Word began to spread quickly once Amazon.com began offering the first season of Friday the 13th: The Series for pre-order. Paramount Home Entertainment has not made any official announcements yet but the show’s recent return to television is a good indicator that the studio intends to capitalize on the hype surrounding the upcoming Friday the 13th remake from Platinum Dunes. Chiller, the horror-themed network available through satellite providers like DirecTV, has dumped the Nightmare on Elm Street spin-off, Freddy’s Nightmares, to make room for the show thats title is synonymous with Jason Voorhees.
Ironically, Friday the 13th: The Series has nothing to do with Jason or any aspect of the films.
As a young boy, I had a weird respect for Jason Voorhees and President Reagan. I was so excited when I saw a commercial for a Friday the 13th television show. When the show finally premiered, I remember my dad making me a big bowl of popcorn and I scurried up to my room, taking the extra time to adjust the rabbit ears on my 13″ black and white television. I even busted out a fresh sheet of aluminum foil to really boost the reception. It was like the season premiere of Head of the Class all over again. Of course, Head of the Class had Arvid and Friday the 13th: The Series didn’t even have Jason. A Friday the 13th television show without Jason was probably the franchise’s biggest slap to the nuts with the exception of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Vancouver.
I have to admit that I haven’t revisited the show since the late eighties so I’m looking forward to catching it on Chiller. Details on the DVD release are sketchy right now. So far, the only thing we have to go on is a pre-order page over at Amazon.com that doesn’t even have a release date. We’re still waiting to hear back from sources close to the situation so keep checking back for the latest updates.