History WesternAnimation / TalesFromTheCryptKeeper

* YouDontLookLikeYou: A double example. The animated Crypt Keeper in the first two seasons doesn't bear any resemblance to his live-action counterpart aside from being a skeletal zombie, while his appearance in the third season is drastically changed, but more closely resembles his appearance in the live-action series (sans the head of lush, flowing blonde hair. It also bears mentioning that the live-action Crypt Keeper, when his hair actually had color, was a brunette).

* SadlyMythtaken: "Myth Conceptions" changes the story of Medusa, but it acknowledges doing so. The archaeologist discusses the story with a little girl, saying he actually believes Perseus failed to defeat Medusa. He ends up being right, but that's not the whole story. [[spoiler:Medusa ''heroically'' defended her temple lair from those like Perseus, who was trying to rob the treasures within. It also turns out the little girl was Medusa--meaning she can shapeshift. She also can't be turned to stone by looking at her reflection.]]

* TreacherousQuestGiver: In "Ghost Ship", Ben and Mike, after escaping the skeleton pirate crew of the titular ship, meet with the seemingly friendly ghost captain who asks for their help in finding a treasure. [[spoiler:It eventually turns out there is no treasure- the whole thing merely was a way for him to lure them into signing up to join his crew, which is how he recruited all the skeletons on his ship.]]

* TemptingFate: At the beginning of "The Wailing Woman", Mildred mentions she picked collecting teddy bears as a new hobby because, unlike meeting monsters, this was completely harmless and wouldn't cause trouble. [[spoiler:The teddy bear she collects later in the junk store turns out to have belonged to the titular ghost's daughter, making it her BerserkButton- meaning the entire reason she becomes dangerous to them was ''because'' of Mildred's new hobby. Ironically this was after she chided Mildred for still liking spooky stuff.]]

** "Sleeping Beauty": As Chuck is about to kiss the sleeping woman, he tells Melvin to look away. Melvin does so, but he decides to peak with a hand-held mirror. He sees the woman has a MissingReflection.

** "Gone Fishing" begins with Uncle Ned and his nephew Randy going fishing, with the former abusively telling the latter he reads too much, and the nephew at one point saying fish may have a world like people do. [[spoiler: The episode ends with an Uncle fish and his Nephew fishing (for Uncle Ned), with the nephew even saying people may have a world just like the fish. As a lighter reprise, the Uncle fish is much more polite about telling his nephew he should control his imagination.]]

** Played with in "Sleeping Beauty"; the original comic made it rather clear all the princes before the protagonist who went after the Beauty died (first believed to have been killed by the wall of thorns but later revealed to have [[spoiler:ended up as the Beauty's meal]]), a fate [[spoiler:the protagonist eventually shares]]. In this adaptation, they ''did'' technically died, but [[spoiler:were brought back as vampires]], and Chuck [[spoiler:does end up with a similar fate, but has been restored to human offscreen by the time of the sequel episode]].

* InsistentTerminology: Chuck and Melvin are twins, but as Chuck angrily reminds him more than once, "''not identical''."

* BookEnds: In "All the Gory Details", Mr. Klump mentions the first rule of reporting, and says he's been a reporter for so long he hardly needs his brain anymore, to which the annoyed driver (who is already getting tired of his StrawMisogynist antics) says "Tell me about it." [[spoiler: When we see him after his KarmicTransformation, he has a similar conversation about checkers, to which the annoyed creations reply "Tell me about it."]]
** Also, the first and last town scenes [[spoiler: Mr. Klump is himself in]] take place in the hotel.

* TheBadGuyWins: The episode "The Weeping Woman" ends without the Crypt Keeper getting even with the Old Witch for trying to invade his show, instead having him bursting into tears as he is forced to watch her perform in the opera.

* BatDeduction: In "Hyde and Go Shriek", the two kids who gave Wendell the tea to get stronger immediately deduce the potion worked upon reading in a newspaper about a monster being spot. This despite the fact the tea was intended to just make Wendell ''strong'', not a werewolf-like creature.

* ActorAllusion: The hunter in "Hunted" is voiced by Creator/GeorgeBuza, so of course he becomes an actual [[WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries beast]] later on.

* AssholeVictim: The episode "The Works...In Wax" features Mr. Boswick, the mean-spirited new owner of Rottmucker's Wax Museum, who had secretly been cheating [[KindheartedSimpleton William Williams]] out of owning the museum by hiding Mr. Rottmucker's will. [[spoiler: He ends up trapped as part of a new wax display of Dracula, the wolfman, Frankenstein's monster chasing him, with no indication that he can escape.]]

* BigfootSasquatchAndYeti: In "The Hunted", the hunter figures the "Ohnya" is in the same league as "Big foot, sasquatch, the abominable snowman, and therefore is just "baloney".

* DarkIsNotEvil: Seen in the first season's intro. A kid is running through the Crypt Keeper's house, with many scary monsters emerging to run after him. It turns out the monsters just want to watch the show, even offering the kid some popcorn. Various episodes would also use this trope.

** Both the comic and cartoon versions of "The Works... In Wax!" involve a wax museum and the contents being realer than anticipated. Otherwise, the stories are vastly different: the former being about the proprietor's wife changing the murderer displays and the husband finding he should have left well-enough alone, while the latter is about a boy who idolizes the museum's wax monsters and tries to stop a corrupt businessman from claiming the property after the original owner dies.

** Basically every time Chuck appears to actually be nice to Melvin, it will turns out to be this trope. Most notably, "Sleeping Beauty" has him seemingly trying to save him from the vampire, when he was actually going back to get his mirror, and "Chuck (and Melvin) and the Beanstalker" has him notice Melvin look terrible after their trip through the forest, to then clarify he felt he look dirty.

* OffModel: Surpisingly often during the first two seasons. Largely with either flickering colors in areas or, as can be seen during "This Wraps it Up" and "Game Over", parts of characters being cut off just before the edge of the frame.
** "This Wraps it Up" is also of notably lesser quality compared to even the rest of season 1, with characters' faces getting distorted quite often.

* OurTrollsAreDifferent: "The Brothers Gruff" features a troll of the "hiding under bridge" variety as the antagonist. He is portrayed as a stout, muscular humanoid who follows home people who cross his bridge to then play gradually more mischevious pranks on them, before stealing something important from them. It's possible to keep him away by various practices such as bathing in vinegar or wearing bright colors, and he is absolutely terrified by [[OurOgresAreHungrier giant ogres]].

** Played with in "Sleeping Beauty"; the original comic made it rather clear all the princes before the protagonist who went after the Beauty died (first believed to have been killed by the wall of thorns but later revealed to have [[spoiler:ended up as the Beauty's meal]]), a fate [[spoiler:the protagonist eventually shares]]. In this adaptation, they ''did'' technically died, but [[spoiler:were brought back as vampires]], and Chuck [[spoiler:does end up with a similar fate, but has been restaured to human offscreen by the time of the sequel episode]].

* ArtEvolution: Happened during the channel hop.
** Season two had a slight one by dropping one of the studios[[labelnote:*]]Creator/FunbagAnimation; Creator/WangFilmProductions and Creator/BardelEntertainment were kept[[/labelnote]].
* ArtShift: As noted above. The Season 3 intro actually features footage from all the seasons, so you can see how they differ.

* ActorAllusion: The hunter in "Hunted" is voiced by Creator/GeorgeBuza, so of course he becomes an actual [[WesternAnimation/XMen beast]] later on.

** Similarly, "Pleasant Screams" is mostly the same, but it adds in a second character (a teenage student) so that Mr. Purdy has someone to interact with. It also tones down the violence for obvious reasons. Unlike the the above two examples, though, the twist was tweaked. In the original story, Purdy's suffering was just the fantasy of a student in his class that he regularly yelled at. The episode changes it to a DreamWithinADream in order for Purdy to learn a lesson about his antagonistic behavior.

* TemptingFate: At the beginning of "The Wailing Woman", Mildred mentions she picked collecting teddy bears as a new hobby because, unlike meeting monsters, this was completely harmless and wouldn't cause trouble. [[spoiler:The teddy bear she collects later in the junk store turns out to have belonged to the titular ghost's daughter, making it her BerserkButton- meaning the entire reason she becomes dangerous to them was ''because'' of Mildred's new hobby.]]

* WouldHitAGirl: The three [=GhoulLunatics=] swatch each other around with gleeful impunity; the Old Witch doesn't get a pass on this.

* PantyShot:
** The Old Witch has one in the intro to season two.
** The titular character in "Sharon Sharalike".

* SkewedPriorities: When Chuck finds out [[spoiler:he and his horse have become vampires]] in "Sleeping Beauty"'s KarmicTwistEnding, he is devastated because this means [[spoiler:he no longer can look himself into the mirror to see how handsome he is]].
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent:
** The fourth episode is the only one of Season 1 to use a TwoShorts format (respectively, "Gone Fishin'" and "A Little Body of Work"). Two episodes of Season 2 would later try it: "Cold Blood, Warm Hearts" and "The Spider and the Flies" form one episode [[note]]The InUniverse justification for this is the Old Witch telling the former story and the Crypt Keeper trying to make up for a sappy romance with a scarier tale[[/note]], and "The Avenging Phantom" and "Myth Conceptions" form another.
** Season 2's "The Brothers Gruff" is the only one of the season where neither the Old Witch nor the Vault Keeper try to horn in.

* PajamaCladHero: Though not exactly a ''hero'', Shauna in "Sharon Sharalike" spends most of the episode in her pajamas while she tries to get away from the CreepyDoll.

** In “All The Gory Details”, the townsfolk of the town where Dr. Cromwell did his experiments are completely unhelpful to both Sally and Mr. Klump when the duo looks for information about him. [[spoiler: That’s because they’re also Dr. Cromwell’s creations and are actively trying to hide their existence from the world]].

* PantyShot: The Old Witch has one in the intro to season two.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: In "All the Gory Details", Sally has one such moment. [[spoiler:When she and Mr. Klump are faced with Dr. Cromwell's creations, she promises them that if they allow the duo to leave, they'll hand over the photographic evidence of the creatures' existence and won't publish the story. Later when they're outside, Klump believes [[EvilCannotComprehendGood Sally made that promise as a ruse to help them escape]] and schemes that instead of photographic evidence, they can back each other up once they return to the city. However, Sally tells him "[[SincerityMode I meant what I said, I'm publishing that story]]".]]

* RealityEnsues: After the events of "Fare Tonight" (where she nearly got killed by a vampire), Mildred spends "The Weeping Woman" saying she's given up chasing supernatural beings and is focusing on a much safer hobby: collecting teddy bears.
** You may ShipTease all you want, but Sally and Mr. Klump do not overcome their differences and fall for each other. (Given the latter's selfishness, it was never going to happen).

An animated spin-off of ''Series/TalesFromTheCrypt'' that ran for three seasons. The first two were on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1993 to 1994, the last on Creator/{{CBS}} from 1999 to 2000. Unlike its live-action counterpart, ''Cryptkeeper'' usually had kids as the heroes in its stories; therefore, most of the stories had to lack blood and gore, with a horror factor that was more akin to ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' and usually having AnAesop. During the second season, the show brought in Cryptkeeper's co-{{Horror Host}}s from the comics, the Old Witch and the Vault Keeper, who would usually try to steal the spotlight away from the Cryptkeeper.