Netflixs much-debated Dracula is latest in long TV bloodline – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio No matter how many times you drive a handy piece of lumber through his heart or expose him to a deadly case of sunburn, the undead Count Dracula always returns, reimagined and reinterpreted for a new generation. As the posters and advertisements for Christopher Lees 1968 film Dracula Has Risen from the Grave proclaimed, You cant keep a good man down.

The latest incarnation showed up Jan. 4 on Netflix, and it sure has ignited a firestorm of online debate among Dracula, vampire and horror fans. Some find this BBC co-production sly, sexy and stylish. Others are baring their fangs at it, calling it a hot mess.

Some contend that these three 90-minute episodes from the writer-producers behind Sherlock, Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, boldly and brazenly use Bram Stokers 1897 novel to metaphorically reflect on current societal issues. Purists and traditionalists say such thinking is downright batty, decrying the wild deviations from the original story (including gender-switching a major character).

But many of those whose blood pressure has been pushed to dangerous levels by this Dracula nonetheless praise the selection of Danish actor Claes Bang (Bogen) to play Dracula. And many of those completely enchanted by the first two episodes have admitted to being mystified and put off by a third episode that is every bit as puzzling as it is bizarre.

If youre of the majority opinion about this odd third episode, it wouldnt be the first time that a Moffat or Gattis (or a Moffat and Gattis) series went off the tracks at the end, failing to sustain a daring premise. Remember Moffats Jekyll, his 2007 sequel to Robert Louis Stevensons The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Remember how Sherlock faltered so badly in the later episodes?

Still, countless Count Dracula devotees have found much to admire in how Moffat and Gattis have pumped new blood into an oft-old tale. So, count on it, the debate goes on.

This is nothing new, however, since even the most cherished of Dracula films, from director F.W. Murnaus silent movie Nosferatu in 1922 to Gary Oldmans star turn in Bram Stokers Dracula in 1992, took enormous liberties with Stokers terror tale. Indeed, the same could be said of the iconic film versions starring Bela Lugosi, Lee and Frank Langella.

The only version routinely cited as a model of fidelity is a previous BBC take on the classic horror novel: the 1977 miniseries version starring Louis Jourdan. And even it changed its share of details, combining two disparate characters into one, making Mina and Lucy sisters instead of close friends and featuring a Dracula who is hardly a close match for the one described by Stoker.

The truth is, no one yet has delivered a definitive and faithful version of this incredible book. Yet many have come up with entertaining and fascinating interpretations. And while Lugosi and Lee may be the actors most associated with the role (thanks to the impact of their big-screen performances), its worth noting that television has been revisiting the story and the character for 64 years.

In fact, the Gattis-Moffat Dracula showed up on Netflix just two days before the 64th anniversary of the first television Dracula. Starring John Carradine, this adaptation of Stokers novel aired live on NBCs Matinee Theatre.

Carradine already had played Dracula in the 1940s Universal monster-rally films House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula. And if not as identified with the role as Lugosi or Lee, he also had donned the counts cape in stage productions.

This is a Dracula that has eluded vampire hunters since it aired on Jan. 6, 1956. No known copy survives. We dont even have a photograph from this production. It started the Dracula bloodline on TV, however, so Bang is the latest to hitch his hearse to a procession stretching back to the days when I Love Lucy and The Ed Sullivan Show were among the mediums most-watched programs.

Al Lewis as Grandpa on "The Munsters."Plain Dealer Historical Photograph Collection

In 1964, the CBS sitcom The Munsters gave us a Dracula played for laughs: Sam Dracula, aka Grandpa. For two seasons, Al Lewis portrayed the vampire king as a wisecracking, cigar-chomping Borscht Belt comic.

It wasnt the first or last time TV gave us a comedic count. A year after Carradines Dracula aired, former Dead End Kid Gabriel Dell introduced his oft-repeated Dracula in a funny vein on The Steve Allen Show. Over the next three decades, daffy Draculas and knockoffs flew in and out of sitcoms and variety shows, played by the loopy likes of Durwood Kirby (The Garry Moore Show), Bob Denver (Gilligans Island), Vincent Price (F Troop), Raymond Burr (The Sonny and Cher Show), Paul Lynde (Gidget Gets Married) and Benny Hill (on his sketch show).

You also could detect unmistakable humorous echoes of Lugosis Dracula in Count Von Count (the number-obsessed Sesame Street character introduced in 1972), Count Chocula cereal commercials (a General Mills product that also first appeared in 1972) and Joe Flahertys ooo-scary! horror host Count Floyd on SCTV.

But, behind all the laughter, there were many earnest attempts to portray Stokers vampire on television. Denholm Elliott, best known for playing Coleman in Trading Places and Marcus Brody in the Indiana Jones films, had the lead in a November 1968 adaptation for the BBC series Mystery and Imagination.

Three years later, Francis Lederer, who who had played the role in the 1958 film Return of Dracula, again donned the cape, this time for "The Devil Is Not Mocked," a terrific 1971 episode of the NBC anthology series Rod Serlings Night Gallery.

It set the tone for what was to come, because the 70s were a boom time for Dracula in prime-time TV. In 1973, Norman Welsh played the count in an ambitious Canadian production for the series Purple Playhouse.

Jack Palance in the 1974 TV movie "Bram Stoker's Dracula," directed by Dan Curtis and written by Richard Matheson.Dan Curtis Productions

The following year, Jack Palance was an incredibly intimidating presence in "Bram Stoker's Dracula," the 1974 TV movie written by Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) and directed by Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows). This was the first version to forge a strong link between the historical figure of Vlad the Impaler and Stokers fictional vampire.

The Matheson script also was the first to make Mina the reincarnation of Draculas long-dead wife. Yes, many of these elements were used in the Coppola film with Oldman.

Jourdans miniseries followed in 1977, and, in 1979, Michael Nouri was Dracula in Cliffhangers, an NBC series.

Dracula again went the series route with Geordie Johnson as the star of the aptly titled Dracula: The Series, a 1990-91 syndicated show. About 10 years later, Rudolph Martin showed up as Dracula in a 2000 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. That same year, the German actor played Vlad the Impaler in the TV movie Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula.

Moving into the new century, Marc Warren was the star of the BBCs listless 2006 Dracula, which aired the following year on PBS. Then Jonathan Rhys Meyers had the title role in Dracula, a 2013-14 NBC series. Then Gattis and Moffat gave us their version of the vampire.

Does it all end with a Bang? Right off the bat, given how often TV has been lured to Draculas castle, youd have to say its not bloody likely.

Recent TV stories by Mark Dawidziak:

Midseason still means a January blizzard of new and returning TV shows

Former Channel 8 anchor Denise DAscenzo dies at 61

Growing number of devoted fans being drawn to Evil

Fall TV report card: How the rookie network shows are faring

Servant premieres in top fright form for Apple TV Plus

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Netflixs much-debated Dracula is latest in long TV bloodline - cleveland.com

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero