The Outer Limits is turning 50.... (1 Viewer)

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Time to celebrate the good news with a song parody!

"We Need Some Zanti Misfits"
(sung to the tune, "We Need a Little Christmas", from the Broadway musical, "Mame" --warning, the parody contains spoilers)

Sig-nal their spaaaace-craft...
Guide them down here, safely,
Through our atmosphere!
Keep things restricted...
At a desert site all
Set aside for them, nowwww...

For we need some Zanti Misfits!
Right this very minute!
Feelers on their foreheads,
Eyeballs bulging outward...
Yes, we need some Zanti Misfits!
Exiled from their planet!
To this place, so dry and airy,
--And aided by our military...

O-pen the hatch-door...
Don't be shy, you freakish
Ant-like emigres!
Crawl down the gang-plank...
In single-file and prowl in
Creepy insect ways, nowwww...

For we need some Zanti Misfits!
Right this very minute!
Bodies in three segments,
Six legs scrambling wildly...
Yes, we need some Zanti Misfits!
Their leaders sent them to us!
Made a turn at Albuquerque...
Hey look! Bruce Dern --who's acting jerky...

Snuck past the sentries...
Dern's a crook who's brought his
Girl along with him!
They cross the Zantis...
The guy is dead-meat, what the
Hell is wrong with him, nowwww?!?

For they've grown a little surly...
Grown a little restless...
Grown a little rowdy...
--As well as discontented...
Yes, indeed, those Zanti Misfits...
Oh look, one's on your shoulder!
Must heed those Zanti Misfits, now!

Things going badlyyyy...
Meeting Dern has got them
In a rotten mood!
Look out, you soldiers!
One false move and you'll be
Zanti Misfit food, nowwww...

So we'll bleed those Zanti Misfits!
Right this very minute!
Crush them 'neath our jack-boots!
All men o-pen fire!
We must bleed those Zanti Misfits!
Not one can be left standing!
Stomp them, men, and in a hurry!
Let's make them into Zanti slurry...

The base is in cha-ossss!
But, --oh look! It's done, the
Zanti threat has passed!
We are the victors!
Oh, thank God, no need to
Use the mustard gas, nowwww...

But here comes another signal!
--Sent here from their leaders!
We're waiting for translation...
Okay, let's hear the mes-sage...
Oh, they figured that we'd do this!
--Just wipe out all their convicts!
Saved them all the trou-ble, now!

 

[Doug Wallen]

Guess my son will get my Australian set when I upgrade. Wonderful news.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

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[Hollywoodaholic]

Never could understand why they completely changed the stories on the bubble gum cards, perhaps some kind of copyright issue.

 

[jcroy]

Never knew such Outer Limits trading cards existed.

(I was probably too young to have known about them).

 

[jcroy]

Back in 2011, I almost purchased the three volumes of the Fox flipper disc versions of the original Outer Limits. It was at several local Costcos for around $10-$15 a pop in those days. I don't know remember why I declined at the time.

A few years later I thought about purchasing these three flipper volumes, but found out that they were already out of print by then. (I wouldn't be surprised at all if that Costco stock back in 2011, was just Fox liquidating and "washing their hands" of all their old inventory of these Outer Limits flipper sets).

So at the time, I didn't really care anymore. Though I thought it would be eventually re-released one day.


Fast forward to today, it would easier to just buy the bluray instead of wasting further time/effort hunting down a copy of the three double-sided flipper discs dvd sets that doesn't have playback problems. (I felt the same way awhile ago when I came across the Roots bluray at a nearby Costco, instead of wasting effort on the previous cantankerous double-sided flipper disc dvd versions).

 

[Nelson Au]

Just the thing to shape the young children growing up at that time! . I never saw those cards but the images from the show would certainly make an impression.

As did the music. Wish the music from the second season would get a great release like the first season did.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

The monsters or "bears" still hold up pretty good, both design and makeup wise. Still find it funny that my son when younger was much more terrified of the episode with the "jelly creature" than the Zanti Misfits, which was my number one nightmare episode as a child.

http://hollywoodaholic.com/?p=186

 

[Flashgear]

I watched every Outer Limits episode first run, and at 7 years old in 1963, was definitely not old enough to process it properly...when I really got scared, my older brother was there to prevent my escape underneath the couch, my usual refuge...he would have tied me down and inserted eye splints (ala Clockwork Orange) if need be to insure that The Outer Limits induced quality nighmares, ha, ha...

I well remember that 'Corpus Earthling' was by far the scariest episode for me...when David J. Schow's official companion book came out in late 1986, I felt vindicated to see that producer and co-creator Joseph Stefano himself felt the same...this Stefano quote from page 156 of the book..."When 'Corpus Earthling' was finished and the music added, I sat there wishing I could say don't air this! I had never thought it could be that scary, and I was horrified. It hit me in a disturbing way I never wanted our shows to hit people; it was frightening as opposed to scary." Director Gerd Oswald is quoted as saying "We may have deviated from Stefano's original intention on that one. The material evoked an ugly and disturbing mood". In retrospect, 'Corpus Earthling' is most definitely very edgy and strong for a network television program that aired at 8:30 in the fall of 1963...strangely enough, for the strict and constrained contemporary context of network standards and practices of those days, there's nothing in the book about censor pushback from ABC...personally, from what was happening with other shows in that era, I'm sure there were points of conflict with ABC's signing off on it...Daystar's relationship with ABC was very contentious...leading to a shakeup in creative control (Leslie Stevens with reduced influence, Joseph Stefano out and Ben Brady in) and budgeting constraints for season 2...

'Corpus Earthling' is ramped up by those brilliant effects shots of the crystalline rock alien creatures dissolving and expanding into and out of victims faces as they assume their parasitic form...brilliant effects by Byron Haskin done with limited budget and under frantic deadlines (the episode was filmed from October 1 to 8, 1963...and aired on November 18, three days before JFK was assassinated)...and the script by Orin Borsten, his only one of the series...and, it's a Robert Culp episode, one of his three absolutely great ones for Outer Limits...Salome Jens and Barry Atwater are likewise great too...the alien's casual, cruel and murderous nature utilizing mind control was very scary...and the alien sound effects creeped the hell out of me...this was the first episode to employ Robert Johnson's alien monster voice for the creatures, with many more to come...he was Daystar's accountant! ...Vic Perrin was the voice 'in control' for the intros and closing narratives...

So much of the 'atmosphere' that made Outer Limits so unique and brilliant can also be attributed to that fantastic music by Dominic Frontiere...

By the way, I did collect those bubblegum cards...doing so did have the effect of making the 'Bears' less scary...at least you couldn't show your fear while trading them at school...

 

[BobO'Link]

I, too, had some of those cards. I'm sure they're around somewhere. I didn't get to watch all the time but just occasionally (I was 8). Dad watched it pretty frequently and that's where I got my exposure (and also where I got my exposure to printed "adult" SF at age 12 when I stumbled upon his library one day. We'd moved and he put them in the walk-in hall closet. I was checking out all the new "treasures" there when I found them. A collection of short stories called "I Robot" started my print journey. Within a year I'd exhausted his supply and joined the SFBC to start my own collection.)

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

"Disturbing" definitely describes the "Corpus Earthling" episode, when your wife basically returns looking dead like a zombie.

I was such a fan I actually called Dominic Frontiere up in his Beverly Hills home (hey, it was listed) when I was still in college at Miami and sung the praises for his scores. He told me he had donated all the written scores to the University of Wyoming, I believe.

The one sad note about this release is our dear HTForum friend Scott Atwell (Ockeghem) is not around to share in our glee. He was a TOL fan AND a music scholar and could analyze those scores note for note.

 

[Craig Beam]

Here's a great analysis of TOL music from both seasons:

Dr. Wissner is a regular on my podcast, and she's awesome.

 

[Harry-N]

Great CD set from La-La-Land. It was a 3000-set limit and they're pretty rare to find now, especially at a reasonable price.