Dark Shadows (1990) (TV)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Dan Curtis

Writers:

Dan Curtis (writer)
Steve Feke (screenplay)

Genre:

Horror

Plot Keywords:

TV Series Pilot | Vampire

Cast

Ben Cross	...	Barnabas Collins
Barbara Blackburn	...	Carolyn Stoddard Haskell
Joanna Going	...	Victoria Winters Collins
Roy Thinnes	...	Roger Collins
Jean Simmons	...	Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Lysette Anthony	...	Angeliqué Bouchard
Michael Buice	...	Local Tough
Michael Cavanaugh	...	Sheriff George Patterson
Steve Fletcher	...	Deputy Jonathan Harker
Jim Fyfe	...	Willie Loomis
Stefan Gierasch	...	Prof. Michael Woodard
Joseph Gordon-Levitt	...	David Collins
Rif Hutton	...	Paramedic #1
Eddie Jones	...	Sam Evans
Basil Langton	...	Reverend
Veronica Lauren	...	Sarah Collins
Julianna McCarthy	...	Mrs. Sarah Loomis Johnson (as Juliana McCarthy)
Hope North	...	Gloria
George Olden	...	Gardener
Ely Pouget	...	Maggie Evans
Rebecca Staab	...	Daphne Harridge Collins
Barbara Steele	...	Dr. Julia Hoffman
Wayne Tippit	...	Dr. Fisher
Michael T. Weiss	...	Joe Haskell

Runtime:

341 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Dan Curtis Productions

Movie Connections:

Remade as Dark Shadows (2004) (TV)

Almost as good as the original !

I had barely seen the original series until this remake or mini-series, however you want to call it, was cancelled. The new series should have been a break-out hit on the Friday night void left behind by "Dallas" if it had not been done in by the Gulf War coverage. That's the only thing that killed the show and kept it from becoming a long-running series.The movie that spawned it was incredible and astounding, everything the original would have been with the budget of a prime-time series. Ben Cross was a younger Barnabus for the Nineties, and Joanna Going was more beautiful than any of the three original Victoria's. I can find nothing wrong with the cast except for the unknown Barbera Blackburn who was called upon to play Carolyn; she just didn't look like she belonged in the cast. Everyone else had fit the bill to a tee ! I'm also sure that if the series had continued, we would have started seeing some of the old DS stars in cameos in new roles.