Thriller is an anthology television series that aired during the 1960–61 and 1961–62 seasons on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

. The show featured host Boris Karloff

Boris Karloff

William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

 introducing a mix of macabre horror tales and suspense thrillers.

Synopsis

Thriller was created by Hubbell Robinson for Revue Studios (later purchased by Universal Studios). It was produced by Fletcher Markle

Fletcher Markle

Fletcher Markle was a Canadian actor, screenwriter, television producer and director.Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Markle began his career in the early 1940s in Vancouver, British Columbia doing radio dramas with a group whose members included John Drainie, Lister Sinclair, Bernie Braden and Alan...

, William Frye, and Maxwell Shane

Maxwell Shane

Maxwell Shane was an American movie and television director, screenwriter, and producer.-Biography:Before embarking in a career in show business, Shane studied law at USC and UCLA law schools. He later became a journalist and moved on to become a Hollywood publicist and later, a screenwriter. Most...

. Among the many writers for the series was Robert Bloch

Robert Bloch

Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...

, who adapted a number of his own stories, notably The Weird Tailor.

In addition to serving as the host of the series, Karloff starred in five episodes: "The Prediction," "The Premature Burial," "The Last of the Somerviles," "Dialogues With Death," and "The Incredible Doktor Markesan." Other players included William Shatner

William Shatner

William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

 (in two episodes), Scott Marlowe

Scott Marlowe

Scott Gregory Marlowe was a versatile American actor of film, television, and stage, who was born and died in Los Angeles, California.-Early film career:...

, and Judson Pratt

Judson Pratt

Judson Pratt was an American actor whose longest continuing work was in thirteen episodes of ABC's Walt Disney Presents and NBC's Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. A native of Hingham in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Pratt appeared in numerous television westerns and drama series from...

. Child actress Beverly Washburn

Beverly Washburn

Beverly Washburn is an American actress who appeared as a young girl in NBC's The Loretta Young Show and as an older teenager in Loretta Young's 1962-1963 CBS family drama, The New Loretta Young Show...

 appeared as Lolly Howard in the 1961 episode "Parasite Mansion". Dayton Lummis

Dayton Lummis

Dayton Lummis. Sr. , was an American actor of film and television who specialized in the genre of anthology and western series, often playing authority figures. From 1959-1960, he appeared as Marshal Andy Morrison in nine episodes of NBC's Law of the Plainsman western, with Michael Ansara and...

 appeared as Clarence in "The Cheaters" (1960) and as Millard Braystone in "Cousin Tundifer" (1962). Joan Tompkins

Joan Tompkins

Joan Tompkins, legally known as Joan Swenson was an American actress of television, film, radio, and stage, who co-founded with her husband, Karl Swenson, an acting company in Beverly Hills, California...

 appeared twice on Thriller too as Ellen Grimm in "The Cheaters" (1960) and Laura Craig in "Mr. George" (1961). Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Montgomery

Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...

, Tom Poston

Tom Poston

Thomas Gordon "Tom" Poston was an American television and film actor. He starred on television in a career that began in 1950...

, and John Carradine

John Carradine

John Carradine was an American actor, best known for his roles in horror films and Westerns as well as Shakespearean theater. A member of Cecil B DeMille's stock company and later John Ford's company, he was one of the most prolific character actors in Hollywood history...

 starred in the episode "Masquerade".

DVD release

On August 31, 2010, Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...

 released Thriller: The complete series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. The 14-disc set contains all 67 episodes, remastered and uncut, with over 50 hours worth of extra features.

Reception

In a brief review of its premiere, Time

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

called it the "hour-long bloodmobile

Bloodmobile

A bloodmobile is a mobile blood donation center. It is a vehicle equipped with everything necessary for a blood donation procedure. Blood drives involving bloodmobiles usually happen in public places such as colleges and churches.Many times large employers will sponsor mobile blood drives and...

...unpromising"

In Danse Macabre

Danse Macabre (book)

Danse Macabre is a non-fiction book by Stephen King, about horror fiction in print, radio, film and comics, and the genre's influence on United States popular culture...

, Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

's 1981 history and critique of horror fiction, King suggests that Thriller was the best series of its kind up to that point.

In a review of the anthology's 2010 DVD release, Hollywood Reporter said "Not all the episodes work, and the transfers can be a bit grainy. But when they do — the strong shadows living in the black and white, the awesomely overwrought score by composers Jerry Goldsmith and Morton Stevens (if only they had music like that again), the storytelling not using gore and cheap scares as crutches — the results are genuinely goosebump

Goose bumps

Goose bumps, also called goose flesh, goose pimples, chill bumps, chicken skin, funky spots, Dasler Bumps, chicken bumps or the medical term cutis anserina, are the bumps on a person's skin at the base of body hairs which may involuntarily develop when a person is cold or experiences strong...

-inducing."

Books

Gold Key Comics

Gold Key Comics

Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...

 published a comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 version of Thriller, changing the title to Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery after the series ended; the series lasted until the 1980s, long after not only the end of Thriller but also the death of Karloff himself. Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

 published an archive reprint of the series beginning in 2009.

McFarland & Company

McFarland & Company

McFarland & Company, Inc. is a book publisher of primarily academic and adult nonfiction based in Jefferson, North Carolina. Its president and editor-in-chief is Robert Franklin, who began the enterprise in 1979...

 published Alan Warren's This Is a Thriller! - An Episode Guide in 1996, an exhaustive account of the history of the show. Here it was revealed that it was Alfred Hitchcock more than anyone else that was responsible for the demise of the series, after he came aboard on NBC with an expanded one-hour version of his previous Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Award nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category	Recipient	Episode
1961	Nominated	Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...	Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Music for Television	Pete Rugolo Pete Rugolo Pietro "Pete" Rugolo was an Italian-born jazz composer and arranger.-Life and career:Rugolo was born in San Piero Patti, Sicily, Italy. His family emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California...  & Jerry Goldsmith Jerry Goldsmith Jerrald King Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring....	—
1962		American Cinema Editors American Cinema Editors Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...	Best Edited Television Program	Danny B. Landres	"Third for Pinochle"
		Hugo Award Hugo Award The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...	Best Dramatic Presentation	—	—