Season 3 Episode 1
A ruthless nurse works at an old folks’ home and along with her boyfriend, she steals jewelry from the residents, who can do nothing to stop her. The couple gets an unpleasant surprise when her newest victim is an old man who is actually a supernatural creature that feeds on blood.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, September 15, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Nightshift” premiered”Season 1 Episode 23
Cassie Pines, a superstitious woman, travels by bus to Texas on the advice of a psychic machine. Before she reaches her destination, however, she comes across another machine that warns her against continuing on her way. Written by Jule Selbo and guest-starring Ronee Blakley.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, August 4, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The False Prophet” premiered”An elderly woman makes one request of her unsympathetic family, who want to put her in a nursing home against her will.
Written by Jule Selbo.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, June 16, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Grandma’s Last Wish” premiered”Season 1 Episode 21
Mr. Bigalow wakes up in a replica of his apartment, overseen by an addiction counselor who will allow him to leave only if he quits smoking.
Written by Michael McDowell.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, June 9, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Bigalow’s Last Smoke” premiered”Season 1 Episode 20
A laundromat offers to wash away the sins of its clients.
Written by Harvey Jacobs.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 26, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “It All Comes Out in the Wash” premiered”Season 1 Episode 19
A teenager goads a once-famous magician into performing his greatest feat of levitation, with disastrous results.
Based on a short story by Joseph Payne Brennan and adapted by David Gerrold.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 19, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Levitation” premiered”Season 1 Episode 18
Politician Bo Gumbs checks into a hotel to prepare for a speech. After he tells the hotel wait staff that politics is all showmanship, they help him prepare for his best show ever.
Co-Written by Armand Mastoianni and David Gerrold, directed by Mastroianni, starring Dick Shawn.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 12, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “If the Shoes Fit…” premiered”Season 1 Episode 17
A wife and her friend plot to scare a rich man to death in the cursed “Madness Room.”
Written by Thomas Epperson and guest-starring Stuart Whitman.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, May 5, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Madness Room” premiered”Season 2 Episode 10
Dr. Peter Milne, an unethical psychiatrist, abuses his position to manipulate a female patient. His mind-bending medical practices only intensify her psychosis as she can no longer distinguish reality from dreams. When he finally has her act out her dreams, Dr. Milne finds himself the victim of her murderous feelings.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, April 9, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Murderous Feelings” premiered”Season 2 Episode 9
Kay Mason is the abusive owner of a dressmaking sweatshop. One day she is cursed by an angry worker who exclaims that she will be paid back by the devil for her actions. When Kay hires a mysterious stranger to do some odd jobs around the house, she doesn’t realize that she has hired a devil in disguise.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, March 26, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Hired Help” premiered”Season 2 Episode 8
Ex-addict and screenwriter Arthur Brown steals the life and words of Diane Hampton. Diane is struggling to maintain her marriage with her abusive jealous husband John and to keep the affair with her female lover Catherine a secret. Arthur tips John off about Diane’s affair and soon finds himself the target of John’s anger.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, March 12, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Man at the Window” premiered”Season 2 Episode 7
Lew Bridgeman and Joe Caldwell are Vietnam vets and best friends. But when Joe has an affair with Rae, Lew finds out and a night of deer hunting turns deadly.
Read more “Horror History: Saturday, March 2, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “A Time For Rifles” premiered”Season 1 Episode 16
A young woman who can’t stop crying meets a man who collects tears.
Written by Geoffrey Loftus and John Drimmer and guest-starring Jessica Harper and Victor Garber.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 24, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The Tear Collector” premiered”Season 1 Episode 15
A ringing telephone with a life of its own bothers a woman in the room next door.
Written by Michael McDowell.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 17, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Answer Me” premiered”Season 2 Episode 6
Jack Rhodes is a salesman who wears many disguises to get what he wants: women. One day, he gets a video letter from a mysterious woman, Barbara, who challenges him to meet her. She plays him like a fiddle and takes advantage of him. Now the tables are turned and he can’t escape, not even with his life.
Read more “Horror History: Saturday, February 16, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Videodate” premiered”Season 1 Episode 14
Confident that he is about to win the lottery, a man studying the black arts quits his job, only to find out that he has lost to a woman.
Written by Howard Smith and Tom Allan. Guest starring Carol Kane.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 10, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Snip, Snip” premiered”Season 1 Episode 13
An elderly couple take in a girl escaping from her boyfriend, just in time for their 25th anniversary dinner. Unfortunately, the couple plans on serving a very specific-and revolting-dish…
Story by D.J. Pass, adapted by James Houghton. Guest starring Alice Ghostley.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, February 3, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Anniversary Dinner” premiered”Season 2 Episode 5
Mickey is a con artist only willing to commit to one way of thinking: making the quick buck. In exchange for his life, Mickey is willing to sell his soul by giving Pearl, his girlfriend, away to drug lord Joey Stregga. What Mickey doesn’t realize is that he will have to pay for selling off part of his soul.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, January 29, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Petty Thieves” premiered”Season 1 Episode 12
Catherine is a tarot reader who attracts business by giving out only good predictions, but she soon finds herself stuck with a new deck of cards – one which makes terrible predictions come true.
Written and directed by Ted Gershuny.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, January 27, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “In the Cards” premiered”Season 1 Episode 11
An answering machine with a will of its own helps out a television writer and gradually begins to take over his life. Written by Haskell Barkin and guest-starring Harry Anderson.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, January 20, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “All a Clone by the Telephone” premiered”Season 2 Episode 4
Todd Fields is a married high school photography teacher and one of his students, Roseanne Lucas, develops a mad and obsessive crush on him. When Todd steps over the line and sleeps with her, he finds more than he ever bargained for.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, January 15, 1985: “The Hitchhiker” episode “And If We Dream” premiered”Season 1 Episode 10
A comedic story in which a couple finds a lamp which turns out to hold a genie, who is extremely annoyed at being trapped for thousands of years. He punishes them with plagues and problems, but the wife offers a simple solution to his problem. Based on a story by Harlan Ellison and adapted by Haskell Barkin and guest-starring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the genie.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, January 13, 1985: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Djinn, No Chaser” premiered”Season 2 Episode 3
Dr. Christopher Hamilton, an ambitious and pompous plastic surgeon, meets his challenge in Nina Russell, a patient in the process of a gender change. But when he shows up to surgery the next day unprepared, he completely botches up the procedure.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, December 4, 1984: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Face To Face” premiered”Season 1 Episode 9
Grandpa refuses to believe that he is dead. Written by James Houghton, based on a short story by Robert Bloch and guest-starring Christian Slater as Jody, Brent Spiner as the Reverend and Eddie Bracken as Grandpa.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, December 2, 1984: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “A Case of the Stubborns” premiered”Season 2 Episode 2
Attorney Ted Miller’s world falls apart when his old friend and lover Melody shows up at his door looking for a place to stay and he makes the mistake of turning her down.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, November 27, 1984: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Remembering Melody” premiered”Season 1 Episode 8
A man discovers his new word processor, a gift from his deceased nephew, is more powerful than he could ever have imagined: everything he types into it becomes real. Based on the short story by Stephen King and adapted by Michael McDowell.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, November 25, 1984: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “The Word Processor of the Gods” premiered”Season 1 Episode 7
A young woman takes up board in an elderly man’s house and insists that there is something lurking inside of the small, locked closet in her bedroom.
Directed by Tom Savini and guest-starring Fritz Weaver.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, November 18, 1984: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Inside the Closet” premiered”Season 2 Episode 1
For months, Eric Dunlap has been hard at work on a special sound system for Kurt Hoffman, a temperamental conductor who is impossible to please. During that time, he fell deeply in love with Hoffman’s much younger wife, Veronica. It isn’t long before Eric realises the computer he created, which only responds to him, is something special. When Veronica realises she returns Eric’s feelings and the two become lovers, Hoffman learns of his wife’s infidelity and exacts his revenge on the two, but Eric’s creation avenges the man who gave it life.
Read more “Horror History: Tuesday, November 13, 1984: “The Hitchhiker” episode “Lovesounds” premiered”Season 1 Episode 6
A man discovers that he is literally slipping from existence. Based on a short story by Michael Kube-McDowell, adapted by Mark Durand and guest-starring David Patrick Kelly.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, November 11, 1984: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Slippage” premiered”Season 1 Episode 5
A teenage girl discovers that her recently deceased twin brother’s spirit lives on in a computer, but no one will believe her. When she tries to fulfill her brother’s last wish by inputting data into his computer, her parents begin to get worried. Guest starring Justine Bateman and Tippi Hedren, written by Dan Kleinman.
Read more “Horror History: Sunday, November 4, 1984: “Tales From The Darkside” episode “Mookie and Pookie” premiered”
