Jonathan Frid Interviews - Part 1

Interview, part 1 of 4, The Phone Call
MPI released a series of interviews as part of their launch of Dark Shadows on videotape and on DVD. I started watching these videos and was fascinated, especially learning behind the scenes information. I have used these interviews in a number of ways on the Dark Shadows channel.
There has been a lot of interest in these videos, especially the interviews with cast members. Jonathan Frid, as Barnabas, hated when people said that his character saved the show, but Dark Shadows was very close to cancellation when the vampire appeared!
Enjoy!!!

[@danbaranowski]

Because of Dark Shadows, Jonathan Frid is one of my two TV idols (The Price is Right’s Bob Barker is the other, and Bob [still alive at 98] lived through all of Jonathan’s life). Throughout Dark Shadows’ tenure, Bob Barker and Jonathan Frid would be competing against each other with TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES VS DARK SHADOWS. Barnabas Collins is the best portrayal of the vampire on screen (beating Béla Lugosi and Christopher Lee’s portrayals of Count Dracula) and the best on-screen monster since Boris Karloff’s (Jonathan saw him on Broadway doing Arsenic & Old Lace) famous portrayal of Frankenstein’s Monster throughout the 1930s. Jonathan’s performance as Barnabas Collins remained the best horror performance until Millie Bobby Brown’s performance as Jane Ives Hopper/Eleven on the Netflix show Stranger Things

[@jimmymac9843]

Badly typecast, but he really made the best of it. Admirable.