Tales from the Cryptkeeper
Encyclopedia
Tales from the Cryptkeeper is an animated series aimed at children made by
Nelvana Limited
, PeaceArch Entertainment
, kaBOOM! Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Animation. It was shown on TVO
and ABC
,and is still shown near Halloween
on Teletoon. It was based on the live-action television show, Tales from the Crypt
, which aired concurrently on HBO. Being directed at children, Tales From the Cryptkeeper was significantly milder than the live-action HBO version.
The series was canceled on December 10, 1994. In 1997 the show returned to the air as New Tales from the Cryptkeeper. The animation was different from that of the previous episodes.
. Due to the adoption of a content ratings system and new FCC regulations over more educational content in children's cartoons, the CBS version now has a TV-Y7 rating and an E/I badge (signifying that the show has educational content) at the beginning of the episode. Also, each episode has a moral that the characters learn the hard way, thanks to The Cryptkeeper interacting with the characters (often posing as a store clerk) in the beginning of the episode.
In 2007, kaBOOM! Entertainment of Toronto, Canada, released the Complete First Season on DVD.
Nelvana Limited
Nelvana
Nelvana Limited is a Canadian entertainment company founded in 1971 known for its work in children's animation. It was named by founders Michael Hirsh, Patrick Loubert and Clive A. Smith after a Canadian comic book superheroine created by Adrian Dingle in the 1940s...
, PeaceArch Entertainment
Peace Arch Entertainment
Peace Arch Entertainment is a Canadian motion picture and television production company based in Toronto, Canada with offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver...
, kaBOOM! Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television Animation. It was shown on TVO
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
and ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
,and is still shown near Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
on Teletoon. It was based on the live-action television show, Tales from the Crypt
Tales from the Crypt (TV series)
Tales from the Crypt, sometimes titled HBO's Tales from the Crypt, is an American horror anthology television series that ran from 1989 to 1996 on the premium cable channel HBO...
, which aired concurrently on HBO. Being directed at children, Tales From the Cryptkeeper was significantly milder than the live-action HBO version.
The series was canceled on December 10, 1994. In 1997 the show returned to the air as New Tales from the Cryptkeeper. The animation was different from that of the previous episodes.
Cast
- John KassirJohn KassirJohn Kassir is an American actor, voice artist, and comedian who is best known as the voice of the Crypt Keeper in HBO's, Tales from the Crypt franchise...
played the voice of The Crypt Keeper. - Elizabeth HannaElizabeth HannaElizabeth Hanna is a Canadian film and television actress, most notable for her voice acting work in animated films. She later complemented her voice acting skills by becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist.-Early history:...
as the Old Witch. - David HemblenDavid HemblenDavid Hemblen is an English-born actor who frequently works in Canadian film, television and theater. He was a mainstay on the television series Earth: Final Conflict, playing Jonathan Doors, and played recurring roles in A Nero Wolfe Mystery and La Femme Nikita . He voiced Magneto on the popular...
as the Vault KeeperVault KeeperThe Vault-Keeper was the host for The Vault of Horror, a horror comic published by EC Comics from 1950 until 1954. The Vault-Keeper was one of three hosts for EC's horror comics , along with the Crypt-Keeper and the Old Witch...
.
Season One (1993)
- 1. While the Cat's Away (September 18, 1993) – Two brothers plan to rob an abandoned mansion, where The Cryptkeeper has set up a monstrous security system to get rid of intruders.
- 2. Nature (September 25, 1993) – After two brothers torment ants at a picnic, they are shrunk by a mysterious ray and are forced to face the trials and tribulations of the insect world.
- 3. Pleasant Screams (October 2, 1993) – A teacher and one of his students find themselves trapped in the nightmares of another student.
- 4. Gone Fishing/A Little Body of Work (October 9, 1993) – In "Gone Fishing" a boy tries to warn his uncle and an abusive and wasteful fisherman, of the fish that are out for revenge. In "A Little Body of Work", two hoodlums challenge a boy to a race on the Mustang he's renovating, a car which, unbeknownst to them, has a mind of its own.
- 5. The Works...In Wax (October 16, 1993) – A boy discovers that statues at a wax museum come to life.
- 6. Sleeping Beauty (October 23, 1993) – A prince and his nerdy put-upon twin brother in a terrifying retelling of Sleeping BeautySleeping BeautySleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
where the slumbering princess is really a bloodthirsty vampire. - 7. Cave Man (October 30, 1993) – Peter, the son of a scientist, befriends a Neanderthal that has been encased in ice for millions of years, but the friendship turns sour when the caveman can't adapt to the modern world.
- 8. Hyde and Go Shriek (November 6, 1993) – A group of bullies fear for their lives when the nerd they pick on drinks a potion that turns him into a werewolf.
- 9. Fare Tonight (November 13, 1993) – Best friends create a homemade vampire detector and use it to hunt for bloodsuckers only to learn that one of them is right under their nose.
- 10. Gorilla's Paw (November 20, 1993) – An unpopular kid steals a gorilla's paw in order to be a part of a secret club and discovers that the gorilla's paw can make wishes with twisted results.
- 11. This Wraps It Up (December 4, 1993) – A girl becomes the object of her classmates' never-ending ridiculing because of her tallness. But when a mummy unleashes a curse on everyone, the kids turn to Naomi to defeat the mummy and break the spell.
- 12. Grounds for Horror (December 11, 1993) – Summer campers befriend an invisible being who plays pranks on a strict no-nonsense counselor.
- 13. Ghost Ship (December 18, 1993) – Ben and his friend Mike go for a joyride on Ben's father's new yacht and sinks it, leaving the two stranded in the ocean until a phantom ship haunted by pirates comes to their rescue.
Season Two (1994)
In this season, the Cryptkeeper was continually feuding with his rivals, the Vaultkeeper and the Old Witch, who were continually trying to steal the show from him (as they didn't have one of their own), only to have their plans backfire on them. This season also saw the Cryptkeeper in different locales than his mansion, as he tried to elude his rivals.- 14. Game Over (September 10, 1994) – Two boys pay for skipping school to play video games when the characters come to life.
- 15. Cold Blood, Warm Hearts/The Spider and the Flies (September 17, 1994) – The Cryptkeeper and an old witch meet at the beach to swap stories: in "Cold Blood, Warm Heart", a man and a woman find that they have a lot in common while investigating rumors of two monsters dwelling in two different lakes; in "The Spider and the Flies", when spiders infest their town, two siblings find out that a mysterious exterminator is not what he seems to be.
- 16. The Avenging Phantom/Myth Conceptions (September 24, 1994) – In "The Avenging Phantom," a young boy named Jimmy wishes he can get revenge on his tormentors like his comic book hero, The Avenging Phantom and gets his wish, but with dire consequences. In "Myth Conceptions", an archaeologist discovers the tomb of Medusa and learns the hard way why others before him have died trying to find it.
- 17. All the Gory Details (October 1, 1994) – A pair of newspaper reporters try to track down an old mad scientist.
- 18. The Weeping Woman (October 8, 1994) – Camille and Mildred from "Fare Tonight" return, this time, to investigate the sightings of a woman's ghost who haunts a local inn.
- 19. Dead Men Don't Jump (October 15, 1994) – The Witch, The Cryptkeeper, and The Vaultkeeper return to tell the tale of a boy who challenges a monster to a basketball game that could mean the end of his life if he loses.
- 20. The Haunted Mine (October 22, 1994) – A boy's aunt visits, which leads to a trip inside an abandoned mine filled with unusual shapes and a dark secret.
- 21. Growing Pains (October 29, 1994) – The Old Witch takes over telling this episode's story after turning the Cryptkeeper into a scarecrow. In this installment, a plant enthusiast named Wendell (from "Hyde and Go Shriek") falls for Rose, a new girl at school with a rather "weedy" family secret.
- 22. The Brothers Gruff (November 5, 1994) – A boy named Eddie is followed home by a troll after crossing a bridge. Now it's up to him and his friend Sheldon, who knows almost everything about monsters, to defeat the troll when it kidnaps Eddie's older brother.
- 23. Uncle Harry's Horrible House of Horrors (November 12, 1994) – The Vault Guard tells the story of a superstitious young boy and his skeptical uncle, the latter of whom has his views of the supernatural challenged when the two of them go to a carnival and take a ride through a frighteningly realistic haunted house.
- 24. Hunted (November 19, 1994) – A heartless hunter in the Amazon is soon the hunted when a shapeshifting monster named Onnaya starts pursuing him after freeing the captured animals.
- 25. Chuck (and Melvin) and the Beanstalker (December 3, 1994) – Chuck and Melvin (the narcissistic prince and his sidekick from "The Sleeping Beauty") return; this time in a horrifying retelling of "Jack and the BeanstalkJack and the BeanstalkJack and the Beanstalk is a folktale said by English historian Francis Palgrave to be an oral legend that arrived in England with the Vikings. The tale is closely associated with the tale of Jack the Giant-killer. It is known under a number of versions...
" where they must steal the treasure of a giant Cyclops named Beanstalker. - 26. Transylvania Express (December 10, 1994) – Two surfer dudes, none other than Mike and Ben, get on a train headed for Transylvania, where they must fight back against vampires.
Season Three (1997) ("New Tales From The Cryptkeeper")
Season three was the first (and last) season to not air on ABC. Instead, Tales From the Cryptkeeper aired on CBS to coincide with the 1996 game show, Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted HouseSecrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House
Secrets of the Cryptkeeper’s Haunted House is a Children's Saturday-morning game show that ran on CBS. It premiered on September 14, 1996 and lasted until August 23, 1997. It featured the Cryptkeeper of Tales from the Crypt now serving as an announcer...
. Due to the adoption of a content ratings system and new FCC regulations over more educational content in children's cartoons, the CBS version now has a TV-Y7 rating and an E/I badge (signifying that the show has educational content) at the beginning of the episode. Also, each episode has a moral that the characters learn the hard way, thanks to The Cryptkeeper interacting with the characters (often posing as a store clerk) in the beginning of the episode.
- 27. Sharon Sharalike (September 13, 1997) – A teenage girl known for her selfishness, steals her little sister's doll and soon learns that the doll doesn't like it when its owners don't share.
- 28. Imaginary Friend (September 20, 1997) – Two teen boys torment a nine year-old who has an imaginary friend who gets back at the boys for their actions.
- 29. Waste Not, Haunt Not (September 27, 1997) – Two boys improperly dispose of toxic waste from their science project into a bog, which creates a bog monster.
- 30. Unpopular Mechanics (October 4, 1997) – A boy gets his comeuppance for building destructive appliances when his inventions turn on him.
- 31. Competitive Spirit (October 11, 1997) – A boy tricks his rival into thinking a ghost exists in the mountains, but a real mountain spirit comes after Victor for his deceptive ways.
- 32. Trouble in Store (October 18, 1997) – Two boys get locked in a store during closing hours and discover that the mannequins don't take kindly to those who steal from their "home".
- 33. So Very Attractive (October 25, 1997) – An insecure girl buys a beauty cream from an abandoned drugstore that makes her an irresistible force to everything.
- 34. Drawn and Quartered (November 1, 1997) – An aspiring artist finds a magic pencil that brings his drawings to life to get back at the bullies who torment him.
- 35. All Booked Up (November 8, 1997) – A boy who hates to read gets trapped in a library where he goes inside the dark world of classic literature.
- 36. Town Gathering (November 15, 1997) – A girl must convince her mother that a group of businessmen are actually aliens bent on eating the townspeople.
- 37. It's for You (November 22, 1997) – A boy gets his own phone line for Christmas and abuses his privilege by making crank calls until he makes one to a mysterious old woman who begins to stalk him over the phone.
- 38. Monsters Ate My Homework (November 29, 1997) – A boy tells his teacher that monsters ate his homework as an excuse as to why he doesn't have it. All goes well until real monsters come after Evan for his homework.
- 39. Too Cool for School (December 6, 1997) – Two girls mess around with the objects in the school science lab, and inadvertently create dinosaur-frogs after refusing to clean up frog eggs and a serum containing dinosaur DNA off the floor.
Broadcasters
- GlobalGlobal Television NetworkGlobal Television Network is an English language privately owned television network in Canada, owned by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, as part of its Shaw Media division...
's (Kids TV) (first and second seasons aired from 1993 until 1994, same schedule as ABC and CBS): CITV mid 1990s, Pop!Pop!Pop! were a UK pop group consisting of Glenn Ball, Hannah Lewis, Jamie Tinkler, and Jade McGuire. The group was formed in the summer of 2003 when they were signed by Pete Waterman...
present day: ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(first season, schedule: 8:30 AM ET/PT), CBS, later seasons: Télétoon (all seasons during the 90's and the 2000's): KidsCo: ANT1ANT1Antenna, better known as ANT1, is a television network airing in Greece and Cyprus. The alternate spelling is play on words in Greek; ena is the Greek number 1, thus ANT1 is pronounced the same as Antenna . It launched on 31 December 1989, the same year as rival Mega Channel, and is owned by...
– at around 8:45 an 9 AM on Saturdays and Sundays (first and second seasons aired in 1995), Conn-x TV - KidsCoKidsCoKidsCo is an international children's entertainment brand founded by Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment's Nelvana Enterprises, American-based producer DIC Entertainment, and European broadcaster Sparrowhawk Media Group in April 2007. By the end of 2007, Sparrowhawk was purchased by media...
running.: Canale 5Canale 5Canale 5 is an Italian private television network of Mediaset, the media branch of Fininvest. Canale 5 was the first private television network to have a national coverage in Italy in 1980, based on a local channel, TeleMilano 58, founded in 1978....
/Italia 1Italia 1Italia 1 is an Italian commercial television channel on the Mediaset network. It is oriented especially at young people.Italia 1 was launched in January 1982 and, originally, was owned by Rusconi; after a few months, however, due to the aggressive dumping practices of Silvio Berlusconi's rival...
(aired in the mid-1990s): NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
(aired from 1992-2000.): - MinimaxMinimaxMinimax is a decision rule used in decision theory, game theory, statistics and philosophy for minimizing the possible loss for a worst case scenario. Alternatively, it can be thought of as maximizing the minimum gain...
(first season aired in mid 2002, the second season around 2003,and the third season premiered in 2005 and was running until December 2008; Pro TVPro TVLaunched in December 1995, Pro TV reaches almost 99% of Romania’s 21.5 million people and has 48% of its broadcast schedule comprising locally-produced programs...
(from 2003 to 2007);Kanal DKanal DKanal D is a nation-wide television channel in Turkey and part of Doğan Holding which is owned by the Turkish media tycoon Aydın Doğan.Kanal D also runs an international channel, Euro D which is available online....
(in 2008,just 3 episodes from the first season;show canceled) and Pro CinemaPRO CinemaPRO Cinema is a Romanian movie channel that is owned by Central European Media Enterprises and launched on April 19, 2004. It was the first Romanian TV channel dedicated exclusively to movies, and as such it attracted a significant audience from its very inception, mainly in the 18-49 urban...
(still running, the second season). Also, due to some sources, the show will return soon on Minimax and will be broadcast by AnimaxAnimaxis a Japanese anime satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. A subsidiary of Japanese media conglomerate Sony, it is headquartered in in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with its co-founders and shareholders including Sony Pictures Entertainment and the noted anime studios...
.): Panda BiggsPanda BiggsPanda Biggs is a Portuguese television channel targeted to children, teens and youth. It was launched on December 1st 2009 on the ZON TVCabo platform...
present day
Translations
- Catalan: Els Contes del Guardià de la Cripta
- Dutch: Verhalen van de Grafbewaker
- Finnish: Kauhua kryptasta pitäjä
- French: Les Contes de la crypte
- German: Geschichten aus der Gruft
- Turkey: Korku Hikayeleri
- Greek: Ιστορίες του φύλακα της Κρύπτης (Istories tou fulaka tis Kryptis)
- Hebrew: סיפורים השומר קריפטה (Sypwrymhşwmrqrypth)
- Italian: Brividi e polvere con Pelleossa (used for the first and second seasons)
- Japanese: テイルズ・フロム・ザ・クリプト・キーパー (Katakana) Teiruzu Furomu Za Kuriputo Kīpā (Romaji)
- Romanian: Povestiri din cripta
- Spanish (South America): "Los cuentos de la cripta" (aired on channel Magic Kids (Argentina) and Foxkids Latin America in the others countries)
- Hungarian: Kriptamesék
- Portuguese (Portugal): Contos de Arrepiar or Contos do Guarda do Cripta
- Russian: Байки из склепа
DVD releases
Season ReleasesIn 2007, kaBOOM! Entertainment of Toronto, Canada, released the Complete First Season on DVD.
| DVD Name | Region DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Release Date | # of Episodes | Bonus Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Tales From the Cryptkeeper: Vol. 1: Stacks of Fear | 1 | September 28, 2004 | 3 | Stay Safe Halloween Tips |
| DVD Name | Region DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Release Date | # of Episodes | Bonus Features |
| Tales From the Cryptkeeper: Pleasant Screams: The Complete First Season | 1 | September 18, 2007 | 14 | |
| DVD Name | Region DVD region code DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region... |
Release Date | # of Episodes | Bonus Features |
| Tales From the Cryptkeeper: All the Gory Details: The Complete Second Season | 1 | September 16, 2008 | 15 |