Dark Shadows
An ABC soap opera of the late 1960s. It began as a modern Gothic, with a foundling governess sent to a remote New England village. Early shows included a plot sequence reminiscent of The Bad Seed.
Dark Shadows did a series of flashbacks to the 18th and 19th centuries, a flash-forward to the 21st century, and several alternate worlds sequences. Major characters included demons, a sort of Frankenstein's monster, various witches and warlocks, and werewolves. Some of these were heroes; some villains. The soap opera's dominant character was Barnabas Collins, a vampire.
The series was eventually canceled in the early ’70s — apparently not due to ratings but due to adverse publicity it had been getting as a favorite of the Drug Generation. It has since been rerun in some areas, usually as a late night show.
A subfandom interested in Dark Shadows developed, which held its own conventions, sometimes in conjunction with major regional SF conventions. Like the early Star Trek conventions, these gatherings were frequently attended by the actors who starred in the series.
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