Episode 7: Tales About “Tales”

Get a bunch of people together who worked on a project and they’ll have stories. That’s what this one is – backstage stories from “Tales From The Crypt”. How to describe the experience of making “Tales From The Crypt“… It was unique, for starters!

Back in the 1990’s when we made Crypt, the feature world was the feature world and the TV world was the TV world. The two didn’t intersect the way they do now. Occasionally, a TV star like John Travolta or Robin Williams would break through and cross over. Once they made it to features, they never looked back at TV.

And a feature actor who did a TV series? The obvious question was when’s the retirement party?

That isn’t how the entertainment world is now. These days, TV is the creative skunk works.

We knew while we were making “Crypt” that it was a special experience. But, it wasn’t until we’d all had careers and lives after Crypt that we could fully appreciate just how special doing “Crypt” was. For starters, anthologies aren’t like other TV shows. Each episode is a thing unto itself. Whereas a regular series has standing sets and regular characters, an anthology episode has to invent a whole world every time out. It’s a staggering but amazing challenge. It produces a whole other set of backstage stories.

Great anthologies are transcendent. “The Twilight Zone” is the gold standard. If anything, that’s what we aspired to. But, as important as the stories are, it’s the host who ties it all together. With Crypt, the Crypt Keeper was everything. For better or worse, during the six years I worked on Crypt, I wrote every word the Crypt Keeper ever said. Boy, could I tell some backstage stories about that guy!

In all honesty, not every episode of “Tales From The Crypt” is a gem. Some are a little hard to watch, But some episodes? They still make us incredibly proud that we made them.

In this episode, we put the band back together to talk about Crypt – and spin a few tales about the making of “Tales”. And we’ll put you right in the room with us!