The moderate success of
Creepshow led to initial inquiries about the possibilities of a
Creepshow series. Because
Warner Brothersowned 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. A number of stories and episode novelizations were published in the book
Tales from the Darkside: Volume One in 1988. 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, which 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".
