The Best Episodes of Tales from the Darkside Season 1

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   5.9/10(7 votes)

   #1 - The New Man

   S1:E19/30/1984

   A recovering alcoholic is disturbed to find a young boy who shows up at his office claiming to be his son Jerry. The man is further angered when the boy shows up at his house. While the other family members carry on as if Jerry is a regular member of the family, the man insists that he has never seen the boy before in his life. The man's wife assumes that he has begun drinking again and is harboring delusions brought on by his inebriated state. The family, disgusted by the father's unwillingness to acknowledge Jerry as his son, ultimately leaves him. Driven back to drinking by the ordeal, the previously sober father ends up in a state of emotional ruin. In the final scene, Jerry visits another man, claiming to be HIS son, as the nightmarish pattern continues.

   Director:Frank De Palma

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Frank De Palma

   Writer:Unknown
2. 

   6.4/10(5 votes)

   #2 - I'll Give You a Million

   S1:E210/7/1984

   Two old, rich men like to wager among themselves on trivial matters for huge amounts. One of them, Williams, offers his friend a million dollars for his immortal soul. Blaine accepts but discovers that he is dying of cancer - frightened, he tries to buy his soul back. Williams holds out for more money, until it's too late - Blaine dies. Soulless, he comes back for his soul, shocking Williams into a heart attack...and the Devil comes to claim his due from both of them.

   Director:John Harrison

   Writers:Mark Durand, David Spiel

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   Director:John Harrison

   Writers:Mark Durand, David Spiel
3. 

   6.4/10(5 votes)

   #3 - Pain Killer

   S1:E310/14/1984

   Harvey goes to Dr. Roebuck with back pains and Roebuck prescribes a miraculous cure. It's not until later that Harvey finds the price he must pay...

   Director:Armand Mastroianni

   Writer:Haskell Barkin

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   Director:Armand Mastroianni

   Writer:Haskell Barkin
4. 

   6.3/10(6 votes)

   #4 - The Odds

   S1:E410/21/1984

   Tommy Vale, a barroom bookie finds himself in a curious predicament: a man comes in who can't lose. As the story unravels, he finds out that his opponent is Lacey, a man who went broke gambling with Vale in the past. Now Lacey is back from the dead, with tips from the other side, and is unbeatable. In a final ghoulish wager, Lacey bets that Vale will die at a particular time, and he's never been wrong. But the clock chimes and Vale is still alive. Lacey is forced to depart, and Vale reveals that he set the clock ahead five minutes, then dies right on time.

   Director:James Steven Sadwith

   Writer:James Steven Sadwith

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   Director:James Steven Sadwith

   Writer:James Steven Sadwith
5. 

   4.4/10(5 votes)

   #5 - Mookie and Pookie

   S1:E511/4/1984

   Twin siblings, Mookie and Pookie, are extremely close. But Mookie has a terminal illness. Later the scientific genius Mookie succesfully downloads his mind into the computer before he dies. But now that he's in there Pookie must convince her parents not to pull the plug.

   Director:Timna Ranon

   Writer:Dan Kleinman

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   Director:Timna Ranon

   Writer:Dan Kleinman
6. 

   4.3/10(7 votes)

   #6 - Slippage

   S1:E611/11/1984

   A young ad-design artist begins to literally "slip" out of reality. Slowly but surely he seems to be fading out of existence: first his payroll checks disappear, then his high school not only fails to mail him about their reunion, but has no records of his existence. The artist soon realizes that since he's drifted through life, he's basically "slipping through the cracks". Even his mother has no memory of him. At the end, even his wife and best friend (now the woman's husband in this new reality) forget he ever existed.

   Director:Michael Gornick

   Writer:Michael McDowell

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   Director:Michael Gornick

   Writer:Michael McDowell
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7. 

   7.2/10(5 votes)

   #7 - Inside the Closet

   S1:E711/18/1984

   A student takes a room with an abrupt, somewhat rude anthropology professor. He instructs her never to open the small door in the back of her closet. Hearing strange noises, she eventually opens the door and finds the chamber beyond occupied by a small, hairless-monkey sort of a creature. It kills her and goes after the professor...only to reveal that it is his deformed daughter, which he lovingly dotes on.

   Director:Tom Savini

   Writer:Michael McDowell

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   Director:Tom Savini

   Writer:Michael McDowell
8. 

   5.5/10(6 votes)

   #8 - The Word Processor of the Gods

   S1:E811/25/1984

   Richard Hagstrom is dismayed with the way life has treated him (a rude son, a shrewish wife). His nephew Jonathan gives him a birthday present: a homemade word processor. Hagstrom soon discovers that anything he types into the processor becomes real, and no one but him knows the difference. He begins with simple experiments, but then wipes out his son from existence. Even his wife is unaware of the changes. As the machine overheats into self-destruction, Hagstrom types in one last story: he makes sure that he and Jonathan's mother married and that Jonathan was his son. As the word processor destroys itself, Hagstrom's final wish becomes reality.

   Director:Michael Gornick

   Writer:Michael McDowell

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   Director:Michael Gornick

   Writer:Michael McDowell
9. 

   6.8/10(5 votes)

   #9 - A Case of the Stubborns

   S1:E912/2/1984

   In the backwoods, a family patriarch dies...only to come back, unaware that he's dead. The townspeople are up in arms, but the old man is too stubborn to admit he's dead, despite his rigor mortis, lack of appetite, and bad smell. His grandson Jody eventually goes to an old voodoo woman for a solution. Rather than magic, she provides him with a simple solution: pepper. Jody puts it in his grandpa's handkerchief. When the old man sneezes, his nose falls off, which finally convinces him to go lie down and give up life for good.

   Director:Gerald Cotts

   Writers:Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, James Houghton

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   Director:Gerald Cotts

   Writers:Harlan Ellison, Robert Bloch, James Houghton
10. 

    3.8/10(4 votes)

    #10 - Djinn, No Chaser

    S1:E101/13/1985

    A couple inadvertently buy a magic lamp that contains a genie. Unfortunately, the genie is anything but amiably. Confined in the lamp for thousands of years and still trapped, he refuses to grant wishes and instead terrorizes the couples with plagues, rains of frogs, etc. The husband finally has himself committed, but a few days later his wife brings him home. Their apartment is now richly decorated and they have plenty of money. The genie is now an amiable and willing wish-granter. The wife's solution to freeing the genie: a can opener.

    Director:Shelley Levinson

    Writer:Unknown

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    Director:Shelley Levinson

    Writer:Unknown
11. 

    3.0/10(3 votes)

    #11 - All a Clone by the Telephone

    S1:E111/20/1985

    Leon, a hapless TV writer, buys an answering machine that has a mind of its own - it initially helps him out by providing him with new material, but Leon soon finds that it's taking over his life.

    Director:Frank De Palma

    Writer:Haskell Barkin

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    Director:Frank De Palma

    Writer:Haskell Barkin