Nightmare Cafe

I first saw Nightmare Cafe when NBC had a special Wednesday "sneak preview" some weeks before it premiered in its fatal timeslot in the graveyard of shows, Friday nights. The pilot seemed stylish and imaginative, although the effects were less than state-of-the-art even for that time. Taking place all in the span of a single night, it had a very closed-in feeling. The two leads were convincing and capable, but Robert Englund seemed just a bit too smarmy, trying too hard to distance himself from his infamous Freddy Krueger role. Still, it was a fine beginning for a fantasy show, or as one reviewer termed it, the flipside of Fantasy Island.

The remaining five episodes were uneven in quality, but it's unfair to expect a new show to find its voice in only weeks. "The Heart of the Mystery" was one of the better ones. But by the end, the show had abandoned the night setting and the mysterious waterfront the cafe was on. It just didn't feel right to have a "nightmare" show taking place in broad daylight.

Overall, it was a set of intriguing possibilities mostly left unexplored. I have the pilot on tape, and it's a good reminder of what could have been.

The tv-series Nightmare Cafe was one of my favourite shows when I saw it by mistake one saturday night. Great characters and one of my at the time favourite actors, Robert Englund as a mentor figure helping the dead man and woman to help other lost souls. Funny, imaginative and with this nice everyday halloween scare to it. But not totally satisfying, mostly because the possibilities are not explored enough. Except for that Nightmare Cafe is one fine treat.

Not a bad TV show cancelled during a writer's strike so you'll never know what could have been. A bit of history I found out, the show was created for a night time slot to try and lure college students into a new show! Nick at nite was very popular with reruns so the creators of Nightmare cafe wanted in. The six episodes that were produced didn't really get watched by many people and a writers strike pretty much got it cancelled I have heard from somebody that Jerry Seinfeld was a fan and wanted to try and promote the show. I guess in the 90s college students who are really high just wanted to watch Brady Bunch reruns and the Nanny.

I remember this show, from when I was High School...it was awesome! Way ahead of its time...bring the same show back today, with the success of Stranger Things, it would be a hit. At least Twenty Year early.

...but I think it was cool.

Sometimes I like to surprise people by bringing up obscure TV shows from the 1990s that even I can barely recall. My two favorite programs to cite are "Nightmare Cafe" and "Covington Cross" - both short-lived, and both with a cool premise. Generally speaking, nobody I talk to has seen or heard of either one of them.

I remember "Nightmare Cafe" better. If memory serves, it was about a creepy café (of course). People stumbled in and had weird things happen to them. Oddly enough, I recall that the café was not strictly evil - sometimes, it would help people resolve conflicts in their lives. But in a creepy, cryptic way, naturally.

Mostly I remember the tone of the show, which was eerie, in a "Sapphire and Steel" sort of way. I also found Robert Englund very charismatic, and it was nice to see him out of mutated makeup for a change.

Of course the show was canceled, for the usual reason - it had a lousy time slot! I wonder if, given a chance, it might've been another "X-Files."

Apropos of nothing, one person I spoke to once did actually remember this show. And she was really, really hot. What does this say about the quality of the show itself? Nothing, but I thought it was worth mentioning!