Nightmare Cafe (1992) – Horror TV Shows We Miss

A new episode of our video series Horror TV Shows We Miss has just been released through the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel, and in this one we’re taking a look at the very short-lived series Nightmare Cafe. Created by Wes Craven and Thomas Baum, Nightmare Cafe only lasted for six episodes before it was cancelled by NBC. So you can see why we miss it – it was taken away when we were just getting into it!

Here’s a description of Nightmare Cafe from Wikipedia:

Nightmare Cafe broadly concerns the inhabitants of the titular otherworldly café: mysterious proprietor Blackie, sarcastic but good-hearted cook Frank, and insecure yet gutsy waitress Fay. During the show’s limited run, the origins of the café were never revealed, but it has the power to materialize in any location, and seems to be sentient on some level (in one episode, it refuses to allow Frank to enter until he apologizes to it). The café is usually situated by a waterfront; when it changes its location, its inhabitants realize that they are about to be given a mission. Nightmare Cafe is a show about second chances. Characters who enter the café—presumably drawn there by the café itself, as an embodiment of fate—are given the opportunity to correct something in their lives that went wrong if they are morally good; or if they are morally bad, to atone for something they have done or will do, sometimes against their will, and often incorporating poetic justice.

The series starred Robert Englund as Blackie, Jack Coleman as Frank Nolan, and Lindsay Frost as Fay Peronivic.

The Horror TV Shows We Miss series is all about taking a

nostalgic look back at the genre series that marked us while growing up and that helped shape our love of horror today.

This episode was Written and Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Adam Walton, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A few previous episodes of Horror TV Shows We Miss can be seen below. If you’d like to see more, and check out the other shows we have to offer, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!