80s & 90s TV Anthology Series (Sci-Fi, Horror, etc.)

[ExedExes]

With the Giant Monster Movie thread being introduced recently, I thought of other cool stuff I used to watch in the 80s and 90s, and this came to me pretty quickly. Throughout these years, we had many of what are called "anthology" series that were just self-contained episodes of short stories adapted to or originally created for television. They would be of many different genres like science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Almost all of them had some sort of plot twist at the end or a lesson to be learned. They would be mostly in syndication on various stations and times across the country, and a few even made it onto network television. These featured many special guest stars as well. The first one I thought of was the 80s revival of The Twilight Zone, but there were so many others that were on TV at the same time. These are the series that I'd like to focus on here, each link goes to episode lists (if there's any I missed, go ahead and mention them) -

Amazing Stories (1985-1987)
Are You Afraid of The Dark? (1992-1999)
Freddy's Nightmares (1988-1990)
Friday The 13th: The Series (1987-1990)
Jim Henson's The Storyteller (1988)
"Monster Of The Week" episodes of The X-Files outside of the "mytharc" (1993-2002)
Monsters (1988-1991)
Nightmare Cafe (1992)
Ray Bradbury Theater (1985-1992)
Tales From The Crypt (1989-1996)
Tales From The Darkside (1984-1988)
The Hunger (1997-2000)
The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985-1989)
The Outer Limits (1995-2002)
The Twilight Zone (1985-1989)

I saw episodes of all of these in some point in time, and I was wanting to see if anyone else has any memories of these TV series. One I remember very well was "Monsters In My Room" from Tales From The Darkside, that was a pretty scary episode a long time ago. I had HBO at the time so I'd also see a lot of stuff from Tales From The Crypt also. Many of these had been written by some famous authors and TV writers of the time and the production values as well as the views of the future that these shows would introduce were fascinating in my youth. I hope others have good memories (or scary ones!) of these.

[BurningDoom]

I always watched "Monsters". The opening always stuck out for me as a kid. A family of monsters sitting around the T.V. set getting ready to watch a horror flick.

I also watched the Friday the 13th series, but I remember little of it I was so young.

And Freddy's Nightmares is a series I've always heard about, being a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan, but I've never actually seen.

Not sure I'd rate "Are You Afraid of the Dark" up there with the rest of those, though. It was made for kids, and as such isn't scary or even atmospheric in the slightest. But I was guilty of watching it, since you know, I was a kid then.

[Sasha_Blue]

Not sure about Are you Afraid of the Dark? been there with the other shows, but it's a good kid's show non the less

[ExedExes]

Not sure about Are you Afraid of the Dark? been there with the other shows, but it's a good kid's show non the less

I only put it in because it is an anthology much like the others. Each episode has a story with different genres and except for the fact that kids star in them, it's really no different than those others I listed. Being a fan of that stuff in the 80s made me like this even more.

I also included it so we wouldn't have to see "why isn't AYAOTD in that list?"

[fastbilly1]

What about Jim Henson's The Storyteller?

[Retrogamer0001]

A discussion about 90's sci-fi tv shows and no mention of The X-Files? Arguably one of the best shows of the last few decades.

[BurningDoom]

A discussion about 90's sci-fi tv shows and no mention of The X-Files? Arguably one of the best shows of the last few decades.

Can't argue that. But he's talking only anthology shows. Where the episodes have no connection to each other, but rather are stand-alone stories.

[ExedExes]

What about Jim Henson's The Storyteller?

I just looked that one up. It's a good fit, adaptations of stories, self-contained in each episode, and the time period's right. I'll add it. I've just never seen it

[Retrogamer0001]

A discussion about 90's sci-fi tv shows and no mention of The X-Files? Arguably one of the best shows of the last few decades.

Can't argue that. But he's talking only anthology shows. Where the episodes have no connection to each other, but rather are stand-alone stories.

Ah, but The X-Files DOES actually have an anthology-esque system within the main storyline...it's definitely unique, but it's there for sure. I think it should count!

[ExedExes]

Ah, but The X-Files DOES actually have an anthology-esque system within the main storyline...it's definitely unique, but it's there for sure. I think it should count!

The Wikipedia article for the show makes a pretty strong case; although it is not a total anthology series (there is a story arc stringing along many episodes), at least 2/3 of the episodes went away from that story arc and had anthology elements. Perhaps in the interest in moving this thread along towards that of a discussion format, I should include it.