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 and lighthearted in tone.

SERIES

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 Frederik Pohl, 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). Tom Savini has called this film 'The real "Creepshow 3"'.

OPENING/CLOSING SEQUENCE

The opening/closing theme to the series was performed by Donald Rubinstein (who co-wrote the theme with Erica Lindsay). Donald (The 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.

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 (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:

The dark side is always there,

waiting for us to enter,
waiting to enter us.
Until next time,
try to enjoy the daylight.

EPISODES

Pilot 1983

# 0-01 29 Oct 83 Trick or Treat

1st Season 1984
# 1-01 30 Sep 84 The New Man
# 1-02 7 Oct 84 I'll Give You a Million
# 1-03 14 Oct 84 Pain Killer
# 1-04 21 Oct 84 The Odds
# 1-05 4 Nov 84 Mookie and Pookie
# 1-06 11 Nov 84 Slippage
# 1-07 18 Nov 84 Inside the Closet
# 1-08 25 Nov 84 The Word Processor of the Gods
# 1-09 2 Dec 84 A Case of the Stubborns
# 1-10 13 Jan 85 Djinn, No Chaser
# 1-11 20 Jan 85 All a Clone by the Telephone
# 1-12 27 Jan 85 In the Cards
# 1-13 3 Feb 85 Anniversary Dinner
# 1-14 10 Feb 85 Snip, Snip
# 1-15 17 Feb 85 Answer Me
# 1-16 24 Feb 85 The Tear Collector
# 1-17 5 May 85 Madness Room
# 1-18 12 May 85 If the Shoes Fit...
# 1-19 19 May 85 Levitation
# 1-20 26 May 85 It All Comes Out in the Wash
# 1-21 9 Jun 85 Bigalow's Last Smoke
# 1-22 16 Jun 85 Grandma's Last Wish
# 1-23 4 Aug 85 The False Prophet

2nd Season 1985

# 2-01 29 Sep 85 The Impressionist
# 2-02 6 Oct 85 Lifebomb
# 2-03 13 Oct 85 Ring Around the Redhead
# 2-04 20 Oct 85 Parlor Floor Front
# 2-05 27 Oct 85 Halloween Candy
# 2-06 3 Nov 85 The Satanic Piano
# 2-07 10 Nov 85 The Devil's Advocate
# 2-08 17 Nov 85 Distant Signals
# 2-09 24 Nov 85 The Trouble with Mary Jane
# 2-10 1 Dec 85 Ursa Minor
# 2-11 8 Dec 85 Effect and Cause
# 2-12 22 Dec 85 Monsters in My Room
# 2-13 12 Jan 86 Comet Watch
# 2-14 19 Jan 86 Dream Girl
# 2-15 26 Jan 86 A New Lease On Life
# 2-16 2 Feb 86 Printer's Devil
# 2-17 9 Feb 86 The Shrine
# 2-18 16 Feb 86 The Old Soft Shoe
# 2-19 23 Feb 86 The Last Car
# 2-20 4 May 86 A Choice of Dreams
# 2-21 11 May 86 Strange Love
# 2-22 18 May 86 The Unhappy Medium
# 2-23 25 May 86 Fear of Floating
# 2-24 13 Jul 86 The Casavin Curse

3rd Season 1986

# 3-01 28 Sep 86 The Circus
# 3-02 5 Oct 86 I Can't Help Saying Goodbye
# 3-03 12 Oct 86 The Bitterest Pill
# 3-04 19 Oct 86 Florence Bravo
# 3-05 26 Oct 86 The Greezenstacks
# 3-06 2 Nov 86 Black Widows
# 3-07 9 Nov 86 Heretic
# 3-08 16 Nov 86 A Serpent's Tooth
# 3-09 23 Nov 86 Baker's Dozen
# 3-10 30 Nov 86 Deliver Us from Goodness
# 3-11 29 Dec 86 Seasons of Belief
# 3-12 18 Jan 87 Miss May Dusa
# 3-13 25 Jan 87 The Milkman Cometh
# 3-14 1 Feb 87 My Ghostwriter- the Vampire
# 3-15 8 Feb 87 My Own Place
# 3-16 15 Feb 87 Red Leader
# 3-17 22 Feb 87 Everybody Needs a Little Love
# 3-18 1 Mar 87 Auld Acquaintances
# 3-19 8 Mar 87 The Social Climber
# 3-20 3 May 87 The Swap
# 3-21 10 May 87 Let the Games Begin
# 3-22 17 May 87 The Enormous Radio

4th Season 1987

# 4-01 27 Sep 87 Beetles
# 4-02 4 Oct 87 Mary, Mary
# 4-03 11 Oct 87 The Spirit Photographer
# 4-04 18 Oct 87 The Moth
# 4-05 25 Oct 87 No Strings
# 4-06 1 Nov 87 The Grave Robber
# 4-07 8 Nov 87 The Yattering and Jack
# 4-08 15 Nov 87 Seymourlama
# 4-09 22 Nov 87 Sorry, Right Number
# 4-10 14 Feb 88 Payment Overdue
# 4-11 21 Feb 88 Love Hungry
# 4-12 28 Feb 88 The Deal
# 4-13 1 May 88 The Apprentice
# 4-14 8 May 88 The Cutty Black Sow
# 4-15 15 May 88 Do Not Open This Box
# 4-16 22 May 88 Family Reunion
# 4-17 19 Jun 88 Going Native
# 4-18 10 Jul 88 Hush
# 4-19 17 Jul 88 Barter
# 4-20 23 Jul 88 Basher Malone

Feature Film 1990 Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (93 min)

DVD RELEASES

At this time there are no official DVD releases of the entire series' but certain episodes are available on a set of 6 VHS compilation tapes.Here are 4 of the sleeves.