A Deep Dive into "Tales from the Crypt"

Who remembers Tales from the Crypt? I sure as hell remember enjoying this series as a kid. Yeah, you read that right. I wasn't your typical elementary school aged TV viewer back in the 90s. Yes, I watched the kid friendly stuff, but I also dove in to horror very early. I was watching Pet Sematary by age five, Phantasm II and Child's Play by age six, and Tales from the Crypt caught my eye by the time I reached age nine. I do love this show and a lot of what comes with it, so let's take a deep dive into this amazing series.

Horror/suspense anthology series had been a bit of a thing since the latter half of the 1950s. During that period, we were treated to a little show known as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the 1960s gave us the original Twilight Zone and Thriller (the latter I really enjoyed binging during the early months of the pandemic). By the 1980s, we had Tales from the Darkside and Monsters, but HBO decided to come through with Tales from the Crypt, which premiered on the premium network 36 years ago today: June 10, 1989.

The series' intro is a memorable one. We see the gates open, and a slow zoom to an old, seemingly abandoned mansion. We get the grand tour through the front rooms, and then that zoom down to the basement, where, after we hear the second and last of the ghoulish shrieks, we see a coffin, which opens, and up pops the host of this show: the wisecracking, cackling Cryptkeeper.

Let's talk about that character, shall we?

The Cryptkeeper was the signature figure for the entire series, and the screeching voice was provided by John Kassir, who I've been a fan of since watching this series. Every episode featured the Cryptkeeper introducing the episode's plot in the beginning, and then ending each episode with a macabre pun about the fate of certain characters. I remember vividly seeing the differences in the character's delivery and look in Season One and in later years, and it was Kassir himself who revealed that during that first year, they didn't have the budget for real high-tech mobility for the Cryptkeeper puppet--mainly the mouth wasn't moving as fast, so in those early episodes, Kassir's delivery as the character was slow and a bit more sinister than later seasons. Of course, the budget did increase, and the improvements to the puppet were made, leading to improved dialogue.

Tales from the Crypt's episodes were adaptations of comic stories from the book series under the same title, as well as The Haunt of Fear, The Vault of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, and Two-Fisted Tales. The series had a quintet of noted executive producers: Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis. Season One only contained six episodes, with the first three premiering on that aforementioned date, June 10, 1989.

The show was absolutely star-studded, and that's an understatement! Some of Season One's guest stars included William Sadler, Mary Ellen Trainor (then the wife of Robert Zemeckis), Lea Thompson, and Audra Lindley. The second season saw Demi Moore, Katey Sagal, Teri Hatcher, and Don Rickles among the group of noted names. Season Three's collection of celebs included (but weren't limited to) Malcolm McDowell, Jon Lovitz, Kyle MacLachlan, and Kirk Douglas. In Season Four, Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Timothy Dalton, and Beverly D'Angelo were among that year's big names. Season Five kicked off with a wild episode with Tim Curry playing three roles, and the season also featured Brad Dourif, Brooke Shields, Priscilla Presley, and John Kassir in an actual live-action role in one episode. Season Six gave us Catherine O'Hara, Terry O'Quinn, Hank Azaria, and Isabella Rosellini, and among Season Seven's cast was Natasha Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Emma Samms, and Ewan MacGregor.

Overall, the series lasted seven seasons and 93 episodes. The first six seasons were filmed in the States, but for the final year, they went across the pond to the UK for 12 of the final 13 episodes. I remember watching this on Fox, as back in 1994-1995, Fox aired select episodes on primetime, because they and HBO had a bit of a kinship back then. Reruns aired on my local Fox channel, and then on SyFy entering my teen years. I used to avoid what I called the "British episodes," because I wasn't familiar with a lot of the actors. Ironically, that's how I learned that Bob Hoskins (who appeared in "Fatal Caper") was English. Of course, Hoskins did a hell of a lot in his career, but he'll always be Eddie Valiant to me.

I said 12 of the 13 Season Seven episodes were filmed in England. The thirteenth, and final overall episode, was actually the series' lone animated episode, "The Third Pig." The episode, which aired on July 19, 1996, was a horror retelling of The Three Little Pigs, and the plot centers on Dudley, one of the pigs, who seeks to avenge the slaughter of his brothers by the Big Bad Wolf. The voice cast included Cam Clarke, Bobcat Goldthwait, Charlie Adler, Brad Garrett, Corey Burton, and Jim Cummings.

Speaking of animated, the show's popularity resulted in Nelvana developing the animated series, Tales from the Cryptkeeper, which premiered on ABC on September 18, 1993, and served as part of ABC's Saturday morning lineup. A much more kid-friendly version of the original show, John Kassir continued his role as the Cryptkeeper, and the stories were more G-rated. After two seasons on ABC, the show was yanked, only to return briefly for a third season on CBS in 1999, three years after the original live-action show ended.

The series also spawned three films, with the first one being Demon Knight, which came out in 1995. The third and last film under that banner was Ritual, which came out in 2002, but I want to talk about the film that came in between those two: Bordello of Blood. Where do I start? I love this film. In fact, I love it so much that I have to discuss it further in a later story. I'll say this little bit. The cast was awesome: Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak, Corey Feldman, Chris Sarandon (from two of my favorite films--Fright Night and Child's Play), and of course, Angie Everhart. I could go on about how deliciously wicked Angie Everhart's Lilith was, but again, that will be another story for another time.

I have to mention this. Tales from the Crypt had some imitators; I do remember a "Treehouse of Horror" episode of The Simpsons that saw an homage to the intro, which (of course) featured Mr. Burns as the Cryptkeeper. However, I want to talk about the homage we got from Tiny Toon Adventures. Who remembers the "Toons from the Crypt" episode? If you don't, I kinda don't blame you. That episode was hardly shown on syndication; deemed "too scary" for children. But in that episode, Buster Bunny takes on the Cryptkeeper role and tells three scary tales: one featuring Hamton dealing with the aftermath of losing his father's bottle cap collection in a bet, one centered on Concord Condor being a veterinarian, and the main event, Elmyra being confronted by undead pets she (literally) loved to death. Here's a crazy twist of irony. Charlie Adler originally voiced Buster Bunny on the show, but after Adler left the show, he was replaced by none other than John Kassir--the Cryptkeeper himself.

I remember there were talks for years about a revival of the Tales from the Crypt series. In fact, they had the network (TNT), and the show-runner (M. Night Shymalan), but the green light was not there--still isn't. A revival would be very awesome. I still have some hope that it happens. It does bug me that Tales from the Crypt isn't available on any streaming service. You would think that HBO Max would have the show, but nope, they don't, at least not yet.

I absolutely love Tales from the Crypt and I enjoy watching so many of the show's episodes on YouTube. The show gets quite a bit of acclaim, but to me, it's still a bit on the underrated side. I still have some hope that we'll get a revival, but for now, I'll enjoy this deliciously macabre show that was an amazing part of my childhood.