The “best horror series ever put on TV”, according to Stephen King
It’s arguably harder for horror to work on TV than on the big screen, mainly because it’s more difficult to frighten audiences weekly than in two hours or less. Stephen King has seen his fair share of episodic terrors and written more than a few, but only one was designated the greatest ever made.
When he isn’t busy furiously scribbling his ideas on the page and turning them into guaranteed bestsellers, the iconic author spends a lot of his free time watching the best, or worst, the genre has to offer. He isn’t entirely beholden to horror, but seeing as it gave him his livelihood, he’s got a softer spot for it than the rest.
History is littered with failed attempts at translating King’s prose into a sustainable or successful TV series, with Under the Dome a particularly sore point for its creator, but there have been some successes along the way, with Tim Curry’s turn as Pennywise in the original It, Salem’s Lot, and Storm of the Century standing out as high points.
His mythology became so vast and all-encompassing that it even got an anthology series of its own, with Castle Rock unfolding in the titular Maine town and roping in alternate versions of many memorable King characters, with Lizzie Caplan’s Annie Wilkes the most famous. Funnily enough, it was an anthology anchored by a horror legend that he named as the cream of the spine-chilling crop.
“Probably the best horror series ever put on TV was Thriller,” he wrote in Danse Macabre. “Which ran on NBC until the summer of 1962, really only two seasons plus reruns.” Much like The Twilight Zone or Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the show was fronted by a famous face: in this case, Frankenstein’s Boris Karloff.
In a cruel twist of fate, Hitchcock was partially responsible for the show’s short-lived existence. When he agreed to host a suspense-filled and dread-laden anthology series bearing his name, on the same network, no less, the ‘Master of Suspense’ reportedly told the top brass that he didn’t want two similar projects competing directly for airtime.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents originally screened on CBS, but when it jumped to NBC in 1960, Thriller‘s second season was deposed from its usual Tuesday slot back to Monday in favour of the world-renowned director’s tilt at episodic nail-biters, and decline viewership in its new slot hammered the final nail into its coffin.
“For the brief period of its run between January of 1961 and April of 1962, perhaps 56 of its 78 total episodes,” King recalled. “It really was one of a kind, and its like was never seen on TV again.” The combination of Karloff and the promise of spooky stories was destined to lure in genre aficionados, but Thriller‘s time was up when Hitchcock decided to throw his considerable weight around.
It didn’t focus exclusively on horror, but the segments that did evidently left enough of an impression on King for him to declare it the best there’s ever been. There may be an element of nostalgia involved, and plenty of more modern shows have captured his eye, but he hasn’t gone as far in his praise for any of them as he did for Thriller.
