Dark Shadows is an American gothic soap opera that aired weekdays on the ABC television network from June 27, 1966 to April 2, 1971. Dan Curtis created the show. Art Wallace's story bible makes no mention of supernatural elements. When ghosts were introduced about six months after the show first aired, it was unprecedented in daytime television. When vampire Barnabas Collins appeared a year into the series, it became enormously popular. Dark Shadows also featured werewolves, zombies, man-made monsters, witches, warlocks, time travel, and a parallel universe. A small cast of actors each played multiple roles; in fact, as actors came and went, some characters were played by more than one actor. Other notable writers besides Art Wallace included Malcolm Marmorstein, Sam Hall, Gordon Russell, and Violet Welles. Dark Shadows was distinguished by its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, unusually adventurous music score, and vast and epic cosmos of characters and heroic adventures. It is now considered a classic and has a devoted cult following. Although the original series lasted only five years, its scheduling as a daily daytime drama allowed it to accumulate more single episodes than most other science-fiction/fantasy genre series produced for English-language television, including Doctor Who and the entire Star Trek television franchise. Only the paranormal soap opera Passions has more, with a total of 2,231 episodes.
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