In case you didn’t see the post a few weeks ago, all 1225 episodes of the classic TV serial Dark Shadows are soon to be released on a 131-DVD set… thankfully, for folks who might be on a little bit of a budget, there ARE other alternatives. Two of those “alternatives” come in the form of two “Greatest Episodes” collections which hit stores this Tuesday, April 10.
Dark Shadows is soon to be a major motion picture starring Johnny Depp, and unfortunately, it looks like it might be played for camp, which the original series could sometimes be. Thankfully, Dark Shadows – the classic stuff, at least – had a charm to go with the camp, and had some great performances from folks like Jonathan Frid, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, and the late Joan Bennett.
The two “greatest hits” sets focus on different aspects of the series. One would think that “The Best Of Barnabas” would be the better of the two, when actually, it was the “Fan Favorites” collection — containing some of the series’ greatest milestones — got my attention even more. It’s the latter set that includes the story that first brought Barnabas to Collinwood, and stories within also include a seance, Angelique’s curse, Quentin Collins, and more, and it’s the “Fan Favorites” set that probably does a better job of exploring the journey of Barnabas. Don’t get me wrong; there are some decent episodes on the “Barnabas” set, but there are also some really campy ones that might more resemble what we’ll find in the movies next month.
Both sets jump around in the story a bit, so they are a real sampler, if anything. If you do intend to get into the world of Dark Shadows, I might first recommend the recently-rereleased “Collection 1” which starts with Barnabas’ arrival. I also may be in a minority in that I like the pre-Barnabas episodes as well.
There are introductions to the episodes as well as advertisements for their published book work by Kathryn Leigh Scott (Josette) and Lara Parker (Angelique). These are, unfortunately, very awkward. Both are clearly reading from teleprompters and it makes the whole affair look less genuine than it needs to be. I know Scott and Parker are both talented actresses, so I guess I’ll just stick this up to time constraints for why they couldn’t just prepare something and say it, without any kind of cues.
The original Dark Shadows is really a fantastic part of TV history. I’m fairly amazed that a series like this can exist in its near-entirety, with only one out of 1225 episodes still in existence. The notion that this show continued on a daily basis when some shows can’t sustain 22 episodes in a year is also pretty amazing. The other thing that I really like about watching the show is that it’s clear that shows like The Vampire Diaries owe Dark Shadows a great bit of gratitude. Vampire returns to town, meets a woman who looks just like someone he fell in love with before he was turned? Are we talking Damon Salvatore here, or Barnabas Collins?
Like I said, this is definitely worth checking out. As stated before, my recommendation would be to pick up Collection 1 and get hooked that way, but, there are also worse ways to get into it than with these “Greatest Episodes” sets.
Here’s where you can order these two collections:
The Best of Barnabas – Fan Favorites
The complete series set:
And MPI has just re-released several of the classic individual sets, with much nicer cover artwork than what we had before. Here are ordering links for those:
Dark Shadows: The Beginning (pre-Barnabas episodes)
Collection 1 - Collection 2 – Collection 3 – Collection 4 – Collection 5 – Collection 6
Dark Shadows (With Barnabas)
Collection 1 – Collection 2 – Collection 3 – Collection 4 – Collection 5 – Collection 6 – Collection 7 – Collection 8 – Collection 9 – Collection 10 – Collection 11 – Collection 12 – Collection 13 – Collection 14 – Collection 15 – Collection 16 – Collection 17 – Collection 18 – Collection 19 – Collection 20 – Collection 21 – Collection 22 – Collection 23 – Collection 24 – Collection 25 – Collection 26
