TERROR TEE-VEE: A Countdown to Halloween (Day 23)

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.

THE OUTER LIMITS

Thought of as the little brother of the greatest anthology series ever to air, The Outer Limits holds it’s own fairly well even when compared to The Twilight Zone.

Running for two seasons and 49 episodes from 1963-1965 and more straight science fiction than fantasy or supernatural, The Outer Limits aired on ABC at 7:30 PM ET on Mondays.

Created by Leslie Stevens—the show was produced and guided by Joseph Stefano, who wrote Hitchcock’s Psycho and wrote more episodes of this series than any other writer.  Screenwriter Robert Towne, who would later win an Oscar for Chinatown, wrote “The Chameleon”.  “Soldier” and “Demon with a Glass Hand” were both written by Harlan Ellison. (“Soldier” would go on to heavily influence James Cameron’s TERMIANTOR films.)

The episode “The Architects of Fear” featured alterations so gruesome to a character that some local stations broadcast a black screen, censoring the last third of the show.  Meanwhile, some affiliates just aired it at a later time of night.  And, finally, some just wouldn’t air it.  (The plot of this episode was used by Alan Moore in his WATCHMEN mini-series.)

Here’s a documentary looking back at the series…

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And here are some links for a peek at the best episodes of the series...

TV.com

SyFy

The Nerdist