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The Sixth Sense (1972)

 
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Pow
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 12:20 pm    Post subject: The Sixth Sense (1972) Reply with quote

TSS was a television series produced by Universal Studios & aired on the ABC Network from January 15~December 23, 1972. It lasted for 25 episodes.

Gary Collins starred as Dr.Michael Rhodes, a university teacher/researcher into all things regarding extrasensory perception.He even possessed esp himself.

Each week would see Dr.Rhodes contacted by someone desperately requiring his help due to some form of psychic problems.

I enjoyed this series.There certainly was nothing like it on at the time.

Gary Collins was perfect in his role as Rhodes. His character was one who wanted to help people understand & solve whatever psychic dramas were playing out in their life.

He was intelligent & professional in the part. A man who calmly & maturely handled the disbelievers, some who were openly hostile. But Rhodes seldom lost his cool.

The stories were suspenseful & spooky for 1972 tv.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 1:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This very brief TV promo is all I've found for this one so far, although with a few episodes uploaded in four parts.
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___________ The Sixth Sense (1972) TV Spot


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:05 pm; edited 1 time in total
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Universal used to syndicate the show with "Night Gallery", under the "Night Gallery" name.

David.
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Universal Studios decision to syndicate The Sixth Sense with The Night Gallery was a terrible concept & injustice to TSS.

TSS was a 60-minute television series. In order to package it with TNG they actually edited TSS down to 30-minutes.

It ruins TSS on every level. Plot & character development, suspense & mystery, and it removes some actors entirely from the story.

Can you imagine attempting such a travesty with Star Trek: TOS or Mission: Impossible?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 4:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I hope there's a special place in hell for idiots who do things like you described, Pow! Evil or Very Mad

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Author John Kenneth Muir conducted a 2001 interview with noted writer Dorthy C. Fontana. Part of that interview involved her scripting and story editing on The Sixth Sense.

Dorthy discussed the show's developer Stan Shpetner.

"He didn't like children. He didn't like women. He didn't like men. He didn't like poor people. He didn't like stories about sick people. He didn't like stories about emotionally ill people. He didn't like stories about ethnic people.

Essentially it got down to us (Gene Coon & Harlan Ellison) doing stories about rich white people who didn't have any problems.

And that was a problem for me."

My thoughts: Holy macaroni! I can see why Dorthy, and Gene & Harlan, were all so frustrated with scripting for the series....and why each one left the series as it was still running.

Can anyone explain to me just how someone like this Sheptner ever managed to be in charge? Doesn't a network keep an eye on how their own shows are being run? Don't they care? Anthony Lawrence created The Sixth Sense. Where the heck was he through all this with Shpetner? Why would he allow someone like that to strangle his creation?

Was Shpetner's mission to kill off the show by imposing his absurdly restrictive edicts on what kind of scripts he would allow?

Muir tells us in his book Terror Television, American Series, 1970~1999 what occurred.

"Though lawrence contributed the first two episodes of the new ABC series ("I Do Not Belong to the Human World" and "The Heart That Wouldn't Stay Buried"), he only contributed story ideas ("Face of Ice") for The Sixth Sense as it continued its brief network run. Instead, producer Shpetner

took over the reigns, and two well-known, highly-regarded genre story editors stepped in: Harlan Ellison and Dorthy Fontana.

For a time, these impressive talents worked with successful TV writers such as Gene Coon, Don Ingalls, and Robert Collins to craft interesting stories, but they also left the series in its hastily ordered, hastily prepared first season run."

My thoughts: That does explain some of the situation but not all of it. If Anthony Lawrence created the series, exactly why did have so little to do with it? Was that ABC's plan, if so, for what reason? Wouldn't Lawrence want to stay with his creation and guide it? Bizarre!

From The Sixth Sense press-kit: You enter a strange room for the first time, yet you know you've been there before. You dream about an event that happens some days later....A coincidence? Maybe. But more than likely, it's extrasensory perception, a sixth sense that many scientists believe we all possess, but rarely use.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Keep the great posts comin', Mike! We might not always reply, but we read 'em and love 'em!

Just look at the number of "views" your posts are getting, and that tells you how many folks are enjoying your fine work. Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Opening narration for The Sixth Sense for Season # 1 as we see Dr. Rhodes walking across the scenic campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) located in Pasadena, California:

"Doctor Michael Rhodes, leading authority in the investigation of psychic phenomena and the world of extra sensory perception."

Rhodes (Gary Collins) then enters a building with the sign Parapsychology Department.

On the wall of the lobby is a plaque which reads: "Your old men will Dream Dreams. Your young men will see visions."

Old Testament, Joel 2:28.

John Kenneth Muir: As The Sixth Sense began its run in the winter of 1972 with its premier episode "I Do Not Belong to the Human World" January 15, 1972, it faced competition from CBS's Mission: Impossible (1966~1973), and NBC's detective drama Banyon (1972~1973).

Despite difficulties, The Sixth Sense survived, in no small part due to the directing efforts of Richard Donner, John Badham, and Jeff Corey, all veterans of either Rod Serling's The Night Gallery or The Twilight Zone, and an array of impressive guest stars.

What can be garnered about The Sixth Sense is that, even in its full form, it was a terribly repetitive TV series. Dr. Rhodes was always being brought in on some important case that involved someone special to him, or in some way related to him. In fact, so many friends and neighbors were involved in psychic phenomena that The Sixth Sense became rather hard-to-swallow, instead of believable and provocative.

My thoughts: Such a criticism must be equally applied to any other television show in any genre. They all do plot lines where the main cast encounters former spouses, ex-loves, childhood friends, relatives, and so forth.

If The Sixth Sense was pulling these tropes out of its bag of tricks, so was Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Star Trek, The Mod Squad and every other TV show.
True, in dealing strictly with psychic phenomena The Sixth Sense did have a narrower premise to base their stories on compared to other shows that had their series concept include a structure that offered a wide array of story telling possibilities.

Script writers will resort to creating a story where the leads of a weekly show become caught up with a relative or friend in order to give extra gravitas to an episode. Make it personal and thus more meaningful.

I'm not suggesting that The Sixth Sense shouldn't have strived to avoid the cliche of making Rhodes have a personal connection (stake) in too many episodes. However, it was a writing trap that most writers for television indulged in.

John Kenneth Muir: As for Dr. Rhodes, he was a bit of an albatross for the series too. Though well-played by the sincere Gary Collins, an underrated performer, the character himself is difficult to identify with because he was seemingly without any flaws or blemishes.

The bottom line is that Rhodes was so perfect in his patience, his appearance, and his demeanor (even in the face of constant criticism) that one never really felt he was in serious jeopardy or distress.

The psychic powers he wielded only tended to make him appear more superhuman, and thus more remote as well.

My take on it: Muir's critiques are not without merit. But once again, all television shows suffered from the built in concept that the leads were all superhuman in one way or another.

Every western (to name just one genre) TV show's cast were the finest horsemen, quickest draws, and above reproach.

Nobody was going to bribe Matt Dillon or the Cartwright clan ever! Paragons of perfection one and all. And none were truly "in any serious jeopardy or distress," as Muir likes to point out with Rhodes on The Sixth Sense.

We were all confident that no matter what the obstacles were going to be that Matt, Ben & his boys would all return safe and sound in the following week's episode and seasons.

I'm not saying Muir is wrong, but I am saying that not just The Sixth Sense suffered from such characterization weaknesses. Every show on did much the same thing with their lead casts.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 8:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

John Kenneth Muir: Adding to the problem, the audience knew virtually nothing of Rhodes as a man.
His personal life was also virtually unexamined. Rhodes was a stolid hero all right, but he lacked the common touches that would have made him seem real (like the eccentric Darren McGavin in Kolchak: The Night Stalker).
Collins did superlative work, but he was undermined by a poorly conceived, underexamined character.

My take on it: JKM is correct in that we really learned little of Dr. Michael Rhodes background, and this did make him a cipher. The creator and writers should have invested him with a richer backstory as to his personal history.

In the episode "Eye of the Haunted" March 18, 1972, we see Rhodes' girlfriend played by the lovely Mariette Hartly murdered. So here is an example of making him a tragic figure and fleshing out his character.

By the same token we see that Muir is critical that too many episodes create a personal connection between the guest star who is dealing with terrifying psychic phenomena and Rhodes. Yet doesn't this expand his character by meeting people who are his friends and colleagues?

Also, one problem with many television lead characters is that the writer's can tend to much towards the melodramatic in their quest for deepening a person.
Ben Cartwright didn't lose one wife, he lost three! Sometimes the writers could pile it on pretty thick.
in a ham-fisted manner.

JKM: Still, The Sixth Sense deserves some mention in the pantheon of modern horror programs because it was the first network series, even predating Kolchak, to throw a regular character into a series of adventures that are horror-based. The Sixth Sense was thus a pioneer, and deserved better treatment from Universal than to be hacked to ribbons.

My take on it: Amen! JKM is referring to how Universal packaged episodes of The Sixth Sense with Rod Serling's The Night Gallery episodes. In order to achieve this they took the sixty-minute format of The Sixth Sense and purged half-an-hour from it. So an hour show becomes a thirty-minute show. It rendered The Sixth Sense incomprehensible.

JKM: The Sixth sense at its running time of under 30 minutes, often fails to introduce crucial characters. Worse, important deductions about characters and actions made based on plot-points that are deleted, and thus no longer dramatized.

JKM: Even today, in its edited form, much of The Sixth sense's imagery retains its terrifying nature.
In regards to this, and other horrific moments, The Sixth Sense was the inspiration for it.

My take on it: Indeed! Some years back, Youtube had all of The Sixth Sense episodes on it (since taken down), and I was able to view them after not having seen 'em since the show first aired. The mostly practical effects and makeup hold up nicely today. Some will find it too tame by the horror film & TV shows standards nowadays. Excessive violence, massive blood splatters, human decapitations aren't gonna be found on this show....thank God!
The horror is more of a suspenseful kind, spooky and creepy build ups.

JKM: Thematically, The Sixth Sense was probably at its best near the start of its short TV life, when Harlan Ellison and D.C. Fontana were working as story editors and insuring a high degree of quality. The repetitive stories had not yet reduced psychic phenomena to the level of the mundane, and the individual episodes were filled with interesting ideas.
The full-breadth of ESP was not really explored by The Sixth Sense, because each story connected psychic power to crimes like murder, kidnapping, robbery, etc. ESP's ability to be a helpful tool in and of itself was rarely touched on.
The series as a whole was really a psychic Murder She Wrote.

My take: Guilty as charged! Since law enforcement TV shows have ruled the airwaves from the beginning of the history of the medium---and continue to do so, unlike the westerns---the show's producers opted to present their scary series by anchoring it in crime dramas which the public so loved.
In other words, they wanted to play it safe since the unique and unusual premise of the show was based on ESP.
I would have preferred a mix of crime stories with the exploration of ESP, as Muir suggests. It would have been welcome if the producers were more daring and had encouraged their scriptwriters with such a creative approach.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Ben Cartwright didn't lose one wife, he lost three! Sometimes the writers could pile it on pretty thick.

That's actually pretty accurate. Given health care in the 19th century, the mortality rates for both Mother and Child at childbirth is pretty staggering. Particularly in the frontier

Rod Serling was always unhappy with how the Network dictated the horror in "Night Gallery". He said that you couldn't walk past the graveyard at night, you had to run past in terror. They didn't want, and maybe didn't understand subility, they wanted blatant.

David.
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2022 10:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Terror Television: American Series, 1970 - 1999, by John Kenneth Muir. Harlan Ellison and Dorothy Fontana were the impressive talents that were the story editors for The Sixth Sense. They left the series early in its hastily ordered, hastily prepared first season run.

As Ellison once explained, it was never a match made in heaven: "I sold my soul to Universal Studios, then-president Lew Wasserman, a producer named Stan Shpetner, a primetime TV series called The Sixth Sense . . . I departed in a moment of greed and weakness from eleven years as a film and television writer to join the enemy on the other side of the desk . . . I became a story editor."

By Christmas of 1971, before the first episode of The Sixth Sense had even aired, Ellison had turned in his resignation.

Sidebar: I'd nominate the episode "With Affection, Jack the Ripper," October 14, 1972 as a spooky one to watch on Halloween.

While working on a psychic experiment with Dr. Rhodes' colleague, Elizabeth (Patty Duke), Adam (Robert Foxworth) becomes possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper, and seems to lose his way between past and present. Detective Woods (Percy Rodrigues) and Dr. Rhodes attempt to stop Adam before he continues a killing spree eerily reminiscent of one in Victorian England, 1888.

Academy Award winner Patty Duke and actor Robert Foxworth are splendid as the guest stars on this episode. The legendary Universal Studios backlot is handsomely transformed into 1888 London with its gas-lit streets, brick buildings, and fog to create just the right scary atmosphere for this episode.

Robert Foxworth played an android in the Gene Roddenberry TV-movie/pilot The Questor Tapes.

Percy Rodrigues played the head of PAX on Roddenberry's other TV-movie/pilot Genesis II.
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2022 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
While working on a psychic experiment with Dr. Rhodes' colleague, Elizabeth (Patty Duke), Adam (Robert Foxworth) becomes possessed by the spirit of Jack the Ripper, and seems to lose his way between past and present.

Exactly what was the nature of the "psychic experiment"? Was it hypnosis, or some kind of gizmo that channeled the "spirits" of dead people.

I'm just curious.
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 11:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As best as I recall it was Patty Duke's character placing Robert Foxworth's character in some kind of trance.
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