The Steven Spielberg produced series finally makes it to DVD in a complete season set.
Steven Spielberg pulled together a roster of famous directors and talent to appear in his television anthology show. The show ran across multiple genres and occasionally featured some famous faces stepping behind the camera (either actors or a big director who didn’t do television much).
In a welcome move, Universal presents the 24 episodes that made up the first season. I seem to recall a release on videotape that basically gathered all the Spielberg directed episodes together. All 24 season one episodes are spread over 4 single sided discs.
Episode 1: Ghost Train: An elderly man (Roberts Blossom) is moving in with his son. He finds out that the son has built the house in the direct path where the train that nearly ran him over in his youth used to run. His great grandson (Luca Haas) is the only one that believes him that the ghostly train is going to run again and that the old man has a ticket to ride. Steven Spielberg directs.
Episode 2: The Main Attraction: An arrogant jock is trying to win the prom king crown. He considers himself rather attractive, but he doesn’t know how much until a meteor crashes into his room and he begins to attract metallic objects. Written by Brad Bird.
Episode 3: Alamo Jobe: A young boy fighting beside Davy Crockett at the Alamo is transported forward in time to the Alamo in 1980s Texas.
Episode 4: Mummy, Daddy: An actor has to make it to the hospital where his wife is giving birth to their first child. He’s currently filming a horror movie where he plays the lead – the mummy. He tries to make it in costume to the hospital but the superstitious natives think he’s the real deal.
Episode 5: The Mission: A young bomber is trapped in the belly of a B-17 and the landing gear malfunctions. To make the landing the young cartoonist trapped in the underbelly will be killed unless fate intervenes. Kevin Costner, Casey Siemaszko, and Kiefer Sutherland star in this Steven Spielberg directed episode.
I've got my ticket
Episode 6: The Amazing Falsworth: The Amazing Falsworth (Gregory Hines) has a mind reading act at a nightclub, but one night he reads the mind of an unknown serial killer that happens to be in the audience. Directed by Peter Hyams and written by Mick Garris.
Episode 7: Fine Tuning: A boy builds a science project antenna that gets signals from space. It seems that the aliens have been getting TV signals from the 1950s and pattern their shows on them. They also get an alien newscast that the aliens are planning to land in Hollywood. Bob Balaban directs and Milton Berle guest stars.
Episode 8: Mr. Magic: A once great magician (Sid Caesar) is showing his age and fumbling his tricks until he comes into possession of a magical deck of cards. Donald Petrie directs.
Episode 9: Guilt Trip: The human emotion guilt feels overworked and takes a vacation (personified by Dom DeLuise) and falls in love with Love (Loni Anderson). Directed by Burt Reynolds with Charles Nelson Reilly and Charles Durning guest starring.
Episode 10: Remote Control Man: a frustrated husband finds that his remote control can bring TV characters to life. Richard Simmons, Dirk Benedict, Barbara Billingsley, Gary Coleman, and Ed McMahon guest star in this Bob Clark directed episode.
Episode 11: Santa ’85: Santa’s thrown into the clink when he trips a burglar alarm while delivering Christmas presents.
Episode 12: Vanessa in the Garden: An artist’s wife is killed in a carriage accident and he devises a way to bring her back to life in his art work. Harvey Keitel, Beau Bridges, and Sandra Locke guest star in this episode written by Spielberg and directed by Clint Eastwood.
Episode 13: The Sitter: Two devilish boys are the terror of the babysitting world until a new babysitter uses a new technique to control them – voodoo.
Episode 14: No Day at the Beach: a picked upon soldier finds a chance to prove himself a hero during World War II. Charlie Sheen guest stars.
The Mummy is a daddy
Episode 15: One for the Road: In the 1930s, a group of barflies get the local drunk to sign an insurance policy but all is not what it appears. James Cromwell, Royal Dano, Geoffrey Lewis, and Joe Pantoliano guest star.
Episode 16: Gather Ye Acorns: A tree troll tells a young boy to never throw anything away, but will it bring the boy fortune or misery? Mark Hamill, Forest Whitaker, and David Rappaport guest star.
Episode 17: Boo!: A couple (Eddie Bracken and Evelyn Keyes) of ghosts live in their old house, but find their happy home in the afterlife disturbed when a porno star (managed by Robert Picardo) moves in. Joe Dante directs this episode written by Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz.
Episode 18: Dorothy and Ben: A man is revived after forty years in a coma but discovers that he can communicate with a comatose girl.
Episode 19: Mirror, Mirror: A horror novelist (Sam Waterston) is haunted by a mysterious figure in the mirror. Tim Robbins guest stars in this Martin Scorsese directed episode.
Episode 20: Secret Cinema: A woman is convinced that her life is being filmed secretly. Paul Bartel guest stars as well as directing and writing this episode.
Episode 21: Hell Toupee: A man gets a new toupee, the problem is that it compels him to murder lawyers. Is that really a bad thing? Irwin Kershner directs
Episode 22: The Doll: A lonely man (John Lithgow in an Emmy winning performance) finds that a handmade doll he bought for his niece is no ordinary toy.
Episode 23: One for the Books: An old janitor discovers that his brain acts like a sponge and he can absorb the knowledge from the books around him in this episode written by Richard Matheson.
Episode 24: Grandpa’s Ghost: Edwin’s (Andrew McCarthy) Grandpa has died in his sleep, but death doesn’t seem to bother Grandpa too much since he’s still hanging around the apartment chatting with Grandma. Timothy Hutton wrote and directed this episode.
As a child of the eighties, this show has a nostalgia factor for me. I seem to recall certain episodes that we talked around the “water cooler” about. Did you see the some last night about the Mummy or the Professor’s severed head? What seems to run though these on second glance is a sense of sweetness and humor.
They don’t seem as “hard” as the occasional Twilight Zone episode did (although they did approach some Twilight Zone territory – Vanessa in the Garden seemed very much like a Zone to me). I always enjoyed the Spielberg directed “Ghost Train” and thought that it benefited from a great performance by Roberts Blossom and a wonderful finale with the ghost train.
An old ghost checks out the new decor
Another favorite is the Sid Caesar starring Mr. Magic. I guess I’ve always been a softie for elderly folks getting a second chance or getting to go out with a big finish. However, some of them take an interesting idea and don’t really do too much with it – “Alamo Jobe” is one that I felt did that. My favorite isn’t on this set, but is from Season 2: “Go to the Head of the Class” directed by Robert Zemeckis. What was good about the series is that the Spielberg name attracted some talent, stars and directors, to the small screen that usually did not show up there.
Amazing Stories is presented in fullscreen as they were originally aired on television. Special features include 20 minutes of deleted scenes. The scenes are from The Main Attraction, Guilt Trip, Remote Control Man, Vanessa in the Garden, One for the Road, Gather Ye Acorns, Boo!, Dorothy and Ben, Secret Cinema, The Doll, One for the Books, and Grandpa’s Ghost. Most of these scenes feel like filler and don’t really amount to much. Sadly, there are no commentaries or documentaries.
Children of the eighties, prepare for a heaping’ spoonful of nostalgia. However, most of these stories have a certain charm about them that I think everyone young and old will enjoy. Whatever the case it’s good to finally have these on DVD.
Amazing Stories is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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