With Crystal Lake coming to Peacock later this week, its time to talk about the first Friday the 13th TV series. The show aired from 1987 to 1990 for three seasons. The first two seasons had 26 episodes each and then the third and final was 20 episodes. So we had a Friday the 13th series with 72 episodes and yet people don’t really talk about it. The main cast includes Chris Wiggins as Jack, Louise Robey as Micki, John D. LeMay as Ryan, and Steve Monarque as Johnny.
Lewis Vendredi made a deal with the devil to sell cursed antiques. But he broke the pact, and it cost him his soul. Now, his niece Micki, and her cousin Ryan have inherited the store… and with it, the curse. Now they must get everything back, and the real terror begins.
Now, the show might not exactly be about the Voorhees family or Jason or even a hockey mask, but it does have plenty of cool stories about cursed items for each episode. If the series had gone on for more seasons, they were going to do Jason’s hockey mask for one of the episodes.
Micki and Ryan decide to close the store after Lewis’s death and sell off the items from the store. Turns out that’s a big mistake. Jack, one of Lewis’s old friends, stops them from selling the rest of the items and tells them about how the items they’re selling are cursed. The rest of the series follows them as they try to get back these cursed items from the people who bought them or ran into them. Most of the time, the items are in possession of someone who knows the power of them, so they’re unwilling to give it up. The other issue is that the cursed artifacts are indestructible, so you can’t just break them to stop their power.
Heading For Tomorrow On TV With Friday The 13th The Series
It makes a lot of sense that the show was originally supposed to be called The 13th Hour. That was changed to capitalize on the popularity of the film series at the time. The show was canceled midway through its third season, which was a surprise to everyone involved. There’s no real closure with the series because of this, it just sort of ends. That cancelation is really surprising because it was doing well in the ratings with key demographics.
While the show might not be as impactful or big on the mythology of Friday the 13th as Crystal Lake, it does still have some frightening moments. The episode “Scarecrow” is particularly scary and there are plenty that are creepy. It has that late 80s and early 90s vibe for TV that’s similar to something like Freddy’s Nightmares. It has a dreamy quality that almost assuredly made for great viewing late at night. The show is available on DVD in a couple of forms, and those sets are pretty quality.
The fact that it doesn’t connect to the movie series might actually be a benefit. Its new stories and a fun anthology style. It means that the show has its own identity at the very least. I love a good anthology show, they’re among my favorites. But with this one, you get to mesh with the main characters AND get some cool cursed object stories. If you’re in the mood for some classic TV, you can do much worse than Friday the 13th The Series.
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