler: Vickie]], one he had a legitimate grievance against [[spoiler: Barnabas had killed him in 1795), and one was an actual villian [[spoiler: Angelique.]]