Get ready for a chilling journey through one of horror television’s most iconic series. Alan Katz—producer, writer, and creative mind behind the Crypt Keeper’s twisted dialogue—unearths the strange, subversive, and often scandalous stories from the crypt. In this bloodcurdling episode, Katz reveals how Tales from the Crypt survived chaos, Hollywood egos, studio politics, and Dennis Miller, while becoming a landmark in horror storytelling. With haunting tales from behind the scenes of Bordello of Blood, stories about battling networks, and the birth of HBO’s most ghoulish mascot, this episode will raise the dead—and your curiosity.
Episode Highlights:
- The Crypt Keeper’s personality was never developed until Alan Katz stepped in and shaped the character using his own voice as a writer—fusing Groucho Marx-style humor with horror.
- Tales from the Crypt was a chaotic project at HBO, launched with no real plan, skipping traditional development processes, and initially lacking character consistency.
- Despite producing 75 episodes, HBO gave Katz and his team only three notes, showing an extraordinary level of creative freedom rarely seen in television.
- Bordello of Blood was a studio-forced replacement for a more ambitious film, thrown into production with only three weeks’ prep time, a problematic cast, and production chaos in Vancouver.
- The infamous HBO slogan “It’s not TV. It’s HBO” was born during a Tales from the Crypt crew screening, reflecting the network’s shift into bold, cinematic storytelling.
You’re going to love my conversation with Alan Katz
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I'm a tech entrepreneur, podcaster, and professional stand-up comedian. I started my journey in the tech industry back in 1997 when I founded my own website development company, which was one of the pioneering companies in the country at the time. While working in technology, my comedic talents couldn't be contained, and I eventually took to the stage as a stand-up comedian.
My passion for comedy led me to create Hashtag Roundup (@hashtagroundup on Twitter), a platform that has contributed to over 8000 top 10 USA trends on Twitter. With the growth of social media, particularly Instagram, I founded Stampede Social, a company aimed at helping creators drive traffic to their content without relying solely on a link in their bio.
