S2E46: Crypt We Love/Crypt We Hate

Over the course of 5 seasons, Gil & Alan produced 69 episodes of “Tales From The Crypt”. That’s out of 93 episodes total over its full 7 year run. While we’ve said many times that doing Crypt was like catching lightning in a bottle, not every day was fun. And while we take pride in every episode we made, there are episodes we take greater pride in. And episodes where it’s more “pride by association”. Like any relationship, it’s love-hate.

Fortunately, doing Crypt, it was mostly love.

There are lots of episodes where we like the finished product but loved working with whoever made it with us. That really was a big part of the lightning – the actors and directors who dropped in for an episode. And always there were stories. We talk about working with TIM CURRY, KIRK DOUGLAS, CHRISTOPHER REEVE, WHOOPI GOLDBERG and TOBE HOOPER.

Clockwise from top left: Rita Wilson as a flesh-eating ghoul, Kirk Douglas in “Yellow”, Roger Daltrey, Whoopi Goldberg in “Dead Wait”, Buck Henry, Joe Pesci, Tobe Hooper, John Frankenheimer, Steven Weber.

And then we tell TOM HANKS stories and RITA WILSON stories, And some pretty good stories about WILLIAM FRIEDKIN, BUCK HENRY, JOE PESCI, JOEY PANTOLIANO. Joey once gave Alan a literal hair cut. We have Polaroid photos as proof!

Joey Pantoliano – actor and hair stylist – gives Alan a style on the set of “The Outer Limits”.

And we pay our respects to MANNY COTO. Manny was a super-talented writer-director-producer who wrote and directed the “MOURNIN’ MESS” episode – one of our best. Manny was huge in TV. Among his credits: he ran American Horror Story and 24. Manny just passed away; we send his family, friends and loved ones our deepest condolences.

We’ll also dig into why we feel less charitable toward certain episodes and directors. Gil tells a great (and revealing) story about legendary movie director JOHN FRANKENHEIMER and what happened when he directed an episode of Crypt.  

We’ll also tell a few JOEL SILVER stories because – how can we not? Gil still carries around scars from the episode Joel “directed”.

What’s a Crypt-based episode without a Joel Silver story?