Fangs for the Memories: Best TV Vampires

You would think that vampires, being invisible in mirrors and all, would be difficult to photograph. And yet, they have lurked and hunted on television for decades. Here are some of the best.

Barnabus Collins, “Dark Shadows” (USA, 1965-1971; 1991)

Set in the fishing village of Collinsport, Maine, the drama series follows the haunted lives of a family with dark secrets, including a relationship to a 175-year-old vampire, Barnabus Collins (Jonathan Frid). The melancholy vampire became the most popular aspect of the supernatural soap opera. He’ll be played by Johnny Depp in the upcoming movie.

Angel, Spike, Drusilla and Darla, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (USA, 1997-2003) and “Angel” (USA, 1999-2004)

Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), has a supernatural gift to fight vampires. So it was probably a bad idea to fall in love with one, right? Angel (David Boreanaz) at his best is so sincere, so helpful and sensitive, not like a vampire at all. Angel’s longtime companion, the dangerously jealous Darla, and his rivals, the punk Spike and beautiful but insane Drusilla, soon helped Buffy to see the fearsome reality of her would-be love.

Grandpa Munster, “The Munsters” (USA, 1964-1966)

Not all TV vampires are scary. Some of them, in fact, have great comedic timing. Case in point: the wise-cracking octogenarian Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis), who provides twisted guidance to his family of movie-style monsters: Frankenstein-like Herman (Fred Gwynne), vampiress Lily (Yvonne De Carlo), wolfboy son Eddie (Butch Patrick), and the one oddball, breathtakingly pretty daughter Marilyn (Beverly Owen and Pat Priest). Grandpa’s snarkiness remains one of the best reasons to seek out “Munsters” reruns.

Bill Compton, “True Blood” (USA, 2008-present)

Based on the “Southern Vampire” book series, this show focuses on a group of Louisiana vampires who subsist on synthetic blood so that they can live amongst humans. Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) has learned nothing from the Lucy’s and Buffy’s of the past, and she falls for 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton. When your boyfriend is a veteran of the Civil War, it’s a bad sign.

Mitchell, “Being Human” (UK, 2008-present)

It sounds like the set-up for a joke: a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost are all roommates, passing for human. Mitchell is the vampire of the trio, a quiet hospital porter given to dark clothing. Like his roommates, he appears to be in his 20s but is actually much older, having been turned during the First World War. Unusually moral, as vampires go, he wrestles with whether to bestow the tainted gift of immortality in order to rescue some of those dying around him.


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