You’ll never look at the world the same way again.
Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. Similarly to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode features a different monster, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats.
Stressed Environment (Episode 1) 1.0
Writer: Neal Marshall Stevens
Air date: 1990-09-30
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Dr. Elizabeth Porter, who spent twelve years raising rats in an unhealthy environment in hopes of evolving their intelligence, faces the terrifying results of her experiment.
Murray's Monster (Episode 2)
Writer: Scott Alexander
Air date: 1990-10-07
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Psychiatrist Murray Van Pelt attempts to use a man who can turn into an unstoppable monster whenever his repressed anger is let loose through hypnosis to get rid of his annoying wife.
Bug House (Episode 3) 2.0
Writer: Josef Anderson
Air date: 1990-10-14
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Ellen and May's father died some time ago, and May has started living in the family's broken-down, bug-infested cabin. While visiting, Ellen discovers that her sister has a handsome new lover named Peter and that May is due to give birth but has been enduring severe abdominal pains. Peter seduces Ellen, who has always been competitive with May (but has long denied it). Both the truth about Peter and his reason for seducing Ellen soon become clear.
Cellmates (Episode 4)
Writer: David Odell
Air date: 1990-10-21
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A spoiled American ends up in a South American jail for killing a kid with his car. He counts on his rich father's lawyer to get him out but a weird old political prisoner tells him he's in 'the bad cell' that no one ever leaves.
Outpost (Episode 5)
Writer: Michael Reaves
Air date: 1990-10-28
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A space mining corporation representative visits the company facility on an uninhabited planet run by a mutant slave to see why his output is behind schedule.
The Hole (Episode 6)
Writer: Haskell Barkin
Air date: 1990-11-04
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: During the Vietnam War, American soldiers Kenner and Torres, and a South Vietnamese lieutenant blast their way into an underground base and series of tunnels operated by the Viet Cong. They discover a horribly wounded guerrilla, who tells them that the VC tunneled through an old burial ground, and now the dead want vengeance.
Small Blessing (Episode 7)
Writer: Peg Haller
Air date: 1990-11-11
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Two normal, loving human parents try to keep their cute, cannibalistic, mutant infant son from devouring the neighbors. Meanwhile, a wannabe serial killer stalks the area.
Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites (Episode 8) 6.0
Writer: Dan Simmons
Air date: 1990-11-18
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Young conspiracy theorist Kevin tries to convince his cool skeptic friend Tommy that an old-timey local barbershop is run by vampires in disguise.
The Young and the Headless (Episode 9)
Writer: Peg Haller
Air date: 1990-11-25
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Jealous wheelchair-bound Edward takes his wife Victoria's long-lost alpha male ex, Hunk, who suddenly came back for her, out of the picture for good. Being scientists, the two use microchips that mimic the human mind to rebuild Hunk.
The Waiting Game (Episode 10) 8.0
Writer: John Fox
Air date: 1990-12-09
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Four survivors of a nuclear blowout hide in their shelters, only connected by a walkie-talkie. While unbeknownst to them, the corpses of the dead are reanimated by something older than the radioactivity.
Sin-Sop (Episode 11)
Writer: Doug Wallace
Air date: 1990-12-09
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A nice, young, southern faith healer uses the miraculous cleansing ability of the corpse of the most evil man in the world to run a small, popular, sin-extraction business. A female reporter and a cynical psycho-killer try to debunk him.
A New Woman (Episode 12)
Writer: Edithe Swensen
Air date: 1990-12-16
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A greedy wife tries to get her dying rich husband to give her the control over his buildings for the poor that she plans to sell. The husband's strange doctor tries to scare her straight.
Malcolm (Episode 13) 7.0
Writer: Tom Noonan
Air date: 1990-12-23
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Unhappy wife Lorna asks her depressed, workaholic husband Malcolm to play his clarinet for her like he did in their youth. The music causes severe pain in his abdomen and he's taken to surgery. What they find trapped in there is beyond bizarre.
Household Gods (Episode 14)
Writer: Edithe Swensen
Air date: 1990-12-30
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Deborah is a married career woman who just had her first baby. Instead of taking care of her child and home, she hires a nanny to take care of things while she works from home. Everything begins to go wrong, which the nanny says have occurred because Deborah has offended 'the household gods'.
The Space-Eaters (Episode 15)
Writer: Robert T. Megginson
Air date: 1991-01-06
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Two old gentlemanly friends play a game of chess, when a sinister telepathic alien invader shaped like a giant tentacled eyeball arrives to eat their brains.
The Waiting Room (Episode 16) 1.0
Writer: Neal Marshall Stevens
Air date: 1991-01-13
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Ben suggests to his newlywed son John and daughter-in-law Kate to spend their wedding night in the same hotel room where he spent his honeymoon. When a mysterious woman kidnaps John there, Ben reveals his secret to Kate.
Leavings (Episode 17)
Writer: Gahan Wilson
Air date: 1991-01-21
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Beat cops Mancini and Pankhurst tell their boss about the strange occurrences they've recently witnessed such as normal people being turned into surgically reassembled freaks. The inspector offers the truth, but it comes with a price.
Desirable Alien (Episode 18)
Writer: Edithe Swensen
Air date: 1991-01-27
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: To pass the US citizenship test, secretive Greek lothario Hercules Valvalotus must take a physical, which he desperately wants to avoid, so he tries to seduce the female immigration officer to get a free pass.
A Face for Radio (Episode 19)
Writer: Bruce Feirstein
Air date: 1991-02-03
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: Sleazy late night radio host Roy Bright brings in an alluring guest who claims aliens gave her the solution to evil in the world — a monster that eats bad people who agree to it. He laughs it off, at first...
Werewolf of Hollywood (Episode 20)
Writer: Ron Goulart
Air date: 1991-02-10
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: An ambitious screenwriter plans to use the information that a top producer in the Hollywood studio he's working for might be a werewolf to finally advance his career.
Talk Nice to Me (Episode 21) 2.0
Writer: Paul Dini
Air date: 1991-02-17
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A ladies' man is being harassed over the phone by a mysterious lonely female stalker with a seductive voice.
Hostile Takeover (Episode 22)
Writer: Jonathan Valin
Air date: 1991-02-24
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: A greedy Wall Street banker tries to apply Reagan's voodoo economics literally — by selling his soul to the Devil through a voodoo priestess to become rich and powerful.
The Maker (Episode 23)
Writer: Michael Kimball
Air date: 1991-04-18
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: In an abandoned hotel, Mack meets a drunk named Freddy who can create anything he wants out of thin air, even food and money, but it all ends up having some critical flaw to it. If Freddy stops drinking? His nightmares return.
The Moving Finger (Episode 24) 6.5
Writer: Haskell Barkin
Air date: 1991-04-26
Runtime: 22 min
Overview: When a mysterious, impossibly long finger inexplicably and creepily pokes up out of the drain of his bathroom sink, family man Howard Mitla is pushed to the brink of madness in his attempts to get rid of it.
