(BOOB-TUBE BLOOD-SUCKERS: PART 2)
So where was I? Oh yeah, SALEM'S LOT...
the television adaptation of Stephen King's epic vampire novel.
It was great and for a television show in the late 1970s trying to be scary--it succeeded.
Moving on, or should I say back, one cannot mention vampires or the supernatural without mentioning the Dan Curtis daytime drama, DARK SHADOWS! Now I'm not a huge fan of this series mainly due to the general format of soap operas' extremely decompressed storytelling. The kind of thing that tends to bring some viewers back for the next thrilling episode only to have that episode merely be filler for the Friday cliffhanger, well, you get the picture.
Nevertheless, everyone seemed to like DARK SHADOWS a helluva lot more once the mysterious vampire, Barnabas Collins came to town!
Thus, the cult following began and the show kept taking on stranger and stranger twists and turns. Fans couldn't seem to get enough of the gothic romance mixed with horror--until some storylines that didn't sit right with the viewers and once the movie wasn't successful.
After 5 years and over a thousand episodes, it faded away like a wampir in the daylight.
Only to be resurrected years later
(though for a mere handful of episodes)
In Episode 12 of the first season of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25TH CENTURY, our hero must face off with, perhaps, the strangest of all television vampires--the Vorvon!
That's right, kiddies, A SPACE VAMPIRE!
Unlike your average blood-sucking fiend, this guy is an energy drainer, he sucks the life essence out of his victims.
Poor Buck Rogers can't convince anyone that the guy's real, even as the creature makes it clear that all it wants is our lovely Wilma Deering for breakfast (and, honestly, who didn't?)!
Is it the way he uses his pinky, the link sausage earlobes or the furry monobrow that most terrifies Wilma?
Hmm...
The pubic hair monobrow?
Ah, I see!
Anyway, a strange and twisted episode enjoyed very much by this viewer at the time!
Next up is probably one of the most obvious vampires to make this list, it's your grandpa...
Grandpa Munster, that is!
One part Dracula, one part mad scientist and completely vaudeville, Al Lewis' Grandpa Munster set the table for many of the plots of the series. If he weren't scheming or inventing or just plain trying to get away with something, there would be some fairly boring episodes of THE MUNSTERS.
And the perfect straight man (woman, actually) for his hijinks was his own daughter, who is herself one of the undead:
Yvonne DeCarlo as Lily Munster had to play it straight for both Grandpa and Herman and she did it seamlessly, all the while keeping her home as dusty and dingy as possible!
Finally, the first vampire most kids meet is a friendly guy who happens to love to crunch numbers more than the necks of his victims...
The Count!
And with that, we end Part 2 of our focus on those vampires we invite right into our homes without thinking twice about it, those monsters that come right in through our televisions!
Stay tuned for Part 3 tomorrow night, same bat time, same bat channel!
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