h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Dark Shadows is not on the list? But it hands-down wins *all* the awards (best ever, most unwatchable, best villain, most loved tart, best death AND murder, and definitely most unbelievable. I guess we have to skip the most moving scene for this soap).

For those of you unfamiliar with it, Dark Shadows was a late 1960s-early 1970s "gothic" soap opera that tried to spike up the ratings by adding a vampire to the cast of characters. The ploy worked and it is now a cult favorite. You can get every episode on video tape, there are web sites, fan clubs, conventions, etc., and there were a couple of films based on the TV series.

The plots are often lifted from works of literature - Dracula, Dorian Grey, Turn of the Screw, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, etc. They involve deaths and multiple reincarnations, time travel, body swapping, possessions, and parallel universes.

It can't be beat.

My mama (yes, I'm southern--hehe) watched the Dark Shadows of the 1960s, which she told me was very popular in its time. The Dark Shadows I've seen (I'm in my mid-twenties) is the revival of Dark Shadows, starring Ben Cross as Barnabas, the reluctant vampire , and Joanna Going as Victoria, Barnabas's reincarnated love , Josette. I absolutely loved it, and I have all the videos (I'm a big geek!). Yes, most would say it was campy, but there was something about the show . . . the atmosphere, the love story, the reluctant vampire , and flashing back to the 1790s was fascinating to me. If anyone else out there watched the revival of Dark Shadows, which (sadly, it was cancelled as it aired right after the situation in Saudi Arabia) aired on NBC (an American channel) in 1991, I hope you'll post to this thread!


Marian