Friday the 13th: The Series is a television series that ran for three seasons, from September 28, 1987 to May 26, 1990. It was later shown in reruns on the Sci Fi Channel. Originally, the series was to be titled The 13th Hour, but producer Frank Mancuso, Jr. thought this would turn away viewers and instead took the name Friday the 13th to deliberately draw in audiences. Despite this title, the series has almost no story connections to the film series of the same name, as Jason Voorhees does not make an appearance, nor does any character connected to the films. The one connection was explained briefly that the mask Jason wore supposedly came from this collection. The two series have several cast and crew ties, however. The show's producer, Frank Mancuso, Jr., was also producer of the movie series from Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) until the final installment distributed by Paramount (Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan in 1989, a year before the TV series ended).