Series synopsis
Tales from the Crypt is an American comedy mystery sci-fi & fantasy television series that premiered on HBO on June 10, 1989. It ended on July 19, 1996. It was created by William M. Gaines, Steven Dodd.
Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?
Premise
Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?
Premise: Dead-on humor and horror.
Cast and characters
Guest cast
- John Kassir as Crypt Keeper (voice)
- Michelle Johnson as Liz Kelly-Dixon
- Sugar Ray Leonard as Gravedigger (segment "None But the Lonely Heart")
- Ben Cross as Benjamin A. Polosky
- Madge Sinclair as Lucille
- Al Hunter Ashton as Sgt. Cornwall
- Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Valdemar Tymrak
- Yvonne De Carlo as Mrs. Jones (segment "Death of Some Salesmen")
- Kathy Ireland as Joyce
- Ciarán Hinds as Jack Lynch
- Joan Chen as Connie
- Charles Fleischer as Carl Rechek
Episodes
This series spans 8 seasons with 105 episodes.
| Season | Episodes | First aired | Last aired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 0 | 24 | March 9, 1972 | October 31, 2004 |
| Season 1 | 4 | June 10, 1989 | June 28, 1989 |
| Season 2 | 16 | April 21, 1990 | July 31, 1990 |
| Season 3 | 12 | June 15, 1991 | August 28, 1991 |
| Season 4 | 12 | June 27, 1992 | September 16, 1992 |
| Season 5 | 11 | October 2, 1993 | December 8, 1993 |
| Season 6 | 13 | October 31, 1994 | January 25, 1995 |
| Season 7 | 13 | April 19, 1996 | July 19, 1996 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Tales from the Crypt Five strangers get lost in a crypt and, after meeting the mysterious Cryptkeeper, receive visions of how they will die. |
March 9, 1972 |
| 2 |
The Vault of Horror An anthology of five horror stories shared by five men trapped in the basement of an office building. |
March 31, 1973 |
| 3 |
Demon Knight Brayker is a man who carries the last of seven keys, special containers which held the blood of Christ and were scattered across the universe to prevent the forces of evil from taking over. If The Collector gets the last key, the universe will fall into Chaos, and he has been tracking Brayker all the way to a small inn in a nowhere town. And now the final battle for the universe begins. |
January 13, 1995 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Man Who Was Death / And All Through the House / Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone A prison executioner loses his vocation when the state abolishes the death penalty. Unable to transition to civilian life, he begins hunting acquitted criminals to administer his own brand of high voltage street justice in the shadows. After killing her husband on Christmas eve, an adulterous woman is attacked by an escaped ax-wielding maniac in a Santa suit looking for someone naughty or nice. Carnival star Ulric the Undying, buried alive, recalls his nine-lives transplant—and suddenly fears he's lost count. |
June 10, 1989 |
| 2 |
Only Sin Deep A young, narcissistic prostitute named Sylvia Vane sells her beauty to pawnbroker to land a rich husband, only to discover the price was more than she bargained for. |
June 14, 1989 |
| 3 |
Lover Come Hack to Me Charles marries Peggy but only for her money, planning to kill her and make it look like an accident. One night, things change when her dead mother pays a visit and Peggy shows Charles her own family tradition. |
June 21, 1989 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Dead Right / The Switch / Cutting Cards A gold digging waitress goes to a fortune teller who predicts that by the end of the day her boss will fire her and she will land a new job. When the prediction becomes reality, she goes back for more. The fortune teller predicts that she will marry a man who will inherit a fortune then die. She gets the money first and when she tells her husband to kiss off, he stabs her to death and ends up in the hot seat. An elderly millionaire asks a plastic surgeon to give him the body of a younger man to win the girl of his dreams. Two rival long time gamblers meet up in a small town to have one last duel. |
April 21, 1990 |
| 2 |
'Til Death An unscrupulous plantation owner looks to raise some cash to develop a worthless plot of inherited land by wooing a beautiful heiress to an island and using voodoo to make her his wife. |
April 24, 1990 |
| 3 |
Three's a Crowd For their tenth anniversary, a couple heads down to a cabin owned by their friend. When she and her friend start sneaking around the husband gets jealous and assumes that they are having an affair. |
May 1, 1990 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Loved to Death / Carrion Death / The Trap In Los Angeles, the aspirant screenwriter Edward Foster from Indiana has a crush on his neighbor Miranda Singer. However, the bimbo Miranda is an aspirant actress and gold digger and does not give attention to Edward. His unrequited love calls the attention of his creepy landlord Mr. Stronham that offers Edward a love potion to seduce Miranda. Will the potion work? A sadistic serial killer has unforeseen complications when pursued by a determined motorcycle cop in a barren desert. Indebted unhappy married couple, Lou and Irene, commit a life insurance fraud. Lou's brother Billy helps him fake his death and leave for Mexico. But Irene and Billy fall in love and when Lou returns, they claim they don't know him. |
June 15, 1991 |
| 2 |
Abra Cadaver Carl and Marty are siblings who work at a hospital. Carl shows Marty his new way of proving that the brain lives after the body dies. The whole thing turns out to be a prank but the shock of the joke gives Marty a heart attack. Years later Marty hasn't forgiven Carl and plans a deadly revenge. Marty then reveals that it was an act of revenge on Carl and the whole thing was a joke ... or was it? |
June 19, 1991 |
| 3 |
Top Billing Barry Blye is a frustrated actor who will do anything to get a part. He's been rejected by every acting company because he doesn't have the right look. Bad luck follows him all over. First his girlfriend breaks up with him. Then he's kicked out of his apartment. Then his old rival Winton Robins, who has ""the look"", gets a part in a weird theater's production of Hamlet. Barry goes into a frustrated rage and strangles him to death to take the part. He is shocked when he learns that the theater is really a mental hospital. |
June 26, 1991 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
None But the Lonely Heart / This'll Kill Ya / On a Deadman's Chest A sneaky man is obsessed with wedding rich older women then killing them. His business partner fears that he'll be caught soon. He finds himself in hot water when he starts getting threatening notes. He kills off those he suspects and soon he realizes the meaning of the saying revenge is sweet. Sophie and Pack are workers at a medicine company. They are furious when their boss tells the papers that they are ready to test their new drug on humans. One day, while he is taking his shots they accidently inject him with the serum. George has only a few hours to live. He starts to have delusions and learns he's been set up and kills Pack. A rocker fights with his manager. His groupie girlfriend shows him a special tattoo and convinces him to get one from where she got it. The tattoo has a picture of a dragon but a cartoon face that looks like Scarlett. He tries to remove the tattoo but no matter how hard he tries it keeps coming back. |
June 27, 1992 |
| 2 |
Seance Con artists posing as mediums decide to use a man named Chalmers as their next victim. The woman hits on Chalmers and her male partner takes pictures of them in bed. One day Chalmers is killed in an accident. The con artists discover something else - Chalmers' wife is blind. They decide to pull a fake seance on his wife. The plan works but not in the way they expect. |
July 4, 1992 |
| 3 |
Beauty Rest An obsessed wannabe model grows bloody red with envy when her roommate lands a part she thought she was going to get. She forces her roommate to overdose and steps in to take her place. She becomes the next victim of another jealous model and kills her rival. Now there's no one standing in her way and she is crowned, but she soon discovers something shocking about the talent show. |
July 11, 1992 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Death of Some Salesmen / As Ye Sow / Forever Ambergris A sneaky con man has a talent for killing people after he sells them phony tombstones. He soon learns that some for his new victims have a fortune buried in their cellar. He marries their daughter and kills the parents but when he goes down in the basement he gets a big surprise. A husband hires a detective to spy on his wife whom he believes is cheating on him with a priest. When he learns that he's been conned, he decides to kill him himself. That day he learns that they're was nothing going on between them and he is relieved. But he is mistaken for his wife's so called boyfriend and killed by the detective he hired. Dalton is a seasoned combat photographer who finds himself falling for a beautiful women who just happens to be the wife of his friend. One day Ike sends Dalton into a disease warfare area. Dalton returns, but not the way he used to be. He soon writes a letter about how he was set up and his wife and friend also contract the same disease. |
October 2, 1993 |
| 2 |
Food for Thought Zambini is a circus mind-controlling psychic who controls his beautiful helper with his telepathic powers. One day he learns that she has a crush on the fire eater. Zambini goes into a terrible rage and kills him. Connie flees in terror never to return. Zambini uses his powers to call her back but it contacts the pet gorilla instead. |
October 6, 1993 |
| 3 |
People Who Live in Brass Hearses Billy is a smalltime criminal who is bloody red for vengeance. Years ago, his boss at an icecream warehouse double crossed him by sending him to prison. Now he plans to frame his boss with the help of his disabled brother. |
October 13, 1993 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Let the Punishment Fit the Crime / Only Skin Deep / Whirlpool An ambulance-chasing lawyer finds herself in a nightmare court when she is hauled in for having too many digits on her license plate. She finds her self going through the court several times and they have a way of throwing the book at her. At a costume party, a young man falls in love with a sexy woman. They have a great time. He promises to keep quiet but the next day he spills the beans. The woman tells him not to be around while she's awake. He finds out that she's wearing that same mask. He tries to remove it only to learn that it's her horrible face. A comic artist for Tales From The Crypt finds herself trapped inside a repetitious nightmare world. Everyday she lives through the same horrible episodes. First her boss rejects her latest idea then fires her. She goes to her boss and shoots him only to be caught by the police and shot to death. |
October 31, 1994 |
| 2 |
Operation Friendship Nelson is a computer genius who is letting his boss take credit for his ideas. Meanwhile his childhood imaginary pal Eddie tries to get Nelson to stand up to his bullying coworker. That is, until Nelson falls in love with a beautiful next door neighbor. Eddie thinks that she will ruin their friendship, but Nelson tosses Eddies' good side out the window leaving Eddie to come back cold-hearted. |
November 9, 1994 |
| 3 |
Revenge Is the Nuts A run-down shelter for the blind is owned by a cruel man. He abuses the patients there and won't give them respect. A new blind girl, Shelly, arrives the owner promises to lighten up if she agrees to sleep with him. Benny and the other patients give the owner from hell a taste of his own medicine. |
November 16, 1994 |
| Episode | Title | Air date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Fatal Caper Two adult brothers come to blows over the the fortune of their wealthy father, whose interests are protected by a lovely young woman with questionable loyalties. |
April 19, 1996 |
| 2 |
Last Respects Three bickering sisters left in charge of their late father's struggling curiosity shop come into possession of a cursed monkey's paw, and try to use it to their advantage - with deadly results. |
April 26, 1996 |
| 3 |
A Slight Case of Murder A game of cat and mouse ensues between a female mystery novelist and her jealous former husband when he accuses her of having a love affair with her nosy neighbor's son. |
May 3, 1996 |
Production
Release
| Original network/platform | HBO |
|---|---|
| First aired | June 10, 1989 |
| Last aired | July 19, 1996 |
| Status | ended |
| Schedule | Friday at 22:00:00 |