ALL SCI-FI

[Pow]

From a New York newspaper article.

ABC's 'The Sixth Sense' Explores Extrasensory Realms by Don Royal.

"Do some people using mental telepathy have the power to influence the thoughts and actions of others?" Producer Stan Shpetner, who developed ABC's "The Sixth Sense" series says, "Our series will show that they do."

"The Sixth Sense" dramas, based on specific research being done by many people in various forms of mental influence, is completely different.

"There never has been another (series) about extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychic phenomena," says Shpetner.

Gary Collins stars as a professor of parapsychology, with Catherine Ferrar as his research assistant on the ABC weekly program, Saturday nights. The new series is a Universal production.

That there is a tremendous amount of interest in ESP is evidenced in the success of "Sweet, Sweet Rachel," an ABC "Movie of the Weekend" production on which "The Sixth Sense" was derived.

Anthony Lawrence, creator and executive story consultant of the series was also involved in "Rachel."

Lawrence, who had been working on the project for two years, has had great interest in the subject.

"I've had many personal experiences with psychic phenomena to make me feel there is definitely something to it," says Lawrence. "While I don't feel it is mystic in any sense, there is a whole world of scientific basis for what we are about, and a number of psychic sensitives have convinced me of this."

Researching their project, Lawrence and Shpetner attended a psychic sensitive's session along with fifty others.

"She told individuals things about themselves," said Lawrence. "The she singled me out, looked at me a few moments and stated, "I see writing, I see scripts.' Then she asked, 'Who is Rachel?' "

Among the story ideas worked out by Lawrence are those involving astral projection and automatic writing. "Psychic phenomena is a fascinating area we believe will stimulate, entertain and hold the viewer."

Gary Collins, who plays Dr. Michael Rhodes, is devoting his spare time to studying the findings of Dr. J.B. Rhine, formerly of Duke University and now with the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man.

Really unbelievable optical effects are used to project what Rhodes, who has a highly developed psychic sensitivity, envisions.

"Rhodes is an activist who goes out into the field to investigate cases, providing the series with 'life and death situations' for the parapsychologist," Collins explains. "I think everyone has ESP," he continues. "Haven't you ever had the experience of thinking of someone you haven't heard from in a long time, and then getting a letter from that person? Or knowing that someone was going to telephone or come home at an unexpected time? Sigmund Freud believed in ESP. He thought that primitive man possessed it, but over time it atrophied."

Sidebar: The rest of the article goes on about Gary Collins and his background.

Apparently Stan Shpetner never watched Alcoa Presents One Step Beyond television series (1959~1961), also an ABC show, when he stated that there has never been another series about ESP & psychic phenomena.

One Step Beyond was an anthology show that did indeed delve into stories about psychic phenomena in many, but not all, of their episodes. Tales that were supposed to be based upon actual events, making the series very chilling.

[Captain Starlight]

I didn't even know there was a TV series based on this movie!