He would only do it over if it looked really bad. Queen David just mentioned Barnabas and gave Loomis the idea to break into the crypt. Wallace, too, had a theory on the show's enduring appeal. I wonder if it holds up better. It holds up well, if you enjoy camp, actors taking it seriously, early special effects, and watching the performers desperately trying to remember their lines or find the teleprompter. He was alerted about an audition for a soap opera, which would provide him with some extra money to go to the West Coast with. Don't forget -- the "Willie Loomis" actor, John Karlen, played Mary Beth Lacey's husband in "Cagney and Lacey. I was kind of talked into doing it and really wasnt sure what I was doing at first, he related. Don't forget Denise Nickerson, the child actress who was later immortalized as the gum chewing Violet Beauregarde In "Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.". We start today's show with young David somewhat the worse for wear, following an improperly motivated "boo" attack earlier in the day. Very tedious. Cleverly, they brought the show to variousDark Shadowsconventions, which turned out to be a great way to work out the kinks, though there the presentations would include Barnabas-related material, which would ultimately be removed from the show when performed elsewhere. In retrospect it seems the theme of Dark Shadows was not the struggles of a tortured Barnabas to escape his vampire curse but rather the futile quest of a stunning blond named Angelique to get laid by any of the( obvious to everyone but her )gay men of the Collins family. Apparently the show was shot live on tape. I agree that her mystery was compelling as was the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Paul Stoddard (it was obvious Elizabeth killed him, but not why). I think it would have been more fun if we had been paid for it. How wrong they were. She just wanted to do everything there was to do in life.". That was really dress-up time.". "So that even before Quentin spoke, he had some sort of identity, some sort of mystery.". The truth is, I knew people were going to view me as Barnabas after the show ended, although there was nothing to typecast except the fangs. "We had a blast," Nickerson said of working with Henesy. Yes, she flubs her lines and sometimes is unsure which camera is on her, but she is so, so, SO watchable. Many customers are New York expatriates. Carolyn was not as interesting to me as, say, Millicent, who had ringlets, which I never in my life had and always wanted. The show also is much less confusingly organized than it is on Amazon Prime. He had just returned from a vacation, Florida I think, to his apartment in NYC and as he was about to leave, his phone rang and it was his agent, offering him the Dark Shadows role, so he decided to delay his plan to take a job teaching on the West Coast, and save up some money working on a soap for a few weeks, which turned into years. Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. They had a fake arm on the bottom of the box; it looked like it held the box. I pay enough for streaming, so I'll have to go without until/if it comes back. I mmediately told my friend that my brother was a huge DS fan and would plotz at where we were, As well as the fact that he dressed up as the character for several Halloweens. So, yes, Trask positively believed that he was doing the right thing.". The first play I was in at prep school, where I astounded myself, my family and my friends, was when I was a budding actor in 1938 or 1940. He has to kill her, of course, but the great touch is that she actually dies of fright while he has his hand around her throat instead of him strangling her or draining her blood. "There was something about (Jenny's) vulnerability that really was endearing to me." I think Dan Curtis, the shows producer, had other interests. A reunion of the remaining cast, now cryptkeepers, from Halloween last year. The ghost of Gerard Stiles had caused the . He played Humphrey Bogart in one of the Woody Allen films I think - Jerry Lacey. I thought Lara Parker had the greatest presence on the showwhen she was onscreen , your eyes always just stayed on her, even if she wasn't the focus of the scene. I just remember the actress being bricked behind a wall. "She was clearly very rich. David Henesy was an American child actor born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey on October 20th, 1956. R17, Grayson was wonderful, but I think Lara Parker was equally a draw for me. I pay enough for streaming as it is! Said Parker: "Josette represented goodness. Eve, a manmade woman, was the first of three "Dark Shadows" roles played by Marie Wallace. It does have commercials but not a lot of them and they don't cut into scenes. Later incarnations of the show fixed it by just making Victoria the reincarnation of Josette, but I would like to see where the original show was planning to go with that story. This character was the counterpart to David Collins, but was the son of Quentin and Angelique Collins. If I say nothing else important during this interview, every day of my first year on the show was sheer hell, just because of nerves. I bet your analysis is correct OP. Fun fact - i'm named after one of the characters since my mother was apparently very into the series around the time of my birth. I was in the Air Force for four years. It was unfortunate. And their appearance was of the blink-and-youll-miss-it variety. Watching it now I realize Grayson Hall was the whole fucking show. I loved the early episodes, when the show was struggling to find a voice and tone. The shows ratings skyrocketed, the writers introduced a wide variety of other supernatural beings to torment the Collins family, vast amounts of merchandise were inspired by the show and there were two feature films, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971). ", "To this day, it's a world that you can escape to," he says. Not the best pic, but you get the idea. We are changing the login scheme for contributors for simpler login and to better support using multiple devices. First a phoenix, and then a witch -- and both had eyes for someone else. "How will I ever find her?". I just watched the Laura story a few months ago and was surprised how scary she was for a svelte blond lady. Diana Millay had such a unique way of speaking (not sure if it was an affectation for the character or just her) that I found her mesmerizing. She didn't. I bought it. I had only just got to Barnabus's debut when bastard Amazon U.K. pulled the show from Prime and made it a cost-option. He was born David Thomas Henesy in New Jersey, as one of three children. Such a great name. Lastly, you can "liberate" an Amazon stick to access just about everything everywhere for free but video quality and buffering will vary. He was a sick, unbelievable creep that the world didnt know about. Quentin was very hot; thing is that he was only a werewolf briefly. R91, Bennett was in some terrific noirs, including The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, and the underrated Hollow Triumph. Couldn't wait to get home from school to watch it every day. David Theodore Collins (born 1958) was the son of Roger and Laura Collins, which was also the name of Roger's grandmother, of whom David's mother is a reincarnation. R114 She was taken in by a scoundrel - but Barnabas got him in the end. ", While on a vacation in the '60s, Scott became aware of the impact of "Dark Shadows. That is exactly the word that describes the change that took place, offers Mark Dawidziak, author of, among others, Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula and The Shawshank Redemption Revealed: How One Story Keeps Hope Alive. Thanks, R72 and R73. Circa 1991, I was visiting a friend in Manhattan and he asked if I'd like to have dinner and watch a small independent film he'd been in over at one of the other actor's apartments. The focus was on Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke . I watched about 6 or 7 episodes and became bored with it. I watched a few episodes when the revival came out in the early 90's - i was interested in the source material. "Now that you've killed her father, the wedding must be postponed.". Like R5, I was watching (and enjoying) the series on Prime. They've fixed it. When David Henesy introduces himself, he leans forward because hes not used to microphones unless theyre hanging three feet above his head. our privacy/terms or if you just want to see the damn What's missing, R88, is the sense of cliffhanger tension; tradeoff is that watching it now the camp shows through! Denise Nicholson was good too. I tried to watch the episodes a few years ago, but found it agonizing how slow the story lines moved along. I started watching DS when they already went into the past the first time, so I never saw the Laura the Phoenix storyline. It seemed to me like he wanted to take it over and make it all about himself. So if you want to watch from the beginning you have to type in "the beginning.". She bathed in it, practically. It's me! why did david henesy leave dark shadows That Generation Gap studio must have been pretty close to the DS Studios for Frid to show up in full make-up and costume. David Henesy, who played young David Collins on the original series, recently got in contact with this site to give an update on his current activities. But once we went into the studio, I found that I enjoyed it and we went back a second day to perform it again after I was comfortable. He was just going to be like every other vampire predator a threat that had to be eliminated. I could miss a week of episodes and still be caught up. But not everything Nickerson and Henesy did on the set was quite so wholesome. If you missed a line, you were out of luck.". Vee is in the biz, you know. Hard to believe she had a Oscar nom. Is Willie Loomis supposed to be young? The stories had a timelessness. Religion probably started for the same reasons. Fact No. I'm a Canadian and I faithfully watched and loved Dark Shadows from beginning to end when it was originally broadcast. At the end, as people were one-by-one leaving the virtual room, just as she hit "Leave Room," she heard someone say "Julia! During the taping of episode 19, he assaulted child actor David Henesy in the dressing room area after catching the nine-year-old trying to write a nasty accusation on his dressing room door. She was a little bit isolated and wanted to break out, like everybody in the '60s they wanted to break out of whatever mold they had been cast in. Google Dark Shadows Every Day. "We could do that, because she wore Jungle Gardenia (brand) perfume, which is extremely intense. Also got a kick out of spotting the modern zippers on the backs of women's dresses when they'd switch to the 1700-1800s stories. Hello and thank you for being a DL contributor. Dark Shadows was doing vampire as code for homosexual long before Anne Rice ever dreamt that up. The Dark Shadows Wiki is a FANDOM TV Community. Beyond various university productions, he began appearing on stage in shows such as A True and Special Friend and, as an understudy on Broadway, the 1964 production of Roar Like a Dove. This is exciting news! I liked the Leviathan story, when it featured super queeny Chris Bernau, poor thing just couldn't hide the gay. How was that? "You know, actors sometimes don't get a chance to play a real mustache-twirling villain like that," said Jerry Lacy, who played the bad reverend. ", Karlen reprised Willie in the film "House of Dark Shadows. "When that was over I think Quentin killed me on that one some time passed. Still watch and enjoy the reruns and and the series still holds up quite well. I was forewarned that this would happen, and it did. The introduction of Barnabas Collins in the second year took the focus off sincere, earnest young governess Victoria Winters, who was searching for her roots from Episode 1, and put it on an unrepentant, cruel vampire played by an actor who looked 15 years older than he was IRL and who regularly blew his lines. It was like the stock market, it would go down and up. Next to them was the portrait of Barnabas Collins. The show's demise is likely attributed to an unfortunate combination of several factors. I swear I once saw partially dressed Thayer David walk across the set as the credits were running, then hustle away as he realized the camera was on. "We thought, 'Hey! "She was a very '60s person," Barrett said. "Let Me In! Like one whole episode of a character sitting in a chair whimpering about how Barnabas would do this or that. It's a good thing "Dark Shadows" creator Dan Curtis wasn't in New York when the role of gentleman vampire Barnabas Collins was cast. All rights reserved (About Us). I first heard of Dark Shadows on DL. I believe that in this life, if you are around people who are incredibly compatible, and every single day everything works so smoothly, and everything goes like a miracle, and everything is a miracle ah, there must be something special about what you're doing. I've had a lot of laughs reading his entries. Or comedies that werent funny? And, you know, the high collars and the long dresses. I really liked Vicky, and hated Barnabas, but I kept watching until Amazon pulled the series, after I had gotten to the post-Vicky era of the show, and the introduction of Quentin Collins. David Henesy makes his first ever Dark Shadows related appearance and they all share some interesting stories. Like all fan events it was culty and as I was not in the cult quite hilarious. Also, she was beautiful -- Hitchcock would have loved her! It sure was different for its time. She stood out from all the other women in the cast. I had a crush on Donna Wandrey, who played Roxanne. When we returned to the street where our bikes had been chained to a lamppost, my friends had been stolen, while mine was still there. ", Angelique, Barnabas and Josette (Kathryn Leigh Scott) formed a haunting love triangle on "Dark Shadows.". He's hilarious. The production values, the scripts, the acting were terrible. Everybody was laughing about how often Jonathan Frid would forget his lines. I'd never heard it before Dark Shadows was on. She chewed everything but the fiberglass tombstones. Nancy Barrett never seemed to flub her lines. Dark Shadows and Edge of Night were two of gayest sets in NYC in the 60s and 70s and that is saying a lot. Things started to come together with the arrival of Laura Collins. The close-ups on David were funny! Are you at a later point in the series? It was a gothic soap. Especially that his son had died. I thought Reverend Trask was the one bricked behind a wall - he was sexy! How did the cast and crew learn that the phoenix storyline resonated with viewers? Eventually Willie's southern voice disappeared. I'm sure that David has run into Burke Devlin; his plane crash landed on the way to his dinner meeting in Panama at David's restaurant! I liked all of Dark Shadows, but I do think the 1897 storyline went on a skosh too long. Look up the shows with Reverend Trask, e.g. Dan (Curtis) did the same thing by going back in time and really borrowing from classic literature. To me the weak spot was always Jonathan Frid's Barnabas. And let's not forget that the actress who played Victoria Winters was also Claus von Bulow's mistress and testified at his trial. Hello. He did embrace his Dark Shadows past by attending a number of conventions in New York and California between 2007 and 2011, and he reprised the role of Barnabas for the first time in the 2010 audio drama The Night Whispers. I also knew I couldnt make a career out of being a star, because I would have to make a commitment to the occult, he continued. So from that point of view, it was fun.". He was very frail and not wearing any pants just pink boxers and dress shoes. I know we know why Grayson died from lung cancer. David Henesy. It's my comfort viewing. You couldn't smell the smoke through the Jungle Gardenia. Actor: Dark Shadows. And speaking of the stars on DS, Laura the Phoenix was played by a "known" B-actress named Diana Millay. R69 John Karlen who played Willie Loomis was in his mid 30's when he started on the show. It was the time of The Beatles and I was getting almost the same kind of treatment they were.. "I won't say that we thought we were going to be some legend in our own time, but we felt it, yes," the actress said. ", "The movie was fun," the actor said. "The variety of emotions and the complexity of Barnabas made him the most interesting character I've ever played, including Shakespeare. I used to rush home to watch it as a kid. I dont know if as a child you were taken to the department store to see Santa, who was supposed to be a friend, but he was a big man and he was frightening. "It's not dependent upon technology or anything. It was a mistake, because they werent intending to make him the reluctant vampire or to give him a conscience., Interestingly, Barnabas came out of his coffin in 1967, exactly 70 years after Bram Stoker wrote his seminal novel, Dracula, and in all of that time the vampire had barely evolved from predator. "That's the only time that Dan (Curtis) would do it over. Well, we were taping, so we had to do it over. I do, but I dont miss the work, he admitted. The wild plots, Grayson Hall, the very many gay actors, the flubs, the microphones hanging over their heads ("Mike Shadows"). The role was originated by Alexandra Moltke on the ABC series from 1966 to 1968. Irresistible. for your pointless bitchery needs. But while he was away, the mice played.". I was almost teary-eyed when Quentin confronted Edward about Quentin's children. And no sooner did I get back, they called me and said they had another part, would I like to play it? David had died sometime in 1970 along with a girl named Hallie Stokes. I have no interest in that at all. R71, I'm still able to watch it through Tubi for free. I would have loved to see Hall meet Barnabas . 2023 Advance Local Media LLC. He appeared in a total of 276 episodes of the . I did it for the money and for the ego trip sure, I enjoyed it, but who wouldnt? He also played Andre DuPres in the 1795 storyline. An inner conflict or emotional confrontation is more of a drama to me, Frid detailed. We were almost like a summer stock group. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 4/4/2023), Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/26/2023). It wasnt the ordinary soap opera and they went through all the horror stories three or four times; we were repeating ourselves. Since leaving acting in the early 1970s, David has remained one of the most elusive members of the Dark Shadows cast. "You know, he was a bit of a rogue. Relates OLeary, Jonathan said it was the most wonderful year of his life, because he got to do a long run of a play and he was an actor who constantly would work and look for some nuance he didnt know in the beginning. Oh, the malevolence at my house in early July, when Dallas episodes briefly went back to costing money on IMDB TV. "If I saw them and don't remember them, it's because I saw a lot of them and they began to blur. We watched for Josette sightings. I always had a crush on Jonathan Frid. Everything I've seen said they had to cut the storyline short because Diana Millay was pregnant. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local. And then when Adam killed me, I went off and did a play. Like I was going to turn into a bat or something, but it was a precious moment which really summed up, for me, what people thought of the character.. "I doubt whether I ever would have been Barnabas if he had been there," said Jonathan Frid in 1990. Too bad they didn't write her out for the duration of her pregnancy and then bring her back. In terms of the theater, I like the inner drama rather than the outward manifestation.
