[ARCHIVES] FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE SERIES FINALE

THE CHARNEL PIT is the name of the last episode. Written By: Jim Henshaw... More information from his blog.
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Twice in my career I've been in charge of the writing on shows considered the most violent on television. During the late 80's, "Friday the 13th" was both a hit on late night TV and continuously attacked by the then fledgling "Religious Right" who saw us as "Satan worshipers" bent on corrupting the youth of America, turning them to demonology, human sacrifice and relentless blood-letting.

To be sure, the series featured characters meting out death and meeting their own ends in painfully creative ways. Our world was filled with serial killers, diabolical scientists, vampires, werewolves and yes, crazed teens filled with vengeful rage.

But we also engaged in a lot of soul searching, analyzing and otherwise deconstructing what we were doing. Scripts were written and rewritten. Final cuts were recut, screened repeatedly and tweaked to make sure that while offering hard core horror we weren't doing anything that would indelibly warp the average viewer.

The key word there is "average". You simply cannot tailor any creative work to neither offend nor provoke someone with a different agenda. Even the Mona Lisa has been razored and splashed with paint for her supposed sins.

During the run of F13, I got dozens of incoherent letters from "fans" including a 3" thick scrapbook of blood colored scrawls the sender insisted had been dictated by Lucifer himself.

On the other side of the ledger, I received many calls from those who had received a personal message from God to save my soul. Apparently God could find their number to deliver his message, but not mine.

We went through our, at times agonizing, process to make sure we didn't get a visit from what we called "The Taste Police". These fictional authorities weren't representatives of the show's opponents. On the contrary, they represented the guardians of our own critical faculties, who would come for us if we did anything shoddy, irresponsible or just plain stupid.

A year or so later, I was writing and producing "Top Cops" acknowledged by no less an authority than TIME Magazine as "the most violent show on television".

We soon put that moniker down to the growing American hysteria about runaway production when we learned that a scene in which an unresisting suspect was handcuffed and placed in a squad car accounted for "Three aggressive and violent incidents" those being the attaching of the cuffs, the arm on an elbow in escorting the suspect to the cruiser and the officer's hand on his head (insuring he didn't injure himself) while being placed in the back seat.

"Friday the 13th" eventually lost its three season battle with the Reverend Donald Wildmon and others of the Religious Right. Enraged, we surmised, by an episode in which all the bad guys were members of the Ku Klux Klan, they went after our advertisers, most of whom were new to this kind of publicity and eventually caved.

For our final episode, we decided we might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and made it about everything they had accused us of being. Instead of turning out tasteless and crass, it was one of our best pieces and the script was nominated for a Gemini award.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• friday
• the13th
• series
• robey

[Asiablue]

I loved this series and used to stay up late to watch it. It may sound silly but I cannot tell you how much enjoyment it gave me. The series really lost heart when John LeMay left but the series overall left me with some great memories. Looking forward to collecting them all on DVD. Just wish it had not died so soon.

[SweeetCherryPieAyAy]

Why did he leave? I loved watching this as a kid, me and my bro both. it was the best on tv along with monsters and tales from the darkside...shame really. I dont see any 'scary' shows today with class.

[TheUnitedRobloxsians]

i like how no hater trolls have not touched the dislike button

[LibraGamesUnlimited]

@gillianinchains Yeah you don't want to waste limited time and money on someone who just can't do the job when you have a stable of actors who you know can. It was kinda funny sometimes like when that one guy came on as Miki's boyfriend then came back later as the boyfriend of a dead woman brought back by a loney mortician using a cursed antique, espcially since he and Miki had a lot of scenes together. :)

[gillianinchains]

@LibraGamesUnlimited That makes nothing but sense. :)

[LibraGamesUnlimited]

@gillianinchains actually it's common practice for shows to build a stable of guest actors. When you're working on a show like this and have a small budget and limited time you make a note of who brought the goods and who didn't and thoes who did would come back many times. Just makes thing so much easier.

[kingofspeads100]

WHY THE FUCK DIDNT APPEAR IF JASON VOORHES ISNT IN THIS THEN THIS WAS A WASTE OF TIME........................:<

[ooikwf]

i loved this series it use2 come on lika at 11.00pm at night witch made it more scary.

[MegaBatmanbeyond]

where is jason in the series 

[dogsandcats546]

individual Seasons, and the whole season-dvd set available at Walmart.