Dark Shadows Trivia
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119 free Dark Shadows trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 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 119 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
Dark Shadows ran on ABC from June 1966 to April 1971 in a late-afternoon slot, where it 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
Dan Curtis created and executive-produced Dark Shadows; he later directed both spin-off films and the 1983 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
The creator dreamed of a dark-haired young woman on a train bound for a mysterious mansion; the first episode duly opens with governess Victoria Winters arriving in Collinsport by train.
Q 05Which actor played the vampire Barnabas Collins in the original series?
Jonathan Frid
Jonathan Frid played Barnabas for the rest of the series' run; he had been about to leave New York for a California university teaching job when the short-term vampire role came up.
Q 06Barnabas Collins was originally written in for a run of how many weeks?
13
Barnabas was written in for a 13-week run, but the short contract stretched into four years once ratings spiked and the reluctant vampire became the show's protagonist.
Q 07In which year was Barnabas Collins first introduced to the show?
1967
Barnabas first appeared in April 1967, introduced as a bid to rescue the low-rated soap; ratings climbed and the vampire became its star.
Q 08Which handyman accidentally freed Barnabas from the mausoleum while hunting the Collins jewels?
Willie Loomis
Willie Loomis, played by John Karlen, opened Barnabas's chained coffin while searching for the Collins jewels and became the vampire's unwilling servant.
Q 09According to the show's flashback storyline, in what year was Barnabas Collins born?
1770
Barnabas was born in 1770 to Joshua and Naomi Collins; the 1795 flashback shows him mortally wounding his uncle Jeremiah in a duel before Angelique's curse.
Q 10Josette du Pres, the heiress Barnabas intended to marry, came from which Caribbean island?
Martinique
Josette du Pres came from Martinique, where her family owned a plantation; Angelique arrived in Collinsport as her maidservant, which is how the fatal love triangle began.
Q 11Barnabas' young sister Sarah died of what after a cold night hiding in the woods from her undead brother?
Pneumonia
Sarah Collins caught a chill hiding in the woods and died of pneumonia; her ghost later appeared to the modern-day family in the episodes before the 1795 flashback.
Q 12Which actress played the witch Angelique Bouchard in the original series?
Lara Parker
Lara Parker played Angelique from the 1795 flashback onward; she later wrote four Dark Shadows novels, beginning with Angelique's Descent in 1998.
Q 13In the 1968 storyline, Angelique married Roger Collins under which alias?
Cassandra Blair
Angelique returned in 1968 under the alias Cassandra Blair and married the portrait-obsessed Roger Collins; Barnabas recognised his former wife at once.
Q 21The man-made monster Adam, created in the 1968 storyline, was inspired by which novel?
Frankenstein
Adam, stitched together from corpses by Dr. Lang and Dr. Hoffman and brought to life in 1968, was a direct homage to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Robert Rodan played him.
Q 22Quentin Collins' ageing portrait storyline borrowed from which Gothic novel?
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Quentin's portrait, painted by Charles Delaware Tate, aged and bore his werewolf curse while he stayed young, a homage to Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Q 23The Leviathans storyline of 1969-70 drew on the shared universe of which horror writer?
H. P. Lovecraft
Q 14Which actress played Dr. Julia Hoffman, the vampire's loyal confidante?
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall played Dr. Julia Hoffman for four years; she also played Countess Natalie du Pres and the Gypsy Magda Rakosi, and appeared in both feature films.
Q 15The actress who played Dr. Julia Hoffman earned an Oscar nod for which 1964 John Huston film?
The Night of the Iguana
She earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for The Night of the Iguana, playing the domineering chaperone Judith Fellowes in Huston's Tennessee Williams adaptation shot in Puerto Vallarta.
Q 16Which actress played Josette du Pres, Barnabas' lost love, in the original series?
Kathryn Leigh Scott
Kathryn Leigh Scott played Josette du Pres and four other roles, and later founded Pomegranate Press, which published a shelf of books about the show.
Q 17Josette's actress later wrote a 1998 memoir about her years working for which company?
Playboy
She had worked as a Playboy Bunny at the New York club while a drama student; The Bunny Years (1998) gathered former Bunnies' memories and became an A&E television special.
Q 18Which veteran Hollywood film star was cast as the family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard?
Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett, best known for Fritz Lang's 1940s noirs such as Scarlet Street, played Elizabeth Collins Stoddard and earned a 1968 Emmy nomination for the role.
Q 19When the series began, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard had not left Collinwood for how long?
Over eighteen years
Elizabeth had not set foot outside Collinwood for over eighteen years, a self-imposed exile tied to the disappearance of her husband Paul Stoddard.
Q 20The character of governess Victoria Winters was inspired by the title character of which Gothic novel?
Jane Eyre
Victoria Winters, an orphan hired as governess at a brooding mansion, was modelled on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, and the writers mined classic literature relentlessly for later plots.
The Leviathans were ancient tentacled beings awaiting rebirth, a lift from H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos; fans disliked Barnabas being reduced to their pawn and ratings slid.
Q 24Which actor played Quentin Collins, and later starred as Richard Channing on Falcon Crest?
David Selby
David Selby joined as the ghost of Quentin Collins in 1968 and later played Richard Channing on Falcon Crest from 1982 to 1990.
Q 25The instrumental "Quentin's Theme" earned a Grammy nomination for which composer?
Robert Cobert
Robert Cobert, the show's composer, was nominated for 'Quentin's Theme' but lost to John Barry's Midnight Cowboy; he later wrote the theme for The $10,000 Pyramid.
Q 26The show's original soundtrack album peaked at what position on the Billboard 200 in September 1969?
No. 18
The Original Music from Dark Shadows LP peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard 200; a single of 'Quentin's Theme' by the Charles Randolph Grean Sounde reached No. 13 on the Hot 100.
Q 27The series reached its peak popularity during a flashback storyline set in which year?
1897
The 1897 flashback, which ran through most of 1969 and told Quentin Collins's backstory, took Dark Shadows to its ratings peak.
Q 28For most of its run, at what time did Dark Shadows air in the Eastern time zone?
4 p.m.
Dark Shadows aired at 4 p.m. Eastern for most of its 1966-1971 run, a slot that let teenagers catch it after school and drove its ratings surge.
Q 29Which soap, launched in July 1968 in the slot right before Dark Shadows, also chased its young audience?
One Life to Live
One Life to Live debuted on ABC on 15 July 1968 in the 3:30 slot ahead of Dark Shadows and ran until 2012, some 43 years.
Q 30How many episodes did the original network run of Dark Shadows amass?
1,225
Dark Shadows amassed 1,225 episodes between June 1966 and April 1971; all survive, though one exists only as audio and some colour episodes only as black-and-white kinescopes.