Amazing Stories (1985–1987)

Fresh off a slough of big-screen success,filmmaker Steven Spielberg put his name and money(along with others such as Bob Gale and Robert Zemekis)behind this short-lived NBC TV project in the mid-1980s. Meant to be a more fanciful,less grim and ambitious "Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits",this show couldn't seem to settle on either a half-hour or hour format,and after two seasons simply could not afford to keep running(not to mention having fading viewer-ship)and went off the air. It was soon repackaged in two-hour movie forms,combining episodes that were released on Video and to cable TV. KInd of a shame for the ambition and possibilities this show offered,but not a surprise really.

Some episodes that stick with me(And I actually haven't seen ALL of them,but I've caught quite a few):the elderly couple whose long-missing 7-year-old daughter returns to them;the 1930s comic-book collector who leaves his family behind to chase his bliss,only to find himself become a poor,perceivably unstable eccentric;a teenager who discovers a way to make 1-dimensional images come off paper and become real;a hen-pecked husband who chances upon a remote control that brings the characters in the t.v. LITERALLY inside his home and a mystical Jamaican babysitter whose magic puts two bratty kids in their place. The stories were interesting and memorable,but for me,the thing that probably salts this show away in my mind was the rousing theme by long-time Spielberg collaborator John Williams. It had more of the feel of a large screen experience when you heard it open the show!

Whenever these shows make it to DVD(assuming they haven't already),they would be WELL worth a rent and/or buy.