''Tales from the Darkside'' is an American

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

horror

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

created by

George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...

. Debuting in October 1983 with a

pilot episode A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie), in United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distri ...

and then being picked up for

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

in September 1984, the show ran for 4 seasons through July 1988. Each episode, aired originally by

Tribune Broadcasting Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC was an American media company which operated as a subsidiary of Tribune Media, a media conglomerate based in Chicago, Illinois. The group owned and operated television and radio stations throughout the United Sta ...

late at night, was an individual

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

that often ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror,

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

, and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

, and some episodes featured elements of

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discus ...

or more lighthearted themes. Since October 2012, reruns of the series have aired in the UK on

Horror Channel Legend (formerly Horror Channel, and Zone Horror) is a British free-to-air television channel specialising in sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, action and cult series. It is broadcast in the UK and Ireland. The channel is known for its horror movies dur ...

Series

The moderate success of ''

Creepshow ''Creepshow'' is a 1982 American horror comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King, making this film his screenwriting debut. The film's ensemble cast includes Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver ...

'' led to initial inquiries about the possibilities of a ''Creepshow'' series. Because

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

owned certain aspects of ''Creepshow'', Laurel Entertainment, which produced the film, opted to take their potential series into a similar, yet separate, direction, including changing the name to ''Tales from the Darkside''. The new name reflected ''Creepshow''s focus, that of a live-action EC-based horror

comic book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...

of the 1950s like ''

Tales from the Crypt Tales from the Crypt may refer to: * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (album), by American rapper C-Bo * ''Tales from the Crypt'' (comics), published by EC Comics during the 1950s ** ''Tales from the Crypt'' (film), a 1972 Amicus film starring Ralph Ric ...

'' or '' The Vault of Horror'', though the series did not use the comic book stylistic look or framing device as ''Creepshow'' had. Some episodes of the series were written by or adapted from the works of famous authors.

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

's short stories "

Word Processor of the Gods "Word Processor of the Gods" is a short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the January 1983 issue of ''Playboy'' magazine under the title "The Word Processor", and collected in King's 1985 collection ''Skeleton Crew''. Plo ...

" and "

Sorry, Right Number "Sorry, Right Number" is a teleplay written by author Stephen King for an episode of the horror anthology series ''Tales from the Darkside''. It is the ninth episode of the fourth season. It was later included in King's 1993 short story collectio ...

" were amongst them. Works by

Frederik Pohl Frederik George Pohl Jr. (; November 26, 1919 – September 2, 2013) was an American science-fiction writer, editor, and fan, with a career spanning nearly 75 years—from his first published work, the 1937 poem "Elegy to a Dead Satelli ...

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...

Clive Barker Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English novelist, playwright, author, film director, and visual artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with a series of short stories, the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading h ...

, Michael Bishop,

Robert Bloch Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small ...

John Cheever John William Cheever (May 27, 1912 – June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs". His fiction is mostly set in the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; ...

, Michael McDowell and

Fredric Brown Fredric Brown (October 29, 1906 – March 11, 1972) was an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer.D. J. McReynolds, "The Short Fiction of Fredric Brown" in Frank N. Magill, (ed.) ''Survey of Science Fiction Literature'', Vol. 4 ...

were also featured. A number of stories and episode novelizations were published in the book ''Tales from the Darkside: Volume One'' in 1988. After wrapping, ''Tales from the Darkside'' was succeeded by ''

Monsters A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

'' in 1988, a similarly-styled syndicated weekly horror anthology also produced by Laurel and longtime Romero associate

Richard P. Rubinstein Richard P. Rubinstein (born June 15, 1947) is an American film and television producer, who has worked mainly in the science fiction and horror genres. In the 1970s and 1980s he collaborated frequently with horror director George A. Romero, in ...

. The series was followed by '' Tales from the Darkside: The Movie'' in 1990, which starred

Deborah Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...

Christian Slater Christian Michael Leonard Slater (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor and producer. He made his film debut with a leading role in ''The Legend of Billie Jean'' (1985) and gained wider recognition for his breakthrough role as Jason "J.D." D ...

, William Hickey, Steve Buscemi, and

Julianne Moore Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, a ...

. The series was originally syndicated weekly by

, with most stations airing it after midnight. After ending production, it was picked up by

LBS Communications The Lexington Broadcast Services Company (first known as Lexington Broadcast Services and later known as LBS Communications) was a television production and syndication company formed on November 15, 1976, by advertising pioneer Henry Siegel, wh ...

for

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''baretor'') is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Economists distingu ...

-based syndication (with the exception of the episode ''The Apprentice'', and a few reruns of earlier episodes which were distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures).

Worldvision Enterprises Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. was an American television program and home video distributor established in 1954 as ABC Film Syndication, the domestic and overseas program distribution arm of the ABC Television Network. They primarily licensed p ...

later became the series' distributor, and the rights currently are held by Worldvision successor

CBS Television Distribution CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glob ...

Opening/closing sequence

The opening/closing theme to the series was performed by

Donald Rubinstein Donald Rubinstein is a film composer, singer/songwriter, and multi-media artist who is best known for his collaborations with George A. Romero and Avant-garde jazz/rock collaborations with such musicians as Bill Frisell, Emil Richards and Wayne H ...

, who co-wrote the theme with

Erica Lindsay Erica Lindsay (born June 5, 1955 in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American jazz saxophone player and composer. Music career Lindsay's parents, both teachers, lived in Europe in the 1960s. She began her studies in composition w ...

. George Romero wrote the

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-Diegetic#Film sound and music, diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, th ...

narration. As in the case of ''The Twilight Zone'' and ''The Outer Limits'', the series begins each episode with a montage of images in this case, several shots of a forest and countryside that fade to a black-and-white

negative image In photography, a negative is an Photograph, image, usually on a strip or sheet of transparent plastic film, in which the lightest areas of the photographed subject appear darkest and the darkest areas appear lightest. This reversed order occur ...

as the title appears, accompanied by Paul Sparer's foreboding voice-over: The closing credits are displayed against the same negative image from the end of the opening and accompanied by a second voice-over, likewise provided by Sparer:

Episodes

DVD releases

Paramount Home Entertainment Paramount Home Entertainment (formerly Paramount Home Media Distribution, and originally Paramount Home Video) is the home video distribution arm of Paramount Pictures, a division of Paramount Global. The division oversees PPC's home entertainme ...

through

CBS Home Entertainment CBS Home Entertainment (formerly CBS Video Enterprises, Inc., MGM/CBS Home Video, CBS/Fox Video and CBS Video, currently branded as CBS DVD for DVD releases and CBS Blu-ray for Blu-ray releases) is a home entertainment company owned by Paramoun ...

(sister company to

Spelling Television Spelling Television Inc. was an American television production company that went through several name changes. It was originally called Aaron Spelling Productions, then Spelling Entertainment Inc. and eventually part of Spelling Entertainment Gro ...

, the successor to Laurel Entertainment) released the first season of ''Tales from the Darkside'' on DVD on February 10, 2009, complete with audio commentary by producer George Romero on the episode "Trick or Treat". The company also released all four seasons of ''Tales from the Darkside'' on DVD in Region 1 in 2018. In Region 2,

Revelation Films Revelation Films is a British film and television production and distribution company delivering visual entertainment via cinema, television and digital platforms. Tony Carne founded Revelation Films in 1992 as a video and television production ...

has released all four seasons on DVD in the UK. The DVD release contains an altered soundtrack without the original music score. Episodes released on VHS during the 1980s do contain the original music score throughout. The last disc of The Final Season contains as a special feature two bonus episodes made by the show's production company which were unused in the original series, "Akhbar's Daughter" and "Attic Suite".

Awards and nominations

Young Artist Awards

Writers Guild of America, USA

Planned reboot

In November 2013, Joe Hill,

Alex Kurtzman Alexander Hilary Kurtzman (born September 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his work on the ''Star Trek'' franchise since 2009, co-writing the scripts to ''Transformers (film), Transformers'' (2007), ''Transformers: Revenge ...

, and

Roberto Orci Roberto Gaston Orcí (born July 20, 1973) is a Mexican-American film and television screenwriter and producer. He began his longtime collaboration with Alex Kurtzman while at school in California. Together they have been employed on television ...

were developing a reboot of ''Tales from the Darkside'' with

CBS Television Studios CBS Studios, Inc. is an American television production company which is a subsidiary of CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. It was formed on January 17, 2006, by CBS Corporation as CBS Paramount Television, as a renaming of the o ...

for

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

. At Comic Con 2014 Joe Hill said that he would serve as the creative director and to guide the course of the show. When asked about the project, Hill said: "''Darkside'' is a loose reboot of ''Tales From The Darkside''. It tells stories about different characters. It also tells an ongoing story. I love the original ''Tales From The Darkside'', ''The Outer Limits'', and ''The Twilight Zone'', but I think in a post ''X-Files'' world there's really no room for a straight anthology show. There has to be more. I like stories that work like puzzle boxes, every episode is turning another facet. We have something a little like that in ''Darkside'' that I am pretty excited about where you are watching it and every episode is a different story but three or four episodes in, you're going, 'Wait a minute, these parts actually all go together don't they?' I think that's kind of exciting and I think the viewers will like that too". The following year in February, The CW gave a pilot order and has been added on their 2015-16 schedule. Filming for the pilot episode of ''Darkside'' started on March 19, wrapping up on April 4. Joe Hill revealed on his Tumblr account that he has written more episodes of the first season than just the pilot episode. The CW ultimately passed on the reboot series of ''Tales from the Darkside'' in May, but it was reported to be of interest to cable networks

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, VH1 and possibly

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

. Joe Hill later confirmed that no network picked up the series. The first three scripts (the would-be episodes "The Window Opens", "The Sleepwalker", and "Black Box") all penned by Joe Hill, were published in a hardcover edition of the book by IDW Publishing in November 2016.

Comic series

Horror author Joe Hill wrote four issue comic series also titled ''Tales From The Darkside'' in 2016, using the written scripts for abandoned television series reboot. The first issue, "The Sleepwalker", was released in June followed by two back-to-back issues of "The Black Box" (which builds the mythology) and by the fourth issue, "The Window Opens". All four issues were later collected in the hardcover edition of the book published by IDW Publishing in November the same year.

References

External links

* * {{George A. Romero 1983 American television series debuts 1988 American television series endings 1980s American anthology television series 1980s American horror television series 1980s American comedy-drama television series American fantasy drama television series American horror fiction television series Dark fantasy television series English-language television shows Fantasy comedy television series First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Horror drama television series Television series by CBS Studios Television series by Tribune Entertainment Television shows adapted into comics Television shows adapted into films