"My name is Victoria Winters. My journey is beginning - a journey that I hope will open the doors of life to me, and link my past with my future. A journey that will bring me to a strange and dark place - to the edge of the sea high atop Widow's Hill - a house called Collinwood. A world I've never known, with people I've never met. People who tonight are still only shadows in my mind, and who will soon fill the days and nights of my tomorrows."
- from the first episode of the original Dark Shadows, 1966

Dark Shadows
Produced by Dan Curtis (The Original Dark Shadows, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, War and Remembrance) and John Wells (Third Watch, ER, The West Wing)
Pilot written by Mark Verheiden (Smallville, Timecop)

Alec Newman....Barnabas Collins
Marley Shelton...Victoria Winters
Blair Brown....Elizabeth Collins Stoddard
Jessica Chastain..Carolyn Stoddard
Martin Donovan.....Roger Collins
Alexander Gould...David Collins
Jason Shaw...............Joe Haskell
Alexis Thorpe...........Kelly Greer
Jenna Dewan...................Sophia
Kelly Hu..........Dr. Julia Hoffman
Matt Czuchry.........Willie Loomis
Ivana Milicevic............Angelique
Michael D. Roberts...Sheriff Patterson

Click here for more details on the cast

If anyone out there is reading who has any news tips, etc. about the new Dark Shadows, please send us an e-mail at PlanetGotham@aol.com. Sources will remain anonymous unless it's stated as okay to say where things came from.

RIP Jonathan Frid
We've been hoping/intending to update BarnabasUndead again for a while, what with a new Dark Shadows film coming out in the coming weeks and some great new DVD sets being released.

Sadly, though, our first update to this domain in nearly five years comes with some bad news... Jonathan Frid, the original Barnabas Collins, has died of natural causes at the age of 87.

Without Frid's performance as Barnabas, it is unlikely that any DS revival would have even happened. His portrayal paved the way for other famed TV and movie vampires, and it is hopeful that he realized how much he meant to fans of good television. Even if Johnny Depp is great in the role, he still wouldn't hold a candle to media's first and best Barnabas. He will be missed.

Three Years Later, Still No Dark Shadows
Surprisingly, aside from a one-time convention appearance, the 2004 Dark Shadows still has never surfaced, and it looks like it probably won't at this time.

Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis has passed away in the intervening years, though it is said that the spirit of Dark Shadows lives on. There are new audio adventures; frequent talks of new revivals, even for the big screen and possibly involving Johnny Depp; and more. Almost the entire original series is now available on DVD. If you haven't checked those out, please do. You won't be disappointed, because they're a lot of fun.

As for your webmaster Craig, I'm still doing a bunch of websites and have written several books about television, usually about Smallville. Hope you're all doing well.

Dark Shadows Lives Again!
While the 2004 Dark Shadows TV pilot never became a series, fans of the classic serial will be happy to know that several of their favorite characters will live on.

Big Finish Productions, who have been successful with their range of audios featuring new adventures of Doctor Who and other TV classics, will be producing new, original full-cast audio stories of Dark Shadows. The CD's will be launched at the 2006 Dark Shadows 40th Anniversary Celebration in Brooklyn, New York, and they will subsequently be made available by mail order and through retail outlets.

More information about this series will become available throughout the summer, so stay tuned. The official website for the Dark Shadows audio range, including the initial press release, can be found at http://www.darkshadowsreborn.com

1991 Dark Shadows Revival Series Comes To DVD
TVShowsOnDVD.com first broke the news that the 1991 revival series of Dark Shadows, which lasted for 13 episodes, will be headed to DVD on October 18 for a three-disc set.

Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for the set - currently listed at $27.97! Click here to pre-order your copy!

Sadly, it is unlikely at this time that the 2004 revival will ever see a DVD release.

Also on the DVD horizon in the near future, the original Dark Shadows is now up to Collection 20 - which means, now 800 of the original series' episodes are available on the DVD format! Collection 20 will be released in late September; the most recent release, Collection 19, came out on July 26.

Matt Czuchry Talks Dark Shadows 2004
At the WB's Summer 2005 TCA All-Star Party, Barnabas Undead's webmaster Craig had the fortune of catching up with Matt Czuchry, who played "Willie Loomis" in the 2004 pilot episode.

"The show, it was very unique. It wasn't Angel, it wasn't Buffy," he said. "It was kind of scary, and I think a lot of people are disappointed it didn't go, from what I've heard. As far as for me, and what I do, you kinda just show up, do your job, and whatever happens on the outside, you don't have control over. You just can't worry about it."

"I'm very into horror and comic books, and I went to Comic Con, and so to be able to play in a vampire kind of show like that was a treat," he revealed.

Czuchry admitted he wasn't that familiar with Willie Loomis or Dark Shadows before taking the role. However, "the guy who played Willie Loomis [John Karlen, from the original series] came on the set. Super-cool guy, man. So nice. That was a treat, you know, to be playing this guy, and then he comes, and says hi, and say, you know, giving me his blessing. Cool thing."

Czuchry has since gone on to have a popular recurring role as Logan on the WB's Gilmore Girls - a role that has even landed him on the cover of TV Guide. Congratulations to Matt for your great success after Shadows. The picture to your left is from the party; standing next to him is his Gilmore co-star Yanic Truesdale, who plays "Michel."

Fangoria #239 Features Dark Shadows 2004
The December 2004 issue of Fangoria features an in-depth article and interview with DS 2004 pilot writer Mark Verheiden about the aborted WB Dark Shadows project. The interview is conducted by Darren Gross and tells a bit about what went into the project - and what went wrong.

It also features some of the first available promotional pictures from the project. Everyone was so high on Dark Shadows that they had even done photoshoots! See some scans: Barnabas - Angelique - Dr. Hoffman (However, we do recommend you go out and buy the issue for these and several other great pics!)

In the issue, Verheiden reveals one of his original ideas for the new series - which sounded more like a sequel to what came before, with a grown up David Collins returning to Collinwood and Barnabas re-entering everyone's lives. "My mandate to myself was to make it fresh," Verheiden said, pointing out with all of the vampire-related projects that have premiered since Dark Shadows debuted.

The article talks about the frantic and fast pace that went into putting DS04 together, and what Verheiden would have liked to have seen in a series. He says he would have loved to have cast John Karlen (original Willie) in a role, and he says (about missing characters) that "there's nothing to say that in episode nine you can't bring in Joe or Burke Devlin or Professor Stokes or whomever you need."

There were, of course, differences of opinion between what series creator Dan Curtis may have wanted and the wishes of Mark Verheiden. Curtis wanted "a lengthy 1795 flashback," whereas Verheiden believed that "trying to do too much in the first half-year would be a mistake."

"Let people get familiar with Barnabas' world and his love for Victoria, what the hell Roger is up to, what's wrong with Carolyn, what Elizabeth's story is, etc.," Mark said. However, he did say "Dan's a very bright man and you don't want to discount what he says. I just felt it might be a mistake."

The entire article is a fascinating and interesting look at the new version of Dark Shadows. You can buy issue #239 of Fangoria on newsstands now or at www.fangoria.com.

Barnabas Undead Forum Closed
Since Dark Shadows 2004 has ended, and because it became too much of an undertaking to keep up with, the Barnabas Undead forums as you know them have closed. There are still many great places online to talk about Dark Shadows such as the forums at DSBoards.com.

We are, however, reinstating the Dark Shadows forum at KryptonSite, so all of you are invited and welcome to come back to talking (or typing!) there.

Also, this site will only be updated when there are new developments regarding DS04. Until then, this will still exist as an archive of news dealing with the development of the aborted series.

Should Dark Shadows ever be revived again, however, we will probably refer you elsewhere. This website took a lot of time and effort with no support whatsoever from Dan Curtis Productions, so obviously they wanted to continously return to the same old wells of "classic series" fans rather than try to reach out to the new. We doubt this would change for another incarnation, and that is just sad. A lot was put into this site without even the chance to see the unfinished pilot or even a script, which left this webmaster with a pretty bitter experience. If you did, however, like the way the news was presented here be sure to check out KryptonSite for Smallville news and Neptunesite for Veronica Mars.

WB's Ancier Addresses Dark Shadows
It's finally happened - the WB's Garth Ancier has addressed the seeming disaster that was the Dark Shadows pilot, at yesterday's WB Summer Press Tour. He called it "wonderfully produced by John Wells, very well-written. It just didn't quite gel the way we hoped it would gel, and we didn't go forward, and we're not going forward."

"There was a director assigned to it, Rob Bowman, who was a terrific director," he said. "He pulled out to do a feature film. We had a new director come in who was accomplished in movies, but frankly didn't do a particularly good job, and the rest is history."

He said the network spent $6 million on the pilot, but none of it was really salvageable. So, it seems now that Dark Shadows 2004 is certainly, irrevocably, dead.

Dark Shadows 2004 Pilot Reviewed Online
In what may be the first good news for New DS that has been posted online in the last few weeks, Dark Horizons has posted a review from someone who has actually seen the 2004 Dark Shadows pilot. And their response is favorable.

The reviewer called the pilot "terrific" and "ambitious," and "probably the fastest paced 40 mins. of television I've seen." They said the casting was amazingly solid; that the role of Barnabas fit Alec Newman like a glove. It said there was a wonderful "Suspiria" like photography with scenes bathed in primary colors.

The review goes into some details about the plot, and gives positive remarks to most all of the cast. The review ended with this comment:

"While the show does race from scene to scene, it doesn't leave you lost or confused, but after seeing it, and getting a taste of the characters and situations, you really WANT to see the next episode and find out more about these characters and what happens to them. A flashy first episode combined with a quieter character focused second episode and it would dug its hooks fiercely into an audience."

Ouch. Makes you REALLY want to see it, eh?

You can read the complete review from "You're Sick" by clicking here.

(We here at Barnabas Undead are still hoping there's someone lurking who'd like to share, and we'd be happy to review it.)

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