<p> The May release of the Tim Burton-Johnny Depp <em>Dark Shadows</em> has brought renewed attention to ABC-TV's gothic soap opera from the '60s. Although Depp says that as a boy, he wanted to <em>be</em> Barnabus, the show's most compelling character, other old fans that grew up with “Dark Shadows” are nervous. If the original series was campy, the camp was unintended, but the movie trailer suggests the story and characters are now being played for easy laughs. Burton, who once walked a delicate balance between empathy and humor (<em>Ed Wood</em>), has lost his touch in recent years. And even if that wasn't so, transforming “Dark Shadows” into a Hollywood extravaganza inevitably risks changing the story's character. The catering budget for Burton's cast and crew probably exceeds the total cost for the original five-year series, adjusted for inflation. </p> <p>Meanwhile, purists can console themselves with the release of a massive DVD set housing all 1,225 half-hour episodes. Believe me, there is a “Dark Shadows” subculturecomplete with blogs and conswhose denizens will buy the thing. Merely curious, mildly nostalgic or frankly impoverished fans will content themselves with a pair of single discs, “Dark Shadows: Fan Favorites” and “Dark Shadows: The Best of Barnabus.” </p> <p>Understandably enough, “Fan Favorites” opens with 1967's pivotal Episode 212the night Barnabus arrived at Collinwood, the patrician New England estate where most of the action (slowly) unfolds. Since Barnabus became central to the whole idea of “Dark Shadows,” most of us will wonder what exactly went on for the first 211 episodes? Played with tight-jawed gravity by Jonathan Fird, Barnabus was a courteous, almost courtly vampire who had disappeared from Collinwood 150 years earlier. Barnabus was spooky but cool; his Englishness played well in an era when Britannia ruled the airwaves. He seemed more melancholy than dangerous and became a benign presence in many of the story's increasingly out of control tangents. </p> <p>Before long, zombies, werewolves and time travelers joined the ghosts that had always lurked at Collinwood. When Barnabus somehow ventured forward in time (“the year 1995”), the show's low budget insured that the episode was staged on the decaying estate. There were no glimpses of a Ford Taurus or anything else that might have seemed futuristic to audiences in 1970. Episode 212 was still shot in black and white. It must be said that the series looked better when the limited palette forced viewers to imagine the world of Collinwood, although it's likely many of the shows adolescent fans continued to see it in black and white. Color TV would not be standard in every American home until the early '70s, just as “Dark Shadows” was cancelled by a network convinced that the youth demographic was a poor bet for advertisers. (Surely, the undead Barnabus is allowing himself a rare smile over that blunder?) </p> <p>Camp? Well, most episodes were taped live on a hasty, day-day schedule. As a result, actors flubbed their lines several times in “Fan Favorites” and in at least one episode overhead microphone booms were briefly glimpsed. Hollywood veteran Joan Bennett brought polished poise to her role as the estate's matriarch, Elizabeth, but the acting veered wildly from just about right to absurd. I can't begin to comment (or even grasp) the many convolutions of the storyline except to wonder whether “Lost” creator J.J. Abrams watched “Dark Shadows” on syndication during his boyhood. </p>
