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Dark Shadows (1966 TV Series)
''Dark Shadows'' is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971. The show depicted the lives, loves, trials, and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place. The series became popular when vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) was introduced ten months into its run. It would also feature ghosts, werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and a parallel universe. A small company of actors each played many roles; as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. The show was distinguished by its melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, adventurous music score, broad cosmos of characters, and heroic adventures. Unusual among the soap operas of its time, which were aimed primarily at adults, ''Dark Shadows'' develop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soap Opera
A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers.Bowles, p. 118. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. BBC Radio's ''The Archers'', first broadcast in 1950, is the world's longest-running radio soap opera. The longest-running current television soap is '' Coronation Street'', which was first broadcast on ITV in 1960, with the record for the longest running soap opera in history being held by '' Guiding Light'', which began on radio in 1937, transitioned to television in 1952, and ended in 2009. A crucial element that defines the soap opera is the open-ended serial nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Alber ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall (September 18, 1922 – August 7, 1985) was an American television, film, and stage actress. She was widely regarded for her avant-garde theatrical performances from the 1960s to the 1980s. Hall was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Golden Globe Award for the John Huston film ''The Night of the Iguana'' (1964). She played multiple prominent roles on the gothic soap opera ''Dark Shadows'' (1966–71), and appeared on '' One Life to Live'' (1982–83). In 2006, a biography of her was released titled ''Grayson Hall: A Hard Act to Follow''. Early life Hall was born Shirley Grossman in Philadelphia in 1922, the only child of Eleanor and Joseph Grossman. Her father was from Latvia and her mother, who had acted in the Yiddish theatre, was from South Africa. Both were from Jewish immigrant families. When Hall was eight, her parents separated but never divorced. Hall became interested in acting, as an escape from a painful childhood ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California, on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network's secondary offices, and headquarters of its news division, are in New York City, at its broadcast center at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Since 2007, when ABC Radio (also known as Cumulus Media Networks) was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC has reduced its broadcasting operations almost exclusively to television. It is the fifth-oldest major broadcasting network in the world and the youngest of the American Big Three television networks. The network is sometimes referred to as the Alphabet Network, as its initialism also represents the first three letters of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CBS Television Distribution
CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Global. It was formed from the merger of CBS Corporation's domestic television distribution arms CBS Paramount Domestic Television and King World Productions, including its home entertainment arm CBS Home Entertainment. The division, the main distribution arm of the parent company CBS Studios (formerly Desilu Productions, the first incarnation of Paramount Television, CBS Paramount Television and CBS Television Studios), the CBS and The CW television networks, and other Paramount Global television studios, such as the Paramount Media Networks division, was formed on September 26, 2006, by CBS Corporation and was headed by Roger King, the CEO of King World until his death in 2007. Background The company handles distribution rights to acqu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Worldvision Enterprises
Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. was an American television program and home video distributor established in 1954 as ABC Film Syndication, the domestic and overseas program distribution arm of the ABC Television Network. They primarily licensed programs from independent producers, rather than producing their own content. History ABC Films Syndication In spring 1954, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. created ABC Films Syndication, Inc. (AFS), or ABC Films, a subsidiary headed by George Shupert, which specialized in syndication and in-house program production. By , AFS formed a 50/50 joint venture production company, Rabco Productions, with Hal Roach Jr. In , AFS announced an expansion in production and sales staff for the year. Five new properties were acquired by the company and all received pilots, with two set for syndication if not placed nationally. Two were to be produced by John Gibbs and Meridian Pictures, '' Renfrew of the Mounted'' and ''Ripley's Believ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ABC Films
Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. was an American television program and home video distributor established in 1954 as ABC Film Syndication, the domestic and overseas program distribution arm of the ABC Television Network. They primarily licensed programs from independent producers, rather than producing their own content. History ABC Films Syndication In spring 1954, American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, Inc. created ABC Films Syndication, Inc. (AFS), or ABC Films, a subsidiary headed by George Shupert, which specialized in syndication and in-house program production. By , AFS formed a 50/50 joint venture production company, Rabco Productions, with Hal Roach Jr. In , AFS announced an expansion in production and sales staff for the year. Five new properties were acquired by the company and all received pilots, with two set for syndication if not placed nationally. Two were to be produced by John Gibbs and Meridian Pictures, '' Renfrew of the Mounted'' and '' Ripley's Belie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Cobert
Robert Cobert (October 26, 1924 – February 19, 2020) was an American composer who worked in television and films. He is best known for his work with producer/director Dan Curtis, notably the scores for the massively popular, now-cult 1966–71 ABC-TV gothic fiction soap opera ''Dark Shadows'' and the TV mini-series ''The Winds of War'' (1983) and its sequel ''War and Remembrance'' (1988), for which he received an Emmy Awards nomination. Together, the latter two scores constitute the longest film music ever written for a film. Early years As a clarinet and saxophone player, he worked summers with a five-piece band in the Catskills' "Borscht Belt" during his college years. Cobert also played clubs in Manhattan, studied for a year at the Juilliard School, and did radio arranging for WOR-Mutual. He also did some early "ghosting," creating industrial-documentary scoring for established commercial composers. Film and TV work His early works include ''Dark Shadows'', and the two t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Karlen
John Karlen (born John Adam Karlewicz; May 28, 1933 – January 22, 2020) was an American character actor who played multiple roles on the ABC serial ''Dark Shadows'' on and off from 1967 to 1971. In 1971, Karlen starred as the male lead in ''Daughters of Darkness''. He played Harvey Lacey, husband of Mary Beth Lacey (played by Tyne Daly), on the CBS crime series ''Cagney & Lacey'' (1982–88). Karlen reprised the role of "Willie Loomis" for a series of ''Dark Shadows'' audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions. Life and career Karlen was born May 28, 1933, in Brooklyn, the son of Helen Agnes (née Balondowicz) and Adam Marion Karlewicz. He was of Polish descent. He enrolled in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on a scholarship. His first acting experiences were on early television productions such as ''From These Roots'' and ''Kraft Television Theatre''. His stage career began in 1959 in ''Sweet Bird of Youth''. He accumulated roles on both stage and television before ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thayer David
Thayer David (born David Thayer Hersey; March 4, 1927 – July 17, 1978) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He was best known for his work on the ABC serial ''Dark Shadows'' (1966–1971), and as the fight promoter Miles Jergens in the film ''Rocky'' (1976). He also appeared as Count Saknussemm in the film ''Journey to the Center of the Earth'' (1959) and as Dragon in ''The Eiger Sanction'' (1975). His raspy distinctive voice narrated many voice-overs in commercials and instructional films. Early life Thayer David was born March 4, 1927, in Medford, Massachusetts. His father, Thayer Frye Hersey, was an executive in the paper pulp industry. David attended Harvard University in the 1940s but did not graduate, concentrating instead upon a career on the stage. With financial support from his father, he co-founded the Brattle Theater Company (1948–1952) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and established himself in the professional theatre. Stage career He went o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lara Parker
Mary Lamar Rickey (born October 27, 1938), better known as Lara Parker, is an American television, stage, and film actress known for her role as Angelique on the ABC-TV serial ''Dark Shadows'' which aired from 1966 to 1971. Early life Parker was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 27, 1938, and grew up in Memphis. Descendant of a prominent Southern family, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II and a third-great-granddaughter of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, an uncle of Confederate General James Longstreet. She began a philosophy B.A. at Vassar College before receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Rhodes College Rhodes College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee. Historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Sout ... (then known as Southwestern) and a Master of Arts degree in speech and dra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clarice Blackburn
Clarice Blackburn (February 26, 1921 – August 5, 1995) was an American actress best-known for playing three characters on the cult series ''Dark Shadows''. Early years Blackburn was born in San Francisco, California, but because her father was a salesman, Blackburn and her family moved around a great deal and made their home in Wisconsin, Arizona, Louisiana, and Texas after California. She earned a Bachelor's Degree in speech and drama at the Texas State College for Women. She studied acting at HB Studio. Career Blackburn's professional debut came in a production of '' The Circle of Chalk'' (1947) on Martha's Vineyard. She appeared in an Equity Library Theater production of ''The Great Big Doorstep'' in 1950 before she understudied Eva Gabor in ''The Happy Time'' on Broadway. In 1953-54, she portrayed, to critical acclaim, "Addie" in ''American Gothic'' at the Circle in the Square. Blackburn appeared on Broadway in ''Desk Set'' (1955). Her other stage credits i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Selby
David Lynn Selby is an American film, television, and stage actor. He is best known for playing Quentin Collins on the daytime soap ''Dark Shadows'' (1968–71) and Richard Channing on the prime-time soap ''Falcon Crest'' (1982–90). Selby also had prominent roles in the television series '' Flamingo Road'' (1981–82) and the feature film ''Raise the Titanic'' (1980). Also a published writer, Selby has written several books, including novels, memoirs, and collections of poetry. Early life Selby was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, the son of Sarah E. (née McIntyre) and Clyde Ira Selby, a carpenter. He attended West Virginia University, earning degrees in theater, followed by a PhD from Southern Illinois University. Midway through his time at WVU, Selby joined the cast of ''Honey in the Rock'', a civil war drama at Grandview State Park. Career Early TV and film roles (1960s and 1970s) In 1968, Selby joined the cast of the TV series ''Dark Shadows'' as ghost Qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
