Being a child of the 80's and a fan of scifi/horror I will try to list them in the order of best to worest. You missed Friday the 13th the series and war of the worlds btw :-P
1) Freddy's nightmares - I have always been a fan of the movies, but the series had a feel of it's own. When I was a child of about 10, this use to come on my tv at about 11pm on friday's and saturdays. It defiently had that 80's camp feel to it, and Lots of blood and risky sex scenes (almost some boob shots aswell...for prime time tv int he late 80's, that was very risky). Sadly after 2 seasons it was canceled and not aired on tv again for many years. I got lucky some years back before it started airing on the chiller channel, and managed to trade for all 42 episodes...good stuff and number one on the list of great 80's horror/scifi series.
2) Friday the 13th the series - I use to watch this series at 10 on saturdays, before war of the worlds and followed by freddy's nightmare. Although watching the series now in my adult years, I see the plot holes and sillyness of some episodes, this truely was the x-files of the 80's. The episodes were interesting and the gore was right up there with any r-rated movie. 3 seasons later this series would be canceled, however it still airs on tv and the first season was just released on dvd a few months ago for the first time.
3) Tales from the Crypt - I always looked forward to new episodes of TFTC on HBO every saturday night. I know it is not really fair to compare a r-rated show to TV made shows, but in fariness, this did air on many different channels after it's run on hbo, so I guess you could say it sorta was a TV series at one point. Yeah, there were some really twisted episodes in this series and I enjoyed almost every show I saw of it, cut and uncut.
4) The twilight zone of the 80's - Maybe it is just the small curious child inside me that remembers the chills and thrills of certain episodes of this show back fromt he 80's, whatever the case may be, I think Rod sterling would have been proud. some of the episodes that stand out in this were "A little peace and quiet" and Stephan King's short story "Gramma" ... creepy stuff!
5) Monsters - It was always hard for me to catch airing of this show back in the days because it aired so late at night. Later on, the scifi channel picked up the rights and I was able to watch the show more often and enjoy it. This was the kinda show you watched if you liked short monster movies with alittle comedy.
6) War of the Worlds - Although this was airing before my other favorite shows (freddy's nightmares and friday the 13th the series), I did not actually sit down and watch this until I was much older and it came out on dvd. I imagion if I had watched it more as a kid, I would have loved it just as much as the other 2 shows. The plots are kinda weak, and the aliens may seem kinda silly at first, but the gore and violence in this show, was totally r-rated and ahead of the times when it came to pushing the gore factor and seeing how much one could get away with. this show lasted 2 seasons, I have not seen the second season, but have heard it was a waste of time.
7) Tales from the darkside - I did not care for this show as much as I did "Monsters". The theme intro caught my eye, but promised something far more creepy the the actual episodes delievered, alot of 80's camp and no plot, no suspense stories.
8)The outer limits (90's) - This was an okay show, I'd say better then the first only because of the times and that the new show could get away with what the first show of the 60's could not. I caught this show when it first aired on showtime before switching to prime time. Nothing special really, but yet agian, i have not seen too many episodes, so maybe I am missing some good ones.
9) Night Gallery - This was an okay show, I mean it had a creepy feel to alot of it's episodes, problem was, most of the episodes either ended piss poorly and just did not make any sense.
10) Amazing stories - When I was a child, i watched this show with my family often. It was okay, but maybe alittle too moralistic for me now. Kinda sappy, and defiently campy family comedy scifi'ish.
Well there yah go, I hope I have been somewhat insighful :-)
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onn1320
16 years ago
Well - I never heard of War of the Worlds - other than the movie.
And I left Friday the 13th out on purpose because it was a series that revolved around a few main characters as apposed to having different stories every week.
Also I see where you ranked the 80's zone - but where does the 2000 zone rank?
Anyway thanks for this response.
"And what was it last time? Didn't know what the box was?" - The Female Cenobite in Hellbound
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onn1320
16 years ago
Again - I thank you for the reponse and everything, but I like a well told story.
I'm the type of person that feels a well told story stands alone without the blood, gore/creepy factor.
I truly feel gore/creepy isn't the main ingredients which is why I don't feel like Tale from the Crypt has an advantage just because they were on HBO. - I mean Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror comes on Showtime, but doesn't hold a stick to most of these series.
As being a big fan of the 60's Zone and Hitchcock. - I think those two shows set the bar. (And this was long before gore)
The story is what counts to me. - You can keep the blood.
"And what was it last time? Didn't know what the box was?" - The Female Cenobite in Hellbound
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sillyheart1977
16 years ago
Twilight zone 2002 series ranks up there the new outer limits, lots of misses. I am not really a gore hound, I enjoy story just as much as the next man down, I mentioned the gore from these shows because for their time, they pushed the envelope as to how much you can but into what on prime time tv. As for friday the 13th, though the same characters may have been used, the stories were different each time, same as freddy's nightmares.
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onn1320
16 years ago
Yeah, but does't that make it an x-files or millenium type show. I mean Friday the 13th followed the same characters through different adventures. - Sorry, but it doesn't seem like a Zone type TV show.
"And what was it last time? Didn't know what the box was?" - The Female Cenobite in Hellbound
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sillyheart1977
16 years ago
Hey, you know what, I actually misunderstood your question. I thought you were asking for opinions on scifi/horror shows altogather...My fault for skim reading. Your right, FT13TS is not twilight zonish as the characters are regulars, instead of all new people and stories each episode. Sorry about that, I will work on a proper list.
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onn1320
16 years ago
Cool. Thankx.
"And what was it last time? Didn't know what the box was?" - The Female Cenobite in Hellbound
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zeta1983-1
16 years ago
"Sorry to get to this so late but between the 85 and 02 versions, I'd have to give 85 the edge. Mainly due to it having more material, higher level talent involved, and varied story runtimes (some can end quickly and don't drag on while more epic ones have time to develop)."
I think the varied runtimes was actually one it's greatest strengths. When you have one episode that is either 22 or 44 minutes without commercials there is either pressure to drag a story out or cut it back but when you can have a medium length and short one it works out well. I think most modern sci-fi isn't as good as the older stuff. I like all 3 Twilight Zones but I do think the 80s version had the best format anyway, the 60s one cannot be topped however. That was the golden age of sci-fi tv IMO. I was born in 1983 if it matters.
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