HBO's Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt
Genre	Anthology Horror fiction Black comedy
Created by	Steven Dodd
Based on	Tales from the Crypt by William Gaines Al Feldstein
Starring	Jerry Hyams
Voices of	John Kassir
Theme music composer	Danny Elfman
Composer(s)	Steve Bartek Frank Becker Bruce Broughton Michel Colombier Bill Conti Ry Cooder Cliff Eidelman Christopher Franke Jay Ferguson Jan Hammer James Horner Vladimir Horunzhy Michael Kamen David Mansfield David Newman Nicholas Pike J. Peter Robinson Michel Rubini Alan Silvestri Jimmy Webb Walter Werzowa Tom Hanks
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	93 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Richard Donner David Giler Walter Hill Joel Silver Robert Zemeckis
Running time	22–29 minutes
Production company(s)	EC Comics HBO
Distributor	Syndication: Genesis Entertainment 20th Television Worldwide Media: Warner Home Video
Release
Original network	HBO
Audio format	Dolby Surround 2.0
Original release	June 10, 1989 – July 19, 1996
Chronology
Related shows	Tales from the Cryptkeeper Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House

Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from June 10, 1989 to July 19, 1996, on the premium cable channel HBO for seven seasons with a total of 93 episodes. The title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name and most of the content originated in that comic or the other EC Comics of the time (Haunt of Fear, The Vault of Horror, Crime SuspenStories, Shock SuspenStories, and Two-Fisted Tales). The show was produced by HBO.

Because it was aired on HBO, a premium cable television channel, it was one of the few anthology series to be allowed to have full freedom from censorship by network standards and practices. As a result, HBO allowed the series to contain content that had not appeared in most television series up to that time, such as graphic violence, profanity, sexual activity and nudity. The show is subsequently edited for such content when broadcast in syndication or on basic cable. While the series began production in the United States, in the final season filming moved to Britain, resulting in episodes which revolved around British characters.

In 2017, M. Night Shyamalan will helm a reboot series.

Each episode begins with a tracking shot leading to the front door of the Crypt Keeper's decrepit mansion. Once inside, the camera pans down hallways and stairways, and finally descends into the basement. The show's host, the Crypt Keeper, then pops out from his coffin, cackling wildly; finally, green slime pours down over the screen as the main title appears. The Crypt Keeper is an animated corpse, as opposed to the original comics in which he was a living human being. The wisecracking Crypt Keeper, who was voiced by John Kassir and performed by puppeteer Van Snowden, would then introduce the episode with intentionally hackneyed puns (e.g. his frequent greeting to viewers: "Hello, Boils and Ghouls" or "Hello, Kiddies"). Each episode was self contained, and was bookended by an outro sequence again involving the Crypt Keeper. Comic book cover art was created by Mike Vosburg and Shawn McManus.

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