Don't let that familiar-looking logo fool you!
The Vorhees-free “Friday The 13th: The Series” had nothing to do with the movie series beyond the fact that the TV show’s producer, Frank Mancuso Jr., produced seven of the “Friday The 13th” movie sequels.
The syndicated show, developed under the title “The 13th Hour,” was grotesquely devoid of randy teen campers getting hacked to tiny bits by a murderous psychopath.
(One assumes Mancuso and Paramount figured they could get away with this because “Halloween III” had nothing to do with Laurie Strode or Michael Myers and few seemed to notice or care.)
The TV “13th,” which ran 1987-1990, was about a pair of cousins who had to track down and reacquire the cursed antiques sold by their cursed late uncle’s cursed store.
One of the first-season episodes, “Cupid’s Quiver,” was directed by Canadian director Atom Egoyan (“Exotica,” “The Sweet Hereafter”). Another, “Faith Healer,” was directed by Canadian director David Cronenberg (“The Dead Zone,” “The Fly,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises”). This series might have been shot in Canada.
Now that we can do anything on basic cable after 10 p.m., why not mount a real “Friday The 13th” series, with Jason Voorhees stalking and dismembering a new set of campers every week?