Nobody loves A Nightmare on Elm Street more than New Line Cinema. They love the movie so much, they want to keep it alive as long as humanly possible, a bit like Friday the 13th. While the latter got fucked over for the sake of making an artifact hunting show seem interesting (though to be fair it might've been good), Freddy Krueger didn't get horribly burned, at best just lightly burned.
How could you drag down a slasher movie to a very dim sum of its parts? Three words, television horror anthology. Now don't get me wrong, it's easy to make an anthology work whether it be on television or film, even the second revival of The Twilight Zone has fans. But those that work are either standalone deals or were in a similar vein beforehand.
We'll get into the downfall in a bit, right now we need to give some context.
Welcome to syndie-time bitch!
History
We have a lot to unpack here, so hang tight.
Freddy's Nightmares came out just a few months after the A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, which to be fair wasn't entirely shit, most I can say about the fifth is that it made for an interesting false memory I had as a child, spoiler, it's about the distributor logo.
Anyhow, either to follow the ongoing relevance the property had or to keep it up for the then in-production fifth installment, a television series was produced for syndication. To add to how far they were pushing the franchise, it's also known as A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Series, though it has only has half to do with what the series is based on, once more hang on till we get there.
First run syndication is a gamble, on one hand you can get away with a bit more than you normally would because they're not competing with prime-time networks and don't need to abide to stricter standards. On the other hand, syndicated shows are typically produced cheaper than network programs, and it shows with many of them.
Horror anthologies are commonly found through syndication, well, horror anthologies that aren't already based on more popular programs from the 50s or 60s. Perhaps to avoid taking a hit but potentially gain new viewers to their then ongoing franchise, New Line wanted to make sure only enough money was put toward the show.
If you want a crash course on the kinds of anthology programs I'm talking about, look at Chiller's programing list from the mid to late-2000s, they even took on a show from Kids WB of all places (I'll give you a hint, it was the only one not animated, and basically another Goosebumps. It was good though.)
One interesting thing is that it basically predicted New Line Cinema getting absorbed by Warner Bros. later down the road. The show was initially distributed by Lorimar-Telepictures (who had also distributed Tales from the Darkside at one point), until Warner Bros. gobbled it up and handled distribution in the show's final year.
The only other production company involved was Stone Television. It's owner was already involved with Lorimar-Telepictures as vice president which is how they became involved with this show. But funny thing is, even before then, Stone were mainly involved with game shows, before then producing Fun House. More seasoned viewers may recognize them from Shop Till You Drop (namely the PAX run), more likely Legends of the Hidden Temple or The Men Show.
The company is still around, though the last thing they ever did that I cared about was BrainSurge, which I watched a lot of for some reason. Maybe it was good, it was hosted by Jeff Sutphen, who early to mid-2000s Nickelodeon watchers may recognize as Pick Boy from U-Pick Live.
Now for something more obvious. This show was actually where many notable actors got their start. Since the show was produced for syndication, they obviously don't want to spend that much money on big name actors, so they went for whoever wanted to get their feet wet. Notable actors I can name off the top of my head are Morris Chestnut and Brad Pitt. Jeffrey Combs was also in this, and this was back during his Herbert West era where he resembled a creepy Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy sucks, but Seth is far from a creep)
Side note, syndication is usually an indication for when actors are no longer considered valuable. Ask Jeff Conoway, I'll lend you my ouija board.
It's about damn time
How can an anthology program centered on Freddy Krueger be bad? Simple, reduce his presence to that of wraparounds. Now granted, there are episodes centered on him, even the first which was directed by Tobe Hooper (I'd say of all people, but he was starting to kick back by then, not that I'd care because it seems the classics turn out to be shit in hindsight.)
I haven't seen them in full, but they at least make do with the lower standards, and given how many encounters with Freddy play out I imagine they'd get old before long, so with the splits between when we see them they can be a nice little treat for your patience. However, what we get a greater bulk of the time are scary stories centered on teenagers.
Teenagers typically are the reason most shows from an era get dated. We work to try and incorporate elements that fits kids of the era, and with ever changing fashion sensibilities it's a death sentence for older shows. These episodes tend to range from legitimately disturbing to silly by Elm Street standards, even struggling to keep up with the topic it goes by as it sells on the idea something is wrong.
But on that later bit, while these can be used to spell out it's a dream, they already spelled that out by showing our protagonists going to sleep. And without Freddy popping in at all we know it's a matter of them just waking up fine and dandy until something probably happens. That could've been a way to get Freddy in proper, have them go the motions of their day and have things gradually go wrong until they get to a twisted degree. These wrongs could center on something they did or think wrong, and Freddy would slay them if they aren't repentant or let them live if they do.
That itself sounds like an interesting twist on the dream slayer mechanic.
Now look, I get it, in the movies Freddy mainly attacks teenagers in their dreams, so I guess they were doomed outside of the horror crowd.
Most of the episodes I've seen, I wonder if this was aimed for a more conservative crowd. This was set in Ohio for the record. One episode has two happy endings, where one kid works to apply himself after slacking (even having an asshole dad who doesn't get shit any point after), and one kid after sleeping during the SATs winds up landing a record deal after submitting demos.
Stay in school, and rock music is for the devil. Frankly that one story from the show b-movie meat puppet Eric Roberts hosted made it more interesting, they even had Corey Feldman. I mean then again Freddy's main targets were teenagers so for all I know this was the work of a boomer who hated generation x. I could be wrong, but who gives a fuck what I think?
The structure behind the show is two stories per episode, but it's unique in that they're sorta connected. By that, I mean the protagonists are either friends or in a relationship. I'll admit, I've never seen that been done before.
There was one segment I kinda liked, where a kid is forced to spend his summer working for his uncle. One, I can relate, when working with your relatives there's a clear separation between home and work. Two, the protagonist is pretty cool, he's able to stand up for himself and make due with his situation. Even in the face of his uncle killing people for ingredients, he's able to lay the kill, at least in his dream. For real though, his uncle is done in by an oven explosion. Long story short, the kid got the business.
Most of the episodes do take some surprising turns, but the fact we know they're asleep means something would be up by default. The Freddy episodes are the highpoints to it, and if the show was built entirely around him it could've held over fans of Nightmare on Elm Street long enough for New Line to spend more time on soon to come films.
Overall
Freddy's Nightmares frankly left much to be desired. It felt more like an edgy version of Saved by the Bell in terms of fashion and sensibilities at the time. But wait a sec, this was the best route to take in terms of a quick cash-in to promote your show. They could've easily done a miniseries centered on Freddy Krueger before he got burned, or have episodes where he plays god and slaughters those who deserve it, on the matter of destroying him it'd be unceremonious if it was done on a TV show.
If you were willing to show us graphic scenes then I think you could've gotten away with a hell of a lot more here. I'd say Freddy killed the creator in his sleep, but aside from Wes Craven who's credited as the character creator, the only other creator on this, Jeff Freilich is still kicking, both professionally and literally. Otherwise I'd question why Freddy would kill his creator and how he could create a brain tumor.
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