The first season of the horror anthology
Freddy's Nightmares begins with a revisionary rehash of the premise established in the original
Nightmare on Elm Street film series, as multiple murderer Freddy Krueger (
Robert Englund), released from prison on a technically, falls victim to the vigilante justice meted out by the outraged residents of Elm Street in the town of Springwood. Freddy's "death", however, is hardly the end of the story: Burned virtually beyond recognition and sporting a glove with long, deadly razors where his fingernails should be, Freddy returns in a "dream demon" form to induce unspeakable nightmares in the minds of the Springwood citizenry. Though several of Freddy's victims die horribly as a result, no teenagers are killed in the TV version of the popular movie franchise--a marked contrast to the mortality rate amongst the teen characters in the original films. Each of Season One's episodes is divided into two half-hour segments, with one of the survivors of the terrors depicted in the first half of the story becoming the main victim in the second half. In most cases, Freddy is the catalyst for the stories: inducing grim dreams in the mind of an overworked medical student in one episode, playing one twin against the other to destroy their policeman father in another episode, and so on. In other instances, Freddy serves only as narrator, taking no active part in the mayhem. Among the more recognizable actors appearing in the first season of
Freddy's Nightmares are
Brad Pitt (in the episode "Black Tickets"),
Susan Oliver,
George Lazenby,
Mariska Hargitay,
Lori Petty,
Page Hannah,
Brett Cullen,
Timothy Bottoms, Nancy Linari,
Jeffrey Combs, and that ubiquitous cult favorite,
Dick Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide