Product Details

• Format: Box set, Black & White, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Mono)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 7
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: October 21, 2008
• Run Time: 2515 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (167 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0016MOWNM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,260 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Outer Limits Original Series Complete Box Set Volumes 1-3" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The Outer Limits Season One

From the moment Vic Perrin's omniscient "Control Voice" first proclaimed, "There is nothing wrong with your television set," on September 16, 1963, The Outer Limits was destined for greatness. The dazzling, long-beloved series was a daring experiment in "omnibus" TV, trading the speculative fantasies of The Twilight Zone for farther-out sci-fi concepts. Producers Leslie Stevens and Joseph Stefano had risen as gifted writers from (respectively) Broadway and Hollywood; Stevens rebounded from his previous canceled series, while Stefano had scripted Hitchcock's Psycho and was eager to expand his creative horizons. With an executive order for scary monsters and cold war thrills, their fruitful symbiosis was preceded by the superb Stevens-directed pilot "Please Stand By," named after the series' once-proposed title and changed to "The Galaxy Being" for its broadcast premiere.

Cliff Robertson launched an impressive succession of guest stars, and on meager, oft-exceeded budgets of $120,000 per episode, The Outer Limits became a showcase for shoestring ingenuity. The "blue ribbon crew" (as Stevens called it) included cinematographer Conrad Hall, whose Oscar®-winning skills were honed on the series' cramped TV-studio sets. Packed onto four double-sided DVDs, these 32 episodes (out of a total 49) comprise the series' dynamic first season of moody, frequently paranoid black-and-white adventures. Repeat performers Martin Landau, Robert Culp, and Sally Kellerman excel (respectively) in the fan-favorite episodes "The Man Who Was Never Born," "The Architects of Fear," and "The Bellero Shield" (and who can forget the insect-like menace of "The Zanti Misfits"?). There are a few clunkers, of course, but the series' quality (and parade of monsters) is remarkably consistent, and DVD compression does not compromise its technical achievement. These eerily seductive shows invite repeated viewing, supporting Stephen King's oft-quoted remark that The Outer Limits was "the best program of its type ever to run on network TV." --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Misused inventions, interplanetary communication, and warped time peculiarities permeate the 1960s science fiction anthology program The Outer Limits. Created by Leslie Stevens, the program gained a rabid cult following and influenced a myriad of sci-fi that would follow, including a second Outer Limits series in the 1990s. This is the complete collection of all episodes of the original series.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

314 of 322 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars for the show-Zero stars for the presentation May 24, 2009

By Robert Badgley

Format:DVD

This is my second review in as many that has given a zero to the poor packaging and contents and higher marks to the show itself.Let's take a look at the show first and then we'll take a look at the rest.
This is one of the top Sci-Fi shows ever to appear on television.Created by Leslie Stevens and Joe Stefano the show made its' premiere in Sept. of 1963 and WHAT a premiere it was."The Galaxy Being" certainly scared the living begeesus out of me and I will never forget that.The whole look and feel was totally different and it definitely was not The Twilight Zone but a deep and darker version of it.Nothing that intense had been seen on TV before and nothing would equal it's impact for many years.The show was directly helmed by the team of Stefano and Stevens with Dominic Frontieres' great scoring in the background through all of season one.When Season two arrived all three had departed and were replaced by others.The format underwent minor changes but it basically stayed true to its' roots.The entire story is detailed wonderfully in the "Outer Limits Companion" by David Schow and Jeff Frentzen.
Some prefer one season over the other but there is much to recommend both.Season one has its' "Galaxy Being","The Zanti Misfits","Second Chance" ,"Production and Decay of Strange Particles" and "A Feasibility Study".Season Two "The Inheritors-Parts 1&2","Keeper of the Purple Twilight" and one of the entire series top eps "The Demon with the Glass Hand".The series is filled with many well known actors like Cliff Robertson,Ted Knight,Robert Culp,Ed Asner,Eddie Albert,Robert Duvall and so many more.There is also a huge Star Trek connection as William Shatner,Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan would all make appearances,along with many of the future shows supporting actors.The ep "Production and Decay......" contains at least five future Trek actors at once,including Leonard Nimoy!
The show never had a big budget and many of the shows today look dated as a result but in quite a few like "Demon...",the props are totally minimal and it is the great script,direction and acting that more than compensate for any shortcomings in the special effects department.That the show could do so much with so little at times,is a testament to the skill of everyone involved.
It is so unfortunate it only lasted two short seasons as the show should have gone many more.As one ep in the first season states:"Maybe young people are the only ones who listen and understand-you can't reach a closed mind".And so it was,as the almighty ratings beast dictated to the head network honchos just how they ought to proceed with shows;promising or not.The biggest shows' fans were the younger gen of the time who did write in frequently praising the show but it was the adults in the end who controlled the decision making of what to watch and they weren't generally impressed with the show;at least not enough for ABC to continue with it.To top this,in the second season it was put up against the ever popular(among the entire family) Jackie Gleason Show;and Gleason wasn't going anywhere.The show may have been cancelled but it has continued in syndication ever since staying in the collective memories of those who first saw it and gaining new fans along the way.
Now let's look at the presentation.The one thing positive about this new set is the price.The original release about eight years ago broke the series into two release sets and both at the same price(at least $10 higher than this set per season!).Everything else goes down hill from here.MGM has decided in their "wisdom" to re-release this set again in the double sided disc format.BAD choice,period.As I stated in my other recent review Universal and MGM(among others) have a fondness for this type of release;it is cheap and yields the greastest profit.DVDs are notoriously scuff and scratch prone and that alone should preclude any such release of this type if these companies actually cared about the product and consumers.
The second thing about this "new" set is...that it isn't.I do not see any difference in the transfer of this product onto DVD from the original release sets."A Feasibility Study" was particlularly grainy in the first release and it remains so in this one and all other eps with any excesses in this area are also the same.So the question presents itself:"Why?".Why would MGM not remaster these eps like they should be,after all this time?
I can certainly recommend the series itself as a groundbreaking one of its' day,as many of the eps still hold up very well,despite the budgetary restrictions.But it gets a zero as far as release presentation goes.It certainly is cheaper than the original release sets but it is just a simple re-packaging of the material on hand.Shame on MGM. Read more ›

130 of 139 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What an amazing 45 years October 20, 2008

By D. Allen

Format:DVD

When my father first watched this, he would have been about eight or nine years old. Growing up myself, Outer Limits has been one of my classical favorites. What's even more amazing, is that after forty five years, this show is still considered great. Now my father is in his fifties and I'm in my twenties, and quite amazingly we still enjoy this show even after all this time. It's even more amazing that you can watch this movie nearly anywhere, from your laptop computer, to your dvd player at home. If anything, the very fact that you can watch this anywhere would have been science fiction at the time when Outer Limits first appeared. Outer Limits was very close to Twilight Zone, with the exception that it was an hour long (although Twilight Zone had a few hour long episodes), and most of the episodes were based on alien concepts, robots, or dimensional concepts. Like Twilight Zones, you see many famous actors/actresses appearing on the show. One comes to mind would be Leonard Nimoy in "I, Robot" which was a great episode.

I highly recommend this collection. You will enjoy it a lot. It is in the original black and white, and each episode is about fifty minutes long and you get forty nine episodes in total, the entire collection. There is one problem though, and that is the dvds are given in double sided dvds. Which is fine and all, but after so many usage, you get a lot of finger prints on one side or the other.

123 of 133 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Outer Limits 45th Anniversary Edition October 26, 2008

By FranticInFresno

Format:DVD

A single release of this 60's SciFi series was a welcome addition to my DVD video collection.

A recent visit to the local best buy clocked the series at nearly $100 for the three individual volumes. BB had this new single set priced at a savings of 50%.

I was impressed with crisp clean EZ to use menus. The B/W video and Mono audio quality was excellent.

I did miss bonus extras, and the lack of closed captions for those of us with less than perfect hearing was also sorely missed.

Others have mention problems with the double sided discs. My toshiba DVD player had NO such troubles. Either disc quality has improved, or maybe these other people just need to upgrade their hardware.

While the "monster" FXs are very dated, the stories have held up well over the years. All in all, enjoyable to watch.

4 stars.

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Outer Limits is limited November 18, 2009

By Donald Waits

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

THE OUTER LIMITS-THE COMPLETE ORIGINAL SERIES
This is, without a doubt, one of the best series ever on television. Some reviews complain that there are no closed captions, but that is a minor problem. My only serious complaint is that while all of the episodes are listed on each plastic container, some episode are NOT, in fact, available. For example, on Disc One, episodes 33-40, the information says that Side B contains four episodes, beginning with the classic, "Demon With the Glass Hand". That side has only two episodes instead of the listed four. There are other strange exclusions with no warning. There are no liner notes to explain these exclusions.
BUT, as a series, The Outer Limits had some of the best writing and (occasional) acting for its time. For truly creepy and scary atmospherics, this can't be beat. The productions are magnificent, even with the obvious budgetary restrictions faced by the creators. Some are masterpieces of "film noir". All in all, a joy to watch.

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Defective DVDs December 19, 2009

By Charles Hand

Format:DVD

MGM has released these DVDs in two other packages, and they are defective. I've bought two complete sets of these DVDs. After you remove them from their case a few dozen times the center begins to crack. Even the ones that don't crack, fail. After about six months they start skipping and freezing. One just failed tonight. If you look at the surface of the DVD it is perfect, yet it skips and freezes. I take care of my DVDs. I don't have any problems with any other DVDs, just these MGM Original Series Outer Limits DVDs. They have failed for me on many different DVD players. I recommend not buying (since the manufacturer has already received money for millions of defective copies), but have someone make a copy for you, provided their copies haven't failed yet.