This 1966 Supernatural Pivot Was a ‘Last Resort' for a Failing Soap-Now It's a 60-Year Pop Culture Phenomenon

ABC Daytime's series Dark Shadows took the serialized television format of traditional soap operas and twisted it on its head, turning a simple story of a community with various romantic connections playing out daily into a gothic adventure in a world with a supernatural twist.

While the soap is best known for introducing Vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), the series' first supernatural storyline actually began months earlier. With the show struggling in the ratings, it ended its first year ranked 13th out of 16 with a 4.1. The creative team decided to do something different, and thus, between December 1966 and March 1967, Dark Shadows told the tale of The Phoenix in a unique supernatural adventure.

Dark Shadows tells the story of Victoria Winters (Alexandra Moltke), who comes to the town of Collinsport to work for the Collins family as a governess to the young David Collins (David Henesy). Living at the mansion, Collingswood, are David's father, Roger Collins (Louis Edmonds), his aunt Elizabeth Collins (Joan Bennett), and his niece Caroline Stoddard (Nancy Barrett).

The series started out as a gothic drama, following Victoria as she navigated the town and established relationships while living in the mansion on the hill.

Following the murder of Bill Malloy (Frank Schofield) by Matthew Morgan (Originally George Mitchell), viewers saw the ghosts of Bill and Josette Collins (Kathryn Leigh Scott) appear throughout the storyline, offering a glimpse of what was to come.

But it wasn't until the introduction of Laura Collins (Diana Millay) that the supernatural element truly began.

Prior to the show's premiere, Roger's wife, Laura, had been sent to a sanatorium after suffering a mental break. She had been away from Collinsport for over ten years.

Laura returns to town to reconnect with her son, David, and build a relationship with him. She explained that she's been living in Phoenix, Arizona. Laura's return caused tension throughout the Collins family, particularly between her husband, Roger, and his sister, Elizabeth.

Unbeknownst to her, while drunk, Sam Evans (David Ford), on the other part of town, draws a painting of a woman in flames; it turns out that the woman is none other than Laura Collins.

David gets his hands on the portrait and wants to have it in his room; this proves to be a horrible decision as David begins having nightmares, seeing his mother's face come out of the portrait.

The ghost of Josset Collins continues to make an appearance, and she finishes Sam's portrait by placing David inside the picture.

Shortly thereafter, Sheriff Patterson arrives at Collinswood in order to question Laura, as a body was found at her former residence in Phoenix, and the body had been identified as that of Laura Collins.

Throughout the storyline, viewers are given glimpses of the power Laura has acquired. This is highlighted in a confrontation between Laura and Elizabeth. Having seen how unstable and erratic Laura has been, Elizabeth orders her to leave Collinswood. Elizabeth leaves the room and heads towards her bedroom, and Laura looks into the fire, causing Elizabeth to fall down the stairs. As she tries to recover, Laura visits her and places Elizabeth in a deep trance, locking her inside so she cannot communicate with the real world.

Dr. Peter Guntrie then arrives to assess Elizabeth's condition and also assists Victoria in investigating what is happening in Collingswood. A séance is held at which point Josette speaks through Victoria, warning of an evil presence within the town.

Dr. Gunthrie is determined to get to the bottom of things and correctly identifies Laura's involvement. He confronts her, but she isn't going to go down without a fight. Through research, Victoria and her friends discover that every 100 years, "Laura" dies, and they believe she revives as "the phoenix." To solve this mystery, they exhume Laura Murdoch's tomb.

Dr. Guthrie confronts Laura, calling her one of the "undead". Before he is able to meet Victoria and assist with a second séance, Laura forces his car to crash and burst into flames, killing him on impact.

Laura convinces David to escape from Collingswood and meet her in an abandoned cabin. It was there she set the cabin on fire and planned to kill herself and her son; only Victoria showed up in time and helped convince David to escape; only Laura didn't make it and burned to death.

Having seen an uptick in viewer reactions and ratings, Dark Shadows embraced the supernatural and began planning its next arc, the introduction of Vampire Barnabas, which was initially planned to be a short story arc, but instead changed the trajectory of the show and skyrocketed it in popularity.

Today, nearly 60 years later, Dark Shadows continues to have a strong cult following, with an active community thriving on Reddit and YouTube. The series has even recently inspired a fan-watch-along podcast, Ghost Want You Dead,and has returned to television, with episodes being rebroadcast weekly on MeTV+.

The Complete series of Dark Shadows is available to stream on Tubi.

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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 10:42 AM.