The Vampires & Slayers podcast kicks off with a special look at Dark Shadows, the 1966 to 1971 Gothic horror daytime soap opera. It starts with an exclusive interview with Mary O’Leary, director and producer of the documentary Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story, focusing on the Canadian actor whose role as vampire Barnabas Collins turned the show into a sensation and changed the genre forever. “There have been many vampire TV series and movies since Dark Shadows aired,” notes O’Leary, “but if you want to see the original, first sympathetic vampire in media, it’s Jonathan Frid as Barnabas Collins. Go back and look at the original and you’ll see that everything that has happened since, was because of him.”
Following the conversation with O’Leary is the first part of a excerpt from an interview conducted with Frid himself some 40 years ago in his then-New York City apartment, in which he begins to detail his entrance into acting as well as his feelings about playing Barnabas.
Look for the documentary Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story, available on digital and Blu-ray, October 5.