''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 cate ...
horror TV series 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 television in the United States, United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a te ...
and then being picked up for
syndication in September 1984, the show ran for 4 seasons through July 1988. Each episode, aired originally by
Tribune Broadcasting 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 uni ...
, and
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving 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 literature and d ...
, 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 disc ...
or more lighthearted themes. Since October 2012, reruns of the series have aired in the UK on
Horror Channel.
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. owned certain aspects of ''Creepshow'',
Laurel Entertainment
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 ...
, 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'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" 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 Satellit ...
,
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,
Michael Bishop,
Robert Bloch,
John Cheever,
Michael McDowell and
Fredric Brown 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'' 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, i ...
.
The series was followed by ''
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie'' in 1990, which starred
Deborah Harry,
Christian Slater,
William Hickey,
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent Buscemi ( ,As stated in interviews by Buscemi himself, some may insist that his pronunciation of his own name is "wrong" because it does not match the original Italian pronunciation as well. It is not uncommon for people to pronou ...
, and
Julianne Moore.
The series was originally
syndicated weekly by
Tribune Broadcasting, with most stations airing it after midnight. After ending production, it was picked up by
LBS Communications for
barter-based syndication (with the exception of the episode ''The Apprentice'', and a few reruns of earlier episodes which were distributed by
Lorimar-Telepictures
Lorimar-Telepictures Corporation was an entertainment company established in 1985 with the merger of Lorimar Productions, Inc. and Telepictures Corporation. Headquartered at the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (now Sony Pictures Studios) ...
).
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 ...
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 G ...
.
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 Ho ...
, who co-wrote the theme with
Erica Lindsay. 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)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentation ...
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 as the title appears, accompanied by
Paul Sparer
Paul Israel Sparer (December 19, 1923 – November 19, 1999) was an American character actor.
Career
Sparer appeared as Rex Cooper in the soap operas ''Somerset'' and '' Another World''. He was also known for narrating the anthology TV series ...
'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 through
CBS Home Entertainment (sister company to
Spelling Television, 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, and
Roberto Orci 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 ...
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 ...
.
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,
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 series ...
. 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.
See also
*
1984 in television
* ''
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie''
* ''
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)''
* ''
Are You Afraid of the Dark?''
* ''
Goosebumps (TV series)''
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