Dark Shadows Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
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
ABC was ready to cancel the struggling soap in its first year, until its creator added a vampire and the ratings took off.
Q 02The fictional town of Collinsport, home of the Collins family, is set in which US state?
Maine
Maine was only the setting: the town seen on screen was filmed in Connecticut and the great house in Rhode Island.
Q 03Who created and executive-produced Dark Shadows?
Dan Curtis
Dan Curtis had made his name with golf shows, including the CBS Match Play Classic, before, by his own account, a dream gave him the idea for a Gothic soap.
Q 04The creator of Dark Shadows said it came from a dream of a mysterious young woman travelling on what?
A train
A train carried the young woman of his dream towards a brooding old mansion; the first episode duly opens with governess Victoria Winters on a train to Collinsport.
Q 05Which actor played the vampire Barnabas Collins in the original Dark Shadows 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 written in for just 13 weeks as what kind of character?
Villain
A villain was the plan for 13 weeks, but viewers took to the vampire and he stayed four years as the show's star.
Q 07In 1967, Barnabas introduced himself at Collinwood as what?
A cousin
A cousin was his story, believed because he was the image of the 18th-century Barnabas in an old family portrait; the vampire had been added to lift sinking ratings.
Q 08Which newcomer to Collinsport accidentally freed Barnabas from the mausoleum while hunting the Collins jewels?
Willie Loomis
Willie Loomis broke into a hidden room of the family tomb expecting buried jewels and came out as the vampire's unwilling servant.
Q 09In the 1795 flashback, Barnabas fatally shoots which relative in a duel over Josette?
Uncle
Uncle Jeremiah had eloped with Josette only because the jealous Angelique had put them both under a love spell.
Q 10Josette du Pres, the heiress Barnabas intended to marry, came from which Caribbean island?
Martinique
Martinique is where her father ran a sugar plantation and where Barnabas dallied with a du Pres maid, Angelique, the witch whose jealousy wrecked the wedding.
Q 11Barnabas' young sister Sarah died of what after a night spent hiding outdoors from her undead brother?
Pneumonia
Pneumonia killed Sarah Collins after she fled in terror from her brother; in the 1967 episodes her ghost comes back to help the people he threatens.
Q 12Which actress played the witch Angelique Bouchard in the original Dark Shadows series?
Lara Parker
Lara Parker's witch laid the curse that made Barnabas a vampire; from 1998 the actress wrote four Dark Shadows novels, starting with Angelique's Descent.
Q 13In the 1968 storyline, Angelique married Roger Collins under which alias?
Cassandra Blair
Q 21The man-made monster Adam, created in the 1968 storyline, was inspired by which novel?
Frankenstein
Frankenstein inspired Adam, built from corpses by Dr. Eric Lang; the experiment that woke him also freed Barnabas from the vampire curse for as long as Adam lived.
Q 22Quentin Collins is kept young by a storyline borrowed from which Gothic novel?
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Picture of Dorian Gray supplied the trick: a painting by Charles Delaware Tate takes on Quentin's years and his curse, leaving him ageless.
Q 23The Leviathans storyline of 1969-70 drew on the shared universe of which horror writer?
H. P. Lovecraft
Cassandra Blair was the name Angelique took to become Roger's second wife in 1968, but Barnabas recognised his former wife at once.
Q 14Which actress played Dr. Julia Hoffman, the vampire's loyal confidante?
Grayson Hall
Grayson Hall's doctor was written as a Van Helsing figure out to destroy the vampire, but instead fell in love with him and spent years trying to cure him.
Q 15The actress who played Dr. Julia Hoffman earned an Oscar nod for which 1964 John Huston film?
The Night of the Iguana
The Night of the Iguana cast her as a stern chaperone; its shoot, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in the tabloids, helped make Puerto Vallarta a tourist destination.
Q 16Which actress played Josette du Pres, Barnabas' lost love, in the original Dark Shadows series?
Kathryn Leigh Scott
Kathryn Leigh Scott, in the cast from the first episode, later founded Pomegranate Press, which published a shelf of books about the show.
Q 17Josette's actress wrote a 1998 book about the women who worked for which company?
Playboy
Playboy's clubs are the subject of The Bunny Years, their 25-year story told through the women who worked there as Bunnies; it became a two-hour A&E television special.
Q 18Which veteran Hollywood film star was cast as the family matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard?
Joan Bennett
Joan Bennett had seen her film career wrecked by a 1951 scandal, when her husband shot her agent; the soap brought her a new audience and an Emmy nomination in 1968.
Q 19Elizabeth Collins Stoddard shut herself inside Collinwood for eighteen years believing she had killed whom?
Her husband Paul
Her husband Paul Stoddard had only been stunned: his crony Jason McGuire faked a burial in the basement, then came back eighteen years on to blackmail her.
Q 20The governess Victoria Winters in Dark Shadows was inspired by the title character of which Gothic novel?
Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre set the pattern: an orphan arrives as governess at a house of secrets. The show never did reveal who Victoria's parents were.
H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, 'The Dunwich Horror' above all, shaped the Leviathans, an ancient race that seized control of Barnabas to win back the Earth.
Q 24Which actor played Quentin Collins, and later starred as Richard Channing on Falcon Crest?
David Selby
David Selby first appeared as Quentin's silent ghost and went weeks without a spoken line, until the 1897 flashback gave the character a voice and a past.
Q 25The Dark Shadows instrumental "Quentin's Theme" earned a Grammy nomination for which composer?
Robert Cobert
Robert Cobert's instrumental left the soap for the pop charts: a single of the tune climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 1969.
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 27Barnabas travels back to 1897 through a trance brought on by what?
I Ching
The I Ching was meant only to reach Quentin's ghost, but instead it sent Barnabas's spirit back to 1897 and into his old body, a vampire once again.
Q 28For most of its run, at what time did Dark Shadows air in the Eastern time zone?
4 p.m.
4 p.m. caught teenagers just home from school, who became the show's core audience; for fifteen months in 1967 and 1968 it went out half an hour earlier.
Q 29Which soap opera launched in July 1968 in the time slot just before Dark Shadows?
One Life to Live
One Life to Live took over the vampire soap's own slot, which was shuffled half an hour later to make room; the newcomer then ran until 2012.
Q 30Dark Shadows' one lost episode was rebuilt from what?
A fan's recording
A fan's recording of the sound, taped off the 1971 broadcast, was matched with still images and new narration; every other episode survives, unlike some soaps of its day.