70 free Dark Shadows trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Dark Shadows started in 1966 as a slow-burning Gothic soap about a governess arriving at a lonely mansion in Maine, and it was six months from cancellation when a reluctant vampire named Barnabas Collins climbed out of his coffin and turned it into a phenomenon. This quiz covers the whole saga: the original 1,225-episode ABC run, the 1795, 1897 and 1840 flashbacks, the witch Angelique, Quentin Collins and his hit theme, the two MGM films, the 1991 NBC revival and Tim Burton's 2012 comedy with Johnny Depp. The questions run from easy (who played Barnabas in the film?) to genuinely tough (which game show took over the time slot in 1971?), so long-time fans and newcomers who only know the movie will both find something to chew on. Expect casting stories, ratings history, the literary sources the writers plundered, filming locations and the comics, novels and audio dramas that kept Collinwood alive. Every answer has been checked against a primary reference and each question carries its source, so you can trust the result and argue about it afterwards.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01On which American television network did Dark Shadows originally air on weekdays from 1966 to 1971?
ABC
It ran in the late-afternoon slot and found its audience among teenagers getting home from school.
Q 02The fictional town of Collinsport, home of the Collins family, is set in which US state?
Maine
The seaside town's exteriors were actually filmed in Connecticut, not on the coast that the show claimed as home.
Q 03Who created and executive-produced Dark Shadows?
Dan Curtis
He later directed both spin-off films and the big-budget World War II miniseries The Winds of War.
Q 04The creator said the show came from a 1965 dream of a mysterious young woman travelling on what?
A train
He pitched the dream to the network the very next day, and the opening episode duly follows a young governess riding into Collinsport.
Q 05What was the proposed title of the series in Art Wallace's original story bible?
Shadows on the Wall
The bible was written from the creator's dream sequence before the name was shortened and darkened for broadcast.
Q 06Which actor played the vampire Barnabas Collins in the original series?
Jonathan Frid
He was planning to move west to take a university teaching job when his agent called about a short-term vampire part.
Q 07Barnabas Collins was originally written in for a run of how many weeks?
13
The short contract stretched into four years once ratings spiked, and the reluctant vampire became the show's protagonist.
Q 08In which year was Barnabas Collins first introduced to the show?
1967
The vampire arrived in April, when the network had warned the struggling soap it had 26 weeks to improve or be cancelled.
Q 09Which handyman accidentally freed Barnabas from the mausoleum while hunting the Collins jewels?
Willie Loomis
Barnabas promptly attacked him and turned him into an unwilling servant, a role John Karlen played for the rest of the run.
Q 10According to the show's flashback storyline, in what year was Barnabas Collins born?
1770
His parents were Joshua and Naomi Collins, and he grew up close to his uncle Jeremiah, whom he later killed in a duel.
Q 11Josette du Pres, the heiress Barnabas intended to marry, came from which Caribbean island?
Martinique
Angelique arrived in Collinsport as Josette's maidservant, which is how the fatal love triangle began.
Q 12Barnabas' young sister Sarah died of what after a cold night hiding in the woods from her undead brother?
Pneumonia
Her ghost later became a recurring presence at Collinwood, appearing to the modern-day family in the 1960s episodes.
Q 13Which actress played the witch Angelique Bouchard in the original series?
Lara Parker
She later wrote four Dark Shadows novels, beginning with Angelique's Descent in 1998, and read the audiobooks herself.
Q 21The character of governess Victoria Winters was inspired by the title character of which Gothic novel?
Jane Eyre
The writers mined classic literature relentlessly, borrowing from Poe, Stoker, Shelley and even The Crucible.
Q 22The man-made monster Adam, created in the 1968 storyline, was inspired by which novel?
Frankenstein
Adam was played by Robert Rodan, who returned decades later to voice a new character in the audio dramas.
Q 23Quentin Collins' ageing portrait storyline borrowed from which Gothic novel?
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Oscar Wilde homage ran during the flashback storyline that took the show to its ratings peak.
Q 14In the 1968 storyline, Angelique married Roger Collins under which alias?
Cassandra Blair
Barnabas recognised his former wife immediately, and the marriage fell apart within a year amid her affairs.
Q 15Which actress played Dr. Julia Hoffman, the vampire's loyal confidante?
Grayson Hall
She also played Countess Natalie du Pres and the Gypsy Magda Rakosi, and turned up in both feature films.
Q 16The actress who played Dr. Julia Hoffman earned an Oscar nod for which 1964 John Huston film?
The Night of the Iguana
She played the domineering chaperone Judith Fellowes in the Tennessee Williams adaptation shot in Puerto Vallarta.
Q 17Which actress played Josette du Pres, Barnabas' lost love, in the original series?
Kathryn Leigh Scott
She played five roles in all and later founded Pomegranate Press, which published a shelf of books about the show.
Q 18Josette's actress later wrote The Bunny Years about which company's costumed waitresses?
Playboy
The book was optioned by Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment and became an A&E television special.
Q 19Which veteran Hollywood film star was cast as the family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard?
Joan Bennett
She was best known for Fritz Lang's film noirs of the 1940s and earned a 1968 Emmy nomination for the soap.
Q 20When the series began, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard had not left Collinwood for how long?
Over eighteen years
Her self-imposed exile was tied to the mystery of her missing husband, one of the show's earliest storylines.
Q 24The Leviathans storyline of 1969-70 drew on the shared universe of which horror writer?
H. P. Lovecraft
Fans disliked seeing Barnabas reduced to a pawn of an unseen power, and the show's ratings began to slide.
Q 25Which actor played Quentin Collins, and later starred as Richard Channing on Falcon Crest?
David Selby
He had never heard of the show when a talent agent saw him in Summer and Smoke and invited him to audition.
Q 26The instrumental "Quentin's Theme" earned a Grammy nomination for which composer?
Robert Cobert
He lost the award to John Barry's Midnight Cowboy theme, and later wrote game-show themes for To Tell the Truth and The $25,000 Pyramid.
Q 27The show's original soundtrack album peaked at what position on the Billboard 200 in September 1969?
No. 18
A single of "Quentin's Theme" by the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde also cracked the Hot 100 top 20 that summer.
Q 28The series reached its peak popularity during a flashback storyline set in which year?
1897
By late 1969 the show was drawing between seven and nine million viewers a day and was the network's top soap.
Q 29For most of its run, at what time did Dark Shadows air in the Eastern time zone?
4 p.m.
The slot let teenagers catch it after school, and its ratings win there helped kill the original Match Game on a rival network.
Q 30Which soap, launched in July 1968 in the slot right before Dark Shadows, also chased its young audience?
One Life to Live
It went on to run for 43 years, outliving the vampire soap that had cleared a path for it.