On Wednesday, April 13, 2016, I learned that Jonathan Frid from Dark Shadows fame passed away at age 87. I watched the program as a teen and loved how a story about Vampires could be made into a soap opera!
It was genius and rather avant garde for it’s time. Mr. Frid gave depth and an eerie edge to a vastly known character. There was so much drama and yet I think that kids today would go mad from boredom!
The beauty of the show wasn’t for sex, special affects, or gratuitous crime scenes. Everything has it’s place. Dark Shadows was a fantasy-serial that kept me intrigued each episode.
Conversely, at that time, we had “campy horror”, courtesy of “The Munsters”. I loved them as well, spoofing the genre, with brilliant comedians/actors. A mere 10-15 years later, we got our pants scared off with Frank Langella’s Dracula. He brought out the sex appeal, commonly characteristic of the seductive beast.
Everything has it’s place.
Monique Hall, a.k.a. M. A. Marrissette, Author 