The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Dan Curtis (Series Creator and Producer) had a dream in which he saw a young woman riding a train to an old gothic mansion. The woman in his dream would become Victoria Winters. Dark Shadows was also based on a previous work by Art Wallace(Story Creator and Writer), "The House", a teleplay about a reclusive woman who's husband had been missing for many years. This woman would become Elizabeth Collins Stoddard, and the house would become Collinwood.

The first few months of the series centered around Victoria Winters and the search for her past, but then a couple of ghosts appeared, then a Phoenix, and finally a Vampire named Barnabas Collins. The show became incredibly popular and has since refused to die.