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?