Tales From The Crypt

1 9 8 9 – 1 9 9 6 (USA)
93 x 30 minute episodes

This ghoulish anthology series featured a wide range of stories that often had gruesome surprise endings.

Hosting the show was The Cryptkeeper, a talking skeleton with an evil sense of humour (voiced by John Kassir).

Many of the actors were not well known, but episodes did showcase some more familiar faces (often playing against type), including Kirk Douglas, Demi Moore, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Daniel Craig, Christopher Reeve, Malcolm McDowell, Teri Garr, Beau Bridges, Timothy Dalton, Adam West, Dan Aykroyd, John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins, Priscilla Presley, Michael J. Fox, Tim Curry, Steve Buscemi, Roger Daltrey, Brooke Shields, Kelly Preston, Ewan McGregor, Don Rickles, Martin Sheen, Tim Roth, Whoopi Goldberg, Margot Kidder, Joe Pesci, Leslie Phillips, Andrew McCarthy, Eddie Izzard, Mariel Hemingway, Imelda Staunton, Patricia Arquette, Patsy Kensit, Rita Rudner, Jane Horrocks, Twiggy and Iggy Pop.

The first three Tales from the Crypt episodes – adapted from the EC horror comic books of the 1950s – had aired as a trilogy movie on HBO on 10 June 1989, and new episodes continued to be produced for that cable network while reruns of older episodes aired on Fox.

A total of 93 half hours were produced for HBO, with the last original episode premiering on 19 July 1996. Production moved to England for the final series. In addition, there was an animated Tales from the Cryptkeeper that aired on Saturday mornings on ABC from September 1993 to July 1995.

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) was originally supposed to be released as a Tales From The Crypt -related movie but – after disagreements with the producers – Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez decided to release it as a standalone movie.

The Cryptkeeper
John Kassir