The fact that more or less every time DS shows up in the mass media (outside of fandom specific sites and fora) we see a photo of Barn baring his fangs does underline the fact that in the minds of the public... it's a vampire show.

A long time ago (maybe as early as the 1970s) I finally figured out that how DS is represented in the mass media and promotional goodies, such as the Gold Key comics and the board games, is very different from the reality of the show's actual content as seen in canon (the aired episodes from 1966 to 1971). 

Even the "Marilyn" Ross novelettes present a picture of the subject matter of the show that is very much at odds with how the actual episodes are written and played.  I well remember when the novel "Barnabas Collins" was published and I bought and was reading it and some version of "who the hell is this guy?" was going through my 11 year old's mind.

I just don't understand anyone's preference for the "present" in DS.  I think they felt obligated to return to the present, but were saddled with a dull set of regular characters, the people at Collinwood, who had to be pushed off to the side and treated as one collective damsel-in-distress to be protected by Barnajulia.

I don't understand sitting through 1968, Leviathans, and PT, and present 1970 again after 1995, and not being extremely relieved and energized by the transition to 1840.  The fact that loose ends were forgotten or messed up doesn't affect the story up until those mistakes were made.

I thoroughly enjoyed the parallel time story as well. I also quite liked the 1995 flash forward. It had some genuinely creepy moments.  But the show was sadly on a downward spiral, recycling too many elements at once. KLS, Henesy and other key players are gone. Louis Edmonds & Joan Bennett are largely sidelined. The show seemed to be operating on the idea that all that was needed was Collinwood, Barnabas, Julia and some variation on Quentin.