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Trivia For Seniors With Answers - Dark Shadows TV Show
Free fun long printable seniors trivia quiz with answers about the TV Show Dark Shadows
What was Dark Shadows?
A: Dark Shadows is an American Gothic soap opera that originally aired weekdays on the ABC television network, from June 27, 1966, to April 2, 1971.
What did the show depict?
A: The lives, loves, trials and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place.
When did the series become hugely popular?
A: When vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid) appeared ten months into its run.
A small company of actors each played what?
A: Many roles; as actors came and went some characters were played by more than one actor.
Dark Shadows was distinguished by its what?
A: Its vividly melodramatic performances, atmospheric interiors, memorable storylines, numerous dramatic plot twists, adventurous music score, broad cosmos of characters and heroic adventures.
The original network run of the show lasted for how long?
A: For nearly five years to amass 1,225 episodes.
It continues to enjoy an intense what?
A: Cult following.
In 2004 and 2007, where was Dark Shadows ranked on TV Guide's Top Cult Shows Ever?
A: #19 and #23.
Since 2006, the series has continued as a range of audio dramas produced by whom?
A: Big Finish Productions.
The dramas feature many of the original what?
A: Cast, including David Selby, Lara Parker, and Kathryn Leigh Scott.
Creator Dan Curtis claimed he had a dream in 1965 of a what?
A: A mysterious young woman on a train.
The following day Curtis told his wife of the dream and pitched the idea as a what to ABC?
A: A TV series.
Network official’s green lit production and Curtis began doing what?
A: Hiring crew members.
Who was hired to create a story from Curtis's dream sequence?
A: Art Wallace.
Robert Costello was added as a line producer, and Curtis took on what roles?
A: The creator and executive producer roles.
Lela Swift, John Sedwick, and Henry Kaplan all agreed to be what for the new series?
A: Directors.
Who created the musical score?
A: Robert Cobert.
Who designed the set?
A: Sy Tomashoff.
Curtis then set out to find the actress to play what part?
A: The girl on the train.
Alexandra Isles (then Alexandra Moltke), a young actress with little experience, was discovered and cast in what role?
A: The role of Victoria Winters, an orphan who journeys to the mysterious, fictional town of Collinsport, Maine, to unravel the mysteries of her past.
Veteran film star Joan Bennett was soon cast as Victoria's what?
A: Her employer Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.
Stoddard was a woman who had not left her home in how long?
A: Over eighteen years.
Who was cast as Elizabeth's brother, a widower, Roger Collins?
A: Stage actor Louis Edmonds.
Another stage actress, Nancy Barrett, was then cast as whom?
A: Elizabeth's headstrong daughter Carolyn Stoddard.
Child actor David Henesy was cast as whom?
A: Roger's troubled son David Collins.
Dark Shadows had what kind of beginning?
A: A rocky beginning.
Critics were quick to deem the series rather boring for its heavy use of what?
A: Unknown actress Isles and the slow pace.
The earliest episodes concerned what?
A: Menacing but unfulfilled conflicts, threatened revenge, then an attempted murder, and, finally, a murder.
The supernatural elements that later made the show a hit, were slow to what?
A: Slow to appear.
They were only hinted at until what episodes?
A: Episodes 52 and 70 in which the audience finally sees compelling evidence of a ghost.
As production on the series continued, many new and mysterious characters, played by unfamiliar actors and actresses were what?
A: Introduced, but two early cast changes brought stage actors David Ford and Thayer David into the ensemble.
Thayer David would go on to play several formidable what over the course of the series?
A: Villains.
Michael Currie, as Constable Jonas Carter, was shortly replaced by whom?
A: Veteran actor Dana Elcar, as Sheriff George Patterson.
Most of the actors played multiple characters, and those characters often returned through what?
A: Flashbacks, the use of parallel time lines, or as ghosts.
Perhaps one of ABC's first truly popular daytime series, along with the game show Let’s Make a Deal, Dark Shadows found its demographic niche in what?
A: Teenagers coming home from school in time to watch the show at 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central.
Originally, it was aired in black-and-white, but the show went into color starting when?
A: Starting with the August 11, 1967 installment transmission.
It became one of ABC's first daytime shows to do what?
A: To actually win its timeslot.
Dark Shadows began with a 4.1 rating in the 1965-66 TV season, tying for what place out of eighteen daytime dramas?
A: Thirteenth.
The audience figures only improved slightly, to what?
A: 4.3, in 1966-67.
1966 was a volatile year for soaps, and many ended their runs between what?
A: The premiere date of Dark Shadows in June and the month of December.
By that time, six months had passed, and for Dark Shadows, the news was what?
A: Not good; the soap had failed to gain major traction.
In June, it ranked #13 out of 18 soaps, and by December, the lower-rated offerings were gone and the show officially ranked where?
A: #13 out of 13 soaps.
“The show was limping along, really limping”, head writer Sam Hall remembered, “and ABC said what?
A: We're canceling it. Unless you pick up in 26 weeks, you're finished.’
Series creator Dan Curtis had always wanted to do a vampire picture, so he decided to do what?
A: Bring a vampire, Barnabas Collins, on the series.”
When was Barnabas introduced?
A: In April 1967 and the fan response was swift and immediate.
Coupled with a time slot change to 3:30 Eastern / 2:30 Central, the fortunes of Dark Shadows did what?
A: Rebounded.
Many more teenagers found the program after tuning out the other offerings that may have been what?
A: Too "boring" to them.
By May 1968, the series was still in last place (out of 12 offerings), but rose to what rating?
A: A 7.3 rating, the rough equivalent (at that time) of gaining the viewership of three million households in the span of one year.
Dark Shadows would return to its 4 p.m. Eastern / 3 p.m. Central time slot in July 1968, without what?
A: Without losing much of its audience at all.
One Life to Live, which was launched by ABC in July 1968 in the 3:30 slot, also sought to do what?
A: To reach the newfound young demographic.
The series reached its peak in popularity during a storyline set in what year?
A: The year 1897, broadcast from March 1969.
By the end of May, Dark Shadows was ABC's what?
A: Its most popular soap opera.
By late 1969 it was reaching between how many viewers on any given day?
A: Between 7 and 9 million.
Where did it rank out of a total 15 daytime dramas in that time period?
A: 11th.
What happened in November 1969, after nine months of some of Dark Shadows' most intricate, intelligent storylines?
A: The 1897 storyline came to an end.
With ratings at an all-time high, the writers were under pressure to do what?
A: To hold the audience.
Their next storyline, known as "The Leviathans", proved to be what?
A: A thematic misstep for the show and one from which it never recovered.
Viewers were more interested in what?
A: The archetypes of classic horror, the vampire, the witch, the werewolf—than in off-camera suggestion.
Fans tended to dislike the portrayal of Barnabas as what?
A: The pawn of some greater power.
Within six months, ratings dropped from 7.3 to what?
A: 5.3.
Ironically, Nielsen ratings for March 1971, the last full month that Dark Shadows was on the air, revealed what?