Dark Shadows
David Selby made his television debut as the ghost of Quentin Collins on December 16, 1968. Aside from occasional fits of maniacal laughter, Quentin Collins remains silent for quite some time as he haunts the Collinwood estate, focusing his energies on the children, David Collins (David Henesy) and Amy Jennings (Denise Nickerson). He communicates with the children via an old candlestick telephone, and the character also has his own music, "Quentin's Theme (Shadows of the Night)," which plays repeatedly on his gramophone. David Selby eventually recorded a spoken-word version of the theme, which was released on a soundtrack album. "Quentin's Theme (Shadows of the Night)" is available on The Original Music from Dark Shadows (paid link).
Quentin's first words ("Hello! Hello!") are spoken when Barnabas Collins travels back to 1897 to find out why the ghost of Quentin Collins is menacing the Collins family in 1969. Eventually, audiences see Quentin Collins suffer the curse of becoming a werewolf.
All existing episodes of Dark Shadows have been released on DVD from MPI Home Video. The complete series is available as a single box set through online retailers such as Amazon (paid link). Separate 4-disc volumes of the episodes are also available. David Selby makes his first appearance in episode 646 (Collection 11, paid link). He speaks for the first time in episode 701 (Collection 13) and his final appearance is in episode 1230 (Collection 26, paid link). He left the series prior to its final episode due to appendicitis.
Dark Shadows comes and goes from various streaming services. PlutoTV includes some of David's episodes for free with commercials. Amazon's Freevee service has the entire series. You can stream the entire series free without a subscription on tubi. For the latest information on streaming options, consult Reelgood. MPI Home Video offers a dedicated Dark Shadows streaming service at darkshadows.tv.
To read David's own account of his time on Dark Shadows, check out My Shadowed Past. Additional images from Dark Shadows are available in Light and Shadows.
Images from Quentin Collins' haunting of Collinwood and the subsequent 1897 time travel sequence appear below.
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