Tales from the Cryptkeeper

1 9 9 3 – 1 9 9 5 (USA)
39 x 30 minute episodes

In the 1950s, EC Comics had to end production of its successful but controversial line of horror books due to questionable research claiming they caused juvenile delinquency. Among these titles was one called Tales From the Crypt.

Forty years later, following cable channel HBO’s success with a nighttime live-action anthology series of the same name (1989 – 1996), ABC deemed it okay to present a Saturday morning cartoon version, where the emphasis on horror was downplayed – but not eliminated – in favour of irony.

Episodes were produced by Canadian studio Nelvana, and a child psychologist was retained to approve the scripts to make sure they weren’t too scary for the kids.

The Cryptkeeper – basically a skeleton with eyes voiced by the original Cryptkeepr from HBO’s live-action series, John Kassir- served as narrator/host to macabre tales, such as the one about a man who went into an amusement park haunted house with his kin and found it really did have spooks.

Although children often appeared as characters in the eerie tales, there were surprisingly few complaints filed about the series and its content.

The Cryptkeeper
John Kassir