Vampire TV shows – Snarkerati bloodlust
Thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the cooler TV shows that include vampires in their main storylines, yes this is all about Vampire TV shows! Some you’ll have definitely heard of, some perhaps not, one thing’s for sure, there’s probably more blood being sipped on TV screens over the years than you perhaps realize.
If you like vampires and are looking for some cool vampire TV series on DVD then this is the place for you. We won’t cover EVERY show that’s featured a vampire as that would be insane, but this will cover the main TV series with vampire characters / storylines.
Angel was of course the spin-off series from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Angel ran from 1999 to 2004 and featured eponymous protagonist Angel in the lead vamp role. The trials of vampire Angel and his pals were often seen as darker to that of Buffy and her Scooby gang. If you like one, you’ll probably enjoy the other.
Blade: The Series was based on Blade the movie series and featured Kirk Jones in the eponymous role of Blade (Wesley Snipes had the role in the films). The plot revolved around female protagonist Krista Starr as she’s unwillingly turned into a vampire and she’s helped by Blade in a revenge storyline.
Blood Ties stars the delectable Christina Cox as detective Vicki Nelson. She teams up with vampire Henry Fitzroy and they put an end to evil doers. It’s camp and fun, in similar fashion to Buffy, but without the Scooby gang. If you like wise ass female detectives, this one is for you.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, one girl in all the world. This show captured hearts and minds and turned what was a fairly dire movie into a witty and fun TV series that ran for six years. It ran for 7 seasons and features some of the best pop culture referencing and philosophies in TV.
Forever Knight followed the (mis)adventures of Nick Knight, a vampire detective working in Toronto. Like Blood Ties and Moonlight it seems a lot of vamps like a bit of the ole detective work. Forever Knight ran for 3 seasons.
Kindred: The Embraced ran in 1996 and was loosely based on the Vampire the Masquerade RPG by White Wolf games. I loved Kindred: The Embraced and its moody lead vampire Julian Luna as a Venture prince. If you like VtM and missed this one, get it on DVD, it’s worth a watch.
Moonlight is another vampire show revolving around a detective, only unlike Vicki Nelson in Blood ties, the protagonist in Moonlight – Mick St. John – is a vampire himself as well as being a detective. Sadly for fans of the series it only ran for one season and was canceled in mid May 2008.
True Blood is an upcoming series that sounds pretty cool. It stars Anna Paquin as a telepathic waitress who falls in love with a vampire. The show is a HBO series and is penciled for premiere on September 7 this year.
Hope you’ve liked this little peek at vampire TV series… some of them have bite, some of them just bite. Let us know your thoughts and feel free to add any we missed.
40 Comments
May 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
[...] all the talk about vampire movies, Snarkerati took a look at all the different vampire television shows. I don’t know how inclusive his list is, but there are shows on it that I’ve never [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] Vampire TV shows – Snarkerati bloodlust Thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the cooler TV shows that include vampires in their main storylines, yes this is all about Vampire TV shows! Some you’ll have definitely heard of, some perhaps not, one thing’s for sure, there’s probably more blood being sipped on TV screens over the years than you perhaps realize. If you like vampires and are looking for some cool vampire TV series on DVD then this is the place for you. We won’t cover EVERY show that’s featured a vampire as t [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 1:15 am
What about Vampire high?
November 22nd, 2008 at 3:30 am
93/93. There was a show that came on in the 80′s that was kind of like a vampire mafia show? I remember in the show one of the vampire bosses sons was in a motorcycle club called the Shrikes. Unfortunately, the network (I think that it was CBS) moved the shows schedule around so much that it was hardly watched and its rating fell. The show was then canceled. Do you know what the name of the show was? 93/93.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Hi David,
I think the show you are referring to was called “Blood Ties” and it may have been a movie. It revolved around an LA bikers club who were vampires. This is not to be confused with the cool new detective series “Blood Ties” which follows female detective (Christina Cox) and her vampire partner as they solve weird crimes.
The original “Blood Ties” was made by Jim McBride in 1991, I believe this is the one you’re looking for. You can get in on R1 DVD.
Hope that helps
December 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Last year Moonlight, the tv show was canceled. Perhaps CBS should consider that it was canceling a great and popular show. Dumb move CBS.
January 28th, 2009 at 8:48 am
In my opinion, the best vampire tv show I’ve ever watched is True Blood, I just love it! I hope more tv shows and films dealing with vampires will come up, but as good as true blood or twilight, because otherwise it wouldn’t worth a watch.
February 1st, 2009 at 7:47 pm
What about Dracula :The Series, where Geraint Wyn Davies (nick knight in forever knight) starred as Van Helsing.
I LOVE Forever Knight and wish it’d gone longer than 3 seasons.
February 15th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
there was a vampire show on the wb a back in the early/mid 90s the star of the show was killed in a wreck i think. Do you know what this could be?
February 16th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Hey John,
I think the series was probably “Kindred the Embraced”. A great show loosely based on the Vampire the Masquerade RPG. The lead in the series – Julian Luna – was played by Brit actor Mark Frankel who was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident and a second series was never made.
You can get the entire series on DVD… I have it and it’s pretty cool. I’d check eBay or Amazon.
Hope that helps
Angela
May 4th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
they need more vampire showes the ones i seen already got borring
May 29th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Love all the information on Vampires shows but what I noticed you haven’t any information on Vampire High a highly underrated show.Well worth the viewing. Epsecially if everyone loves Vamipes but the Professor he is the secret element in the show and does make for fascinating viewing.
June 8th, 2009 at 10:28 am
Glad I found this site – there are a few shows listed here that I hadn’t heard of.
One glaring omission though – Dark Shadows: The Revival! Totally over-the-top and melodramatic but so addictive. I was a fan back when it aired in 1991 and it still holds up. Ben Cross makes a great Barnabus Collins!
June 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Hello all YOUR NOT VAMPIRES VAMPIRE WANABEES!
August 5th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
The best one is YOUNG DRACULA or VAMPIRE HIGH
August 10th, 2009 at 2:12 am
ok so i like this website an all, but honestly there are some pretty cool anime shows about vampires like Vampire Knight or Vampire Princess Miyu. they’re both in jap but seriously its subed so you can understand. so i think mayb they should go on the list cause you need more than just the “real life action” these anime stuff is really cool and anyon who likes vampire shows will LOVE Vampire Knight that is the best outta the two i metioned. i hope you watch and enjoy the films im requesting if you plan on watching them that is.
August 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Love all the program reviews on the site, but there is still a program not mentioned maybe because it was a Canadian Production but none the less Vampire High. This show was greatly underrated by coporate bosses at the time and was cancelled because there was to much drama on TV.The underlying story of the show has been copied by other TV shows but it being the first is still always the best.That is why I built a site dedicated to Vampire High in the hope to bring it back to the screen.Star Trek refused to die so why should this show.
August 21st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I love True Blood. Its like good script meets porn.True Blood has become so popular that other look alike shows have began cropping up on main television (Vampire Diaries for instance) I hope these new look alike shows don’t turn out to be crap festivals.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Love this site but No show vampire or not will EVER touch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Best show ever period and I don’t feel the same way about the Angel series although I loved Angel on Buffy. I literally grew up with Buffy, I was 11 when the show started and I laughed, I cried, I learned and I truely loved that show!
August 31st, 2009 at 4:56 am
Geez cant any of you think outside the US?? One of the best and truly original vampire TV shows ever made was the series “Ultraviolet” set in England. Not to be confused with the movie Ultraviolet which has nothing to do with the English TV series. In fact any of you who love Bill from true Blood will recognize a younger Stephen Moyer who is a charachter in Ultraviolet the tv series.
January 1st, 2010 at 6:17 am
vampire diaries
reaally good show!!
January 13th, 2010 at 8:46 am
hi – hope you guys can help me out – there was a vampire series around 1998? i think- bout the same time as X-Files series 2.. was on the same channel in Oz.. there were two vampire clans and one owned a night club.. i think – i dont remember much about it except i really used to enjoy watching it
January 13th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Hi ana,
I believe you may be referring to Kindred the Embraced. This ran whilst the X-Files was big (though I’m not sure of the specific Oz air date).
The two main clans in KtE were the Brujah and Toreador clans. The leader of the Toreador clan was Lillie Langtree (played by steely eyed Stacy Haiduk). Lillie owned a nightclub / bar in the show.
The show was canceled after the Prince of the city actor was killed in a motorcycle accident, but it is available on DVD.
Hope that helped and thanks for stopping by!
January 24th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
I want MoonLight to begin again!!!!! i want to see if Mick turned Beth, just had sex with her, sleeped w/her and then turned her or got married, had sex and then changed her and got children… Or maybe nothing really happened and he just wanted privacy while kissing her.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:46 am
I remember watching something about a girl playing a piano in the inside of some club or something like that. there were lots of lined up seats and she got lost in playing and when she turned around there were like 20 vampires behind her sitting one of them said “Wonderful” or something like that, she had short hair and the movie looked like 80′s-90′s. around there. Pleasseeee hellppppp!!
March 15th, 2010 at 3:00 am
Moonlight was a surprise to my wife and I when we first viewed it. Enjoyed it enough to locate the 1st season on dvd. We were so pissed when we found out that it was being cancelled! I’m an old vampire nut from way back and if this would have been more widely advertised, like on sat. and cable channels, we would have caught it every week. The “smart guys” in charge of promoting this really dropped the ball on this one. we don’t watch much of our local channels because they’re full of bs idiotic pablum for the masses. Moonlight had just the right mix of the vamp genre mixed with a romantic and some fun tougue in cheek laughs. If there is any justice for this show those “genius’” Will bring it back and spend a couple of bucks on promoting it.
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:11 pm
We’ve been making our way through vampire tv shows lately. I stopped watching Moonlight after 2 eps but my wife is trying to finish it – sorry to disagree but that was the cheesiest acting and scripting I’ve ever seen, and there’s no real overarching plot element other than whether or not Mick got down with Beth – with vampires. The police procedures, PI protocols, the general lack of anything remotely resembling true crime, made it nothing more than a b-grade crime drama … with vampires. Yawn. Hoping that the others on this list (we got most of them) are better.
May 17th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
I just wanted to include a series called Being Human. It’s a british show but pretty good. It sounds cheezy but it is about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost living as roomates. I think it will start its third season soon and will be turned into a series in the US on the syfy channel.
May 26th, 2010 at 11:37 pm
They do need to make more vampire tv shows, i really liked true blood exept i didnt like terra and theres alot of unessary sex scenes lol i like the show better than the books. and vampire diaries too. i really liked twilight too but i liked the books way more no offence but the movies suck kristen stewart is a really good actress but this is not one of her best films.plus they changed way too much.. ohh and i really dont like the whole vampire and detective thing that just seems boring and lame to mee.
August 18th, 2010 at 5:12 pm
I have been going nuts trying to remember a vampire tv show that I saw, I want to say late 90′s early 2000′s. The one scene that I keep remembering is 2 people running away, while a child vampire, who apparently was high up in the ranks of the vampire hierarchy was after them. I am a huge fan of Kindred the Embraced, so I know it was not that show. Anyone that can help out i would appreciate it.
August 31st, 2010 at 8:55 pm
i think vampire diaries hasn’t been really discovered yet. People,it’s a great show. I’ve been actually looking for vampire tv shows this summer and i haven’t seen one as good as vampire diaries. Why,sure, I’ve seen Buffy, I’ve loved Buffy. That tv show did have everything, from comedy, to drama, from horror to musical, you name it. If you’re looking for a tv show that will shake off your fear from horror movies,watch Buffy and Supernatural. After these two shows, you can see whatever horror movie,you name it… Supernatural has a vision of vampires too, but it’s action is not based on them,but more on different matters. I’ve seen moonlight recently, and blood ties. I personally hate true blood. I admit I’ve seen just one episode, but the part about them fucking was not quite inventive. And the problem with the teeth. I hate how they positioned their fangs. But, in Supernatural, vampires have two sets of teeth, so you can call it different opinions based on imagination. Good luck on finding new tv shows to post. Kind of useful this site.
August 31st, 2010 at 10:51 pm
jashog, how old is the child vampire, and is it a he or a she? Are you sure it’s not early 90s?
September 21st, 2010 at 8:50 am
I love Vampire Diaries, True Blood & The Gates. I wish they could make more TV series from books such as J.R. Ward’s “Black Dagger Brotherhood”, Gena Showalter’s “Lords of the Underworld” & Nalini Singh’s “Psy-Changelings” to name a few. Now those would be awesome vampire / changeling tv series
October 4th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Hi,
I’m also looking to find an old vampire show. It was about kids, two boys. The boy vampire didn’t remember what it was like to be human. I think there was a jar of marbles on the window sill that triggered his faint human memory.
The vampire took his human friend flying. You could see the city below. He took the human boy to meet his family, who lived in a crypt inside a graveyard.
Any help identifying this show would be amazing!
October 4th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Hi Nicole,
I believe you may be referring to the 1986 TV adaptation of “The Little Vampire”. It told the story of a little boy vampire and there were flying scenes in it. There was also a later movie (2000) based on the same book.
Here’s a YouTube clip to get you started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2zTDkJDfow
I really need to update this list since I’ve found loads of other shows thanks to these great comments!
Thanks guys and I hope that helped you out Nicole.
x
October 7th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Angela,
That’s totally it! Thanks so much for the link.
December 3rd, 2010 at 5:18 am
LOL… DMF SAID: ON
June 14th, 2009 at 3:00 pm “Hello all YOUR NOT VAMPIRES VAMPIRE WANABEES!”
I am not a Vampire nor am I a Vampire Wanabee my name states it all.
I am a Wolfe silly. I even work with all kind of dogs and wolf-hybrids.
Arizona
Who oddly enough now lives in Arizona. I was born and raised on the East Coast.
December 21st, 2010 at 8:22 pm
vampire diaries
December 25th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Hi, i have seen all the tv shows you have mentioned and i am dieing to find something new to watch that is still vampire related but not as sexualy orientated as true blood or my mum will kill me lol, if anyone has anything please if you could let us know.
January 2nd, 2012 at 6:37 am
Personally i have never watch Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel because they just seem stupid (no offense to anybody that loves it ) but i think if it was on t/v and i started watching it id probably like it but i wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it sorry and also to the people that don’t like true blood because of the nudity i just watch it after it airs online so i can skip all the sex scenes because it generally has very good story lines that are interesting to watch and The Gates is a good show for Vampire lovers its funny and i’m mad they cancelled it but you should definitely check it out and also Vampire Diaries is good and i like it because its like some of the other vampire shows but it has its own twist but in a good way that isn’t corny…. ya so check them out lol and sorry i know this is really long but i know it was worth the read.
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