Category: TV Terror Guide
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The Search for the Flying Saucer/Sneak Attack
Writer | Mel GoldbergDirector | Charles S. DubinAir Date | Nov. 9, 1951 Vic Russo (Jack Carter) arrives at Mother Walker’s Boarding House in Las Palmas, New Mexico (population 860), looking for a room. He’s followed newspaper headlines and other leads in search of proof that flying saucers exist. When he encounters the one man…
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The Crystal Egg/The Test Flight
Writer | Mel GoldbergStory | H.G. WellsDirector | Charles S. DubinAir Date | Oct. 12, 1951 At the beginning of “The Crystal Egg,” we don’t know why Professor Frederick Vaneck’s (Thomas Mitchell) peers believe he’s hallucinating. He desperately records his tale in case something happens so him. Oddly, the tale doesn’t begin with him. Eventually,…
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A Child is Crying/The Dark Angel
Writer | Alvin SapinsleyStory | John D. MacDonaldDirector | Don MedfordAir Date | Aug. 17, 1951 In August of 1961, in the lobby of a “military proving ground” in New Mexico, Mrs. Massner (Peggy Allenby) waits impatiently to see her daughter, Lily (Robin Morgan), who’s behind a “No Admittance” door with a roomful of doctors…
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The Deadly Visitor (1973)
When I was young, I had one of those leashes with wire threaded throughout the ropes so you could pretend you were walking an invisible dog. I couldn’t help but think of it when the characters in “The Deadly Visitor,” the final of our Classic Ghosts TV-movies, captured a ghost. I also couldn’t help thinking…
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Verdict from Space/Blunder
Writer | Theodore SturgeonDirector | Leonard Valenta As the episode opens, we land smack dab in the middle of a trial where, the announcer tells us, a man is fighting for his life. We know it’s the middle because the judge orders that there be no more interruptions. The bully prosecutor (William Lally) argues that…
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The House & the Brain (1973)
“The House & the Brain”(1973) is “inspired” by a novella by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton called, “The Haunted & the Haunters; or, The House & the Brain,” which is why the only thing they have in common is a house. In the TV-movie version, the house isn’t even haunted. Instead, it’s occupied by a young woman…
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Tales of Tomorrow… Today (Introduction)
Two and a half years before the peak of the television sci-fi space operas we’ve been discussing the last couple of months, writer Theodore Sturgeon and film and television producer Mort Abrahams contacted Robert Heinlein about a plan to… …put together a league of sci-fi authors to write television screenplays for a new proposed TV…
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The Haunting of Rosalind (1973)
“The Haunting of Rosalind” (1973) has perhaps the strongest cast of any tale yet from The Classic Ghosts. The character of Dita is played by Academy Award winner, Susan Sarandon. The character of Mother is played by Academy Award winner, Beatrice Straight. And the character of Dr. Soames is played by the man who portrayed…
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Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954)
If you were watching television in February of 1954, you would have had your choice of five different sci-fi adventures. You would already be watching Captain Video (although it was winding down), Space Patrol, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Rod Brown of the Rocket Rangers (also winding down), and a new show called, Rocky Jones Space…
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And the Bones Came Together (1973)
Mr. Shim (Herbert Berghof) is being evicted from his home for an urban renewal project… and he doesn’t want to leave. All his friends and neighbors have gone and one is even used by the developers to try to convince him. Most of “And the Bones Came Together” is a drama about the battle of…