Tales From The Crypt

Tales From The Crypt

Season 2 DVD cover art featuring the Crypt Keeper
Format Horror
Run time approx. 0:30
(commercial-free)
Creator William Gaines (original concept)
Starring John Kassir
Country USA
Network HBO
Original run June 10, 1989��uly 19, 1996
No. of episodes 93

Tales from the Crypt was a horror anthology TV series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO. It was based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name. The series is not to be confused with Tales from the Darkside, another similarly themed horror anthology series.

It was one of the few anthology series to be allowed to have full freedom from censorship by the FCC, due to the fact that it was on HBO, a cable television station. Given that HBO often allows its shows to have more graphic material than most shows on American television, the station allowed the series to contain graphic violence as well as other content that hadn't appeared in most television series up to that time, such as profanity, nudity, and sexual situations.

The series began as an American series, filmed in California. In the later seasons filming continued in England and many episodes filmed during that time revolved around British characters.
Contents
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* 1 Episodes
* 2 Spin-offs
* 3 Awards
* 4 Technical data
* 5 See also
* 6 External links

Episodes

Each episode began with the show's host, the Crypt Keeper, a wisecracking decomposing corpse (voiced by John Kassir), introducing the episode, which would be one individual story. Many of these episodes had guest appearances by notable celebrities. Many famous celebrities, such as Tom Hanks and Arnold Schwarzenegger, also directed some of the episodes of the series.

The episode "You, Murderer" is particularly of note, due to the fact that it was one of the first shows ever filmed that used computer effects to digitally insert actors into an episode. Alfred Hitchcock appeared in a cameo at the beginning of the episode, and Humphrey Bogart played the starring role for this story. Due to the fact that both men had been dead for decades, their appearances made the episode very well known amongst fans. This episode was also notable for Isabella Rossellini's guest appearance in which she parodies her lookalike mother, Ingrid Bergman for the first and probably only time.

Spin-offs

Two movies, Demon Knight (1995) and Bordello of Blood (1996), were made based on the series, neither of which was particularly successful. In 1993, a Saturday morning cartoon called Tales from the Cryptkeeper was made based off the series, with none of the violence or other questionable content that was in the original series making an appearance in it. A kid's game show called Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House was also spun off from the series. After the original series was cancelled, a spin-off called Perversions of Science premiered in 1997 on HBO, this time being based around science fiction instead of horror. The series only lasted for a short run, and was cancelled the same year.

Awards

Tales from the Crypt won the following awards:

* the 1991 Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Television Half-Hour - ADR
* the 1992 Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Television Episodic - Effects and Foley
* the 1993 Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing - Television Episodic - Effects and Foley
* the 1994 American Cinema Editors' Eddie Award for Best Edited Half Hour Series for Television (for the episode "People Who Live in Brass Hearses")

It was also nominated for the following awards:

* the 1990 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (William Hickey in the episode "The Switch")
* the 1991 Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor in a Cable Special (Mike Simmrin)
* the 1992 Casting Society of America's Artios Award for Best Casting for TV, Dramatic Episodic
* the 1994 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (Kirk Douglas)
* the 1994 American Cinema Editors' Eddie Award for Best Edited Half Hour Series for Television (for the episode "The Lipreader")
* the 1994 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Tim Curry in the episode "Death Of Some Salesman"), Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Series and Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Series
* the 1994 Young Artist Award for Best Youth Actor Guest Starring in a Television Show (Raushan Hammond)
* the 1995 Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Series
* the 1996 American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Regular Series (for the episode "You Murderer")

Technical data

* alternate title: HBO's Tales from the Crypt
* episodes: 93
* runtime: 30 minutes each episode
* sound: Dolby
* aspect ratio: 1.33 : 1
* series premiere: June 10, 1989

See also

* List of Tales from the Crypt episodes
* 1989 in television
* List of television programs

External links

* Tales from the Crypt at the Internet Movie Database
* Tales from the Cryptkeeper at the Internet Movie Database
* TV Tome entry for Tales from the Crypt
* All Movie Guide entry for Tales from the Crypt