10 TV Episodes You Didn't Know Were Filmed By Famous Hollywood Directors

8. Nightmare Cafe €“ Philip Noyce

Episode: Pilot While he may not be a name that you immediately recognise, your eyes likely perked up as you strained to remember where you've seen that name before. Philip Noyce is an Australian director who got noticed for his creepy thriller Dead Calm, starring Nicole Kidman and Sam Neill. You may not recognize the show either: Nightmare Cafe is a little known cult classic from Wes Craven. Pitched as 'The Twilight Zone Meets Cheers,' it was cut after only six episodes. Noyce directed the pilot episode, introducing the concept of a small, otherworldly café that inexplicably draws these two strangers, Frank and Faye, after they nearly die one night. Of course, it turns out that they did die that night, only they didn't know that, and now they've been given a second chance at life in the café. Sufficiently surreal with creepy, the pilot alone makes you wish that ratings don't decide which shows live or die.