Dark Shadows

Dark Shadows was a daily horror soap on ABC from 1966 to 1971. It followed the lives of the Collins family of Collinsport, Maine and contained many supernatural and gothic elements, unlike most soaps.
The series gained popularity, especially among younger viewers after the introduction of the character of Barnabas Collins, a vampire who became a breakout favorite. Toward the end of the series run two feature films House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows, were made and released in 1970 and 1971 respectively. 
There also exists a remake as a primetime series from 1991, (which aired on NBC and was cancelled after one season due to losing to Gulf War coverage in the ratings) a failed pilot that The WB did not air in 2004 (but which was shown at several Dark Shadows Festivals) and a movie remake was made by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp but it was seen as more or less a parody and was not popular with fans of the original series. Several audio dramas were also made by Big Finish.
==Some Fanfic Trends==
== Fan Clubs ==
* FANG (1960s-1970s)
* Frid Fiendian Fellowship (1960s-1970s)
* Grayson Hall Fan Club (1960s-1970s)
* Jonathan Frid's Fan Club (1960s-1970s)
* The Official International Dark Shadows Fan Club (1960s-1970s)
* Shadowites of America (1960s-1970s)
* The Grayson Hall International Fan Club (1980s-??)
* Friends of Dark Shadows (1983-1987)
* The Alternate Shadows (1983-1988)
* The Dark Shadows Society of Milwaukee (1986-1989)
* The Houston Dark Shadows Society (1986-1991)
* The Pittsburgh Dark Shadows Fan Club (1987-1993??)
* The Wyndcliffe Dark Shadows Society (1988-1992?)
* The Long Island Dark Shadows Society (1988-1993)
* Dark Shadows Over Oklahoma (1990s)
* The New England Dark Shadows Society (1990s)
* The Oregon Dark Shadows Society (1991-??)
==Fanzines==
The first Dark Shadows zine was The World of Dark Shadows, published in 1975.
See: List of Dark Shadows Fanzines and :Category:Dark Shadows.
==Fiction Archives==
* Stories by Jean Graham
==Conventions==
In 1977, the first Dark Shadows convention, Shadowcon, was organized in San Diego as part of Starcon, a science fiction convention. In 1979 Shadowcon emerged as an independent gathering in Los Angeles, where it continued annually until 1986. Within a few years, the nature of the Shadowcon conventions began to expand and diversify by including all aspects of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.
"Dark Shadows Festival, founded in 1983, superseded the original Shadowcon gatherings. The first "fests" were held at San Jose, California, and Newark, New Jersey, in 1983. The latter included a trip to Lyndhurst, the mansion in Tarrytown, New York, that was used as Collinwood in the feature movies House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows. The two films were then screened for those in attendance. The festival also featured a costume contest, now a regular feature of the annual program. The initial fests were followed by additional meetings in San Jose and in Dallas, Texas, after which they alternated between the Los Angeles and New York City areas. The tenth festival was held in New York and included a tour of New England locations used in the Dark Shadows series and films. It featured an appearance by Jonathan Frid (the original Barnabas Collins), who has attended 13 of the 16 fests held through 1993." http://www.answers.com/topic/dark-shadows-fandom Dark Shwods Fandom at Answers.com 
==Fanvids==
Unlike other fandoms, fanvids were strongly discouraged in Dark Shadows fandom. While most professional conventions didn't show fanvids, almost every media fandom since Star Trek has maintained a robust, if somewhat underground, group of vidders who shared their songvids with other fans. However, as one fan explained:
An example of one of the songtape collections that managed to escape into the wild can be found here and here. A small selection of fanvids online can be found here, and of course, a Youtube search reveals many more vids. An incomplete playlist of songvids and other fan made productions that were shown at the 2003 Dark Shadows Festival in New York can be found here.
Ironically, Dark Shadows fandom was one of the early participants in the making of fanvids. In July 1984 at the second annual Dark Shadows Festival in Newark, New Jersey: “A music video featuring relevant scenes from "Dark Shadows" set to such popular tunes: "Who Can It Be Now?", "You Can Do Magic", and “Memory (Theme From "Cats")", was prepared by Mary Overstreet, [Carol Maschke] and Kathleen Reynolds. Their tape was very entertaining and much enjoyed by all.”The World of Dark Shadows #38 At the July 1986 Dark Shadows festival in Dallas, Texas music videos produced by Dark Video and The Tower Room were also shown.The World of Dark Shadows #46 In 1992, MPI a commercial video production house announced plans to release two more "special tapes": a documentary on the "Dark Shadows Phenomenon" and something called "The 'Dark Shadows' Music Video." It is unclear if the tape was ever released.The World of Dark Shadows #65 However that year one fan wrote a letter of comment to MPI's "Behind The Scenes of Dark Shadows" Video: "The MPI Music Video was fantastic. My favorite is "At the Blue Whale" I love the way they're all getting down and boogeying. "Josette's Theme" and "Ode to Angelique" are running a close second.".The World of Dark Shadows #63-64
At October 25th, 1991 SOUTH SHORE SHADOWS SOCIETY and THE NEW ENGLAND DARK SHADOWS SOCIETY meeting, Lynn Rocha showed a music video she created entitled 'Block Magic Woman' featuring Lysette Anthony.The World of Dark Shadows #62
At the 1993, Dark Shadows Festival: "convention-goers--watched videos on the big screen in the Westside Ballroom. Between star appearances. the fans watched 1840 episodes . 1841 Parallel Time episodes. DS music videos. fan-made videos, and bloopers from both series. .Especially outstanding was "Memories." Dave Brown's compilation of star clips from virtually all of the New Jersey, Texas, California. and New York Festivals since 1983."The World of Dark Shadows #67-68
A partial list of Dark Shadows vids from the VCR era can be found at List of Dark Shadows Early Songvids.
==Mailing Lists==
* Adult Dark Shadows at Fan Email Lists: Description: "Love Quenton and Barnabus, and all the rest. Come share a discussion or a story. General fiction as well as hetero and slash is accepted here. The stories will be archived unless they include a 'NO ARCHIVE" notation. This does include stories posted as URLs Adults only please, I don't like to moderate the topics by age."
 
* Dark Shadows Slash Description: "Love Quenton and Barnabus, and all the rest. Come share a discussion or a story. General fiction as well as hetero and slash is accepted here. The stories will be archived unless they include a 'NO ARCHIVE" notation. This does include stories posted as URLs Adults only please, I don't like to moderate the topics by age."
	
* Maggie Evans Fanfictions Description: "This group is for fanfictions centering around the character of Maggie Evans from the TV show Dark Shadows. You can pair her up with anyone you like especially if it is Joe and Wille. Any type of story is welcome but NC-17 and R rated stories must be marked and slash is welcome. "
	
* Dark Shadows Over 40 A Yahoo Group with 342 members that was started on August 21, 2002. The group had as many as 300 messages a month in its first year but faded out in 2016. Description: "This group is aimed at the original, "first run" fans of Dark Shadows, all of whom must be over 40 unless they were "very" precocious. I used to rush home from Junior High to catch the first-run episodes, and I suspect that many of you did, too. Rules? Try to behave as if you are "over 40." Any teen (or older member) watching the episode repeats is welcome here as long as she (usually) or he has mastered "talking like an adult." I did that as a pre-teen, so it can't be that hard."
==Other Resources==
*Dark Shadows Videocassette Episode Guide
*The Collinsport Society - roleplay website
==References==
Category:Dark Shadows