This was the show that really put HBO on the map. HBO had success with a Canadian horror show called The Hitchhiker(seriously that show needs more love) but when Crypt came HBO was put on the map for original series.

And why is that? Well for starters the show was produced by Richard Donner, Joel Silver, Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis and David Giller. These guys were all huge directors/producers and today this would be the equivalent of Christopher Nolan, James Wan, Rober Kirkman and JJ Abrahams got together to produce a TV show.

This also led to legit Hollywood stars at the time appearing on the show, something which had not been seen on TV since the 60's Batman series. You had Arnold Schwarzenegger, Demi Moore, Michael J Fox, Tom Hanks, Joe Pesci, Lance Henricksen, Whoopi Goldberg, John Stamos, Lea Thompson, Christopher Reeve Tim Curry and Tony Goldywn among others. You can make a very strong case that without this show, you don't get HBO series like OZ, The Wire and HBO doesnt start its dominance with TV like it had.

They were also able to get notable talent behind the camera also. Donner, Zemeckis and Hill all direced a couple of episodes. Fox, Schwarzenegger and Hanks directed as well. But you also had Tom Holland(Childs Play, Fright Night) William Freidkin(The Exorcist), Tobe Hooper(Texas Chainsaw Massacre) Mary Lambert(Pet Cemetary), Russell Mulcahy(Highlander) and John Frankenheimer.

So how does it hold up? Honestly really well. Sure some things like gore dont always hold up, and man could this series do with a Blu upgrade since the DVD's dont look great. But this show is just as good and entertaining as it ever was and not surprisngly holds up better than other shows like Tales from the Darkside, Monsters, and Freddy's Nightmares as well as The Hitchhiker. Long live the Cryptkeeper boils and ghouls!

My top ten in no particular order:

1. The Man who was Death: An out of work executioner decides that he isn't quite ready to be unemployed yet.

2.And all through the house: A woman who kills her husband on Christmas Eve has to battle an escaped killer dressed as Santa Claus.

3. Dead Right: Demi Moore marries a disgusting man after hearing that he will inherit money from the death of someone close to him.

4. Cutting Cards: Two rival gamblers decide to play the ultimate poker game. Where losing a hand costs you a hand.

5. Television Terror: A ratings chasing talk show host realizes that maybe he should have stayed out of a haunted house.

6. Top Billing: An out of work actor will do anything to play the role of Hamlet.

7. What's Cookin?: Christopher Reeve's restaurant is getting ready to close until a coworker stumbles on a steak recipe that's to die for.

8. The New Arrival: A radio psychologist makes a terrible mistake when he does a live remote from a callers house.

9. Death of some salesman: A con man gets more than he bargained for when he knocks on the wrong house.

10. The Thing from the Grave: Love never dies, no matter how deep it is buried.

The intro is still one of my favorites. I didn't have HBO but I used to watch this super late-night when I was a kid on some network channel.

Also, don't sleep on the cartoon from the 90's! I remember enjoying that as well.

I bought all the seasons from Hastings before they closed. Really want to get into them. My favorites:

1) The one where the lumberjacks take revenge on the boss and his wife.

2) Kyle Mclaughlin vs. the vulture

3) The one where the old guy trades his money for a young man's body to get the girl but then she chooses the old guy with money.

4) The one with Danny Devito.

BTW - cutting cards was directed by none other than Walter Hill!

I enjoyed the series. Hadn't seen any of them when it originally aired. Got most of the seasons cheap at Big Lots many years back. As you mentioned, it was cool seeing big names pop up from one episode to the next.

Always loved it. I'm surprised HBO hasn't tried to revive it. Seems like it would be a no brainer.

I purchased the two movies as they got released from Scream! Factory. Enjoyed them both as blind buys.

Assuming a BD set will never come, what's the best option to by the different seasons on DVD? Any complete series sets?

$70 complete series DVD box set at Amazon. 59% off MSRP.

It was released June of 2017. It's basically all the individual seasons packed together.

I bought the Complete Series Box-set around July and have steadily gone through the show since then. I'm wrapping up Season 4 tonight...Just in time for S5 (1993) which was when I was finally able to get HBO for the first time. So it's been quite a treat to check out SO MANY episodes that I've never seen before.

Interestingly, I noticed (When I was an HBO subscriber) that, aside from the great "Abra-Cadaver" episode, almost all the reruns I saw from earlier seasons seemed to always be episodes that featured sex/nudity. So, naturally, I was expecting nearly every episode to have some raunch like that. But that obviously hasn't been the case.

Time for highlights:

I'm with robin & DVDJosh on the love for "Cutting Cards". That just might have been the greatest performance I've yet to see from Lance Henriksen.

"The New Arrival" (One of Robin's picks) has been the creepiest one to me. Best production design of the series thus far.

"Fitting Punishment" was a trip for me because it had so much of a Goosebumps/Are you Afraid of the Dark-vibe. Albeit, with a much harder edge.

^On that tip, I've surprisingly liked the other youth-oriented episodes as well ("The Secret","Undertaking Palor") The latter feels like a predecessor to Found Footage.

As with DVDJosh, the Lumberjack episode is the only one that's felt like classic EC comics (So far) Loved it!

"On a Deadman's Chest" was one of the reruns I ran into in the mid-90's and I didn't know Sherrie Rose starred in that. She later appeared in my most favorite episode, "Only Skin Deep", but we'll now see if something else will top that.

"Deadine","Showdown","Yellow" and the Brad Pitt one...Eh? Didn't really see any horror with those. And I'm guessing I'll encounter some more like that down the road.

Oh, and favorite Crypt Keeper moment (At this time) is when he's playing Stanley Kowalski

Finally finished the whole series. Afterwards, I looked up various youtube vids to see what a lot of guys' Top 10 episodes were. While I agreed with those who said S7 was the worst, I was surprised to see "Yellow" entering everyone's list as one of their most favorites. Really?? I just did NOT see the big deal with that one.

And it's comical to think how extremely cutting-edge the CG was on the Bogie episode compared today's de-aging and Tarkin effects. But hey, we all gotta start somewhere.

About to re-watch that excellent documentary on S1 about the comic book. I haven't seen that since it was shown on MONSTERS HD!

Why are so many great old HBO shows not available on their own service?

I love the Christopher Reeve episode - "What's Cookin'"

Coming to Shudder. First time on streaming

Glad the silly licensing and streaming right fiasco with the series is over, even if it's on Shudder instead of Max.

Now up on Shudder

It seems HBO didn't quite anticipate needing a back catalog when cable was their primary distribution and the rights/licensing for many of their older programs are not under HBO's direct control. Likely in the distribution deals producers cut with the channel before the 2000s seem to have included ownership over the episodes once a period of time ran out.

You know you just responded to an 8 year old post and to a guy who hasn't been here in well over a year, if not longer.

Back when HBO started doing original programming in the 1980s, there was only one HBO channel, no on-demand, or streaming, and they didn't have room in their schedule to re-run a lot of series.

I don't think they started full taking control of their programming until the late 1990s with series like Oz and Sopranos.

Tubi has been running 1st and Ten (remember that? O. J. Simpson!). Does anyone have The Hitchhiker? I think Roku has Dream On.

Even so, I found his answer interesting.