Rick Wessler

Monsters is a syndicated horror anthology series which originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and reran on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s. Similarly to Tales from the Darkside, Monsters shared the same producer, and in some ways succeeded the show. It differed in some respects nonetheless. While Tales sometimes dabbled in stories of science fiction and fantasy, this series was more strictly horror. As the name implies, each episode features a different monster, from the animatronic puppet of a fictional children's television program to mutated, weapon-wielding lab rats.

For cynical tabloid journo Richard Dees, facts are always stranger than fiction. Every headline is a dead-line. Serial killers, UFO abductions, tales of molestation, mayhem and murder. To some the tales are mere sleazy fantasy – but his faithful readers believe. And now there's a new story: The Night Flier. What is it that travels by night in a dark-winged Cessna, lands at secluded airfields and murders local residents? Dees begins to track the unknown killer in a Cessna of his own, uncovering clues that reveal a pilot more terrifying than he could have ever imagined.

Just as Jeremy Jackson attempts to become the first male firewoman in New York, fires begin mysteriously erupting from toilets all over the City and Fire Marshal Marc Marshall is called in to investigate. From the start, Jeremy is heckled and sexually harassed by his tough as nails female cohorts including his instructor, the hard-boiled Lt. Shithouse. Jessica Luvintryst, Jeremy's old flame and the Mayor's very personal assistant, rekindles the fire in his eyes and between his thighs. Jeremy discovers trace jet fuel at the fire sites and soon becomes hot on the trail of The Most Evil Man and his diabolical scheme. In the tradition of Naked Gun, Backfire spoofs Backdraft.

A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.

A womanizing New York adman attempts to identify the causes of, and find a remedy for, his so-called addiction to sex, in order to win the love of a woman he respects.

A closeted gay movie director/actor in 1939 finds himself the target of the vicious and unscrupulous attacks by a gossip columnist reporter who goes by the name of Hollywood Confidential.

On the brink of her world tour, at the height of her success, alternative rock violinist, Gypsy, put down her violin and walked away... A man brutally beats his girlfriend to death and tosses her remains into a local river... A retired Boston PD detective isn't buying the news report of a local girl accidentally drowning... While Gypsy's unprecedented disappearance perplexes the entire music industry, she retreats with her husband to the desolation of Cape Cod in winter... Seeking refuge in his past, the murderer contacts his estranged brother and falls in love with his brother's wife, Gypsy... And then a body turns up on Cape Cod... And the detective isn't convinced that this will be the last... Here, in the smallest quietest corner of New England unfolds a disquieting tale of what happens when music meets murder... and a lyrical portrait of the ever-present guardians who preserve life's natural harmony.