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

[Rob_Ray]

I was attracted to many of those same ABC shows - even though I'd describe the household I grew up in to be a "CBS family". Our default channel was channel 10, the CBS station. We watched their news, and gave pretty much every CBS show a shot before moving elsewhere.

But I was a teenager in the '60s, and as teenagers we tend to rebel against the norms set up by our parents. So even in this subtle way, I rebelled against the constant barrage of CBS shows and ventured on my own to the uncharted waters of other networks - and found ABC to be a place that was catering to the younger audience, like myself.

To be sure, I still religiously watched THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, and GREEN ACRES, and ANDY GRIFFITH, and LOST IN SPACE, and RED SKELTON, and whatever iteration of LUCY happened to be on. I still gave whatever CBS dished out, like FAMILY AFFAIR or THE JEAN ARTHUR SHOW a shot before venturing elsewhere.

It was ABC that I usually landed on second, and once I found something desirable, I'd continue to follow that show loyally to whatever time slot it ended up in. This presented problems of course, in that pre-VCR world. You got one shot to watch something and you had to choose. So when THE OUTER LIMITS (to bring this back to the topic at hand) was unceremoniously dumped to Saturday nights against THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW for its second season, I faced a dilemma. I liked Jackie Gleason and wanted to continue watching - but THE OUTER LIMITS was just so darned good, I had to make hard choices.

So each week I'd scour the TV Guide and see what the descriptions for each show was, and then make my choice as to which show I'd watch. The family would stick with THE JACKIE GLEASON SHOW, and I'd have to find one of the alternate TVs in the house to check out THE OUTER LIMITS.

As for NBC - it was always third in succession. There aren't many old NBC shows that I was fond of. STAR TREK, GET SMART, I DREAM OF JEANNIE were about it. Occasionally I'd watch something like PLEASE DON'T EAT THE DAISIES or HAZEL, but wasn't crazy about either.

But yes, a lot of those old ABC shows attracted us as younger members of the audience, and I recall hearing buzz about some of those shows in school, so they must have attracted other younger audience members too.

Harry

Harry pretty much sums up my attitude toward ABC. One more reason ABC was more appealing than NBC in addition to the fact that ABC actively courted a younger demographic, was the fact that NBC, being the oldest network, was usually found fairly low on the dial. In Houston, it was Channel 2 and in LA and New York, it was Channel 4. Because of this lower frequency, NBC's picture had more static and atmospheric interference than ABC, which in Houston, was located on Channel 13. Of course, with the switch to digital, it's a moot point now, but NBC always had a ghosty, static filled picture where I grew up, and ABC was gorgeous to look at. Especially after color came in.

 

[Ockeghem]

"But I was a teenager in the '60s, and as teenagers we tend to rebel against the norms set up by our parents. So even in this subtle way, I rebelled against the constant barrage of CBS shows and ventured on my own to the uncharted waters of other networks - and found ABC to be a place that was catering to the younger audience, like myself."Harry,I believe that I did this to some extent as well.

"So each week I'd scour the TV Guide and see what the descriptions for each show was, and then make my choice as to which show I'd watch."I was going to write, "What is TV Guide?" Seriously, I did the same thing. And I can still recall, many years later, a vivid description in at least one issue of that publication. The following is nearly verbatim with regard to what was written concerning The Birds (1963):"Alfred Hitchcock's terrifying vision of what might happen should our feathered friends run amok." It's interesting to me how some things -- and which things -- remain etched in our memories.

Incidentally, what Rob_Ray wrote got me to thinking about the numbers for our channels back then as well. We had:

6-7-8-9 = ABC
3-5-12 = CBS
4-10 = NBC
2 = PBS

And I can't omit UHF:
9 = WMUR (I can't explain the duplication of the number 9, but I know that it was correct at the time)
38 = WSBK (Bruins!)44 = WGBX
56 = WLVI (I recall WKBG for this channel more than any other call letters at the time) (The Outer Limits)

 

[Regulus]

In my childhood we had the following Channels in the Detroit Area:

WJBK 2 (CBS)

WDIV 4 (NBC)

WXYZ 7 (ABC)

CBET 9 (CBC, from our little friends across the river in Ontario)

WTOL 11 CBS (From our little friends south of us in Toledo

WTVG 13 NBC " " "

WXON 20 (IND)

WKBC 50 (IND)

WTVS 56 (PBS)

WGPR 62 (IND)

PS The first seasons of Saturday Night Live (1975) and CHIPs (1977) were not carried by the NBC Affiliate in Detroit, so viewers would tune in to the Toledo Station to watch them. (The Detroit Station thought both shows would "Crash & Burn" in the ratings, so they replaced them with Old Movies for the former and a Talk Show for the latter). After realizing these shows didn't "Bomb" not to mention untold numbers calls from irate viewers who couldn't pick up the Toledo Stations (Northern Detroit area). The Station changed their mind and picked up the shows.

Today I only watch one Station in the Daytona Beach area:

WWAH 3 (LSN) - This is what I call my Mammoth DVD Collection!

 

[ROclockCK]

I was a Canuck 'border boy'. Our closest ABC affiliate was WOKR Channel 13 in Rochester, N.Y. (hence my recurring issues with reception over the lake). One of their distinctions was a nightly sign-off accompanied by Glen Miller's "Moonlight Serenade".

The good news was that one of our local CBC stations, CKWS Channel 11 in Kingston, Ontario used to run The Outer Limits at least once each week at 11:00 or 11:30 after the National news. Since I was only 50 miles away, those were almost always clear, even on my 11" portable with rabbit ears. It was a great show to watch late at night right before bed.

 

[Ockeghem]

"It was a great show to watch late at night right before bed."

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

You all have a lot better memories than mine. I just remember channel 7. Sleepovers. And some good nightmares.
But here's a blog I wrote about the show when I screened it for my then 7-year old son to see if an old black an white show could still scare. And with some surprising results.
http://hollywoodaholic.com/?p=1830

 

[Neil Brock]

You all have a lot better memories than mine. I just remember channel 7. Sleepovers. And some good nightmares.
But here's a blog I wrote about the show when I screened it for my then 7-year old son to see if an old black an white show could still scare. And with some surprising results.
http://hollywoodaholic.com/?p=1830

Very cool. Almost makes me wish I had a kid so that I could do the same to him!

 

[Harry-N]

What I hope for with THE OUTER LIMITS if it ever does get remastered:

When "we will control the horizontal" comes on, make the white line straight across. In home video, it's always sloped downhill!

I'm a Capricorn, and I like my lines straight!

Harry

 

[Gary16]

It sloped down when it originally ran on abc. I vividly remember this. It always bothered me. But to straighten it now would be to tamper with the original.

 

[Regulus]

One nice thing about living near Canada was CBC did a much better coverage of the Olympics than ABC. Commercials were were few and far between (The Canadian counterpart to our FCC - The Ministry of Communication) LIMITS the number of Commercials a Station may show. I read that although the Olympic Games always ranked in the top ten ratings wise for ABC, Stations along the Canadian Border found their rating tank because people switched to the far superior Canadian coverage.

 

[Gary16]

And this relates to the thread topic how?

 

[Walter Kittel]

Well, there was some discussion of Canadian TV in post #64.

I had forgotten about the downward slope to the horizontal line. (Guess I need to revisit the series again as it has been some time since my last viewings.)

- Walter.

 

[Harry-N]

It sloped down when it originally ran on abc. I vividly remember this. It always bothered me. But to straighten it now would be to tamper with the original.

I guess it was pretty hard to tell what it was supposed to look like on ABC. We all had those rounded-off picture tubes that were somewhat out of alignment all the time anyway.

Could it have been deliberate on the part of the producers to have those lines skewed just a little bit? Perhaps for a technical reason of some sort? The center dot was always a bit off-center too.

Harry

 

[Gary16]

I guess it was pretty hard to tell what it was supposed to look like on ABC. We all had those rounded-off picture tubes that were somewhat out of alignment all the time anyway. Could it have been deliberate on the part of the producers to have those lines skewed just a little bit? Perhaps for a technical reason of some sort? The center dot was always a bit off-center too. Harry

Perhaps it was just how they shot the oscilloscope back then and didn't expect it to be perfect. You'll note that the titles look straight so it's not a case of something being off in the projection or transfer so it has to be in the original camera negative.

 

[Harry-N]

Yeah, actually, the whole oscilloscope thing is tilted slightly to the same degree. I guess it was either on purpose or they didn't care all that much.

Harry

 

[Professor Echo]

And the Indian test pattern was iconic in those days too.

 

[Harry-N]

Yes it was. So many of today's viewers of the series probably don't get the "iconic" images used in THE OUTER LIMITS opening credits. They've never seen a TV set with a rolling picture or skewing sideways when the horizontal hold was out of adjustment. They surely don't remember TVs that collapsed their picture to a white dot in the center of the screen when you turned them off, and it's rare that any TV station airs a test pattern anymore, and when they do it's always the color bars.

But I think that's what was so great about THE OUTER LIMITS for those of us who watched it back on ABC. We understood what all that stuff was, and it was somehow disturbing that "the control voice" knew how to mess with our TVs.

Harry

 

[Jeff Willis]

Yes it was. So many of today's viewers of the series probably don't get the "iconic" images used in THE OUTER LIMITS opening credits. They've never seen a TV set with a rolling picture or skewing sideways when the horizontal hold was out of adjustment. They surely don't remember TVs that collapsed their picture to a white dot in the center of the screen when you turned them off, and it's rare that any TV station airs a test pattern anymore, and when they do it's always the color bars.

But I think that's what was so great about THE OUTER LIMITS for those of us who watched it back on ABC. We understood what all that stuff was, and it was somehow disturbing that "the control voice" knew how to mess with our TVs.

Harry

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the Horizontal. We will control the Vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the Focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the Outer Limits."

 

[Ockeghem]

Jeff,I wish they hadn't shortened the text spoken by the opening control voice after a time. I love the longer version. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Would this be something Shout Factory could license given their relationship with MGM?