"Printer's Devil" with Mr. Manetti appears during season two. I think it is much, much better than "A Baker's Dozen," and it is one of my favorite of all the Tales of the Darkside episodes, so I am confident to give it a thumb-up for you, especially if you and your bro also really enjoyed the show in its day. In "Printer's Devil," Manetti plays the role of a frustrated writer trying to get some attention and respect in the publishing industry, which I relate to as I have never been able to get a hobby in writing to translate into money. I think it's a smart episode.
Season Two of Tales of the Darkside also had some gems of that series with "Lifebomb," "The Old Soft Shoe," "The Devil's Advocate" and "Halloween Candy." If you're feeling a bit on the fence regarding if you want to pick up season 2 or not to get hold of "Printer's Devil," maybe you can find those episodes online to watch and see if they get your interest any more.
Love hearing of some other Tales of the Darkside fans out there. I love anthology tv shows. Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Amazing Stories are all my favorites. I'm currently watching The Twilight Zone: The 1980's Series my wife picked up for me on my birthday. Just so love all those shows. Now that I think of it, Mr. Hillermann would've been awesome on one of those television shows.
Oh me too, Tales has had me rolling laughing, completely creeped out, and everything in between! I have to ask, what did you think about the first episode "Trick or Treat"? I absolutely loved this one and it's my all time favorite. I have introduced it to a few friends and one in particular shared my love for it and we quote it to each other all the time lol. Not that I think it's actually a "good" piece of work but more that I find it to be HILAROUS! Old Mr. Hackles lording his $ over all the poor farm people and scaring the bejeezus out of their kids every Halloween? Priceless, so bad its incredibly good. Not to mention "Willie" from Alf as Mr. Bean one of the accounting schmucks.
I would agree that the first episode is a pretty strong start to the series. It seemed to be a good plot for the first episode, centered around a character who is "wielding" fear and credit against that small community. That shopkeeper was a pretty smart character creation; I thought his character was kinda slyly saying something like, "he who wields fear might have great power, but be careful how you employ that fear lest it come back to bite you in the butt." And that is a great thread to start that series. I do wish the shopkeeper's payback would've been maybe something a little more terrible than that witch in the end, but a slight criticism there.
Season one had some great episodes in my humble opinion - Bigalow's Last Smoke; The Odds; Inside the Closet; The False Prophet. Come to think about it, Bigalow's Last Smoke might be my favorite of the series.
I think it's about time for a new anthology, creepy tv series to hit the airwaves. I can understand why the big, big networks would steer clear, but I think the SciFi channel would recognize such an anthology might fit great in their lineup. I can also see Netflix or Hulu maybe producing their own anthology show. Good news is my wife introduced me to a BBC anthology show she found called "Black Mirror." The episode I watched was pretty good, but the best thing to me is that the BBC did it - network people over here are always wanting to copy the BBC.
I forget that TS's wife Jillie Mack appeared on an episode of Tales from the Darkside. She appears in the episode "My Ghostwriter - The Vampire" which is found in season three. Not one of my favorite episodes of the series, but Jillie is a lot of fun in it. Funny where one starts finding connections between things...
