A new television series based on one of horror’s biggest franchises is set to arrive this month, but it is far from the first time the property has reached the small screen. Horror films have a long track record of being adapted for television, including acclaimed series such as Hannibal, which brought the villain from The Silence of the Lambs to TV, Bates Motel, which explored Norman Bates’ teenage years, and a well-regarded Exorcist series. Other examples include shows inspired by Scream and The Dead Zone, while Buffy the Vampire Slayer also began as a horror movie.
Two 1980s series were even built around slasher films, though neither closely followed the plots of the movies that inspired them. Freddy’s Nightmares debuted in 1988 as an anthology series hosted by Freddy Krueger. A year earlier, Friday the 13th: The Series premiered with little direct connection to Jason Voorhees. Its first episode aired on October 3, 1987.
Friday the 13th Reached Television in a Very Different Form
Unlike Freddy’s Nightmares, which used Freddy Krueger as a host for standalone stories, Friday the 13th: The Series followed antique-store owners who had to track down cursed objects. The first-run syndicated show centered on Micki (Louise Robey) and Ryan (John D. LeMay), cousins who inherited an antiques shop. After they began selling off the items, they learned from Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins) that the antiques were cursed, and they set out to recover them and return them to the safety of the vault.
The basic setup was similar to what Warehouse 13 later did more successfully on Syfy, with a team searching for supernatural artifacts. In this case, the objects were cursed because the cousins’ Uncle Lewis had made a deal with the devil, trading cursed antiques for wealth and immortality. When he broke that pact, his soul was taken. The cousins then worked to retrieve the items before they could cause more harm in the world.
The title Friday the 13th: The Series was used mainly to attract fans of the movie franchise and sell them on a different concept. The strategy worked well enough for the show to run for three seasons and 72 episodes. The creators hoped to continue longer and eventually connect it back to the films. That never happened, although the final object they were meant to recover was intended to be Jason’s hockey mask. The series was canceled while the production team was making the 20th episode of the third season, and they were not allowed to complete the story.
Crystal Lake Will Return the Franchise to TV After Decades Away
Nearly four decades after Friday the 13th: The Series first aired in syndication, the franchise is getting another chance on television. Crystal Lake is set to debut on Peacock and is produced by A24. The prequel stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees, Jason’s mother. As fans of the franchise know, Pamela—not Jason—was the killer in the first Friday the 13th film. She murdered camp counselors and other young people to avenge the apparent drowning of her son. Jason was later revealed to be alive in the second film and went on to become the series’ recurring slasher.
Crystal Lake follows Pamela as she struggles with the grief of losing Jason in an apparent drowning tied to the negligence of Camp Crystal Lake counselors. Set a year after Jason’s death, the story begins when two strangers arrive at her home and question her about her past. Their visit sets off a violent chain of events that forces the town to reconsider who Pamela really is. The series tells the story of how she becomes the vengeful killer who haunted Camp Crystal Lake before her eventual death. Presented as a drama, it appears likely to take a route similar to Hannibal and Bates Motel, and it could become another standout horror series on television.