Tales From the Darkside

Tales from the Darkside is an anthology TV series from the 1980s produced by George A. Romero. Similar to The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and Tales From The Crypt, each episode was an individual short story that ended with a plot twist. Unlike these other series, Tales from the Darkside centered mostly around horror stories. However, the series contained some episodes which would more likely be considered science fiction or fantasy-based, as well as some episodes which were more comical in tone.

The moderate success of George 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 Productions (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 Harlan Ellison and Clive Barker 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. Rubenstein.

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 previously appeared in episodes of the TV series).

Segments Alluded To

 * The CEO of Burger King