Anybody else a Fan of "The Outer Limits"?

[Sandy G]

No, not the PC 1990s-2000 version, either...The Original 1963-65 Scare-the-P!ss-Outta-You Leslie Stevens-Joe Stefano series...Odd, murky cinematography...Odd, murky scripts...Hysterical music...$1.98 EFX (but they were good for 1963)... Actually, it WAS an excellent series, some of the most talented people in Hollywood at the time worked in it. ABC, perennially in 3rd place in those days, didn't know quite what to do w/the show, kept cutting the budgets & moving it around. Even after Stevens & Stefano left/got kicked out at the beginning of the 2nd season, they STILL managed to pull off several excellent shows. I think I know why all the revivals of shows like this fail-They attempt to impose a modern-day sensibility on them-try to show "Compassion", "Tolerance", "Relevance", all that other happy horseshit. The people that watch these kinds of shows could care less about seeing a woman as the boss-they watch 'em for one reason & one reason only-To get the living daylights scared out of themselves. Anyhow, anybody else have a soft spot for "Outer Limits" like me ?

[bolly]

great series sandy!

[Snade]

When it first ran in the 60's I was about 10 years old and I remember it well. But I never got past the intro "...we are taking over your TV...."

Too fricken scary.

I watched the Twilight Zone and a lot of the sci-fi shows at that time, but Outer Limits was too intense.

[wajobu]

"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. 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."



Chills down the spine, EVERY time!

[doucanoe]

I used to sneak and watch it as a kid. It would creep me out afterward for days.

I still to this day, enjoy it better than Twilight Zone.

RC

[Fisherdude]

Originally Posted by doucanoe

I used to sneak and watch it as a kid. It would creep me out afterward for days.

I still to this day, enjoy it better than Twilight Zone.

RC

Me too!

[Sandy G]

One of my faves was "A Feasability Study"...A well-to-do man in a '63 Lincoln pulls into this strange cloudbank...This horrible hand drops down on his windshield..He's surrounded by these ghastly creatures...We see him screaming as the frenetic music starts...Oh, Mommy ! (grin)

[Celt]

I loved them both. Zone had excellent writing, but rarely gave me the creeps. Outer Limits on the other hand...

[wajobu]

As soon as I saw the opening O-scope screen, I was locked!

[ponderbear]

Yep, love it. the Zone was pretty cool but the Outer Limits was always, well, out there. Some cable station reran the originals all at once and I taped most of them. "The Galaxy Being" was weird as hell, an auspicious way to start the series.

This series reminds me a lot of the old radio show "Dimension X" which was also fairly weird and scary. Those old shows are a blast- they can be found all over the net, though if you don't mind RealAudio, this is a good place to start.

[soundmotor]

Growing up in the 60's-70's I lived in Fresno, CA which had 4 TV stations IIRC. I was programming starved as much of what was on was local station generated. Ugh! We'd drive down to visit my relatives in Socal and there were 25-30 stations along with what seemed to be hundreds programs I'd never seen before. The Outer Limits absolutely hooked me the first time I stumbled across it. The 2D creature, the ant criminals, the human made alien to infiltrate aliens, man it just went on & on. The Outer Limits was like the Sears Screamer drag bicycles to Schwinn's StingRays. Wilder and more out there. Maybe not as good over the long haul but they sure got your attention.

More here -

Outer Limits Episodes

[kbs48]

I loved that series growing up,now when I see it(You can still get it from Netflix)It's great seeing the old movie stars that were just starting out.

[Holst]

I loved it as a kid, and my family had no problem with me watching it. The Architects of Fear, Robert Culp being redesigned to be a fake alien to get the public to worry about invaders from space to end the cold war, The Sixth Finger, David McCallum is pushed through a few millieum of evolution in a few weeks and begins viewing the rest of us as little, weak beings.
The Man Who Was Never Born, Martin Landau is a mutant from the future out to kill the father of the scientist who brought humanity down and create a future that never included him
O.B.I.T., the rare TV or movie to scare the crap out of me as a kid. A machine that can spy on people without them knowing only to see the feet of some creature sneaking up behind them
Fun and Games, Nick Adams gets to play a game, if he wins, he doesn't die.
The Invisible Enemy, funny thing about landing on Mars, evryone dies.
Demon with a Glass Hand, Robert Culp has no memory, someone has amputated his hand and replaced it with a glass version that talks to him, and Aliens are trying to kill him

Really, I need to buy the DVD's.

[onepixel]

I loved that show as a kid. Used to scare/freak me out every time!

[Sandy G]

"The Zanti Misfits" somehow managed to be hokey & scary at the same time...