Why did it work for DARK SHADOWS and it never worked for anybody else? When DARK SHADOWS, which was always flirting with the supernatural, went all in on it in an act of desperation (actually bringing in a *vampire* as well as werewolves, ghosts, zombies, witches, and the like) it didn’t feel like a stunt—even though it was! It totally was! But it felt perfectly natural and organic.
Other soaps have tried it. ONE LIFE TO LIVE did a time travel storyline. GENERAL HOSPITAL had a space alien come to town. Those storylines were just stupid. (Yes, I watched them, so I can say that. As a kid I always watched soaps while eating my lunch. It was junk food for the mind.) DAYS OF OUR LIVES has the Devil running around as a character (which is what prompted this post, here). That story is stupid, too, but it’s funny stupid. It’s entertaining stupid. But it’s still stupid. There was this spinoff of GENERAL HOSPITAL that tried its best to be DARK SHADOWS but it was just pathetic. I don’t know if anything worse has ever been put on daytime television.
Why, when DARK SHADOWS did it, did it not come off as stupid or cheap? Was it because they’d already primed the pumps by marketing the show as a “gothic” soap opera? Is that why it flowed so seamlessly when the supernatural took center stage?
