During this past busy
weekend, my wife and I watched a documentary on Blu-ray about Jonathan Frid
that just came out a few days ago, just in time for Halloween.
And if you don’t know who Jonathan Frid was, please read on.
And even if you do know who he was, please keep reading.
The documentary, entitled “Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story,” delves into the entire life and career of Frid, the enigmatic actor who portrayed the “sympathetic” vampire Barnabas Collins on the afternoon soap opera “Dark Shadows.”
And to those who know who Frid was—he died a few years back—the title alone puts a smile on your face.
Frid began life as “John” Frid in Canada, and worked his way up through local and school plays to college plays and then beyond that to everything from dinner theater to Broadway.
He became a very well-known actor to those who were into Shakespeare, as his performances included roles in just about the entire canon of the Bard’s universe of plays.
“Dark Shadows” was originally created by Dan Curtis as a gothic soap opera about a wealthy New England family with as many problems as they had money.
Running on the daytime schedule on ABC, the half-hour show stuck to that premise for its first months on the air, but the problem was that the show was so dark that people simply did not watch it, in particular the intended audience of stay-at-home moms that sponsors wanted.
On the brink of cancellation, Curtis and his staff let their imaginations run wild out of necessity.
The show was dark already, why not add an even darker character—a vampire—to the mix?
With little to lose, Curtis set out to find the perfect actor to play the role of Barnabas Collins, the supposedly long-lost British relative of the Collins family, and they found exactly who they wanted in Frid.
According to the documentary, Curtis saw a long-shot view photograph of Frid wearing a cape in a performance from Shakespeare’s "Hamlet," and even though the actor’s face was somewhat obscured in the photo, Curtis saw something that he liked.
And the rest is history, and the documentary speaks to family members and many of his fellow actors—including surviving “Dark Shadows” cast mates—about Frid’s life and career..
Frid came on the show, the ratings went through the roof—not only were housewives now watching the show, but kids were too—and “Dark Shadows” became a phenomenon that could only have happened when it did, in the late 1960s, when there were few rules on TV, and the rules that were around were often broken on a season-by-season, show-by-show basis.
Frid became one of TV’s most famous faces, and he was such a hot commodity that when he made a personal appearance, that appearance rose almost to the level of the Beatles visiting small-town America, with pandemonium and hysteria not seen since the Fab Four broke through our consciousness.
Frid even appeared alongside such luminaries as the Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders in every teen magazine around, and his co-stars, including David Selby as Quentin Collins, followed suit.
But Frid—whose character was originally written to be quickly killed off, but that idea was scotched when Barnabas became so popular—was not entirely comfortable with the role that gave him lasting fame.
Again, he was pretty much a Shakespearean and stage actor, and his enormous popularity as a true 1960s cultural icon pretty much went against his training and his beliefs of what an actor should be.
As the first truly sympathetic vampire, we truly felt sorry for Barnabas, what with all the conflicts he had at what he was, how he got to be what he was, and how he could march on to his own drummer in the pursuit of a resolution to his problem(s).
But the documentary brought out that Frid had much of the same inner conflicts that Barnabas had, but it had to do with his career path.
He did not want to be typecast, feared that he would be continuing to play Barnabas, and although he did many other things in his career, he was only able to make sense of Barnabas when he got older, years after the show had ended, and was able to enjoy the character for what it truly was, and the fact that it made his name well-known, allowing him to dive into other acting pursuits with aplomb.
“Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story” doesn’t really feature anything revelatory for fans of Frid and the show, although it does give something of a conflicting reason why he ended up leaving the show and the show being canceled by ABC at just about the same time.
History had it that Frid had tired of the role, wanted to move onto other things, and was offered another contract to stay on the show for five more years starting in 1971, but he balked, and without Frid—even though he had pretty much given up his starring role on the show to Selby—ABC canceled the show.
In the documentary, Curtis actually fired Frid because hw refused to play Barnabas in subsequent “Dark Shadows” theatrical films after the first one, and ABC canceled the show at roughly the same time of the firing.
Other than that, Frid/”Dark Shadows” fans will know pretty much everything spoken about here, buffeted by numerous photos and film and other insights that are pretty interesting, from his beginnings as an actor to his continuance on the stage, screen and television way after Barnabas was but an entry on his acting resume.
His homosexuality is touched on very briefly, but Frid—who it is said even by close friends never had a significant other—was truly married to his craft, whether playing Barnabas or one of the characters created by the Bard.
There are also lots of extras to keep you interested well beyond the initial documentary portion of the disk, including a “Best of Barnabas” reel.
“Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story” is an excellent wrap-around of Frid’s career, and I would highly suggest that you add it to your DVD/Blu-ray collection.
II have an early appointment tomorrow, so I won’t be back in my usual perch until Thursday. Have a great Wednesday, and I will speak to you then.
And if you don’t know who Jonathan Frid was, please read on.
And even if you do know who he was, please keep reading.
The documentary, entitled “Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story,” delves into the entire life and career of Frid, the enigmatic actor who portrayed the “sympathetic” vampire Barnabas Collins on the afternoon soap opera “Dark Shadows.”
And to those who know who Frid was—he died a few years back—the title alone puts a smile on your face.
Frid began life as “John” Frid in Canada, and worked his way up through local and school plays to college plays and then beyond that to everything from dinner theater to Broadway.
He became a very well-known actor to those who were into Shakespeare, as his performances included roles in just about the entire canon of the Bard’s universe of plays.
“Dark Shadows” was originally created by Dan Curtis as a gothic soap opera about a wealthy New England family with as many problems as they had money.
Running on the daytime schedule on ABC, the half-hour show stuck to that premise for its first months on the air, but the problem was that the show was so dark that people simply did not watch it, in particular the intended audience of stay-at-home moms that sponsors wanted.
On the brink of cancellation, Curtis and his staff let their imaginations run wild out of necessity.
The show was dark already, why not add an even darker character—a vampire—to the mix?
With little to lose, Curtis set out to find the perfect actor to play the role of Barnabas Collins, the supposedly long-lost British relative of the Collins family, and they found exactly who they wanted in Frid.
According to the documentary, Curtis saw a long-shot view photograph of Frid wearing a cape in a performance from Shakespeare’s "Hamlet," and even though the actor’s face was somewhat obscured in the photo, Curtis saw something that he liked.
And the rest is history, and the documentary speaks to family members and many of his fellow actors—including surviving “Dark Shadows” cast mates—about Frid’s life and career..
Frid came on the show, the ratings went through the roof—not only were housewives now watching the show, but kids were too—and “Dark Shadows” became a phenomenon that could only have happened when it did, in the late 1960s, when there were few rules on TV, and the rules that were around were often broken on a season-by-season, show-by-show basis.
Frid became one of TV’s most famous faces, and he was such a hot commodity that when he made a personal appearance, that appearance rose almost to the level of the Beatles visiting small-town America, with pandemonium and hysteria not seen since the Fab Four broke through our consciousness.
Frid even appeared alongside such luminaries as the Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders in every teen magazine around, and his co-stars, including David Selby as Quentin Collins, followed suit.
But Frid—whose character was originally written to be quickly killed off, but that idea was scotched when Barnabas became so popular—was not entirely comfortable with the role that gave him lasting fame.
Again, he was pretty much a Shakespearean and stage actor, and his enormous popularity as a true 1960s cultural icon pretty much went against his training and his beliefs of what an actor should be.
As the first truly sympathetic vampire, we truly felt sorry for Barnabas, what with all the conflicts he had at what he was, how he got to be what he was, and how he could march on to his own drummer in the pursuit of a resolution to his problem(s).
But the documentary brought out that Frid had much of the same inner conflicts that Barnabas had, but it had to do with his career path.
He did not want to be typecast, feared that he would be continuing to play Barnabas, and although he did many other things in his career, he was only able to make sense of Barnabas when he got older, years after the show had ended, and was able to enjoy the character for what it truly was, and the fact that it made his name well-known, allowing him to dive into other acting pursuits with aplomb.
“Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story” doesn’t really feature anything revelatory for fans of Frid and the show, although it does give something of a conflicting reason why he ended up leaving the show and the show being canceled by ABC at just about the same time.
History had it that Frid had tired of the role, wanted to move onto other things, and was offered another contract to stay on the show for five more years starting in 1971, but he balked, and without Frid—even though he had pretty much given up his starring role on the show to Selby—ABC canceled the show.
In the documentary, Curtis actually fired Frid because hw refused to play Barnabas in subsequent “Dark Shadows” theatrical films after the first one, and ABC canceled the show at roughly the same time of the firing.
Other than that, Frid/”Dark Shadows” fans will know pretty much everything spoken about here, buffeted by numerous photos and film and other insights that are pretty interesting, from his beginnings as an actor to his continuance on the stage, screen and television way after Barnabas was but an entry on his acting resume.
His homosexuality is touched on very briefly, but Frid—who it is said even by close friends never had a significant other—was truly married to his craft, whether playing Barnabas or one of the characters created by the Bard.
There are also lots of extras to keep you interested well beyond the initial documentary portion of the disk, including a “Best of Barnabas” reel.
“Dark Shadows and Beyond: The Jonathan Frid Story” is an excellent wrap-around of Frid’s career, and I would highly suggest that you add it to your DVD/Blu-ray collection.
II have an early appointment tomorrow, so I won’t be back in my usual perch until Thursday. Have a great Wednesday, and I will speak to you then.
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