The Problem with Freddy’s Nightmares

Posted on: August/13/2003 12:01 AM

Excerpt from a FilmForce IGN interview with “Freddy” actor Robert Englund.

Englund talks about why the short-lived television series Freddy’s Nightmares was cancelled:

“You know what happened with us on that was that we were promised a late night show all over the country. It was late night and we could really be nasty, like Tales from the Crypt eventually was. What happened was that they stuck us on at like 6 o’clock in the Bible Belt and we got cancelled. We did great the first six months when we were just on at night, we did phenomenal ratings. We had a really talented crew, great people. They were my crew from Renny Harlin’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master so they all made a lot of money when we went to television. They all got to buy houses in the valley so that’s good because these guys were my friends, guys I had worked with on several movies. When we got cancelled, our producer went over to save Tales from the Crypt which was then coming in at more than $3 million per episode. He went over and took that crew. The reason Tales from the Crypt got to stay on so long and was so successful was because it was the Freddy’s Nightmares crew went over and knew how to bring that show in under budget and on time. I’m proud that they went over there. Kevin Yeager, my make-up person, created the Cryptkeeper and all of that.”

“I can tell you episodes that I loved. There’s a Lori Petty episode that’s great, we had a couple of really good young directors. It’s just that we had to tone it down and then we got less and less money because we had to tone it down. I directed seven episodes and I’m proud of them but the promise was that we were going to have a $600,000 budget, then it became a $400,000 budget. We were going to have six days to do it, then it was five, then it was four, nobody was sleeping, plus we couldn’t get nasty. If you’re going to work people that hard after you promised them another schedule, the very least has to be that you got to let us do what we want to do creatively. It was like doing ‘family Freddy.’ The syndicators just didn’t stick with any of their promises.”