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Ha! Amazing Stories! (1 Viewer)

ChadKo

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Its cool to see Amazing Stories being released. I recently bought a burned copy of all of the Family Dog appearances on eBay for like, 15 bucks. It was worth it and easily this best part of this dark and twisted show. How long was that show on for? I only remember like, one season's worth of epidsodes

Chad
 

Jeff#

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Steven Spielberg's Amazing Storieswas NBC's competition to CBS' mid 1980s Twlight Zone series.

AS lasted just 2 years, from 1985 to 1987. The theme song was one of the most outstanding both visually and musically for a TV series, but the stories were usually anything but amazing. Some interesting guest stars though, such as Sid Caesar, Danny DeVito & his wife Rhea Pearlman, Seth Green, and Kevin Costner.
 

Peter McM

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My favorite was "The Doll", starring John Lithgow. The hour-long story with the WWII aircraft gunner/artist trapped in his bottom turret with the plane's jammed landing gear was also memorable.
 

Jeff#

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That WWII episode was the one with Kevin Costner as the pilot, and it was purposely filmed in black & white.
 

Bryan Tuck

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Every time I've seen it, it's been in color. :confused: At any rate, that episode was "The Mission," and I believe it was directed by Spielberg himself. He also directed "Ghost Train."

When is this coming out? I hadn't heard anything official, only that it was in the works.

I'll admit that not all the episodes were great, but there were some pretty good ones in there. "Dorothy and Ben" (with a beautiful score by Georges Delerue), "Go to the Head of the Class" (directed by Robert Zemeckis), "Boo!" (Joe Dante), "Hell Toupee," the aforementioned "The Doll," and the hilarious "Gershwin's Trunk," which almost could have been a Tales From the Crypt episode.

Incidentally, does anyone know of any plans for DVD sets of Crypt? HBO's been pretty good about releasing their more popular shows, and Crypt was pretty successful in its day.

Anyway, good news about Amazing Stories.
 

Jeff#

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You're right -- "The Mission" was in color. (It was also a 1 hour episode). But there was another WWII episode that was filmed in black & white, and Charlie Sheen was the guest star.

 

Craig Beam

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Interesting bit of history regarding "The Doll" episode... it was a Richard Matheson script, originally written for the fifth season of the original Twilight Zone but never produced. Since I'm a collector of all things Twilight Zone, I'll have to buy the Amazing Stories set for this episode alone. Thankfully there are a few other good episodes in there too. ;)
 

_Matt_L_

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M
I remember one with Mark Hammill where he was a lazy kid or something growing up and never throwing anything away. Can't really remember anything else about it except that someone comes along at the end and sees all his stuff and wants to buy it or something.

Don't forget Amazing Stories is probably also the first place people saw anything by Pixar (the opening title sequence).
 

Jeff#

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Then he must have been in a kid in a man's body, because Mark Hamill had already made the first 3 Star Wars films and was already in his 30s before Amazing Stories came around! :D
 

David Lambert

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Well, I took "kid" to be in terms of "a young man of about 18, give or take a year"...which is roughly what MH's character was at the start of that episode. He was an old man by the end of the episode.

I'm perilously close to 40, and I have found myself in the unfortunate habit from time to time of referring to 20-year-olds as "kids", so I guess it didn't bother me how he phrased it.


Gee, I imagine that last admission won't make me popular with some of you! :b
 

Inspector Hammer!

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Outstanding news about this coming out! I watched this show religeously every week when it was on.

Another piece of trivia, Go To The Head Of The Class was the very first show to be broadcast in Stereo/Dolby Surround, and what an episode it was! "You were too busy thinking about sex, weren't you Mr. Brand??!!!" I've had the hots for Mary Stuart Masterson after this one ever since. :b This episode was like a 60 min nightmare!

Some others I remember very well...

Mirror! Mirror!
This was directed by Martin Scorcesse about an arogant horror film writer who keeps seeing a phantom dressed all in black trying to come up behind him and strangle him with piano wire everytime he looked at any reflective surface! Creepy! :frowning:

The Doll
As noted by others, one of my favorites too. It's so gentle and dream-like and John Lithgow is remarkable in it.

Ghost Train
This has Steven's figerprints all over it! One part frightening and two parts wonderment.

The Mission
Again, this stinks of Speilberg, in the best sense. All I can say is, it's a good thing that kid could draw so well! :eek:

Here's some that I loved but can't remember the titles for...

One was about some actor who is filming a horror film and gets a call on-set that his wife is going into labor, so he drops everything and takes off for the hospital, only problem is he's still dressed like a mummy and people think theirs a real mummy on the loose.

The very Green Mile-esque episode with Patrick Swaze as an in-mate schedualed for death who suddenly aquires miraculous healing powers.

I'm all over this set! :)
 

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