31 Days of Horror EXTRA 02 Friday the 13th the series

Friday the 13th the series

Starting on Oct 3rd 1987 in first run syndication,this was a weekly hour long horror TV series. Our three leads were ,going from left to right in  the above picture,Ryan,Micki and Jack.

Micki and Ryan were distant cousins. Who when their Uncle Louis dies they inherit his antique shop. Wanting nothing really to do with the store. They have a huge sale and are trying to sell off all the odd stuff their Uncle had in the shop.

Then Jack shows up. He is an old friend of their Uncle. And explains to them how their Uncle had made a deal with evil forces.Everyone of the antiques is cursed. So the three of them band together to get back every one of the cursed antiques.

For yall younger folks out there yes I know this sounds a lot like Warehouse 13. The creators of that show talked about how this show inspired them.

Where I grew up this aired Saturday nights at 10:30pm. And I made sure to never miss it. Not only was the stories well done,hell David Cronenberg wrote and directed at least one episode. But the FX work was really good. This was one gory show. I remember a piece in our local paper back then where the Rev Wildmon,the guy that started the letter writing campaign that got The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse cancelled,was ranting about  how "The good God fearing people of Mississippi shouldn't have to put  up with trash like this being on TV."

Now the show really had no connection to the Jason films. I have heard rumors for years that the producers of the show wanted to do an episode where Jason's infamous hockey mask showed up. But that never happened. I keep seeing that when it aired outside of Canada and the States it was called either Curious Goods or Friday's Curse. But no one I know that watched it when it was airing and who lived outside the states saw it with those names. The only connection it has to the Friday the 13th films is the actor that played Ryan was the lead in Jason goes to Hell.

After season 2 the show stopped airing on a channel I got. So I saw maybe 3 or 4 episodes of season 3. Where Ryan ,after being changed into a kid,leaves the show. And a guy that was introduced in season 2 takes his place. This last season while still decent didn't have the feel of the first 2. And that might be why it was the final season. I have heard a few stories on why it got cancelled. The one I hear the most is thanks to pressure from various groups more and more channels had stopped airing it. And it was a very gory for TV show. But compared to what you see on say CSI or shows of it's ilk this show was nothing.

All three seasons have gotten DVD releases. But the cost for them is way too high. Plus they look kind of crappy. About 2 years before those DVDs came out,I got all three seasons on bootleg DVDs.Most of the episodes on my dvds are from airings on some Canadian horror channel. And they look better than the legit releases.

Sometimes Chiller or Syfy channel will do all day long marathons of this show. And it is worth checking out if you have never seen it.