Tales from the Crypt: 31 Years of Frightmares!

Tales from the Crypt, based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same by William Gaines and Al Feldstein, debuted on HBO as a 90-minute trilogy 31 years ago, #OTD, June 10, 1989. Produced by Gilbert Adler, Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver and Robert Zemeckis, the series ran for seven seasons with a total of 93 episodes. Each episode was self-contained and was introduced & bookended by the wisecracking Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) with intentionally hackneyed puns. Comic book cover art featured in the Crypt Keeper's book was created by Mike Vosburg and Shawn McManus, while the design of the Crypt Keeper himself was created by Kevin Yagher Productions Inc.. The theme music for the series was composed by Danny Elfman. The series also featured big-name celebrity guest stars and famous directors throughout its run. The success of the series led to numerous spin-offs (Tales from the Cryptkeeper & Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House), films (Demon Knight, Bordello of Blood & Ritual) a radio show recorded for Seeing Ear Theatre and 3 soundtracks (TFTC, Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas & Monsters of Metal). In October of 1996, a "Coffin Table Book to Die For," Tales From the Crypt: The Official Archives by noted literary critic Digby Diehl, was published by St Martins Press. In January 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that M. Night Shyamalan would helm a series reboot as part of TNT's new two-hour horror block, without The Cryptkeeper, but later it was announced that TNT would not move forward with the series due to legal rights issues concerning the rights for the characters from Tales from the Crypt Holdings. On June 6, 2017, Warner Home Video released all seven seasons of the original series in a box set entitled Tales From the Crypt: The Complete Series. #TFTC #Horror