A show which has no regular characters or actors, with the possible exception of a host or narrator who introduces/closes/comments on shows. Stories tend to limit themselves to a single genre but the earlier anthology shows were more likely to cover several genres than later ones.
Television examples include:
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Crime And Punishment)
- Amazing Stories (Speculative Fiction)
- Are You Afraid of the Dark? (Horror)
- Doctor Terribles House Of Horrible (Horror Comedy, hosted by Steve Coogan)
- Fear Itself (Horror; a Spiritual Successor to the below-mentioned Masters Of Horror series)
- the fifth estate (CBC)
- Freddy's Nightmares, a horror anthology in "Crypt" style, hosted by Freddy Krueger of A Nightmare on Elm Street. The stories dealing with Freddy himself were actually rare, but canonical.
- General Electric Theater (Drama) (Hosted by Ronald Reagan)
- George Burns Comedy Week (Comedy)
- Goosebumps the television series (Horror)
- Hallmark Hall of Fame (All Genres)
- The Haunting Hour: The Series (Horror)
- The Hunger (Horror)
- Masters Of Horror (Horror, with each entry made by an acclaimed horror director)
- Murder Most Horrid (Parodying Crime And Punishment) (Hosted by and starring Dawn French)
- Night Gallery (Horror/Speculative Fiction)
- Night Visions (Horror)
- One Step Beyond and its Revival, The Next Step Beyond (Speculative Fiction)
- The Outer Limits (Speculative Fiction)
- Philco Television Playhouse/Goodyear Television Playhouse/Alcoa Hour (Drama) The name changed to reflect the sponsoring company. From 1948 to 1951, Philco was the sole sponsor. From 1951 to the spring of 1955, Philco and Goodyear alternated weeks as sponsor and the show was titled accordingly. At the end of the 1954-55 season, Philco dropped out as sponsor and Alcoa stepped in. Alcoa and Goodyear continued alternating sponsorship until 1957. The productions were otherwise the same.
- Playhouse 90 (Drama)
- Science Fiction Theater (Speculative Fiction)
- Tales from the Crypt (Horror)
- Tales From The Darkside (Horror)
- Tales Of Tomorrow (Speculative Fiction)
- Tales of the Unexpected (Various, usually Black Comedy with a Twist Ending. Introduced by their author, Roald Dahl)
- Thriller aka Boris Karloff's Thriller (Horror/Crime And Punishment)
- Thriller is also the title of a British series of one-off feature-length dramas, created and either scripted or based on stories by Brian Clemens (The Avengers, The Professionals). Episodes were repackaged for US broadcast as separate TV movies. (Usually Crime And Punishment but with some Horror episodes)
- The Twilight Zone (Speculative Fiction)
Radio examples include:
Film examples include: