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Alex Kurtzman And Robert Orci Join Forces With The CW To Revive Tales From The Darkside

Genre master George A. Romero’s 1980’s cult anthology series Tales From The Darkside looks to be getting a radical 21st century-makeover should the fine folks over at The CW have their way.

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Genre master George A. Romero’s 1980’s cult anthology series Tales From The Darkside looks to be getting a radical 21st century-makeover should the fine folks over at The CW have their way.

Deadline is reporting today that the network is looking to resurrect the long-forgotten half-hour anthology series which was a late-night staple on independent stations during its initial four-year (1984-1988) syndicated run. The CW has partnered with producers Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci (Star Trek: Into Darkness) and writer Joe Hill (Stephen King’s progeny and himself a renowned author in his own right) as they attempt to revive the revered series for a summer 2014 run on the network.

Tales From The Darkside was a weekly half-hour anthology devoted to scaring viewers with its unnerving stories which were culled from a creative cauldron that boiled with elements of horror, fantasy and the supernatural. The show was a spooky amalgamation of the aforementioned styles and had no trouble providing viewers (myself included) with many a sleepless night.

I can recall countless late-nights returning home, flipping on the TV and hearing the ominous drone of voice-over actor Paul Sparer reciting the show’s foreboding opening credit sequence; a performance which has lost not a bit of its creep factor decades later.

The influential series also attracted the talents of a multitude of the decade’s biggest and most legendary figures, including: prosthetic artist Tom Savini; authors Stephen King and Clive Barker;  director George A. Romero; and actors Keenan Wynn, Justine Bateman and Debbie Harry.

This new take on Tales From The Darkside reunites the Kurtzman/Orci/Hill triumverate who had previously worked together on Locke and Key (a drama adaptation of Hill’s graphic novel for which a pilot was shot for Fox), and seems certain to rekindle a void that the demise of such genre-defining shows as The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits or HBO’s own Tales From The Crypt have left in their long-departed wake.

Tell us, are you excited about the prospect of Tales From The Darkside coming back to network TV?