"I Used to Love That Show!"

by Diane Oatis | Comments

I was going through some old photos recently and I came across this one: a shot I took of Jonathan Frid, who played Barnabas Collins on the "gothic soap opera" Dark Shadows—that year, the biggest thing going. He came to my town to open a new Stern's department store; my friends and I went down there early to get the best spots possible on the parking-lot pavement.

Frankly, it's a pretty lousy photo. The top of someone's head is in the foreground, the color has deteriorated and I guess the sun was setting, because the light is a little strange. But I can't tell you how many girls in my class had to have a copy of it. I wouldn't say we had a crush on him—there were younger, cuter guys on the show, like David Selby. But the vampire Barnabas (I did say "gothic") would swoosh his cape and make menacing faces, and we couldn't get enough.

I brought that photo in to the office last week, which sparked a lot of conversation among the over-40s. Pretty soon, we were doing Google searches to figure out who played the witch or so-and-so's girlfriend. One of us was even convinced that Jaclyn Smith had once been a regular (turned out it was Kate Jackson, the other brunette Angel).

That's what I love about pop culture. Doesn't matter if it's great or if it's crummy—there's always someone who will dish it with you. In any crowd, someone has a strong opinion about Dancing with the Stars or wants to weigh in on how crazy (yet brilliant) Christian's dress was on Project Runway. We bond over it—and years later, we remember it with a smile.—Diane Oatis

What TV show were you nuts about when you were growing up? (No answer is too embarrassing!) Come on, tell us in Comments.