History Recap / TalesFromTheCryptS1E3DigThatCatHesRealGone

Ulric then flashes back to when his career first started, back when he was a homeless bum sleeping in a cardboard box. A MadScientist, Dr. Emil Manfred, approaches the slumbering Ulric and pays him a large sum of money to take part in an experimental surgery. Dr. Manfred explains how he discovered that cats possess a unique gland in their brains which gives them [[CatsHaveNineLives their infamous nine lives]], and intends to surgically graft one of these glands into a human subject's brain to give them limited immortality. Ulric awakens from the operation to find it was a complete success, albeit at the expense of a cat's life. As a final test, Manfred shoots and kills Ulric, who revives almost instantly and becomes convinced that he's been given the opportunity to cheat death.

Needing more funds for his research, Manfred persuades Ulric to join the local sideshow and turn over a portion of his earnings to him. During his first show, he is submerged in a [[DrowningPit tank of water]] for a full hour, reviving after initially sitting motionless for a few minutes once the tank is drained. The spectacle draws the attention of a showgirl named Coralee, and the two begin a relationship, with Coralee assisting Ulric in his next show - death by hanging.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' (''petting a cat'') There, there. Nice kitty. GET! (''the cat leaves; he cackles'') Hope you enjoyed our little bedtime story, kids. (''picks up a skull'') Alas, poor Ulric, missed a bet. Though '''''Dying''''' ''for Dollars'' could have been a popular game show. They could have put it in between ''Wheel of'' '''''Misfortune''''' and the ''Newly-'''''''Dead''''' ''Game''. Unless they ''buried it'' in the wrong time slot! (''cackles'')

* DiesDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: Well, died differently the first few times. Both the comic and TV Ulrics deliberately crash their car to bump off Dr. Manfred and died for good by suffocating in the coffin, but the comic's Ulrics other deaths were in some different stunts, such as swimming off Niagara Falls, jumping out of an airplane, or being tied up in a sack and thrown into a river for hours. Also, comic Ulric is murdered by someone he hired to attend his body after killing Dr. Manfred, while in the TV version, it's Coralee that does him in.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the show, Dr. Manfred is shocked and terrified as Ulric kills him in the car crash. In the comic, the Dr. had a strange smile on his face before he died, implying he knew about Ulric actually having eight lives instead of nine and knows Ulric just screwed himself over at least a bit, which Ulric noted in his dying words.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In the show, Dr. Manfred is shocked and terrified as Ulric kills him in the car crash. In the comic, the Dr. had a strange smile on his face before he died, implying he knew about Ulric actually having eight lives instead of nine and knows Ulric just screwed himself over at least a bit.

* AttackOnTheHeart: Ulric's sixth death involves standing behind a moving cutout of a bear with a hole cut out right above his ticker, where guests can pay a whole grand for one crossbow bolt to shoot him with.

* DiedDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: Well, died differently the first few times. Both the comic and TV Ulrics deliberately crash their car to bump off Dr. Manfred and died for good by suffocating in the coffin, but the comic's Ulrics other deaths were in some different stunts, such as swimming off Niagara Falls, jumping out of an airplane, or being tied up in a sack and thrown into a river for hours. Also, comic Ulric is murdered by someone he hired to attend his body after killing Dr. Manfred, while in the TV version, it's Coralee that does him in.

Ulric then flashes back to when his career first started, back when he was a homeless bum sleeping in a cardboard box. A MadScientist, Dr. Emil Manfred, approaches the slumbering Ulric and pays him a large sum of money to take part in an experimental surgery. Dr. Manfred explains how he discovered that cats possess a unique gland in their brains which give them [[CatsHaveNineLives their infamous nine lives]], and intends to surgically graft one of these glands into a human subject's brain to give them limited immortality. Ulric awakens from the operation to find it was a complete success, albeit at the expense of a cat's life. As a final test, Manfred shoots and kills Ulric, who revives almost instantly and becomes convinced that he's been given the opportunity to cheat death.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(lighting a candle)'' Good evening, fiend fans, and welcome to my crawly crypt. This little drama is about one of life's unexpected pleasures: '''dying''', that is. Most of us only get to do it once, and it's all over before you can ''really'' enjoy it. But one man ''did'' get to die again. And he liked it so much, he started doing it for a ''living''. This is the story of Ulric the Undying, a sideshow performer who found death not only fun, but ''profitable.'' In fact, he's ''dying'' to put on a show for you... '''right now!'''

At a carnival sideshow, a barker presents Ulric the Undying (Creator/JoePantoliano), a performer who will be BuriedAlive for 12 hours and then dug up. He will be dead, but will come back to life. After he is buried, Ulric speaks to the viewer, saying he will be dead, but he won't stay that way.

The scene switches to a flashback of Ulric, living in an alleyway as a broke alcoholic. A MadScientist, Dr. Emil Manfred, pays him a large sum of money to take part in an experiment of his. Manfred explains that he has found a gland in a cat's brain that [[CatsHaveNineLives gives it its infamous nine lives]], and intends to graft it into a human subject's brain to give them the same ability. Ulric wakes from the operation to find it was successful, at the expense of a kitten's life. Manfred shoots and kills him as a final test, and Ulric revives almost instantly.

Needing more money to continue his experiments, Manfred persuades Ulric to join the sideshow and turn over a portion of his earnings. During his first show, he is submerged in a [[DrowningPit tank of water]] for a full hour, then revives after sitting motionless for a few minutes once the tank is drained. The spectacle draws the attention of a showgirl named Coralee, and the two begin to date, with Coralee assisting in his next show - death by hanging.

Deciding that he no longer wants to split the take with Manfred, Ulric crashes his car while driving Manfred across town, killing both of them. Ulric comes back to life and avoids suspicion, but his next show (an electrocution) is a close call, as he remains dead for some time and revives only as a mortician is about to embalm him. In the show after this, Ulric sets himself up as a target for customers to shoot with a crossbow, at $1,000 per shot. He gets an arrow through the heart and dies, but he has arranged for Coralee to bribe the police so she can keep his body long enough for him to revive.

When Coralee stabs Ulric to death and steals all his money, Ulric blackmails the sideshow barker into letting him have all the profits from his last show, the live burial shown at the start of the episode. Once in the coffin, [[ExplainExplainOhCrap he reflects on his career as the Undying, thinking that this show will set him up for life and wishing that Manfred's cat hadn't had to die in order to make it possible]].

Then, in a FridgeHorror realization, he remembers that the cat's death used up one of its nine lives - leaving him with only ''eight'' after the gland transplant. Having died seven times (shooting, drowning, hanging, car crash, electrocution, crossbow, stabbing), he is down to his last life and will not revive. He frantically pounds on the coffin lid and screams to be let out, but no one can hear him. The last two workers to leave the tent hear only the meowing of a stray cat as Ulric suffocates to death.

* AbusiveParents: A father at the carnival tries to goad his son into shooting Ulric when he doesn't want to. When he fumbles the shot, the dad accuses him of missing on purpose and derides him for being a softie.

* AmusementParkOfDoom: Downplayed. The carnival Ulric works at appears to be relatively decent all things considered, being staffed with a variety of entertainers such as clowns, and having no shortage of merchandise to sell, and the barker introducing Ulric’s shows is very good at his job. But one has to question the ethical value of killing a man for live entertainment, regardless of him coming back to life.
* AssholeVictim: Even if he did feel ''kinda'' bad for killing the doctor, Ulric definitely got what he deserved in the end for his greed.
* BigNo: Ulric, when Dr. Manfred tests to see if the surgery worked by shooting him. When Ulric revives, he wakes up screaming it again.
* {{Blackmail}}: Ulric threatens not to appear in the sideshow for his final performance unless the barker gives him all the profits.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Ulric does this through the whole story.
* BuriedAlive: Ulric's last death involves him being buried alive for twelve hours: midnight to midday. Only after he finishes [[BreakingTheFourthWall narrating his story to the audience]] does he realize that he has made a fatal miscalculation, and he only had ''eight'' lives (with the death of the cat counting as the first one) instead of nine. He starts pounding on the coffin lid, but by then, he's too deep in the ground for anyone to hear him.
* CatsHaveNineLives: Indeed they do, as a result of a gland in their brains. Dr. Manfred figures out how to graft the gland into a person's brain and give them the ability. All goes smoothly, except that the cat loses one life in the process.
* ChekhovsGun: After the surgery, we see the dead cat under a blanket, as Dr. Manfred talks about Ulric having nine lives. It's a subtle clue to viewers that the cat died in order for the transplant to occur, meaning Ulric only has eight lives instead of nine.
* CreatorCameo: Creator/RichardDonner directed this episode. Ahead of the burial stunt, he is the man with glasses in the front row chanting Ulric's name. Incidentally, that's his wife Lauren Shuler Donner right next to him.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: Dr. Manfred, we get you may have needed more testing, but you ''really'' couldn't think of a better way to make some cash off of Ulric than displaying him as a sideshow attraction?

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Ulric realizes too late that he forgot that the death of the cat that gave him the gland counted as a lost life, which means he had already used up his extra lives.
* DramaticIrony: Ulric's pleas to be let out of the coffin are intercut with two carnival workers discussing the stunt, with one absolutely certain this is all fake and that no one is in any danger of dying.
* DrowningPit: Ulric's first show and second death, in which he is chained up inside a tank that fills with water.
* DumbBlonde: Coralee the carnival showgirl. Averted, as it's revealed later in the episode that, while she does have the mannerisms and personality of said trope, she's a natural redhead.
* DyingCandle: As Ulric expires, the candle in his coffin goes out.
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The episode ends with Ulric (after being BuriedAlive as part of his final stunt) bemusing on how, after that, he's going to be set for life while also sadly remarking on the fate of the cat that the gland he was given came from. Said fate being that it died, meaning it '''lost a life'''. Cue Ulric realizing all too late that he only had ''eight'' lives, not nine... and that he's going to die ''permanently'' in his last stunt.
* FlashbackMontageRealization: Ulric expressing regret over how the cat died causes him to think back to that shot of its body after the operation and to realize the horrible truth.
* GoldDigger: Really, why else would Coralee want to be with Ulric? Certainly not for his charming personality.
* HighVoltageDeath: Ulric's fifth death is an electrocution, with a little old lady in the audience throwing the switch. It takes him quite a bit longer to revive from this one compared to the others, a subtle hint that things are starting to go wrong for him.
* HopeSpot: As Ulric panics over his impending fate, one of the carnival workers thinks he heard something. He and his buddy soon agree it was just a cat and walk off.
* HowWeGotHere: Ulric's narration while buried alive reflects on how he got to this point.
* ICallHimMisterHappy: Coralee, while having sex with Ulric, calls his dick "Mr. Friendly".
* ItRunsOnNonsensoleum: Ulric gets his new nine lines by having gland of a cat that allows said nine lives into his brain.
* KarmaHoudini: Coralee ends up escaping with the money she stole from Ulric and will go on to live a comfortable life.
* LargeHam: The carnival barker revels in ham when introducing Ulric's stunts to the audience. He's far more subdued in private, though.
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: When giving Ulric his money after the crossbow stunt, the carnival barker mentions one of the checks is from Creator/{{HBO}} (the show's own network).
* MadScientist: Dr. Manfred, who manages to discover the secret of (limited) immortality.
* MundaneUtility: Once he finds out that he has the ability to return from the dead, Ulric quickly sells himself out as a carnival attraction.

* NothingPersonal: Coralee says this while taking all of Ulric's money after stabbing him to death. Ulric, of course, doesn't feel the same after he revives.

* PetTheDog: Ulric, while reflecting on the episode's events at the end, wishes that Manfred's cat didn't have to die in order to make his career as "The Undying" possible. At that moment, he then realizes the cat used a life when it died and that, due to this miscalculation, he doesn’t have any lives left himself and is going to die for good.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Obviously, the nine lives treatment is best put to use in show business. It's not like there are any aging billionaires out there who would pay through the nose for a guarantee that they'd survive their next eight heart attacks. And of course, the military would have no interest in soldiers that the enemy would have to kill nine times before they died. [[SarcasmMode Nope -- sideshows, that's where it's at.]]
* ResurrectiveImmortality: Cats can actually return to life nine times, thanks to a gland in their brains. Ulric has one of these glands grafted into his own brain, giving him the ability to temporarily return from the dead a number of times.
* ShootingGallery: Ulric's sixth death has him hide behind a cardboard cut out of a bear, where contestants are challenged to shoot him in the heart with an arrow.
* ShoutOut: The sailor who doesn't have enough cash to shoot Ulric in the heart is called "ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}" as he's ushered away.
** The barker also calls Manfred [[Film/DrStrangelove "Strangelove"]] when the latter explains Ulric's abilities to him.
* TheStinger: After the candle goes out on Ulric's frantic banging, we get a brief shot of a cat standing over Ulric's grave.
* TooDumbToLive: If Ulric wasn't so blinded by greed, he could've at least kept Dr. Manfred alive. That way, once the remaining lives run out, he would just get the scientist to experiment on another cat to gain more lives.
* VillainProtagonist: Ulric is not the kind of main character to root for, given how he's willing to kill for the sake of making a profit.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Ulric decides that he doesn't want to split his earnings from the sideshow with Dr. Manfred, so he kills them both in a car crash. Of course, while Ulric gets better, Manfred does '''not'''.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(petting a cat)'' There, there. Nice kitty. GET! ''(the cat leaves; he cackles)'' Hope you enjoyed our little bedtime story, kids. ''(picks up a skull)'' Alas, poor Ulric, missed a bet. Though '''''Dying for Dollars''''' could have been a popular game show. They could have put it in between '''''Wheel of Misfortune''''' and the '''''Newly Dead Game'''''... unless they ''buried it'' in the wrong time slot! ''(cackles)''

* PetTheDog: Ulric, while reflecting on the episode's events at the end, wishes that Manfred's cat didn't have to die in order to make his career as "The Undying" possible.

Needing more money to continue his experiments, Manfred persuades Ulric to join the sideshow and turn over a portion of his earnings. During his first show, he is submerged in a DrowningPit for a full hour, then revives after sitting motionless for a few minutes once the tank is drained. The spectacle draws the attention of a showgirl named Coralee, and the two begin to date, with Coralee assisting in his next show - death by hanging.

Deciding that he no longer wants to split the take with Manfred, Ulric crashes his car while driving Manfred across town, killing both of them. Ulric comes back to life and avoids suspicion, but his next show (an electrocution) is a close call, as he remains dead for some time and revives only as a mortician is about to embalm him. In the show after this, Ulric sets himself up as a target for customers to shoot with a crossbow, at a thousand dollars per shot. He gets an arrow through the heart and dies, but he has arranged for Coralee to bribe the police so she can keep his body long enough for him to revive.

* AbusiveParents: A father at the carnival tries to goad his son into shooting Ulric when he doesn't want to. When he fumbles the shot, the dad accuses him of missing on purpose and derides him for being weak.
* AlasPoorYorick: The Crypt Keeper does this during his closing scene, while reflecting on Ulric's fate.

->'''Crypt Keeper:''' ''(petting a cat)'' There, there. Nice kitty. GET! ''(the cat leaves; he cackles)'' Hope you enjoyed our little ''bedtime story, kids. ''(picks up a skull)'' Alas, poor Ulric, missed a bet. Though '''''Dying for Dollars''''' could have been a popular game show. They could have put it in between '''''Wheel of Misfortune''''' and the '''''Newly Dead Game'''''... unless they ''buried it'' in the wrong time slot! ''(cackles)''

Inspiration: ''The Haunt of Fear'' #21

The scene switches to a flashback of Ulric living in an alleyway as a broke alcoholic. A MadScientist, Dr. Emil Manfred, pays him a large sum of money to take part in an experiment of his. Manfred explains that he has found the gland in a cat's brain that [[CatsHaveNineLives gives it nine lives]] and intends to graft it into a human subject's brain. Ulric wakes from the operation to find it was successful, at the expense of a kitten's life. Manfred shoots and kills him as a final test, and Ulric revives almost instantly.

Needing more money to continue his experiments, Manfred persuades Ulric to join the sideshow and turn over a portion of his earnings. During his first show, he is submerged in a DrowningPit for a full hour, then revives after sitting motionless for a few minutes once the tank is drained. The spectacle draws the attention of a showgirl named Carly, and the two begin to date, with Carly assisting in his next show - death by hanging.

Deciding that he no longer wants to split the take with Manfred, Ulric crashes his car while driving Manfred across town, killing both of them. Ulric comes back to life and avoids suspicion, but his next show (an electrocution) is a close call, as he remains dead for some time and revives only as a mortician is about to embalm him. In the show after this, Ulric sets himself up as a target for customers to shoot with a crossbow, at a thousand dollars per shot. He gets an arrow through the heart and dies, but he has arranged for Carly to bribe the police so she can keep his body long enough for him to revive.

When Carly stabs Ulric to death and steals all his money, Ulric blackmails the sideshow barker into letting him have all the profits from his last show, the live burial shown at the start of the episode. Once in the coffin, [[ExplainExplainOhCrap he reflects on his career as the Undying, thinking that this show will set him up for life and wishing that Manfred's cat hadn't had to die in order to make it possible]].

* BigNo: Ulric when Dr. Manfred tests to see if the surgery worked by shooting him. When Ulric revives, he wakes up screaming it again.

* BuriedAlive: Ulric's last death involves him being buried alive for twelve hours: from midnight to midday. Only after he finishes [[BreakingTheFourthWall narrating his story to the audience]] does he realize that he has made a fatal miscalculation, and he only had ''eight'' lives (with the death of the cat counting as the first one) instead of nine. He starts pounding on the coffin lid, but by then, he's too deep in the ground for anyone to hear him.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: OK, Dr. Manfred, we get you may have needed more testing, but you ''really'' couldn't think of a better way to make some cash off of Ulric than a sideshow attraction?

* DrowningPit: Ulric's first show, in which he is chained to a chair inside a tank that fills with water.
* DumbBlonde: Carly the circus showgirl. Averted, as revealed later in the episode that, while she does have the mannerisms and personality of said trope, she's a natural redhead.

* GoldDigger: Really, why else would Carly want to be with Ulric? Certainly not for his charming personality.
* HighVoltageDeath: Ulric's fifth death is an electrocution, with an audience member throwing the switch. It takes him quite a bit longer to revive from this one compared to the others, a suggestion that things are starting to go wrong for him.

* KarmaHoudini: Carly got the money she stole and will go on to live a comfortable life.

* NothingPersonal: Carly says as much, while taking all the money after stabbing Ulric to death. Ulric, of course, doesn't feel that way after he revives.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Obviously, the nine lives treatment is best put to use in show business. It's not like there are any aging billionaires out there who would pay through the nose for a guarantee that they'd survive their next eight heart attacks. And of course, the military would have no interest in soldiers that the enemy would have to kill nine times before they died. Nope -- sideshows, that's where it's at.
* TooDumbToLive: If Ulric wasn't so blinded by greed he could've at least kept Dr. Manfred alive. That way, once the remaining lives are running out, he would just get the scientist to experiment on another cat to gain more spare lives.

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Ulric decides that he doesn't want to split his earnings from the sideshow with Dr. Manfred, so he kills them both in a car crash. Of course, while Ulric gets better, Manfred does '''not'''.

* BuriedAlive: Ulric's last death involves him being buried alive for twelve hours: from midnight to midday. It is only as he finishes [[BreakingTheFourthWall narrating his story to the audience]] does he realize that he has made a fatal miscalculation, and he only had ''eight'' lives (with the death of the cat counting as the first one) instead of nine. He starts pounding on the coffin lid, but by then, he's too deep in the ground for anyone to hear him.
* CatsHaveNineLives: Indeed they do, as a result of a gland in their brains. Dr. Manfred figured out how to graft the gland into a person's brain and give them the ability. All goes smoothly, except for the part about how taking the gland from the cat means that one of the lives was used up.

* BuriedAlive: Ulric's last death involves him being buried alive for twelve hours: from midnight to midday. It is only as he finishes [[BreakingTheFourthWall narrating his story to the audience]] does he realize that he has made a fatal miscalculation, and he only had ''eight'' lives (with the death of the cat counting as the first one) instead of nine. He starts pounding on the coffin lid, but he's too deep in the ground for anyone to hear him.

* DumbBlonde: Carly the circus showgirl. Averted, as revealed later in the episode that, while she does have the mannerisms and personality of said troupe, she's a natural redhead.

The scene switches to a flashback of Ulric living in an alleyway, broke and alone. A MadScientist, Dr. Emil Manfred, pays him a large sum of money to take part in an experiment of his. Manfred explains that he has found the gland in a cat's brain that [[CatsHaveNineLives gives it nine lives]] and intends to graft it into a human subject's brain. Ulric wakes from the operation to find it was successful, at the expense of a kitten's life. Manfred shoots and kills him as a final test, and Ulric revives almost instantly.

* {{Blackmail}}: As the carnival barker says, Ulric demanding 100% of the profits or he'll be a no show is this. Ulric is unmoved by his pleas and gets his way.

* HighVoltageDeath: Ulric's fifth death is being hit with high volts of electricity. This one takes him a while to recover from, a sign things are not going to end well.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: Obviously, the nine lives treatment is best put to use in show business. It's not like there are any aging billionaires out there who would pay through the nose for a guarantee that they'd survive their next nine heart attacks. And of course, the military would have no interest in soldiers that you had to kill nine times before they died. Nope -- sideshows, that's where it's at.
* TooDumbToLive: If Ulric wasn't so blinded by greed he could've at least kept Dr. Manfred alive. That way, once the remaining lives are running out, he would just get the scientist to experiment on another cat to gain extra more lives.

At a carnival sideshow, a barker presents Ulric the Undying (Creator/JoePantoliano), a performer who will be BuriedAlive for several hours and then dug up. He will be dead, but will come back to life. After he is buried, Ulric speaks to the viewer, saying he will be dead, but he won't stay that way.

* AssholeVictim: Even if he did feel ''kinda'' bad for killing the doctor, Ulrich definitely got what he deserved in the end for his greed.

* CutLexLuthorACheck: OK, Dr. Manfred, we get you may have needed more testing, but you ''really'' couldn't think of a better way to make some cash off of Ulrich than a sideshow attraction?

* BuriedAlive: Ulric's last death involves him being buried alive for twelve hours: from midnight to midday. It is only as he finishes [[BreakingTheFourthWall narrating his story to the audience]] does he realise that he has made a fatal miscalculation, and he only had ''eight'' lives (with the death of the cat counting as the first one) instead of nine. He starts pounding on the coffin lid, but there is no one to hear him.

* TooDumbToLive: If Ulric wasn't so blinded by greed he could've at least kept the scientist alive. That way, once the remaining lives are running out, he would just get the scientist to experiment on another cat to gain extra more lives.
* VillainProtagonist: Ulric is not the kind of main character to root for, given how he's willing to kill for the sake of making a profit.