Tales from the Crypt
Genre	Anthology Black comedy Dark fantasy Horror
Created by	William Gaines Steven Dodd
Based on	Tales from the Crypt by William Gaines Al Feldstein
Voices of	John Kassir
Theme music composer	Danny Elfman
Composers	Steve Bartek Frank Becker Bruce Broughton Michel Colombier Bill Conti Ry Cooder Cliff Eidelman Christopher Franke Jay Ferguson Jan Hammer James Horner Vladimir Horunzhy Michael Kamen David Mansfield David Newman Nicholas Pike J. Peter Robinson Michel Rubini Alan Silvestri Jimmy Webb Walter Werzowa
Country of origin	United States
Original languages	English French Spanish for Latin America
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	93 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Richard Donner David Giler Walter Hill Joel Silver Robert Zemeckis
Running time	22–39 minutes
Production companies	Tales from the Crypt Holdings Geffen Television
Original release
Network	HBO[1]
Release	June 10, 1989 (1989-06-10) – July 19, 1996 (1996-07-19)
Related
Tales from the Cryptkeeper Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House

Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series created by William Gaines and Steven Dodd that ran for seven seasons on the premium cable channel HBO, from June 10, 1989, to July 19, 1996, with a total of 93 episodes. The show's title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name, published by William Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein. Most of the program's episodes are based on stories that originally appeared in that comic or other EC Comics of the time, The Haunt of Fear, The Vault of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, and Two-Fisted Tales.

The series is hosted by the Cryptkeeper, a wisecracking corpse performed by several puppeteers and voiced by John Kassir. Filmmakers Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis formed the show's team of executive producers.

Because it was aired on HBO, a premium cable television channel, Tales from the Crypt did not have to be censored by the standards and practices of most networks. As a result, HBO allowed the series to include content that had not appeared in most television series up to that time, such as graphic violence, profanity, sexual activity, and nudity. Reruns of the series were still subsequently edited for basic cable, broadcast syndication, and when the broadcast networks Fox and CBS re-aired episodes in the late 1990s. While the series began production in the United States, the final season was primarily filmed in the UK, resulting in episodes revolving around British characters.

Format

Each episode begins with a tracking shot leading to the front door of the decrepit mansion of the Cryptkeeper, the show's host. Once inside, the camera tilts down from the foyer to the hallways and stairways, finally descending into the basement. The Cryptkeeper then comes out from his coffin, cackling wildly; green slime pours down over the screen as the main title appears. The Cryptkeeper is depicted as an animated corpse, as opposed to the original comics in which he was a living human being. The wisecracking Cryptkeeper (performed by a team of puppeteers such as Van Snowden,^[2] Mike Elizalde, Frank Charles Lutkus, Patty Maloney, David Arthur Nelson, Anton Rupprecht, Shaun Smith, David Stinnent, Mike Trcic, and Brock Winkless, and voiced by John Kassir) would then introduce the episode with intentionally stereotyped jokes and mostly puns, e.g., his frequent greeting to viewers: "Hello, Boils and Ghouls" or "Hello, Kiddies". Each episode was self-contained, and was bookended by an outro sequence, again involving the Cryptkeeper. Comic book cover art was created by Mike Vosburg and Shawn McManus.

Spin-offs

The success of the series led Universal Pictures to make a three picture deal with the Crypt Partners to produce three Crypt-branded feature films.

Films

The first Crypt-branded feature was Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight (1995). Directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Vorhis and Mark Bishop, it became a commercial success. Three weeks before starting prep on Demon Knight intended follow up - a psychological thriller called Dead Easy - Universal changed its mind, canceled Dead Easy and had the creative team make Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood instead.

The film Ritual (2002) was not produced as a Tales from the Crypt film, but is considered to be a third entry in the Tales series.^[3]

Tales from the Cryptkeeper

In 1993, a Saturday morning cartoon called Tales from the Cryptkeeper was spun off from the HBO series. Produced by the Canada-based Nelvana for ABC in the United States and YTV in Canada, the violence of the prime-time series was substantially toned down and the gore was omitted. Nelvana employed a child psychologist to review the scripts to ensure the episodes would be suitable for young viewers.^[4] The Cryptkeeper puppet was considered as the host for the series^[4] but it was ultimately decided that it might frighten youngsters, so instead an animated version was created; John Kassir reprised his role. Kassir later stated "Nelvana created a kinder, gentler personality for the children's Cryptkeeper, and it feels a little uncharacteristic at times,".^[4] In addition to the Cryptkeeper, EC Comics' mascots The Vaultkeeper and The Old Witch also made frequent appearances, often fighting with the Cryptkeeper for control of the show's hosting duties. The series lasted three seasons on ABC with a total of 39 episodes with the 3rd season in 1999 on CBS for an 13 episodes under the title New Tales from the Cryptkeeper.

Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House

A kids' game show called Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House was featured on CBS from 1996 to 1997. The Cryptkeeper (again voiced by John Kassir) was the announcer of the show (he would often break into the action with appropriate wisecracks), and contestants competed in physical challenges on a variety of elaborate haunted house sets at Universal Studios Florida. In addition to The Cryptkeeper, the series also showed off an original character named Digger the Skeleton (voiced by Danny Mann).

Radio series

In 2000, several Tales from the Crypt "radio shows" were recorded for Seeing Ear Theatre, an online subsidiary of The Sci-Fi Channel, and were offered free as streaming RealAudio files on their website,^[5] as well as for sale on Audible.com. Although 13 episodes were planned (with forthcoming episodes listed as "TBA"), only eight stories were recorded.^[6] Seven of the eight shows were released on CD in 2002 by Highbridge Audio^[7] ("This Trick'll Kill You" was omitted from the CD set^[6]).

Two-Fisted Tales

In 1991, the Fox television network aired a pilot for Two-Fisted Tales, a spin-off based on the 1950s EC action comics. When Fox passed on the pilot, Cryptkeeper segments were put down onto the three stories ("Yellow", "Showdown", and "King of the Road"), and HBO ran them as Tales from the Crypt episodes.

Perversions of Science

After the original series ended, a spin-off called Perversions of Science premiered in June 1997 on HBO, this time being based more on sci-fi instead of horror. The series was unsuccessful and lasted for a short run, ending only a month after it had begun airing. This iteration of the franchise featured a stylized female robot host in place of The Cryptkeeper.

Notable guest stars

A variety of notable guests have starred in episodes of Tales from the Crypt. This includes Academy Award-winning actors, A-list celebrities and highly recognizable character actors.^[8]

Some of the most famous people to have starred in episodes are listed below:

Albums

Soundtrack

In 1991, Big Screen Records released a soundtrack album featuring assorted music from the series.^[9] The album includes the theme music, suites from 11 episodes and an original song titled "Crypt Jam" performed by The Cryptkeeper (John Kassir). A music video for "Crypt Jam" was filmed and is available as an extra on the Region 1 Season 3 DVD.^[10]

Track	Title	Composer	Length
01	Tales from the Crypt (Main Title)	Danny Elfman	2:27
02	Three's a Crowd	Jan Hammer	3:50
03	Cutting Cards	James Horner	3:45
04	Loved to Death	Jimmy Webb	3:19
05	Dead Wait	David Mansfield	4:04
06	Undertaking Palor	Nicholas Pike	3:10
07	Carrion Death	Bruce Broughton	3:32
08	Ventriloquist's Dummy	Miles Goodman	3:32
09	The Thing from the Grave	David Newman	2:53
10	The Man Who Was Death	Ry Cooder	4:22
11	Reluctant Vampire	Cliff Eidelman	3:50
12	Deadline	Steve Bartek	3:32
13	The Crypt Jam	Chuckii Booker	4:30

Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas

In 1994, a Christmas album, Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas, was released by The Right Stuff, a subsidiary of Capitol Records. Most of the songs are spoofs of holiday standards performed by The Cryptkeeper, such as "Juggle Bills" (Jingle Bells), "We Wish You'd Bury the Missus" (We Wish You a Merry Christmas) and "Deck the Halls with Parts of Charlie" (Deck the Halls), with narration and a few original songs mixed in. The CD booklet includes a black and white reprint of the comic "And All Through the House".

Track	Title	Length
01	Intro to Album	0:51
02	Deck the Halls with Parts of Charlie	1:55
03	Juggle Bills	3:17
04	We Wish You'd Bury the Missus	2:20
05	Moe Teitlebaum	2:32
06	A Christmas Card for the Cryptkeeper	0:51
07	Christmas Rap	3:22
08	Intro to Cryptkeeper's Family Christmas	0:32
09	Cryptkeeper's Family Christmas	2:03
10	'Twas the Fright Before Christmas	3:55
11	Twelve Days of Cryptmas	3:42
12	Intro to Revenge of the Cryptkeeper	0:24
13	Revenge of the Cryptkeeper	2:18
14	Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas	2:21
15	Should Old Cadavers Be Forgot	3:38

Monsters of Metal

In 2000, Capitol Records released another album titled Tales from the Crypt: Monsters of Metal.^[11] This album is a compilation of horror-themed songs from popular heavy metal bands with wraparound narration by the Cryptkeeper (John Kassir).

Track	Title	Artist	Length
01	The Cryptkeeper Intro #1	John Kassir	0:30
02	Heaven and Hell	Black Sabbath	6:54
03	Creepy Feelings	Armored Saint	5:21
04	Five Magics	Megadeth	5:41
05	The Cryptkeeper Intro #2	John Kassir	0:14
06	Cemetery Gates (Demon Knight)	Pantera	5:47
07	Eyes of a Stranger	Queensrÿche	4:40
08	Hallucinating	Apartment 26	3:40
09	The Cryptkeeper Intro #3	John Kassir	0:35
10	Dead Inside	Arch Enemy	4:11
11	Beyond the Realms of Death	Judas Priest	6:53
12	Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck	Prong	4:12
13	The Cryptkeeper Intro #4	John Kassir	0:16
14	Don't Talk to Strangers	Dio	4:52
15	Bordello of Blood	Anthrax	4:12
16	The Bell Witch	Mercyful Fate	4:34
17	The Cryptkeeper Intro #5	John Kassir	0:21
18	Wolverine Blues	Entombed	2:10
19	Hollow Ground	The Haunted	4:10
20	Beyond the Black	Metal Church	6:22
21	The Cryptkeeper Ending	John Kassir	0:46

Home media

Warner Home Video has released all seven seasons on DVD Region 1. The DVDs for the first three seasons feature all-new Cryptkeeper introductions and segments. No new segments were filmed for seasons 4–7. On June 6, 2017, all seven seasons were reissued in a box set entitled Tales From the Crypt: The Complete Series. A Region 2 version of the whole series was released by '84 Entertainment on June 4, 2010,

Until mid 2020, the series was also available through the streaming platform Vudu.^[12]

Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Tales_from_the_Crypt_(TV_series)
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Season		Episodes	Discs	Release date	Extras
	1	6	2	July 12, 2005	All New Introduction by the Cryptkeeper Tales from the Crypt: From Comic Books to Television Cryptkeeper's History of Season One
	2	18	3	October 25, 2005	Behind-the-Screams Shockumentary Feature Fright and Sound: Bringing the Crypt Experience to Radio
	3	14	3	March 21, 2006	A Tall Tales Panel A Tales from the Crypt Reunion: A Panel Discussion Crypt Jam Music Video
	4	14	3	July 25, 2006	Commentary on 'What's Cookin Stars of Season 4 Montage Hosted by the Cryptkeeper
	5