TV
“Tales from the Crypt” – Cryptkeeper Actor John Kassir Explains the Current Rights Issues
During his panel at last weekend’s Terror Con in Marlborough, MA, John Kassir — the Crypt Keeper himself — shared his perspective on Tales from the Crypt‘s complicated rights issues that halted TNT and M. Night Shyamalan’s reboot attempt in 2016 and continue to prohibit new iterations of the beloved horror anthology series.
“Obviously, Tales from the Crypt was a comic book, and those rights were granted to the producers of the show back in the late ’80s,” he explained. “So then they started producing the show, and it was very big producers. We’re talking about Joel Silver, who did all the Lethal Weapons, the Die Hard movies, the Matrix movies. He’s a very big producer, and he also has a reputation of being one of the biggest assholes in the business. You didn’t hear me say that, but you did!” The audience laughed.
“And Dick Donner, who’s one of the nicest people in the business and one of the best directors, David Giler, who produced Alien, Walter Hill, amazing director of 48 Hrs and The Warriors, and Bob Zemeckis, who brought in a bunch of his ideas for effects that we could do in the show.
“These are the producers on the show, so they had a lot of hopes for it. They started making the show and were able to call in a lot of favors, get a lot of stars, get a lot of directors. Some of your favorite horror directors directed episodes of these, as well as stars. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, they all came in and wanted to direct. They’d give them a week to direct a Tales from the Crypt episode.
“This was all working out great for us, but after you do 93 episodes and movies and all that stuff over a period of time, the rights lapse. Sadly, [EC Comics publisher] William Gaines passed away. He did amazing things, and we loved him. He would grant us the rights tomorrow. But the rights reverted to the family, who probably gave them to a lawyer, who probably doesn’t work in the industry.”
Kassir continued, “So those producers own this Crypt Keeper but can’t create new material with it without the rights. All the old stuff we created belongs to them. For them to do more, they would have to get the rights back, which they haven’t been able to get EC Comics to grant.
“[EC] did grant them to TNT, who were going to do a whole block of horror with M. Night Shyamalan, and the Crypt Keeper was going to be the host. Well, they couldn’t get that Crypt Keeper, so that went down the tube. I think they were even trying to sell the rights off to more than one person, which nobody wanted.
“This happens in our business all the time with popular franchises from the past that people want to revive. It’s a hard thing to get done. It hasn’t happened in many years. Some people who were involved at the top don’t believe that it will ever happen, but who knows? Nobody would be happier than me,” he chuckles.
“Because I’m both a fan and an actor — not that I ever got paid that much from Tales from the Crypt. It was an expensive show to produce. I don’t even know if they could afford to make that show nowadays. It took five puppeteers to make the Crypt Keeper work. They always complained about what they had to pay them, and I was like, ‘Dude, it’s the character! What do you want?’
“Maybe they’d want to use CGI. Well, nobody wants to see that. A CGI Crypt Keeper would probably be pretty cool, but not if you already know what he could look like as an animatronic puppet, which is probably why kids were getting hooked on it. There’s something so endearing about that, you know?” He concludes, “That’s really what the problem was in that situation.”
Shyamlan last commented on the aborted revival in 2018: “We tried everything that we could. That was so mired in people that had rights to it, constantly mired from the original comic books to the people that did the original show, and that was a very contentious era for that show and who was involved and all the stuff that had nothing to do with me, a generation before me. I begged them, ‘Please just give me the rights, we’ll do it this way, you’re going to be really happy.’ But it didn’t work out that way.”
Would you watch a new version of Tales from the Crypt without the classic Crypt Keeper, or are we better off letting sleeping dogs lie? In any event, the news would certainly be easier to swallow if we could get the original series on Blu-ray…
Batman is an iconic superhero, but he’s also a lot more than that. He’s been a constant in pop culture and a figure who always leaves audiences hungry for more, despite everything that’s already been done with him. When Batman: Caped Crusader was first announced, it seemed like a true dream team of creatives, bringing together Bruce Timm from the foundational Batman: The Animated Series, Ed Brubaker from Gotham Central, and The Batman’s Matt Reeves.
Batman: Caped Crusader’s first season was an artistic masterstroke, albeit one that left some general audiences wanting more. Season two is a satisfying extension of its predecessor that also fills in some of its gaps and does even more with the series’ mission statement. It’s a soothing blend of Saturday Morning Cartoon nostalgia and hard-hitting supernatural detective noir that feels very much in line with Matt Reeves’ recent take on Gotham and Batman.
This season fully embraces the overall theme of duality and how not to let one side overpower the other. This may seem a little on-the-nose for a superhero series, let alone a take on Batman, but it fits well with the retro 1940s alternate Gotham City that’s been meticulously cultivated. Additionally, this season repeatedly explores codependency and the ability to put trust in others, whether it’s Nygma’s bond with Thorne, Bullock’s partnership with Flass, Renee’s ties with Barbara, or Bruce Wayne’s camaraderie with Alfred or even Carrie Kelley.
There’s also a lot to unpack on the subject of belief and faith, which informs this season’s storytelling in creative ways that also chip away at Batman – and Gotham’s – image. It’s one big sprawling crime saga in a hyper-stylized noir world where nobody is beyond betrayal or corruption if the price is right. This feeds into the season’s grander storyline where Rupert Thorne’s trial provides a strong introduction to this universe’s Eddie Nygma (Ronan Raftery). Thorne and Nygma are the season’s central antagonists as the latter takes advantage of the massive power vacuum that’s opened up after Thorne’s incarceration.
Batman: Caped Crusader has plenty to say about its heightened, masquerading criminals, but at the core of all this is Gotham’s internal corruption, and if it’s reached a point in which it’s too far gone to be saved, who is responsible for its desolation, and the people who want to take advantage of this vulnerability and own the city. Gotham, and its festering nature, becomes the true main character of Batman: Caped Crusader. Its ability for redemption or the possibility that it sinks deeper into the abyss are integral to each of these ten episodes.
This season adopts a propaganda angle that’s critical of the GCPD and Batman that feels particularly appropriate and timely. There’s a vilification of Batman and a compulsion to turn him into a dangerous vigilante who is feared, rather than the antidote to Gotham’s crime. It’s a take that’s been presented plenty of times before, but in this case there’s a sliver of truth to this budding Batman’s early crime-fighting efforts that helps it hit harder and connect. This also leads to one of the season’s strongest and most disturbing episodes in which Mad Monk (Blythe Melin) leads a team of Batman impostor acolytes who are determined to further tarnish the Dark Knight’s name.
These episodes are also having so much fun with the obscure corners of Batman history that it’s pulling from. There’s a great Matches Malone undercover episode where Bruce Wayne has to infiltrate a prison as an inmate in order to get intel. After the first season provided creative takes on many of Batman’s more noteworthy rogues, season two has the freedom to dig into considerably more fringe figures, such as Barbatos the Bat-God and Roxanne “Roxy Rockey” Sutton, a Bruce Timm and Paul Dini deep cut from 1994’s The Batman Adventures comics and The New Batman Adventures.
This season uniquely tackles Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, and Calendar Man. There’s also an extremely chilling version of the Joker whose presence heavily looms over the season’s events. Matthew Needham gives such an unusual interpretation of the Clown Prince of Crime that’s borderline Shakespearean. It’s a really effective restrained subversion rather than some of the Joker’s broader and more jovially unhinged renditions. It feels more like Moriarty’s dynamic with Sherlock Holmes, if anything.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, but Batman: Caped Crusader absolutely excels with its animation, art design – the lighting and shadows in particular – and the 1940s Art Deco aesthetic that permeates through every frame. Each episode features sublime action sequences, many of which showcase a shocking degree of vicious brutality and a hefty body count. This includes one of the most gruesome Christmas fatalities this side of Batman Returns.
Batman: Caped Crusader features some incredibly moving, thought-provoking storytelling that’s on par with some of the most memorable episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. In some ways, Batman: Caped Crusader is even better than its ‘90s counterpart because it’s been allowed to ground itself in time and grow up. Batman is one of DC’s most popular and reimagined characters, with even more iterations on the way.
Batman: Caped Crusader still makes a strong impression and shines brightly – like the Bat Signal on a dark night – to give fans hope and let them know that they’re in safe hands. This hopefully isn’t the end of Batman: Caped Crusader, but if it is, then it can rest easy knowing that it’s created such a special, passionate love letter to this iconic character.
Batman: Caped Crusader Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on July 31.
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