The show's title is based on the 1950s EC Comics series of the same name, published by William Gaines and edited by Al Feldstein.

Filmmakers Richard Donner, David Giler, Walter Hill, Joel Silver, and Robert Zemeckis formed the show's team of executive producers.

Each episode begins with a tracking shot leading to the front door of the decrepit mansion of the Cryptkeeper, the show's host.

The wisecracking Cryptkeeper, performed by a team of puppeteers such as Van Snowden,[2] Mike Elizalde, Frank Charles Lutkus, Patty Maloney, David Arthur Nelson, Anton Rupprecht, Shaun Smith, David Stinnent, Mike Trcic, and Brock Winkless, and voiced by John Kassir, then introduced the episode with intentionally stereotyped jokes and mostly puns, e.g., his frequent greeting to viewers: "Hello, Boils and Ghouls" or "Hello, Kiddies".

Directed by Ernest Dickerson from a screenplay by Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Vorhis and Mark Bishop, it became a commercial success.

Produced by the Canada-based Nelvana for ABC in the United States and YTV in Canada, the violence of the prime-time series was substantially toned down and the gore was omitted.

He would often break into the action with wisecracks, and contestants competed in physical challenges on a variety of elaborate haunted house sets at Universal Studios Florida.

In 2000, several Tales from the Crypt "radio shows" were recorded for Seeing Ear Theatre, an online subsidiary of The Sci-Fi Channel, and were offered free as streaming RealAudio files on their website,[5] as well as for sale on Audible.com.

When Fox passed on the pilot, Cryptkeeper segments were put down onto the three stories, "Yellow", "Showdown", and "King of the Road", and HBO ran them as Tales from the Crypt episodes.

After the original series ended, a spin-off called Perversions of Science premiered in June 1997 on HBO, this time being based more on sci-fi instead of horror.

[8] Some of the most famous people to have starred in episodes are listed below: In 1991, Big Screen Records released a soundtrack album featuring assorted music from the series.

[9] The album includes the theme music, suites from 11 episodes and an original song titled "Crypt Jam" performed by The Cryptkeeper, John Kassir.

[11] This album is a compilation of horror-themed songs from popular heavy metal bands with wraparound narration by the Cryptkeeper (John Kassir).

[14] In January 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that M. Night Shyamalan would helm a series reboot as part of TNT's new two-hour horror block.

[17] In June 2017, it was announced that TNT would not move forward with the series due to legal issues concerning the rights for the characters from Tales from the Crypt Holdings.