Sunday, March 27, 2011

New Dark Shadows Book

Wayne State University Press has just released Dark Shadows, a new book in its TV Milestones series. The book is written by Harry M. Benshoff, an Associate Professor in the Department of Radio Television and Film (RTVF) at the University of North Texas who has previously written some shorter academic pieces about Dark Shadows.


Here is a description of the book from the publisher:

While supernatural events have become fairly commonplace on daytime television in recent decades, Dark Shadows, which aired on ABC between 1966 and 1971, pioneered this format when it blended the vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and witches of fictional Collinsport, Maine, with standard soap opera fare like alcoholism, jealousy, and tangled love. In this volume, author Harry M. Benshoff examines Dark Shadows, both during its initial run and as an enduring cult phenomenon, to prove that the show was an important precursor—or even progenitor—of today’s phenomenally popular gothic and fantasy media franchises like Twilight, Harry Potter, and True Blood.

Benshoff demonstrates that viewers of all ages responded to the haunted world of Dark Shadows, making unlikely stars out of the show’s iconic characters—reluctant vampire Barnabas Collins, playboy werewolf Quentin Collins, vengeful witch Angelique DuVal, and vampire hunter Dr. Julia Hoffman. Benshoff explores the cultural and industrial contexts of the mid-1960s that gave rise to Dark Shadows and how the show adapted nineteenth-century gothic novels and twentieth-century horror films into a televised serial format. Benshoff also examines the unique aspects of the show’s casting and performance modes, its allure as a camp cult text, and the function of the show’s many secondary and tertiary texts—including novels, records, games, comic books, and the two feature films, House of Dark Shadows (1970) and Night of Dark Shadows (1971).

In the years since its cancellation, Dark Shadows’ enduring popularity has led to a prime-time NBC remake in the early 1990s, recent talk of a Tim Burton and Johnny Depp feature film, and a popular ongoing fan convention. Benshoff’s timely study of Dark Shadows will appeal to fans of the show and all film and television history scholars who are interested in the roots of one of today’s most popular genres.

The book is available from Amazon.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I cannot wait to get my hands on this book! I'm also anxious to see how the movie turns out in 2012. With Tim Burton as director, Seth Grahsm as writer and Johnny Depp as Barnabas, it should be a blast.

retzev said...

I just ordered my copy, can't wait!

Any info on the shorter academic pieces that Benshoff has written on DS? I'd love to read those as well.

Criseyde said...

Benshoff has a chapter in Theorizing Fandom titled “Secrets, Closets, and Corridors Through Time: Negotiating Sexuality and Gender in Dark Shadows Fan Culture."

He also has an article titled “Resurrection of the Vampire and the Creation of Alternative Life: Dark Shadows and Fan Culture,” which originally appeared in Spectator. A PDF version of it is available here.

I am not sure how much (if any) of what's discussed in those shorter pieces is incorporated into his book. I've read his book and his chapter in Theorizing Fandom, but that was quite some time ago.

He's done some other encyclopedia entry type stuff on DS. I don't have a list of that.