A Tribute to TV Vampires

By Jennifer Hudock on October 7th, 2009

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They’ve been known to rise from the grave and stalk the confines of the night. Creeping into your bedroom under cover of darkness, if they spy your neck sticking out of the covers, you may become their next meal. Vampires, the living dead, have a long television history, from crime fighting vigilantes to nightstalking predators, behold: a tribute to TV bloodsuckers!

Dark Shadows
Long before Buffy became “The Slayer,” Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), a 175 year-old vampire stalked the streets of Collinsport, Maine, in search of blood and eternal love. Throughout the five year run of ABC’s Dark Shadows, Barnabas Collins relentlessly pursued love, adding to the romanticism of the vampire mythos. A Byronic hero by nature, the Dark Shadows writers never expected Barnabas Collins to take their viewing audience by storm, but he was so popular, they decided to keep him around long after the original thirteen episodes they wrote for him. Good thing, he would have probably made a meal out of them if they hadn’t.

Forever Knight
In 1989 the CBS network aired an original, made for TV movie called Forever Knight. Starring pop-icon, Rick Springfield, as Detective Nick Knight, who worked the graveyard shift as a homicide detective to hide his true, sympathetic vampire identity. The success of the film spawned a four year TV series follow-up, in which Geraint Wyn Davies took over the role as Knight, and spent his nights battling crime and other vampires to try and redeem himself and become human again. With the help of his scientist companion and friend, they continually search for a way to restore his body to its natural human state, but all the while Knight must battle demons from his past to maintain his secret identity.

Buffy and Angel
It wouldn’t be a tribute to TV Bloodsuckers if Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and her one-time vampire lover, Angel, didn’t make the list. In 1997, Joss Whedon dazzled primetime with a spinoff from the 1992 film of the same name about a sixteen year old high school cheerleader who finds out she must play the role of “Slayer,” in order to save humankind from a plethora of vampires, demons, witches and other ghoulies. During the first season of Buffy, she met Angelus, another Byronic, vampire hero, who turned against his true nature to help the slayer in her task. Early on, a romantic relationship between Buffy and Angel ensues, which ends when Angel decides he must make amends for all of his past wrongdoings. Having a taste for vampire love, Buffy eventually finds herself ensnared in another dangerous liason with vampire ally, Spike. Despite the romantic interludes between Buffy and her immortal enemies, Whedon took a chance with the vampires in his series, transforming them physically into hideous monsters when in their vampiric form, but viewers didn’t seem to care one bit. In fact, there are numerous shrines to both Angel (who went on to have his own series spin-off titled Angel in 1999) and Spike all over the Internet. So much for bloodsuckers being creepy.

True Blood
In 2008, HBO aired its television adaptation of The Southern Vampire Mysteries, a series of books by author Charlaine Harris. Telepath, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) finds herself romantically involved with a vampire, in a society where vampires wish to co-exist with humans in mainstream society. True Blood has taken the conventional vampire mythos and turned it on its ear, allowing for an interesting amalgamation of story lines that far surpass many vampire series predecessors.

The Vampire Diaries
In September of 2009, the CW network jumped on the vampire bandwagon, and aired season one of The Vampire Diaries, yet another series based on a popular YA novel collection of the same name by L.J. Smith. The series follows the trials of a teenage girl who finds herself in a love triangle between two vampire brothers–one kindhearted and the other evil-natured. Though this series is just getting underway, with the recent Twilight craze, it will likely be a popular one among teens, who long to find themselves caught up in a vampire love story, despite its obvious dangers.

Romance seems to be the order of the day when it comes to vampires, whether they make their way to TV, the big screen or the pages of a book. From Dracula and Mina, to Buffy and Angel, there is a sense of mystery, danger and excitement that gives eternal love a whole new meaning.