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On June 10th, 1989, the iconic series Tales from the Crypt aired on HBO for the first time. The series was created by comic book pioneer, owner/editor of EC Comics, and founder of Mad Magazine, William Gaines, alongside TV Writer, Steven Dodd. Tales from the Crypt was an anthology series that adapted EC Comics' trailblazing horror series of the same name from the 1950s, alongside other horror comics from the era.
"Hello, boils and ghouls!" Each episode begins as horror host the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir), introduces the night's tale with a flurry of puns in the titular crypt.
It's hard to undersell the impact that Tales from the Crypt had on horror. Since the series ran on HBO, it was allowed to push boundaries that other horror anthologies couldn't due to broadcasting regulations. Its episodes frequently showed graphic violence and gore. The opening theme, composed by the legendary Danny Elfman, and the Crypt Keeper have become iconic in the horror community. Many credit it with being one of the best horror anthologies in history, second only to Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone.
The series ran for seven years. It earned multiple Emmy nominations and featured a star-studded gallery of guest stars such as Brad Pitt, Tim Curry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Pesci, Iggy Pop, and countless other movie icons and rock stars. Its success spawned three movies, a kids' cartoon, a game show, a radio series, a sci-fi spinoff series, and three studio albums that featured the musical talents of Danny Elfman, Black Sabbath, and other musical legends.
How did such a critically and commercially successful series fall into relative obscurity? Simply put: there was no way to watch it for decades.
The licensing rights behind Tales from the Crypt proved impossible to navigate in the years following its end. You'd think that because the show aired on HBO, it'd be available on HBO Max, right? Wrong.
While the show itself was owned by HBO, the rights were owned by Gaines' estate. As the Crypt Keeper himself John Kassir puts it:
"Sadly, [EC Comics] publisher William Gaines passed away. He did amazing things, and we loved him. He would grant us the rights tomorrow. But the rights reverted to the family, who probably gave them to a lawyer, who probably doesn’t work in the industry."
As a result, the digital rights became impossible to navigate and, as physical box sets of the series fell out of print, fans were without a way to watch short of buying a ludicrously expensive secondhand copy or illegally downloading the series online. The licensing was so complicated that even M. Night Shyamalan's attempt to reboot the series fell through. It seemed as though we'd never see the series make it to the digital era until this year, 30 years after the show ended.
As of May 1st, Tales from the Crypt has been made available on Shudder, with a new season released every week. Finally, fans of the series don't have to sneak around the back alleys of the internet to watch their beloved Crypt Keeper.
With that being said, I'm off to get a Shudder subscription. Pleasant screams, boils, and ghouls!
