Dark Shadows: The Arrival of Barnabas Collins

"The Arrival of Barnabas Collins" is the unofficial title of a major storyline from the 1966-1971 ABC-TV Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. It is considered one of the quintessential story-arcs from the series, owing largely to the fact that it introduced the world to the vampire character Barnabas Collins, who was played by Canadian actor Jonathan Frid. Although the show had already been on the air for over a year, many fans consider the introduction of Barnabas Collins to be the "true" start of the series and the character quickly grew in popularity both as an antagonist, and later, a hero. The end of episode 209 foreshadowed the arrival of the character, but Barnabas did not make his first full appearance until episode 210. As a vampire, Barnabas was initially introduced as an adversary to the main characters, and his introductory story included his re-emergence in the present after having been locked in a tomb for nearly two centuries, his insinusation into the modern branch of the Collins family, the mental enslavement of weak-willed Willie Loomis and the seduction and eventual kidnapping of Collinsport Inn coffee shop waitress, Maggie Evans. This story led directly into the "The Abduction of Maggie Evans" story-arc with episode 229.

Key locations

 * Maine
 * Collinsport
 * Collinwood
 * Collinwood foyer
 * Collinwood drawing room
 * Old House at Collinwood
 * Old House parlor
 * Eagle Hill Cemetery
 * Collins family mausoleum
 * The Blue Whale

Production crew

 * Dan Curtis - Executive producer; Creator
 * Art Wallace - Story developer
 * Robert Costello - Producer

Directors

 * John Sedwick
 * Lela Swift

Writers

 * Malcolm Marmorstein
 * Ron Sproat

Return to Collinwood

 * Dark Shadows: 209: Willie Loomis learns about the Collins family jewels and goes mucking about Eagle Hill Cemetery. Believing Willie to be a family member, the caretaker points him in the direction of the Collins family mausoleum.


 * Dark Shadows: 210: Willie Loomis opens the coffin of Barnabas Collins.


 * Dark Shadows: 211: Barnabas returns to Collinwood for the first time since his awakening.


 * Dark Shadows: 212: Barnabas meets Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and Victoria Winters for the first time.


 * Dark Shadows: 214: Barnabas returns to the Old House for the first time since his awakening.


 * Dark Shadows: 214: Barnabas meets Roger Collins and Carolyn Stoddard for the first time.


 * Dark Shadows: 218: Barnabas asks Roger's permission to move into the Old House.


 * Dark Shadows: 219: Stories of dead cattle drained of blood begin to pop up all over town.


 * Dark Shadows: 220: Barnabas officially takes up residence at the Old House.

Strange Willie Loomis

 * Dark Shadows: 215: Willie Loomis re-emerges behaving very strangely and deathly ill.


 * Dark Shadows: 216-217: Willie temporarily rests at Collinwood. He is a mental slave of Barnabas Collins.

The Seduction of Maggie Evans
Episodes 221-230
 * Dark Shadows: 221: Barnabas Collins meets Maggie Evans for the first time.


 * Dark Shadows: 224: Barnabas makes Maggie have bad dreams.


 * Dark Shadows: 227: Barnabas Collins bites Maggie for the first time.


 * Dark Shadows: 229: Barnabas Collins abducts Maggie Evans.

Notes & Trivia

 * Lela Swift and John Sedwick are the only directors to work on this story-arc.


 * The majority of the episodes written in this story-arc were written by Ron Sproat.
 * Stand-in Tim Gordon played Barnabas Collins' hand in episode 210, which is technically the first appearance of the character. Canonically, the character was introduced in episode 211 where he was played by Jonathan Frid.


 * Barnabas commissioned Sam Evans to paint his portrait in episode 222.


 * Barnabas met Burke Devlin for the first time in episode 225/226.

Home Video

 * Dark Shadows DVD Collection 1
 * Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series

Related categories

 * Category:
 * /Images
 * /Episodes
 * /Characters