The Bright Legacy of Dark Shadows
Imaginary Worlds21 Mai 2025

The Bright Legacy of Dark Shadows

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Dark Shadows. The gothic soap opera wasn’t originally intended to include a vampire, but when creator Dan Curtis introduced the character of Barnabas Collins in a last-ditch effort to avoid cancellation, he inadvertently launched a cultural phenomenon. As portrayed by actor Jonathan Frid, the character of Barnabas sparked a never-ending debate among horror fans as to whether vampires should be depicted as pure predators or tragic, misunderstood outcasts. I talk with Danielle Gelehrter (host of the podcast Terror at Collinwood) and authors Mark Dawidziak and Jeff Thompson about why the show had a meteoric rise and fall, what the series reflected about the 1960s, and whether Dark Shadows can have eternal life as a form of IP. This week’s episode is sponsored by Hims and Remi Get your free online visit at hims.com/IMAGINARY. Go to shopremi.com/IMAGINARY and use the code IMAGINARY to save up to 50%. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episoder(303)

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Class of '84: Rise of The Villains

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This year marks the 40th anniversary of a lot of landmarks in pop culture, especially sci-fi and fantasy. So many franchises were born in 1984. Some came to define their genre or invent new genres. In...

31 Jan 202436min

Making Blue Eye Samurai

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I was blown away by the Netflix animated series Blue Eye Samurai. I’m not alone, it has 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the supervising director and producer of ...

17 Jan 202440min

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In the 1960s, Ursula K. le Guin represented a changing of the guard in science fiction literature. She was part of a generation of novelists who questioned the colonist mindset which had influenced Am...

3 Jan 202448min

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