A séance has been held in the Great House of Collinwood; a séance which has suspended time and space, and sent one girl on an uncertain and frightning journey back into the past; back to the year 1795. There, each of the Collins ancestors resembles a present day member of the Collins family. But the names and relationships have changed, and Victoria Winters finds herself a stranger in a sea of familiar faces.
| "1795 Flashback" | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Title: | "1795 Flashback" |
| Series: | Dark Shadows |
| Season: | 1967-1968 |
| Airdates: | November 20th, 1967 March 29th, 1968 |
| Chapters: | 94 |
| Episodes: | 366-460 |
| Setting | |
| Setting: | Collinsport, Maine 1795-1796 |
| Major characters: | Barnabas Collins; Victoria Winters; Joshua Collins; Naomi Collins; Jeremiah Collins; Josette du Prés; Angelique Collins; Millicent Collins; Daniel Collins; Nathan Forbes; Abigail Collins; Natalie du Prés; Sarah Collins; Reverend Trask |
| Minor characters: | Andre du Prés; Ben Stokes; Suki Forbes; Noah Gifford; Riggs; Ruby Tate; Maude Browning; Judge Hanley; Doctor Thornton |
| Navigation | |
| Previous: | "The Ghost of Sarah Collins" |
| Next: | "1796 Flashback" "The Birth of Adam" |
"The 1795 Flashback" is a major storyline that ran through the 1967-1968 season of the daytime Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows. It began with episode 366 and concluded with episode 460, totalling 94 episodes. The story is notable for not only being the first example of a time travel story used in a soap opera, but it also presents the definitive origin of the program's popular vampire character, Barnabas Collins.
The story begins in the present day era of 1967 when the members of the Collins family hold a séance in the hopes of contacting the ghost of Sarah Collins. An unexpected side effect of the séance whisks Victoria Winters backwards through time to the year 1795. Here, she must assume the guise of a governess and live with the Collins family of the 18th century. Unfortunately, her sudden arrival, her strange appearance and the presence of the Collins Family History clutched firmly in her hands makes many people very suspicious, and it is not long before Victoria Winters is branded as a witch.
Characters[]
Episodes[]
- Dark Shadows: 374 - Angelique puts love spell on Jeremiah and Josette.
Production crew[]
Directors[]
Writers[]
Plot threads[]
1796 Flashback[]
The "1796 Flashback" is actually a sub-story of the larger "1795 Flashback" story-arc. The producers of the show did not always maintain accuracy in terms of continuity of the storyline, so it is difficult to accurately determine at what point the 1795 Flashback ends and the 1796 Flashback begins. Since the majority of the present day episodes take place on or around the dates in which they were recorded and broadcast, this database is going to use January, 1968 as the measuring stick for distinguishing between episodes of one year and the next. The first broadcast episode of Dark Shadows that aired in 1968 was episode 396, which takes place following the death of Jeremiah Collins.
Notes & Trivia[]
- An alternate timeline variation of the year 1796 was presented in episodes 885-887. In this reprisal story, Josette Collins poisons herself rather than leap to her death from the top of Widows' Hill. These episodes lock the year of Josette's original death in the year 1796.
- A character named Ezra Simpson is part of this timeline, but has appeared only as a ghost. He appeared in the present day 1968 time era and was a judge that presided over a mock trial held by the spirit of Reverend Trask against Barnabas Collins. However, the character never made an appearance during the "1795 Flashback". [1]
Key episodes[]
- DS 366: Victoria Winters travels back in time from 1967 to 1795.
- DS 415: Death of Sarah Collins
- DS 425: Death of Josette du Pres
- DS 432: Death of Abigail Collins
Home Video[]
- Dark Shadows: The Complete Original Series
- Dark Shadows DVD Collection 4 (Disc 4)
- Dark Shadows DVD Collection 5 (Discs 1-4)
- Dark Shadows DVD Collection 6 (Discs 1-4)
- Dark Shadows DVD Collection 7 (Disc 1)
Related categories[]
- Dark Shadows: 1795 Flashback
- Dark Shadows: 1795 Flashback/Images
- Dark Shadows: 1795 Flashback/Episodes
- Dark Shadows: 1795 Flashback/Characters
- Dark Shadows: 1795 Flashback/Miscellaneous
See also[]
- Dark Shadows
- Dark Shadows images
- Dark Shadows episodes
- Dark Shadows characters
- Dark Shadows cast & crew
- Dark Shadows miscellaneous