Lengthening ‘Shadows’

“Dark Shadows” has seemingly endured about as long as its most beloved character, the 175-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins.

Well, maybe not that long. But the daytime gothic soap opera, which premiered on ABC on June 27, 1966, and continued until 1971, simply won’t die. In fact, the show has found new blood in reruns--first in syndication, then on PBS and now on the Sci-Fi Channel.

This weekend, an estimated 5,000 fans are expected to attend the annual “Dark Shadows” Festival, to be held Friday through Sunday at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.

Among the original series actors scheduled to appear are David Selby, Lara Parker, Kathryn Leigh Scott, John Karlen, Nancy Barrett and Mitchell Ryan.

The festivals attract all age groups, says Parker, who played Angelique. “We have lots and lots of new fans,” she says. “There are people who show up who name their children Angelique. There are people who have been coming back for 20 years, and they all know each other. For them it’s a real pastime. It’s based on ‘Dark Shadows,’ but they all know each other and enjoy being together.”

New generations have access to the 30-year-old program, with all 1,225 episodes available on MPI home video. The series’ creator, Dan Curtis of “The Winds of War” fame, is even preparing a stage musical based on the series, and the second “Dark Shadows” feature film, 1971’s “Night of Dark Shadows,” is slated to be restored.

“Sometimes fans wait for an hour and half just to say hello,” Parker says of the autograph-signing sessions. “They give us presents. They talk about their experiences and what it meant to them to be watching the show as teenagers and how much the characters meant to them. Sometimes it’s quite touching.”

“We take it pretty serious,” says Scott, who played Josette. “‘We raise tons of money for charity.”

Though they played enemies on the series, Scott and Parker are the best of friends. In fact, the cast is closer now than when they did the series. “We were young and we were very career-oriented,” Scott says. “One of the reasons why we love going is because there are all of these new fans who keep coming to the show because of cable. What they are really interested in is what we are doing now. It would be stultifying if we went to one of these things and we were lost in some retro world. It would be horrible.”

Scott formed her own publishing company, Pomegranate Press Ltd., 15 years ago when she wrote her first book, “My Scrapbook Memories of Dark Shadows.” She’s published 43 books, including five “Dark Shadows” tomes. Her latest, “Dark Shadows Almanac: The Millennium Edition,” which she co-wrote with Jim Pierson, is currently in stores. And Parker is writing her third “Dark Shadows” novel for HarperCollins.

“We have all had careers and, actually, acting careers that have gone on gratifyingly long,” Scott says.

About 20 cast members, says Scott, normally show up at the festivals. Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas and once complained about his identification with the character, is noticeably absent. “Jonathan hasn’t come in the last couple of years,” Scott says. “He’s been touring with his one-man show and he lives in Canada. He’ll return. Others come in from wherever--we get them all.”

Scott and Parker say their feelings toward the “Dark Shadows” cult following have changed over the years.

“It was my first job, and so my feeling was onward and upward” after the show was canceled, Parker says. “I came to Hollywood feeling extremely confident that I had done five years on a very successful series. Of course, I said, ‘I’m putting this all behind me. I am never even going to think about this show again. I’m going to get on with my life and become a famous movie star.’ ”

Though she never achieved that stardom, Parker says “Dark Shadows” never “stood in my way at all. I got to play an awful lot of roles on TV, but I never got another big series. It just turned out that the thing that gave me the greatest number of opportunities was ‘Dark Shadows.’ I have come to appreciate it.”

Scott believes she’s put her finger on the enduring appeal of “Dark Shadows,” which premiered the same year as another cult sensation, “Star Trek.”

“It’s always my feeling that [“Star Trek” creator] Gene Roddenberry was a genius like Dan Curtis,” she says.

“Gene Roddenberry went ahead in time, and we went back in time. Both of the series borrowed liberally from the great classics--from Melville to Henry James to the Bible. They told universal morality tales. They are the kind of stories told around the campfire, the kind of stories children adore and the stories that adults gravitate to.”

* The “Dark Shadows” Festival takes place at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, 5855 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles. The hours are Friday from 6 p.m.-midnight, Saturday from 10 a.m.-midnight and Sunday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. One-day admission is $15 for two adults. Three-day admission is $30 for two adults. Children ages 6-12 are half-price. Admission may be paid at the door. For more information call (310) 641-5700 or go to

https://www.darkshadowsfestival.com.