Tales from the Darkside

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Tales from the Darkside
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Genre Horror / Fantasy / Science fiction / Drama
Created by George A. Romero
Narrated by Paul Sparer
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 4
No. of episodes 89 (+ 1 pilot) (list of episodes)
Production
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Laurel Entertainment
Jaygee Productions
Tribune Entertainment
Distributor Tribune Entertainment
Lorimar-Telepictures
LBS Communications
Worldvision Enterprises
CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network Syndicated
Original release Pilot:
October 29, 1983
Official:
September 30, 1984 –
July 24, 1988
Chronology
Related shows Monsters, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Night Gallery, Tales from the Crypt, Night Visions, Amazing Stories, Scare Tactics, Masters of Horror

Tales from the Darkside was an American anthology horror TV series created by George A. Romero; it debuted in 1983. Similar to Amazing Stories, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, Tales from the Crypt, and Monsters. Each episode was an individual short story that often ended with a plot twist. The series' episodes spanned the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy, and some episodes featured elements of black comedy or more lighthearted themes.

Series

The moderate success of George A. Romero's horror anthology film Creepshow led to initial inquiries about the possibilities of a Creepshow series. Because Warner Brothers owned certain aspects of Creepshow, Laurel Entertainment, 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 of the 1950s like Tales from the Crypt or The Vault of Horror, though the series would not carry the trappings of a comic as Creepshow did.

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" and "Sorry, Right Number" were amongst them. Works by Frederik Pohl, Harlan Ellison, Clive Barker, Michael Bishop, Robert Bloch, John Cheever, Michael McDowell and Fredric Brown were also featured.

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.

The series was followed by Tales from the Darkside: The Movie in 1990. Stephen King also contributed a short story to this film, "The Cat From Hell". The film starred Deborah Harry, Christian Slater, William Hickey, Steve Buscemi, and Julianne Moore (the first three had previously appeared in episodes of the TV series). Tom Savini has called this film "The real Creepshow 3".

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. Worldvision Enterprises later became the series' distributor, and the rights currently are held by Worldvision successor CBS Television Distribution.

On November 17, 2008, CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) announced the first season of Tales from the Darkside would be released on DVD February 10, 2009 complete with audio commentary by producer George Romero on the episode "Trick or Treat".

Opening/closing sequence

The opening/closing theme to the series was performed by Donald Rubinstein (who co-wrote the theme with Erica Lindsay). Donald (brother of Laurel Productions' founder, Richard P. Rubinstein) had worked on scores for Laurel Productions in the past, such as the films Martin and Knightriders. His previous works qualified him to try his hand at the theme for Tales from the Darkside, and the haunting composition helped define the series as a separate entity from Creepshow. George Romero wrote the 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—accompanied by a narrator (the late Paul Sparer) delivering a foreboding voice-over:

Man lives in the sunlit world of what he believes to be reality.
But...there is, unseen by most, an underworld, a place that is just as real,
but not as brightly lit... a darkside.

Each episode would also end with a second voice-over during the closing credits:

The darkside is always there, waiting for us to enter - waiting to enter us.
Until next time, try to enjoy the daylight.

Episodes

Awards and nominations

Young Artist Awards

Year Award
1987 Exceptional Performance by a Young Actor, Guest Starring in a Television, Comedy or Drama Series – Scooter Stevens – nominated
1987 Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress, Guest Starring in a Television, Comedy or Drama Series – Tanya Fenmore – nominated

Writers Guild of America, USA

Year Award
1988 Anthology Episode/Single Program – John Harrison (as John Sutherland) – nominated

DVD releases

CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) has released the four seasons of Tales from the Darkside on DVD in Region 1.

In Region 2, Revelation Films has released all four seasons on DVD in the UK.

DVD name Ep# Release dates
Region 1 Region 2
The First Season 24 February 10, 2009 November 21, 2011
The Second Season 24 October 27, 2009 February 20, 2012
The Third Season 22 April 27, 2010 May 7, 2012
The Final Season 20 October 19, 2010 August 6, 2012
The Complete Series 90 October 19, 2010 October 28, 2013

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.

Reboot

In November 2013, it was announced that Joe Hill, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci are developing a reboot of Tales from the Dark Side with CBS Television Studios for The CW.

At Comic Con 2014 Joe Hill announced that he would serve as the creative director and will 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."[1]

On February 2, 2015, The CW Announced that Darkside has given a pilot order and has been added on their upcoming 2015-2016 schedule. Joe Hill stated on his Tumblr account on February 20, 2015 that filming for the pilot episode "begins shortly". Filming for the pilot episode of Darkside started on March 19, 2015. Filming for the pilot episode wrapped up on April 4, 2015. On April 10, 2015, Joe Hill revealed on his Tumblr account that he has written more episodes of the first season than just the pilot episode.

On April 18, 2015, Joe Hill announced on his Twitter account: "We wanted to bring Darkside into the internet age, so the new title is actually Tales from the Darkside.

On May 7, 2015, The CW passed on the reboot series of Tales from the Darkside, but it was reported to be of interest to cable networks Syfy, MTV, VH1 and possibly Hulu.[2][3] Joe Hill later confirmed on his Tumblr that no network picked up the series.[4]

See also

References

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External links

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