Friday the 13th: The Series (1987 – 1990): Gone But Not Forgotten
Back in the late 80s and early 90s those of us (like myself) who didn’t have cable or a massive satellite dish in their front yard had to make do with syndicated TV series paired with network TV. And we weren’t actually missing out that much since in those days some of the best TV around was in that syndicated roster. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hercules, Xena, Freddy’s Nightmares, and what would turn out to be a worldwide phenomenon called Baywatch were all a part of that magical world of syndicated TV. I loved it but I had some stand out favorites… most of which were filmed in Canada and would showcase a lot of the same faces, keeping Toronto based actors employed. One of my favorites was a show called Friday the 13th: The Series. No, no, this isn’t to be confused with that Crystal Lake show. Friday the 13th: The Series, at least originally, didn’t have any ties to Jason and his mom. It just shared a name because, well, if you heard a title like Friday the 13th: The Series, wouldn’t you watch it? Well, that’s exactly what the series creators were betting on when they came up with that title. And with that a unique horror tv series was born. So come along with me as we go antique shopping at a little place called Curious Antiques… but maybe don’t touch anything as on this episode of Gone But Not Forgotten we peer into the store front of Friday the 13th: The Series.
Friday the 13th: The Series came from the minds of Larry B Williams and Frank Mancuso Jr. Mancuso actually had produced a number of the F13 films featuring Jason before coming up with the idea of the series. Mancuso and Williams were actually going to go with the name The 13th Hour, but even though he didn’t want the show connected the Jason films, he went along with the final title of the show because… again… you’d be tempted to watch thinking maybe there’d be a hockey mask wearing fiend showing up. The rumor is that at some point there was pressure to connect the series with the hockey mask (wouldn’t that be a hell of a cursed antique?) in the show… but Mancuso didn’t want to rely on that to keep people interested. As it was, it wasn’t needed at all. Friday the 13th: The Series stands on its own quite well, no help needed.
The premise of the show is actually smart and allows a lot of varied storytelling… nearly making it an anthology in a way but with at its center the trio who are trying to stop the evil that they’ve inadvertently spread. The series follows a store which would become known as Curious Goods. It begins with the original owner, Lewis Vendredi, breaking a deal he made with the devil and paying the price for breaking the contract. After his death, the store is inherited by his distant relations. His niece and her distant cousin arrive to take possession (no pun intended) of the store. Rather than keeping it (well, the car is going to stay) they decide to sell everything they can. Mickey and Ryan then meet Jack Marshak, an acquaintance of Lewis’s who knows more than most about the occult and also knows exactly what Lewis was doing in the name of the devil. Every antique Lewis sold, including the blue light special that Mickey and Ryan had just unleashed on the world, was cursed. Each item has a special ability, which of course, comes with a price… because that’s how the devil works.
That leads to the core of the series, which is the trio going forth and hunting down the antiques, to hide their evil back in the vault of Curious Goods…. which they keep running but only selling NON-cursed items. This format actually was quite brilliant. It allowed the series to do various types of stories and within each there was a morality tale. Think of it as a REALLY dark sort of Goosebumps mixed with a bit of The X-Files. Pick an object and then build the story around what you think it could do for you. Someone would need to die to activate the power of the object… and of course something would happen to require the person to keep using it… which meant more deaths. The cycle of greed or desire… keeps happening to the user until eventually they pay the price for what they’ve done.
The first episode of the series was called The Inheritance and of course featured a killer doll. It also featured actress Sarah Polley. It premiered on October 3rd of 1987.
As the series progressed, the lead characters grew and had a number of traumatic experiences happen to them. Mickey breaks things off with her fiancée to keep finding the cursed antiques. Jack Marshak has to face one of the Nazis who tortured him as well as loses his own fiancée. Ryan, though, probably changes the most as he is transformed back into the child version of himself to be raised by his absentee mother. When Ryna left, we had a new character join the team in the form of Johnny Ventura. Ventura actually matures in the course of his time with the series but… it’s not always easy coming into a show after a lead leaves. So fans were a little hard on Johnny with Ryan leaving in such a strange way during the two-part premiere of season 3.
The series would actually run for 3 seasons. The first two had 26 episodes but the truncated 3rd would only have 20. The cancellation happened while the 20th episode was being filmed and would be the finale, airing May 26, 1990.
So let’s talk about the cast and some of the guest stars (there are many.) First off, I want to talk about Chris Wiggins, who played Jack. I actually got to meet him way back at a Forever Knight convention I attended in Toronto. He was a joy and was fantastic as Jack. He brought a great energy to the series and felt very much like that Van Helsing/Doctor Loomis character that a series like this needed. Wiggins had a long career in radio, film, and TV. He even voiced The Great Wishing Star in the second Care Bears Movie and was even the voice of Mysterio in the 60s Spider-Man cartoon series. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 86.
Mickey was played by singer and actress Robey or her full name Louise Robey. Robey was quite the catch for the series as she was a popular singer in the 80s, especially with international audiences. She was also a model with her striking eyes and gorgeous hair. She brought something to Mickey we’d see later on in series like Angel with Cordelia. A character who seems fixated on appearances and becomes a strong woman who is down to fight evil at whatever the cost. Robey would actually go on to marry the Earl of Burford a few years after the series ended and would become Lady Burford when the two married in 1994. The two would divorce in 2001.
John D LeMay would play Ryan Dallion and would hold the distinct honor of being one of the only leads in the show to appear in an actual Friday the 13th film, Jason Goes to Hell. I thought this was really neat when the movie came out…. just saying. LeMay was in a number of TV series and films over the years including Tour of Duty and Highway to Heaven. He’s gone on to become a filmmaker himself, with a production company called Feat1stFilms.
Steven Monarque was Johnny Ventura. Monarque came from the world of teen films and worked on ABC Afterschool Specials before taking on the evil of the antiques store. He went on to star in some other TV series like ER and Criminal Intent but also is a respected writer and musician.
The guest stars that would arrive with every new episode as well as the directors may actually surprise some who are unfamiliar with the series.
R.G. Armstrong was Lewis Vendredi in the premiere and would appear a couple of more times during the series run. Armstrong was an epic character actor and would appear in an epic ton of TV and Film. This would include classics like Predator, Dick Tracy, Matt Houston, Fantasy Island, and just far too many to mention here. Colin Fox (who sadly passed in April of 2025) would appear as two characters In the series. Fox was another staple Canadian character actor who would appear on series like PSI Factor and Goosebumps.
Multiple roles would happen for quite a few of the guest stars on the series. George Buza, who many know as the voice of Beast in the X-Men cartoon series was actually in 3 episodes. Colm Feore, also known as Loki’s real dad and also gave one of the best snarls ever on screen in Storm of the Century, was two characters. David Hewlett, Zack Ward, James Russo, Ray Walston, Billy Drago, Keye Luke, Nigel Bennett, even Vanity would be in the show. Denis Forest, who actually was one of those actors who would show up in literally everything I was watching was in 5 episodes of the series as different characters. And actually I want to take a second to call out Forest’s work. For those fellow geeks of mine, here’s what he showed up in: Storm of the Century (with Colm Feore), The Invisible Man (the Syfy series), The X-Files, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr, Nightmare Café, Dracula: The Series, War of the Worlds… and that’s just part of it. Forest just had a unique look and way about him. And sadly I would discover looking up info for this episode that he passed away far too young at the age of 41 in 2002. I just wanted to take a moment to thank him because…. like clockwork, he’d always be in something I loved, and I’d always point and go THAT GUY… as you do with character actors who are really good at what they do.
When it came to directors, though, Friday the 13th: The Series was a standout there as well. David Cronenberg, yes, that David Cronenberg directed the episode Faith Healer, which starred his longtime acting collaborator Robert A Silverman. This episode would of course feature some body horror because that’s how Cronenberg rolls. It’s one of the more remembered episodes because of that and the performance of Silverman. The cursed object here is a glove which will cure someone of their illness but has to give the illness to someone else, with the symptoms increased.
The episode Repetition, which featured a pendent that can resurrect the person wearing it when they die AFTER killing the person who is currently wearing it (these can get a little confusing – oh, and you hear the screams and voices of the people you kill while using it), this happy plot was written by Jennifer Lynch. Yes, David’s daughter and a great filmmaker in her own right.
Friday the 13th: The Series had a lot of great episodes and in today’s world of truncated season numbers for how many episodes are made (I’m looking at you, Marvel Zombies, with your whopping 4 episodes) the series with 72 episodes actually is a decent amount. So I picked a handful that are my favorites to share with you. Not surprising, most of these are from Season 2, where the show really hit its stride.
The Butcher: Besides the fact one of my favorite vampires of the small screen, Nigel Bennett, is the lead bad guy in this one, The Butcher is a great commentary on how the evil of fascism can stay alive over the decades. The story is a Jack-centric one and talks about Jack’s time in WW2. It centers on a resurrected Nazi named Rausch who Jack and his comrades in arms defeated while liberating a Nazi camp. Rausch is brought back using an amulet used by a Nazi occultist named Mueller. Jack’s surviving teammates are murdered by Rausch one by one. Oh, and Rausch has become a celebrity right wing radio host who is as smooth as any Nazi propagandist could be. It’s a nice little metaphor about how even when you think you’ve killed the evil of Hitler and the Reich, it can come back… and it can choose some very familiar ways to do it.
Mesmer’s Bauble: Denis Forest was the “bad guy” in this episode, which also featured Vanity. Forest was Howard Moore, a very sad and lonely man who is infatuated with Vanity’s Angelica. He uses a crystal that grants wishes after you hypnotize someone and kill them. The episode takes an even sadder turn at the end as Moore realizes he doesn’t love Angelica so much as he wants to be her, to get the eyes and adoration of her fans… something he’s never had. It doesn’t end well for him.
The Baron’s Bride: From Season 1, this is one of my all-time favorites. It’s a vampire episode (there are two in total during the show’s run.) It features a double whammy, a cape that makes the wearer irresistible to women and a diamond clasp that when a drop of blood hits it allows for time travel. Oh, and it’s owned by a vampire’s widow who is also a vampire. Micki and Ryan, after a tussle with the widow and her new would-be paramour Frank are transported back to 19th century England where they run into a gent by the name of Bram Stoker. Ain’t life funny sometimes? I love this episode and how it utilizes black and white film for the time the cousins are back in the past. It’s just a neat concept and looks fantastic.
Scarlet Cinema: I’m a sucker for an episode that focuses on classic movie monsters, and this one does just that. The Wolfman is the focus here as a film student has a cursed movie projector that allows him to bring to life characters from his favorite films… one of which is The Wolf Man. It’s neat that clips from the film are shown in this episode. It also has one of the more inventive ways of killing a werewolf by using the silver nitrate that is a part of film stock.
Master of Disguise: Another nod to classic movie monsters, Master of Disguise is sort of the Clayface movie we’ve yet to get (it’s being filmed.) It focuses on William Pratt (yes… I know… give me a second) who is a handsome movie actor and becomes Micki’s new love interest. The problem is he’s got a cursed makeup case that belongs to John Wilkes Booth, the guy who killed Lincoln. The case allows the user to become handsome and beautiful after being touched by the blood of a murdered victim. This is one of the few times the antique user doesn’t die. But things don’t end well for Micki and Williams relationship. This is one of the few times as well that the cousins find a love interest with ties to an antique that winds up tearing them apart. But (and here we are) we find out that Jack knew a man before named William HENRY Pratt… AKA Boris Karloff.
Symphony in B-Sharp: Another classic inspired episode because I come from the church of Dan Curtis, and you take all the gothic lit for your inspiration. Also, Ely Pouget plays Ryan’s love interest in this, and she was Maggie Evans in Curtis’s Dark Shadows reboot in 1991… so it works. This one is inspired by The Phantom of the Opera and follows Pouget’s Leslie who’s paramour Janos Korda was thought to have died in a horrible accident and fire. Janos has a violin that allows him to play again as he had before the accident, but he must kill someone each time the effects wear off with a spike hidden in the violin bow. Leslie falls in love with Ryan, who is 100 percent the Raoul in this scenario, which turns as tragic as Micki’s own love affair did.
Friday the 13th: The Series was a fantastic horror series that had a smart gimmick to keep it going. You really loved the main cast, and I was always suspicious of how close the cousins got because Ryan and Micki really seemed… close. But, sadly, we never got to see what could have happened there due to the unceremonious cancellation of the show. You may not realize just how popular the series was in the realm of the syndicated TV, but at its biggest the show was only second to Star Trek: The Next Generation in ratings for that group.
As of now there are no plans to return to Curious Goods. I mean, you could do something like that especially with how Ryan was turned back to a child. Maybe he could go looking for his older cousin Micki to find out if all these weird dreams he’s having were real with Micki taking on the older Obi-Wan-like Jack role. But alas, the shop seems to be closed.
If you want to return to the store or be a first-time customer, though, you can. The series is available on DVD and there was even a book about the production of the show released in 2015. Who knows, though… maybe when we get that Crystal Lake series, there could be a mysterious antiques shop in town… I’ve heard that place likes curses.
The post Friday the 13th: The Series (1987 – 1990): Gone But Not Forgotten appeared first on JoBlo.