Customer Reviews

Tales of Tomorrow, Collection 3

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pioneering sci-fi TV series TALES OF TOMORROW aired 85 episodes between 8/3/51 and 9/13/53 on the ABC-TV network. These half-hour stories often featured many famous Hollywood stars (like Boris Karloff, Franchot Tone and Burgess Meredith) as well as some up-and-comers (James Dean, Rod Steiger, Joanne Woodward, Leslie Nielsen). Special effects, props and scenery are minimal, yet this forerunner of TWILIGHT ZONE, THE OUTER LIMITS (and so many others) has a charm all its own.

The fourteen chapters on volume three are all from TOT's second season. Also available is TALES OF TOMORROW, COLLECTION ONE which contains 13 star-studded season #1 shows.


CONTENTS include titles, original airdates and principal actors.

DISC ONE--
Seeing-Eye Surgeon (9/5/52) - Bruce Cabot
Youth on Tap (9/26/52) - Robert Alda/Harry Townes/Mary Alice Moore/Ralph Porter/Bernard Burke
The Horn (10/10/52) - Franchot Tone
Many Happy Returns (10/24/52) - Gene Raymond/Edwin Cooper/Flora Campbell/Clifford Sales/Richard Trask
The Window (11/7/52) - Rod Steiger/Don Medford/William Coburn/Merle Albertson/Mort Abrahams/Frank Maxwell
The Fatal Flower (12/12/52) - John Hammer
The Bitter Storm (12/26/52) - Joanne Woodward/Arnold Moss/Phillip Pine

DISC TWO--
Another Chance (2/13/53) - Leslie Nielsen/Robert Middleton/Virginia Vincent
The Great Silence (2/20/53) - Burgess Meredith/Paul Ford/Lilia Skala/Charles McClelland/William Kemp/Glenn Styres
The Fury of the Cocoon (3/6/53) - Nancy Coleman/Peter Capell/Cameron Prud'Homme/Fernande Gude
Read to Me, Herr Doktor (3/20/53) - Mercedes McCambridge/Everett Sloane/Ernest Graves/William Kemp
Ghost Writer (3/27/53) - Leslie Nielsen/Gaby Rodgers/Murray Matheson/Harry Mehaffey
Past Tense (4/3/53) - Boris Karloff/John McGovern/Katherine Meskill/Robert F.Simon
The Evil Within (5/1/53) - James Dean/Rod Steiger/Margaret Phillips

The people who will appreciate these episodes are oldsters who may be interested in seeing some of the stars of yesterday they remember. Such as seeing a young Leslie Nielsen.

Please be advised that these episodes were done live as plays, thus they were not filmed as the I Love Lucy show was done. Thus the picture quality is far from ideal, but still watchable.

I only did this review for people who may have purchased a 3 episode set found in a $1 bargain bin, in a paper sleeve. These 3 episodes have a terrible picture quality and I didn't bother to watch. These 3 volumes are of a higher picture quality, but many people will still be put off.
Lastly, each episode includes all of the commercials, so episodes run 29 minutes.

I have the first volumes of Tales of Tomorrow and despite the low budgets and sets that look accordingly the stories still captivate.

This old series has charm of it's own. First they have so many stars that can act and very different types of stories. I have all three that is out.

I was a fan of this show when I was ten, and I've been hoping to find something like this DVD. It's funky but fun, I like the fact that it is more like a stage play than an eleborate production.

Just try to buy a set that doesn't have two disc 2 and NO disc 1! Dare ya!
I now own two such "sets." Yeah, that's 4 disc 2!

Forget bottom-of-the-barrel production values (doors that pop open after they are slammed, operating rooms with pitch-black walls(!), cameras that appear in the shot, and perhaps the worst robot costume in the history of television in "Read To Me Herr Docktor.") Forget the gaffes from the actors delivering their lines (this was filmed live, unedited). Forget the jarring insertion of commercials, also live. Forget the collection of grade D actors that couldn't carry off their parts. At bottom, the problem with this series lay in the fact that there were no decent scripts. The old theater adage applies: "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage." And in this season, most of the blame goes to Frank De Felitta, as he wrote the lion's share of the scripts. There were other offenders, but he seems the most egregious. Stories range from jaw-droppingly bad ("Seeing Eye Surgeon," in which the denouement questions the whole premise) to mediocre ("The Window.") And the allure of seeing some future stars in early performances quickly wears thin. Leslie Nielsen's constant befuddlement in "Another Chance" is tiring, and Rod Steiger's rootless performance in "The Evil Within" is at times shrill, twitchy and just plain wearing. Joanne Woodward does a creditable job in "The Bitter Storm," but the premise is so ludicrous that even her work can't save it. Had I paid considerably less for this, I would have been happy with my purchase simply for the nostalgia value. But for the going price, this just ain't worth it. With all the great sci-fi stories being printed in Galaxy magazine at the time this was being filmed, there was excellent and sufficient material available. In comparison to this, "One Step Beyond" is Shakespeare. I just can't recommend this.