The series was created in the wake of the 1982 film Creepshow's moderate success; producer Laurel Entertainment wanted a TV series based on it but had to omit elements owned by Warner Bros., resulting in a show with similar themes but no comic-book framing device.

Cinefantastique reported in July 1985 that the pilot episode appeared to be plagiarized from a 1952 Donald Duck short also titled 'Trick or Treat,' written by Ralph Wright.

Two episodes, 'Word Processor of the Gods' and 'Sorry, Right Number,' were adapted from Stephen King short stories, with the latter being adapted for television by King himself.

Production was bi-coastal, with episodes shot in both Long Island City and Los Angeles; in the 1985 season, twelve episodes were produced in each location, and most episodes were filmed in less than four days.

Los Angeles episodes were shot on 16mm film, and many special effects were done in-camera rather than in post-production to avoid generation loss.

The show's entire opening title sequence was filmed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—an area George Romero knew well from shooting his own films there—including Turner's Bridge (formerly Deihls Bridge), Clear Creek State Forest, and locations around Boswell and Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

The pilot episode 'Trick or Treat' cost $200,000 to produce, with the per-episode budget halved for the rest of season one; one episode's special effects budget was only $188, though costs later rose to about $124,000 per episode after successful syndication.

Despite being a low-budget syndicated show with little promotion, Tales from the Darkside outperformed higher-profile primetime network anthology shows airing at the same time, including Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories and the 1985 revival of The Twilight Zone.

A planned reboot developed by Joe Hill, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci received a pilot order from The CW in 2015, directed by Bradley Buecker and starring Kris Lemche, but the network ultimately did not pick up the series, and it failed to find a home elsewhere.

Hill's unproduced reboot scripts were later adapted into a four-issue IDW comic book series illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez, published in 2016.