Customer Reviews

Amazing Stories: The Complete First Season

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

For those wondering, the hilarious "Family Dog" episode aired as part of this show's SECOND season, and therefore is not part of this particular collection. Presumably it will be on the Season 2 DVD box set when the time comes.

Here are the first season episode titles in air date order, all of which will be on this box set:

1 Ghost Train
2 The Main Attraction
3 Alamo Jobe
4 Mummy, Daddy
5 The Mission
6 The Amazing Falsworth
7 Fine Tuning
8 Mr. Magic
9 Guilt Trip
10 Remote Control Man
11 Santa '85
12 Vanessa in the Garden
13 The Sitter
14 No Day at the Beach
15 One For the Road
16 Gather Ye Acorns
17 Boo!
18 Dorothy and Ben
19 Mirror, Mirror
20 Secret Cinema
21 Hell Toupee
22 The Doll
23 One For the Books
24 Grandpa's Ghost

There are some things that are just special. Special things or moments that are benchmarks for a certain period in your life. Well, this show was one of them for me. Along with the likes of "The Goonies", "Stand By Me", and any John Hughes film of the 80's, this show was one of those treasures from my childhood that makes me look back fondly on it with such great nostalgia. I loved this show. I watched it regularly, and was always looking forward to seeing what strange trip Spielberg and crew were going to take us on this week. Of course, at this time Spielberg could do no wrong, so it was obvious to me that I was going to be right there for this show. I had already seen "E.T." and I had gone to the theaters with my dad to see "Temple Of Doom" 11 times. Spielberg wanted a show every week that he had described to the network would be like campfire tales. It's too bad that in it's time, the show was never really appreciated for what it was. It was not a big hit, but Spielberg was already promised a two season pick up. I have no idea why the show was not regarded very highly by people back then, and it still seems to fight for respect and recognition today. It doesn't make sense to me. Anyways, this was a wonderful and fantastic show that delivered the goods every week. Sure, not all of the episdoes were huge winners, but they never disappointed in creativity and were always fun to watch. So, what does season one have to deliver?. The premiere episode, "Ghost Train", is a pretty good one, but the first real classic of season one is the episode, "Mummy, Daddy". This is one of many that I always remember. It's about an actor named Harold who is playing a mummy in a movie. He goes to his wife who is going into labor, and doesn't know that a real mummy has come to life. Classic episode. Then there is "The Mission". Starring Kevin Costner, this has to be one of the most remembered episodes. A world wat II crew's belly gunner is stuck in his seat in the bottom of the plane and it appears that he will be crushed upon landing...until a miracle happens. A brilliant and magical episode. "Fine Tuning" is kind of a silly, but fun, episode about a teen who picks up an outer space signal that aliens are coming, and the aliens come to Hollywood and want to take people back with them. "Mr. Magic" has the great Sid Caesar playing an aging and fading magician who gets a new shot at his career with the help of a magical deck of cards. "Remote Control Man" is another favorite of mine. A harried man with a horrible family life is able to bring TV images to life. One episode that will always be cherished by moi is "Santa '85", a charming ep about a boy who helps Santa after he's jailed while delivering presents. Another top ep I remember quite fondly. Shot in black and white, "No Day At The Beach" finds a put upon GI try to save the lives of his comrades in World War II. Charlie Sheen appears in this one. John Lithgow stars in "The Doll", a finely written piece about a man's obsession with a doll he got for his niece. These eps are the best of the bunch. Not that the others are bad. The show got top notch talent behind the scenes with people like Richard Matheson, Martin Scorsesse, Paul Bartel, Joe Dante, Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, Bob Balaban, Mick Garris, and of course, Steve Spielberg. The first season also had an array of great guest stars like Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Costner, Gregory Hines, Milton Berle, Charles Durning, Sid Caesar, Charles Nelson Reilly, Harvey Keitel, Beau Bridges, Seth Green, James Cromwell, Joe Pantoliano, Forest Whitaker, Sam Waterston, Tim Robbins, Eve Arden, Griffin Dunne, and others. The show was amazing shot and filmed, and even when the stories went to the extremely goofy and silly, I think it was meant to be that way. Some were quite cheesy and hammy, but I believe that it was the show's intent to be kind of slapsticky in the old school ways. Hopefully, the show will finally get the respect it deserves. It is a fine, fine show that was wonderfully designed and brings back so many fond memories. Who knows what more Spielberg could of given us if the show had continued. Seasn two contained more of my absolute favorites, and I hope that DVD is soon on it's way. Do yourself a favor and get this DVD to rediscover the magic of this wonderful show.

I remember watching Amazing Stories every week when I was a kid. Rewatching the episodes again on DVD brought back many fond memories for me.

Season 1 is overall a clear winner. There were a few episodes I found quite boring but there were many more I absolutely loved. My personal ratings on the episodes of season 1 are:

1 Ghost Train 9/10~ Great series opener. It had Steven Spiellberg's magical touch throughout it.
2 The Main Attraction~ 8/10 Pretty clever episode.
3 Alamo Jobe 6/10 ~ ok episode. A bit boring
4 Mummy, Daddy 10/10 ~ This was the first masterpiece, IMHO. Great, hilarious episode!
5 The Mission 10/10 ~ if Mummy Daddy was the first comic masterpiece, The Mission was the frist dramatic masterpiece.
6 The Amazing Falsworth 8/10 ~ very good, suspenseful episode
7 Fine Tuning 7/10 ~ kinda cute and kooky, but not top notch
8 Mr. Magic 7/10 ~another pretty good episode but not top notch
9 Guilt Trip 5/10 ~not one of my favorites, I was quite bored with it.
10 Remote Control Man 5/10 ~another below average episode for me
11 Santa '85 8/10 ~considering there are too many Santa themed episodes on tv to count, this one was very enjoyable
12 Vanessa in the Garden 10/10 ~beautiful episode. Exquisite.
13 The Sitter 8/10 ~I found this episode quite funny.
14 No Day at the Beach 8/10 ~this is the second "War" themed episode (The Mission was the first), and although not as excellent as The Mission, it was still very good
15 One For the Road 5/10 another below average.
16 Gather Ye Acorns 3/10 I really didn't like this one at all. I suppose I'm being generous by giving it a 3.
17 Boo! 8/10 ~ Cute episode. Reminded me of Beetlejuice (Ghost's living in attic trying to get rid of new tennants)
18 Dorothy and Ben 10/10 ~ another beautiful episode.
19 Mirror, Mirror 10/10 ~absolutely top notch and the first episode to scare me silly. Better than some of the "horror" movies of the modern era.
20 Secret Cinema 6/10 ~ Ok episode, reminded me of The Truman Show
21 Hell Toupee 1/10 ~this is by far the worst episode, IMHO. Comparing HT to an episode like "The Mission" is quite laughable.
22 The Doll 10/10 ~ Another beautiful, exquiste episode. John Lithgow probably gave one of the finest performances of the entire first sesason.
23 One For the Books 4/10 ~ what a let down after "The Doll".
24 Grandpa's Ghost 9/10 ~ wonderful ending to Season 1

With the exception of a few, I thought most of the episodes were definitely above average. Also the impressive roster of guest stars: Kevin Costner, Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Gregory Hines, Sam Waterson, Harvey Kitel, and of course, John Lithgow, to name a few, gave the audience the feeling they were watching a mini-movie each week.

Also for me, I find Amazing Stories so appealing because it is a show that the entire family can watch and enjoy together, which is getting rarer and rarer these days. I highly recommend Amazing Stories for your dvd collection.

"Amazing Stories" was the result of a two-season, 45-episode commitment and full creative control deal NBC offered Steven Spielberg to entice the filmmaker into television series production, and Spielberg's own desire to revive the anthology format. Unfortunately, Amazing Stories neither measured up to expectations nor found a large audience.

Critics and historians argued the anthology format itself had fallen out of favor years earlier, and efforts to revive it (including two other 1985 offerings, the remakes of "The Twilight Zone" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" which immediately followed Amazing Stories on Sunday nights at 8:30p) ultimately failed. It probably didn't help that Amazing Stories was up against CBS's "Murder She Wrote" and ABC's then-hot new series "MacGyver" at the time.

While the segments from Amazing Stories were rarely "amazing" (though some, of course, were standout episodes), the series itself was an admirable mix of interesting storytelling. And though most of the stories were conceived (and a few directed) by Spielberg himself, the A-list of talent Spielberg amassed for the series (Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, etc.) were used accordingly. That includes legendary composer John Williams who provided the magnificent opening theme that perfectly emcompassed that sense of wonder and imagination associated with Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment.

Amazing Stories - The Complete 1st Season is a 4-disc (single-sided) set featuring all 24 episodes from the 1985-1986 season, Full-Frame (1.33:1) Video, English Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio, English and Spanish subtitles, plus extras. The set has a running time of 683 min. Though some episodes of Amazing Stories were previously released on VHS some years ago as "Book installments", this set marks the first-time release of the show's complete first season on DVD!

Special Features include Deleted Scenes:
*Disc One: "The Main Attraction"
*Disc Two: "Guilt Trip", "Remote Control Man", "Vanessa in the Garden"
*Disc Three: "One For the Road", "Boo!", "Dorothy and Ben"
*Disc Four: "Secret Cinema", "The Doll", "One For The Books", "Grandpa's Ghost"


Recommended!

It is probably telling that many of the positive reviews are by folks who remember this series fondly from childhood. I was older when it aired, and I may be more critical as a result.

First, a bit of background... Steven Spielberg wanted to revive The Twilight Zone series in the 1980's. Spielberg began his career directing a segment of the Night Gallery pilot, and wanted to do an homage to Rod Serling. He had already produced the Twlight Zone feature film, to mixed reviews; and CBS (the TZ rights holder) refused to let him remake the series. (Interestingly, CBS did remake The Twilight Zone in the 80's, and it competed with Amazing Stories.) So Spielberg looked for an alternative, and found it in the science fiction pulp magazine Amazing Stories, and TSR (the owners of Amazing Stories at the time) sold him the rights to the title to make the series.

Unfortunately, Spielberg did not enlist the magazine's writers at the time to do stories for the show. Many of the episodes were written by Spielberg himself, or by the usual television hacks. As a result, many scripts were filled with old Sci-Fi cliches, already worn-out by 1980. Hence the inconsistant writing quality and overuse of cliches. One exception to this was Richard Matheson, a veteran genre writer who contributed to the first season of Amazing Stories and took some control of the series during its second season (which was much better).

To return to my comment in the first paragraph, the tone of Amazing Stories was usually much less mature than The Twilight Zone, and series felt like it was aimed at a younger audience (maybe 10 to 15 years old). The episodes were often comic, again in keeping with younger viewers. So, if you were a young adult when you first viewed the series, you may now have fond memories of it (and you would not have been aware of the cliches).

On the plus side, the directing was usually excellent, performances were outstanding, visual effects were cutting edge, and many of the scripts were quite good (in particular "The Doll", written by Richard Matheson and winner of a Hugo award that year). But, ultimately, I was a little disappointed in Amazing Stories, because it could have been so much more. Despite that, I will buy this DVD when it is released, I just won't rewatch it as often.

Note: to the reviewer wanting a series to show his/her children, pick up Jim Henson's The Storyteller on DVD. It is an excellent introduction to classic folk & fairy tales that is well-written and not "dumbed down" for kids.

I love Amazing Stories because when it first aired, I was a child going through some very adult situations. It gave me a moment every week, if only for 30 minutes, to escape my reality and just dream. I've read some of the other reviews, one stating that the show was "dumbed down" for children. I totally disagree with that statement. Children aren't dumb. Children are imaginative. Unfortunately, as we get older, we stop using our imaginations. We stop believing in fantasy. No Santa Claus. No Tooth Fairy. None of the light-hearted fantasies that make childhood so fascinating. Amazing Stories offered entertainment for the entire family--fostering childrens' imaginations and stirring up the child in every adult viewer. This show is a classic.

Some might call Amazing Stories the Twilight Zone of the 1980's. The groundbreaking one hour series was extremely critically acclaimed. The show won numerous Emmy Awards for it's brief run during the mid 1980's. The show was produced by Steven Spielberg who directed several episodes of the show also.

Amazing Stories premiered on NBC in 1985. The shows first season is now available on DVD in a very deluxe 4 disc box set. The set includes all 24 episodes from the shows first season on single side discs. The interior of the box that holds the discs includes detailed descriptions of the episodes.

The show debuted with the episode "Ghost Train." In this episode an older man visits his adult children and his grand son. He tells them that their new country home lies in the path of a train. Of course the adults think he is delusional until a train comes straight threw their house in the middle of the night and takes the old man on his way.

Those kind of "amazing" stories helped Amazing Stories to gain a huge cult fan base. For years fans of the show have been awaiting for the series to arrive on DVD. Well Universal did a great job with the box set. The set even includes deleted scenes.

Having Steven Spielberg as a producer was a plus when it came to attracting star power. Dom Deluise, Charlie Sheen, John Lithgow, and Kevin Costner are just a few of the actors who appear in season one episodes.

I am a big fan of this series and looked forward to seeing this show every week in the 80's. I own the handfull of episodes that were released on Laserdisc and could not wait for DVD season sets to come out so I could own them all. This is a nice four disc set with very good picture and sound and comes in a nice sturdy box. This set has several of my favorite episodes including The Amazing Falsworth, Mirror, Mirror and Mummy, Daddy. I will have to wait for season 2 for my all time favorite episode though: Go to the Head of the Class starring Christopher Lloyd. Several episodes in this set also contain deleted scenes. Highly recommended!

In the wake of his blockbuster films "Jaws," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and "E.T.", NBC got Steven Spielberg to create a television anthology series. Spielberg's first directing gig was for one of the early episodes of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" (the one with Joan Crawford as a blind woman), and of course the director was weaned on the classic anthology series "The Twilight Zone," "The Outer Limits," and "One Step Beyond." Spielberg was going to revive the genre with "Amazing Stories," a half-hour anthology series that last two seasons (1985-87), but it did not happen even though he got the likes of Kevin Costner ("The Mission"), Mark Hamill ("Gather Ye Acorns," and Sid Caesar ("Mr. Magic") to star in episodes (not to mention next gen actors like Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland), as well as getting Burt Reynolds ("Guilt Trip"), Clint Eastwood ("Vanessa in the Garden"), Martin Scorcese ("Mirror, Mirror"), Paul Bartel ("Secret Cinema"), and Joe Dante ("Boo!") to direct (Note: the Michael Moore who directed "Alamo Jobe" is not the Michael Moore who did "Roger & Me" and other lighthearted documentary fare, but rather Michael D. Moore, who was the second unit director on the Indiana Jones movies).

Watching these 24 first-season episodes again, there are many more mundane outings than ones we would consider to be truly amazing. Spielberg directs two of the episodes, the "Ghost Train" pilot and "The Mission," but he came up with the stories for another dozen episodes, so this was clearly his series. In many ways that first episode, "Ghost Train," represents the series as a whole. The point of the episode is to have a steam locomotive crash through a living room wall and drive a train through a family's house. That is certainly a compelling image, and we get it from multiple camera angles, but the story that accompanies the stunt is not as good, despite Robert Blossom's performance as Old Pa. "The Mission" is much better offering an effective portrayal of a B-17 bombing mission during World War II going wrong before pulling some magic out of a hat.

For me "Dorothy and Ben" is far and away the best episode. Ben Dumfy (Joe Seneca) wakes up after 40 years in a coma to find he is an old man. He also discovers that he had talk to Dorothy (Natalie Gregory), a 7-year-old girl who has been in a coma for two weeks. Lane Smith and Louis Giambalvo are the doctors, Kathleen Lloyd and Joe Regalbuto are Dorothy's parents, and I watched these four DVDs because I wanted to watch this episode again (several times in fact). All of the other episodes I like, such as "Alamo Jobe," "The Amazing Falsworth," and "The Doll," have simple ideas and play them out without becoming truly memorable. An episode like "Santa '85" or Timothy Hutton's "Grandpa's Ghost" becomes quite representative, because once you understand the set up you can figure out the payoff. Even with an episode "Gather Ye Acorns," which I can obviously appreciate because of my own collections of comic books, baseball cards, and Buffy figures, the idea ends up being vastly superior to the execution. I do not know why, but watching these episodes again was not as enjoyable as watching "Zone" episodes the second, third and umpteenth time around.

If you do the math most of the episodes are "Twilight Zone" like in nature during this first season, including a pair written by Serling's best writer, Richard Matheson ("The Doll" and "One for the Books"). But Spielberg is more willing to come up with humorous episodes, with decidedly mixed results. "Mummy Daddy," in which an actor playing a mummy in a movie makes the mistake of racing off to the hospital where his wife is giving birth without getting out of his makeup and costume or checking the fuel gauge, is pretty good. But for the most part "The Main Attraction," "Fine Tuning," "Guilt Trip," "Boo!," and "Hell Toupee" try too much and lack the requisite subtlety. "Remote Control Man" and "Secret Cinema" have unrealized potential, although any excuse to get Barbara Billingsley on camera is greatly appreciated. This is why an episode like "The Sitter," where Mabel King plays a sitter who does that voodoo she do so well to young Seth Green and his brother, becomes paradigmatic because obviously Spielberg wants "Amazing Stories" to skew a lot younger than Serling did with the "Zone." Consequently, something like "One for the Road" may well run a little too dark for the kiddies.

A remarkable gem of a television series from the mid-1980s, "Amazing Stories" dazzled this author, a chimerical lad of 10 at the time, every Sunday evening. "Mummy Daddy", "The Mission", "Dorothy and Ben", "The Doll", "Remote Control Man", "Hell Toupee" and "No Day at the Beach" have carved niches of ineffable quality in my psyche, thus 'lo these two decades since their original air-dates, I ruminate with all the emotion of fondness to be mustered.

The first season is a "must-own" for any fan of sci-fi/fantasy anthology television. Do not pass this collection in the stores. Your regret shall be your epitaph.