Tales from the Cryptkeeper

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.

Cast

• John Kassir played the voice of The Crypt Keeper.
• Elizabeth Hanna as the Old Witch.
• David Hemblen as the Vault Keeper.

List of episodes

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 Beauty 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 Beanstalk" 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 House. 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

• : Global's (Kids TV) (first and second seasons aired from 1993 until 1994, same schedule as ABC and CBS)
• : CITV mid 1990s. Pop! 2008
• : ABC (first season, schedule: 8:30 AM ET/PT), CBS, later seasons
• : Télétoon (all seasons during the 90's and the 2000's)
• : KidsCo
• : ANT1 – at around 8:45 an 9 AM on Saturdays and Sundays (first and second seasons aired in 1995), Conn-x TV - KidsCo running.
• : Canale 5/Italia 1 (aired in the mid-1990s)
• : NHK (aired from 1992-2000.)
• : - Minimax (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 TV (from 2003 to 2007);Kanal D (in 2008,just 3 episodes from the first season;show canceled) and Pro Cinema (still running, the second season). Also, due to some sources, the show will return soon on Minimax and will be broadcast by Animax.)
• : Panda Biggs 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 Releases

In 2007, kaBOOM! Entertainment of Toronto, Canada, released the Complete First Season on DVD.^[2]

References

External links

• Nelvana: Tales from the Cryptkeeper
• Tales from the Cryptkeeper at the Internet Movie Database
• Tales from the Cryptkeeper at TV.com