Tales from the Cryptkeeper: Ghost Ship

"Ghost Ship"
Series Tales from the Cryptkeeper Season 1, Episode 13
Air date	December 18th, 1993
Writers	Peter Sauder; Eric Luke
Director	Laura Shepherd
Producers	Richard Donner; David Giler; Walter Hill; Joel Silver; Robert Zemeckis
Starring	John Kassir
Episode guide
Previous "Grounds for Horror"	Next "Game Over"

"Ghost Ship" is the thirteenth episode of the animated television series Tales from the Cryptkeeper. It was directed by Laura Shepherd with a script written by Peter Sauder and Eric Luke. The episode first aired on ABC on Saturday morning, December 18th, 1993 at 9:00 am.

Synopsis

Surfers Ben and Mike decide to go joy-riding in Ben's father's speedboat. While goofing around in the ocean they come upon a ghostly haunted pirate ship manned by a crew of "retro pirate skeleton dudes". The captain of the lot is a grim masked figure called Red Beard. Red Beard takes the lads aboard and convinces them that he is under a curse, and the only way to break the curse is to retrieve his treasure chest from Skull Island. He bribes the boys with sharing his treasure in exchange for helping him break the curse. They both sign contracts and then set off for Skull Island.

Ben and Mike encounter various dangers including giant lizards, swarms of insects and snakes. They finally find the indicated spot where two palms cross and begin digging. They unearth the treasure chest, but rather than finding treasure inside, the ghostly form of Cap'n Red Beard emerges. Laughing maniacally, he reveals that he tricked the boys into signing contracts making him part of the ship's crew. Ben and Mike escape by stealing a rowboat from Cap'n Red Beard's ship.

They are picked up by another vessel and taken back to shore. Ben's father makes them get jobs as life guards as a means of paying him back for his lost speedboat. According to Mike, they should finally pay it off by the time they are forty.

Voice Cast

• John Kassir as the Cryptkeeper
• Rob Stefaniuk as Ben
• Damon D'Oliveira as Mike
• Don Francks as Red Beard

Appearances

Characters

• Cryptkeeper
• Ben
• Mike
• Cap'n Red Beard

Organizations

• Retro Pirate Skeleton Dudes

Races & Animals

• Bats
• Fish
• Ghosts
• Humans
• Insects
• Living skeletons
• Octopi (In framing sequence only)
• Sharks
• Snakes
• Spiders (In framing sequence only)

Locations

• Skull Island

Items

• Cannon
• Knife
• Shovel
• Skeletons
• Surfboard
• Sword

Vehicles

• Boat

• Pirate ship
• Rowboat
• Speedboat

Miscellaneous

• Curse
• Full moon
• Giant animals
• Pirate

Notes & Trivia

• This episode is rated TV-Y7.
• This episode is production code number TAL-13.
• This is the final episode of season one of the series.
• In the framing sequence, the Crypt Keeper is taking a bath in a tub filled with dirty water. Various critters such as octopi and spiders are seen skittering about. He is wearing a paper pirate hat.
• This is the first appearance of surfing friends Ben and Mike. The two characters will return in the season two episode, "Transylvania Express".
• According to Red Beard, he first fell under his curse more than four-hundred years ago, which would place his age somewhere around the late 16th century.

Allusions

• Ghost Ship is also the title of a 2002 horror film directed by Steve Beck.
• The location the boys go to is called Skull Island. This is the same island featured in various King Kong films and is the home of the giant gorilla known as Kong.
• Ben and Mike's dialogue, speech patterns and cadence are similar to that of the characters of Bill S. Preston, Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan from the 1989 time travel comedy film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and its subsequent sequels and spin-offs.
• At one point Ben says "Prepare for warp speed, dude!", which is a reference to the faster than light travel methods used on starships in the Star Trek multimedia franchise.
• At one point Mike says "It's like something out of T-Zone, dude!", which is a reference to the 1959 science fiction anthology series The Twilight Zone.
• Ben refers to the skeletons as "Grateful Dead dudes". The Grateful Dead is an American rock and roll band that began in California in 1965 and became an icon of the era's counterculture hippie movement. A lot of their promotional imagery involves the use of skeletons.

Quotes

• Mike: We are in some desperate need of rescuing, dude!

See also

Tales from the Cryptkeeper Tales from the Cryptkeeper pages Tales from the Cryptkeeper images

Tales from the Cryptkeeper episodes Tales from the Cryptkeeper characters Tales from the Cryptkeeper miscellaneous

External Links

• "Ghost Ship" at IMDB
• "Ghost Ship" at Trakt TV
• "Ghost Ship" at the TV IV
• "Ghost Ship" at the TV Database
• "Ghost Ship" at Themoviedb.org

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