"Favorite "horror" or 'supernatural" TV series?" Topic

It must be the hint of Hallow's Eve that I sense in the air, but it got me thinking about some of my favorite "horror/supernatural" TV shows, and when I started to list them, I was surprised at how many there are that I've enjoyed over the years:

X-Files
Buffy
Angel
Dark Shadows
Forever Knight
Werewolf
The Lone Gunmen
Outer Limits (original)
Twilight Zone (original)
Night Gallery
The Night Stalker
Friday the Thirteenth
Supernatural

And a few I watched sometimes (but not faves):
Millennium
Brimstone
Outer Limits (new)
Twilight Zone (new)
Charmed
Dead Like Me
Dead Zone
Poltergeist the Legacy
Tales from the Crypt
Highlander
Raven (Highlander spin-off)

And the great comedies:
The Addams Family
The Munsters
Bewitched
I Dream of Jeannie
Nanny and the Professor
The Girl with Something Extra
The Flying Nun
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (okay, so it's not exactly a "comedy" )

These are just off the top of my head. What shows am I missing? (And no Sci-Fi, okay? Not unless there is a horror or supernatural element that is a primary theme throughout the entire series.)

Does "Lost" count?

'Afterlife' comes to mind, created by Stephen Volk who wrote the legendary 'Ghostwatch', which fooled many UK viewers in a similar style to Welles and his Martian radio spoof.

'Sapphire and Steel' was pretty spooky, too. I know there's been a radio revival of the show, but I wish someone would bring it back to the screen.

X Files……….my all time favourite!

Night stalker
Buffy
Angel
Tales From The Crypt
The Outer Limits
Twilight Zone
Charmed

The Night Stalker with Darren McGavin (my very favorite)
X-Files
Outer Limits
Twilight Zone
Night Gallery

I've recently discovered Dead Like Me, and I really enjoy it, although it isn't spooky at all.

Did Brimstone star the guy who played the captain of the Excalibur in the Babylon 5 follow-on show? If so, then I remember enjoying that show too, just because it was, well, odd.

((But my only "can't miss" show, aside from Dr Who, is My Name is Earl. Not part of this discussion, though))

My mistake. The show was Crusade, not Excalibur; the actor was Gary Cole. And the spooky show I was thinking of was American Gothic where he played the sheriff.

hmm, Forever knight, and when i was growing up, the show "werewolf". I've never heard of it since, i'd love to track it down, was about a collage guy bitten by a 'wolf, tracking down the head of the line, to kill him to free himself of his curse… Had a cool Indian guy tracking the main caractor down. Start of each show, he did this creepy voice over-"for centrys, mankind has been afraid of the dark….Now i know why…..AH_WOOOOOO)(supposed to be a werewolf howl BTW)….loved that show
And "supernatural" too.

Werewolf was awesome! Man, I loved that show! I'd kill to see it come out on DvD. Night Gallery and Millenium, though they probably shouldn't exist in the same sentence, were both great as well.

Kindred: The Embrace, the short lived Fox series based off White Wolf Game's Vampire: The Masquerade game, is a must see. Though it only lasted a handful of episodes before it was canceled ( not from poor ratings, mind you, but the tragic death of the lead actor ) it had some really good actors. Jeff Kober, who played Daedalus, and Mark Frankel, who played Julian Luna, were two top notch actors.

Man, the bit in the alley, when the Nosf. attack the Brujha, damm that was GREAT tv.

Forever Knight?

Ewwww

I totally agree, Vampire. Actually, everything with the Nosferatu in that show was awesome, from the really cool character of Daedalus to the mad crazed Nosferatu from the last episode. Actually, I really dug the Brujah in that show too, it put an unique and interesting spin on them from the source material. Never would have considered them as mafia-style gangsters until then.

Kolchak the Night Stalker tops my list.

Anyone else seeing half this thread in a weird format, with all the message text tiny and lumped into the white "name bar" area? A new bug manifestation, or something on my end?

night stalker,
original series

The original Nightstalker with Darren McGavin was my favorite that had a suspenseful bent.

Dead Like Me is, IMHO, simply really well done story telling with a supernatural veneer. It is one of my favorite shows in any category.

Boris Karloff's Thriller. The show was incredibly cool, and played mighty fast and loose with what you could get away with on television, back in the day. That, and they made many adaptations from old Weird Tales stories!

Night Gallery. It pains me to no end that they are apparently never going to release the second season of this show on DVD; I want the episode with "Pickman's Model," durnit! And "Cool Air!"

The original Night Stalker series scared me silly when I was a kid. Loved it.

Kindred: The Embraced had a lot of potential. Naturally, they pulled the plug, just as it was taking off…

Philadelphia Evening News…….Any network.

As scary as it gets. Just watch the first ten minutes.

It's amazing anyone ever visits.

I liked Kindred: The Embraced, Buffy, Angel and even Forever Knight because if nothing else, they had a great ending.

But the show I really wanted to succeed that failed was Haunted, a short lived UPN series starring Matthew Fox as an ex-cop who sees ghosts. Too bleak to last long on broadcast TV, but it was a great show while it lasted. It followed Buffy in 2002.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favourite by a long way (unless we count Doctor Who). It is very hard to keep a supernatural horror series going without everything starting to seem too silly. Because Buffy was a hybrid horror/comedy/soap/action series, it managed to embrace the silliness and retain a very high standard throughout its first three or four yeras, with intermittent flashes of brilliance after that.

Anthologies, like The Twilight Zone also avoid the problem of cumulative silliness, but, on the other hand, they don't induce loyalty and anticipation in the same way as a series with continuing characters.

If we do count Doctor Who, then its constant changes of setting and format have been vital to its continuing success.

Forver night, the first two seasons were great…the last season you could see the awful change in the storyline and the desperate attempts to save it.

Eerie Indiana…loved the idea…especially the little things in the background that you need to pay attention to.

Millenium…the first couple of seasons…then it too went to hell…

Back in the late 90's, my roomie and I used to joke that Friday nights was "suicide nights" because the tv station here would show X-files, the Millenium back to back, and we figured with two shows as dark and depressing as they can get, the suicide hot lines would be lit up like a Christmas Tree…

I agree with many of the previously mentioned series, particularly Kolchak T.N.S. But I want to throw the name of 'Eerie Indiana' into the ring.

Tales from The Darkside,Monsters and my sisters liked Dark Shadows.

I think my list has to include Darren McGavins Night Stalker, Angel, Buffy, The Dead Zone (What I got to see of it)

Cheers
GeorgeD

Vampire and others

We also loved Werewolf which we were introduced to at the 1987 WorldCon when the writers presented an episode or two.

Managed to tape most of the episodes off Sky in the early 1990s but the tapes got copied over the years to try and hold onto them.

Now copied them to DVD but if they came for sale tomorrow then I'd buy them!

Original Night Stalker
Night Gallery – Rod Serling (former WW2 PTO paratrooper)
A Haunting (currently running on The Discovery Channel) – if you haven't seen it, watch an episode – well done re-enactments, interviews of actual "victims." Not like those ghost "hunter" ones, where all you have is bad lighting (night vision) and guys screaming & arguing over what you can't see.

When I was a kid my mom watched a soap opera called "Dark Shadows" about a vampire clan. I remember that it scared the heck out of my sister and I.

X Files, then the original Night Stalker. Well, NS and The Twilight zone may be a bit of a tie.

Ultra Violet was a good (though short) series

I always forget Ultra Violet. It was indeed quite a good show.

Ultraviolet. Not the crappy movie from this year, but a British TV series about a special government/church group who hunt down vampires. Sadly, it was more of a miniseries than a full series – only 6 episodes, with no plans by the writers for more. Watched it recently, and it's still good, even if some of the details are a bit dated – mobile phones like housebricks, and the Millenium Dome half-built.

Tremors – I know it's not great, but something about it appeals to me.

Firefly/Serenity – Very cool.

Stargate – It's just fun to watch.

Star Trek – Original series and DS9. The others had too much touchy feely crap going on. Put the phasers on extra crispy or deep fry, and do a long burn.

Any of the B Classics from the 50s and early 60s.

X-Files
Night Stalker
Friday the 13th

I'm going to sound really sad here but I love "Most Haunted". not scary at all but it's really funny.

Derek channeling Dick turpins girlfriend a shoulting…
"Mary loves Dick"
"Mary Loves Dick!"
Cracks me up everytime.

Ultra Violet was a good (though short) series

Given my earlier argument, I'd say "good because short". It told the story it had to tell, and then stopped.

mmitchell,

You are missing "Wolf Lake" and, for lack of a better place to put it, "Lucan" as he had wolf-like abilities whenever he faced danger.

In the Mouth of Madness is hands down my favorite- but only because that movie was able to effectively capture the ultimate horror of man- does he truly exist. It also has that special element that I like in my horror- the sickly horror of the unknown. The movie The Matrix tried to capture this same 'false reality' feel with Neo in the human battery scene. The idea that life itself it the dream and reality is too horrific to comprehend. Instead it just made me ill to see Keanu naked. If I looked downj and saw him in that fish tank toilet bowl I would have flushed him too.

Army of Darkness- yeah I know- but when I first saw this in the theatres I went expecting something crappy. The overplayed heroic humour was just perfect for my mood that night and I have enjoyed it ever since.

Then there is a cluster of favourites that are less serious but still have that 'something':

Ghost Ship

13th Ghost

Nightmare on Elm Street 3- Dreamwarriors (but only because it reminds me of a book I read where when the people sleep they enter people's dreams to fight demons)

Pirates of the Carib 1 & 2

Movies that are not really 'scary' or even entirely 'good' but that each have a unique concept to them that I enjoyed.

Nightmare on Elm street 1,2,4,5,6 etc etc

whoops- I was going to say 'Nightmare on Elm street 1,2,4,5,6 etc etc and the whole concept of the 'Jason' movies dont do it for me. Slasher films are not horror- just naked people getting chopped up.

Likewise I find Rob Zombies music to be great- but his films to be poor.

Its not the visual gore or even the depravity of man that scares me. I know enough about the world to know that the sick things men do to each other is plenty nasty- and that it is sadly commonplace. Hotel Rwanda would fall into this sort of 'horror' movie. Doesnt scare me- just makes me ashamed to be North American

Ultra violet and Buffy for me.

Tony
occultwars.com

For me its a tie between The original Night Stalker series and Night Gallery.

Dave

Big Miller Bro's reference to the "Mouths of Madness "reminds me of a one off show I really liked. It was based on the idea that H.P.Lovecraft was a tough Noir-type private eye in the Forties. 'Phil' refused to use magic even though everyone else used it. He ended up dealing with Nyarlothep(I think). Aside from the fact that no one went mad, and the big 'N' refused a sacrifice for reasons that one of the 'Old Gods' wouldn't even be able to concieve of, it was a great flick. It starred the gentleman who starred in 'Remo Williams' and co-starred in 'The Right Stuff' There was a second TV movie done with Dennis Hopper as 'Phil Lovecraft. This one was set in the Fifties. Not as good as the first, but still fun.

P.S. The original Kolchak rules!! Though the rest mentioned are good as well:^)

HEX is pretty goo, what I've been able to catch of it on BBCAmerica. Intersting, especially the lesbian ghost.
No one has thrown it into the ring, and everyone has named all my other favorites, so I thought I might give it a mention.

The old forgotten Ghost Story/Circle Of Fear series kept me creeped out as a kid… I managed to get recordings of them recently and a lot of the episodes still get to me, there were some good writers involved on that show.

Also…
Forever Knight
The Night Stalker (original)
Night Gallery
Dark Shadows
Twin Peaks

I'll second HEX. Brilliant series, really witty dialogue, so of course it had to be cut short.

Thanks for mentioning these shows I forgot:

American Gothic
Hex
Eerie Indiana (can't believe I forgot this one!)
Kindred: The Embraced
Twin Peaks (another I can't believe I forgot)

By the way, here are two I kinda remember:
Goosbumps (okay kiddie fare)
Are you Afraid of the Dark? (another kiddie show)

Ultra Violet was a mini-series, but I'd still count it. Very good British Vampire show.

I really think of the TV show, War of the Worlds, as SF, but it did have some creepy moments.

---------------
TOTALLY forgot these two (thanks Cyrus):
Wolf Lake
Lucan

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Big Miller Bro: Cool stuff, but I'm just looking to list television shows.

dilettante: I heard of the Phil Lovecraft show, but never saw it.

Buffy – the Vampire Slayer, because it was a real joy to see the Buffyverse transform from a somewhat silly "guilty pleasure" into something more serious, darker and sinister.

Angel – a natural continuation of Buffy. Also, IMHO some of the best character developement I've ever seen on TV (especially Wesley). And I have to admit, I had a huge crash on Amy Acker.

Kindred – honorary mention. It managed to keep the mystical aspect of vampire society at precisely the right level. It's perhaps the most difficult thing to do in this genre – that's where Anne Rice and Underworld movies failed completely.

I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned "Special Unit 2" under comedies. Carl the gnome was one of my all-time favorite TV characters and I was never able to figure out where the girl kept that huge gun.

LT

Tales from the Crypt, Monsters, Night Gallery and The Twilight Zone (original), hands down. I vaguely remember Dark Shadows, but I know I loved it.

Werewolf, I remember seeing it, but thanks to programming subgeniuses at Mexico, we did not have a coherent showing and then the series was taken off the air.

I'd like to know if it had something to remember it by (and therefore try to acquire it), or if it's better left forgotten.

And finally, Millenium… That one was weird and creepy at times, not as silly and rather repetitive as the overrrated X-Files.

Jav: Werewolf is worth remembering. It was early Fox network (if memory serves me right), and it was mostly good. There are bootlegs available, but not a real DVD release.. alas.

I don't think anyone has mentioned Kingdom Hospital… That was fun!

Manimal.

'Nuff said…

I don't think anyone has mentioned Kingdom Hospital… That was fun!

I particularly liked the way US TV remade a Danish TV series and then claimed it was Stephen King's idea. That man has no shame.